Latest / Built In The Bayou / Episode 4 | Off The Grid with Colt Builds It

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Episode 4 | Off The Grid with Colt Builds It · Built In The Bayou

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Alright guys, welcome to another episode of Built and a Bayou.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh today's a fun one.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: This is our first ever off the grid episode.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously, we're not at the home studio.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: We are in Leadville, Colorado on Colt Summer Camp Adventure.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: So we're getting a podcast out here with Mr.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Colt himself.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: Colt, thanks for joining us.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, thanks for having me in the uh one of the tiny homes in Leadville.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks for booking these little tiny homes for us so we can come to summer camp for the week.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it was fun.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Best summer camp ever, wasn't it?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Best summer camp.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Best summer camp you've ever been to.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: First time they'd ever let me drive a Jeep at summer camp, right?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: We can go do things and break things.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: That'll be great.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Colt, that opens us up for some questions.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: So um, for the people who know Colt Builds It and don't really know who Colt is, why don't you tell us about Colt and what took you this direction?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: How it all started.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it started because I've I've always been a gear head, even when I was a kid.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was kind of embedded to me with my dad.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: My dad was a gear head.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: He worked on airplanes in the Air Force Academy or in the Air Force.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: And um he was like making he was using parts at the machine shop making chrome molly tie rods when chrome moly tie rods weren't a thing.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um so so that kind of stuff, just like uh innovation and creating something of your own that's better.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, he kind of brought that into my brain.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as far as like working on stuff, as I was as I got older, like my you know, me and my friends, we lived in the mountains, so we lived not too far from here.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And there's no arcades, there's no skate parks, there's no, you know, no PS2s.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so that's what we did.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: We worked on cars, and um my dad had a decent amount of tools.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: A few of my other buddies' dads had a decent amount of tools.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: None of them really showed us how to work on anything.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think they were more like they would just let us use the tools and then and then get mad at us for not putting them away.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, but um, you know, so sometimes I think it was entertaining for him because he's probably was like watching me like that's totally not gonna work, and that's gonna be fun.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Or it was like, hey, you know, this might actually, you know, that's actually a really good idea.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let's see if it pans out, you know.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that's uh kind of what you know kind of got me started and just working on cars and doing stuff.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um first big project, I guess I could say I ever did um was it right in the early years of high school.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh in Colorado, you could drive at 15 at the time if you took a took a driver's ed course.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And um so I've been driving way before that, obviously, but um legally, I guess, on the road.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: And uh the first big project I did on my spring break, I had a little S10 blazer with a 2.5 iron duke in it.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I found another S10 that had been wrecked that had a 2.8, and I was like, man, that V6 is gonna have way more power, right?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: And come to find out, between 87, which was the first year of fuel injection, and 89, which is only two years later, uh GM changed a bunch of stuff.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like the transmissions were different, the um the speedometer worked electronically versus off a cable.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: So when I thought I was just gonna be changing maybe a bell housing and a motor, I ended up having to change the entire drivetrain engine transmission T case, pull the dash out, change the entire wiring harness.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I lost my entire spring break, the entire week um doing this engine, this engine swap.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I get it in there and I go to take off down the road, and the thing had less power than it did with the two five.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's that's that trial and error stuff, you know?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's like that didn't work, we're gonna back up and punt and try and start over.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that was one of those uh just one of those things, you know.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: You just you live and you learn.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm I definitely when people say, Well, how did you learn that through failure?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, I learn a I learn a lot through failure.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's where we learn some of our best lessons.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right, absolutely.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta make some mistakes to figure out how you're gonna work.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so were you guys did you have you always been into four-wheeling?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I always was always was into four-wheeling.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um my dad raced, so at one time he was the president of the Colorado Hill Climb Association.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, he's a big part of the off-road clubs.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a pretty big advocate for off-road clubs that are actively doing stuff.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of off-road clubs out there that aren't.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, usually when clubs reach out to me, now that people know who I am, they want me to, you know, be part of their club.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, well, you know, because there's a lot of associate memberships.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: You can be an associate member of a club without having to be there.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: And and I my biggest questions are usually like, well, what's the last trail you've maintained, or what's the last trail you've opened, or what's the last trail you've protected from closure, or things like that.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I I you know, I have a little list at home that I kind of go down.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, sometimes those clubs are just like, well, we get together on Saturday and go four wheeling, you know, and I'm like, well, that's that's just a wheeling group.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, that's not that's not advocacy to keep trails open.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's where clubs have an importance is is to uh keep trails open because you can't the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, they don't recognize entities or single entities.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: So like I had hours and hours and hours logged of working on a trail that ultimately got closed, and I went to the the hearing for all this when it was going down, and they actually told me, Hey, um we don't recognize any of your hours, like we don't care because you're not you're not an associated um group, you're not part of this.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I learned then how important clubs are, even though a lot of people don't like clubs, things like that, that they're really, really important to keeping trails open.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: So usually when there's a club out there that um you know, because everybody thinks immediately just a blue ribbon coalition, stay the trail, you know, tread lightly, things like that.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: But realistically, like there's a lot of clubs out there that are doing a lot of good work and they're the reason we can enjoy the sport we have.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's that that thing is kind of really important to me as well.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: You want to you want to join a club with a purpose, not just some good old boys hanging out on the weekends, but hey, we're actually out here working on the trails.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: This means something to us.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: We want to keep this alive for generations, like we want our kids to be able to go on these trails just like you are.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: But in order to do that, we got to put in the work.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: So that was um, you know, Shannon and I had we got together, we were to you know, dating in high school.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um we were we were early starters, we had our daughter in high school, and um so needless to say, young family young parents, uh, you don't have a whole lot of money.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: So so we lived in a trailer about this size that I had to take a loan out.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was a 60, 1964 trailer.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't even stand up in it.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: The roof was too short.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And uh couldn't uh I'd take a loan out, it was four thousand bucks.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember taking a loan out thinking, how am I gonna pay for this?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like yeah, I have no idea how I'm gonna pay for this this trailer.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: And there were even times that it came with the lot rent came with electricity and water, but it didn't come with propane.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, when you live in the mountains, you know, propane is like the most important part of your heat.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so there were times where we couldn't afford propane and we would bundle up our daughter, we didn't have Ian yet, but we'd bundle up Kayla and we'd we had it, it was like a closet, that's where her crib was.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so I put one of those like uh oil electric heaters, you know, with the fins on it, and we would um put that in front of that door, I'd drain all the water in the house so pipes wouldn't freeze, and then we'd bundle up with her in between us, and that's where we'd sleep at night.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, so I loved off-roading, but I was like, man, how how can I do this as a as something I want to do with my family and still be able to pay bills?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that's when I really learned how to um fix cars where where I could flip them.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, it was Cherokees.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's a lot of little corks with Cherokees that I learned, I mean, just bam, bam, bam, bam.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the older ones, especially, because like pre-Youtube, now anybody can look up, hey, I got this problem and it tells you what to do.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but like back then, the I had a you know, the Cherokee, the early Cherokees, the Rhenix editions, so anything like 90 and older, the four-liter, the lower radiator hose has a coil in it, right?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: So guys would have overheating issues.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Cherokees are already kind of prone to having that issue, but they'd be having these overheating issues, they meant, man, I changed the radiator, I changed the hook, you know, the they'll change the upper hose.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: The lower one's hard to get to, so they'd change the upper hose, they change the thermostat, they'd change out the you know the clutch fan or whatever, you know.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I just want to get rid of it.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I I bought one Cherokee once for a dollar, one dollar.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Just say it's my goodness, a running one that that they couldn't figure out.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: And uh most of them up, I'd get them anywhere from 250 bucks to a thousand bucks.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And and a lot, like I said, a lot of times that radiator hose because the coil in it it felt like it was good, but when you actually look down it, if you cut it in half, it'd be collapsed inside the coil.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the inner liner of that radiator hose, it just collapsed inside of itself.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that you know, and then obviously, like the the crank position sensors are pretty common on those.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the relays, there's a there was three relays up on the firewall or up on the fender well inside, and it one of them ran the fuel pump, but they would just get a little warm and they would shut off.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: And if you just flip the relays, all of a sudden they'd work again.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: So just little little corks like that.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I would buy them, fix them as cheap as I could, you know, with whatever it needed to make it run right, and then sell them.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how I supported my off-road habits.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: So my job wasn't taking away from food on the table or anything like that, right?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: It was my side hustle that was allowing us to be able to do build vehicles and go four-wheeling.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then that's how we took vacations with the kids.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, kids have never been to Disneyland, but they've been to the Rubicon Trail.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, so um that was kind of the thing.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: We would just go out and go camping, you know, camping costs nothing, really, you know, and uh you know, sleep in the woods, and then yeah, we just go out and go play, and that's how the kids were raised is four-wheeling and playing in the woods.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: What was your first like off-road rig?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um, so my my very first vehicle was a Ford Tempo that wouldn't stay running.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh you didn't off-road it.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, I didn't even, yeah, and I did not off well.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: I tried off-road, but I'll be honest.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the car would just die going down the road, and we even took it to there's uh one of the well the most winning-est father-son combo on Pikes Peak, uh, the Vashholts, they're big time blue oval boys, and uh I even took it to them and they couldn't figure it out.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, so it's like when you guys are like the Ford guys in the area and well known for it, and you can't figure it out, this car is poo.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so then I built that S10, wheeled it a little bit, and then I just got into Cherokees and then Cherokees and Comanches.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I was one of those guys that I'd I always wanted to just I just want like, let's see what this vehicle does.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, so I'd sell that one and then I'd build a blazer or build a Bronco or build whatever I could find.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: I built you know, Dodge pickups, and and you know, at the time you could pick, you know, COVID kind of ruined the cost of vehicles.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're you know at adamant in your thrifty nickel or you know, your little nickel newspaper, you'd see good deals on cars or you know, Craigslist, which neither one of those really pretty much exists anymore.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now we have marketplace, and that's a problem, right?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, dude.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know how many hours I lose in the marketplace, but it's a lot.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Facts.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what's your favorite rig at all of them?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'll tell you this.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: I I so I got a couple rigs that I wish I'd never got rid of.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: I have um I I built a 72K5 blazer, and this was like right uh like late 90s, early 2000s, and and I put a uh I found a guy that had a brand new crate 350, he didn't know what he wanted, he was just it had been sitting, and the truck he was gonna put it in, he sold the truck or something.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: I picked it up for pennies on the dollar, kind of the same deal for the transmission.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: Put I had an off-road designs 203-205 that I picked up off of Craigslist.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: And uh three quarter ton axles, and the truck was had no dents, but it had what we we'd consider now beautiful patina, like absolutely beautiful patina.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: At that time, patina was not popular, right?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I was always just afraid to dent it.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I liked wheeling it, I had it on 35-inch tires, and I liked wheeling it, but I was always afraid to like dent it, you know.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: So um I ended up selling it to a guy, and all he did was take it down to Mako and had a$200 paint job put on it, and then I think he sold it on eBay for like$10,000, which just killed him internally.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, because I think I sold to him for like, you know, I don't know, two grand.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um but car, you know, like I said, cars were cheap, you know.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: I picked up crazy vehicles at good prices.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you pick up a Chevel for$1,500 and you pick up just cool cars, you know.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: So even even in the car realm, they were just affordable.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh different, you know, different time.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: But um that's one car I wish I I would have never got rid of.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: That one I think I could have I could have just kept it and drove it and just held on to it.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I gotta, you know, like I said, I got a couple of those in my in my brain, but that one, that one stands out.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that one was a big one.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I know you sent me some pictures of some of some jeeps that maybe your dad owned or something way back when.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: Were y'all were you kind of ever into jeeps, or do you just kind of go the oh yeah, no, I was totally into jeeps.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: I just could never afford a Wrangler.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like Wranglers were I was I was the uh you know the black sheep with the Cherokees and the square headlights.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, yeah.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: But they were just cheap, you know, and um, you know, so yeah, Wranglers were nice.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: My dad had Wrangler, and um, yeah, we put you know, yeah, even in those old pictures, you see all the bright red coils in there and all that stuff.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like my dad was a big time, he loved Skyjacker, and uh so yeah, we had a lot of Skyjacker stuff.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's pretty much well, and then even in the Cherokee realm, um, you know, yeah, we put lift kits of his stuff, but even in the Cherokee realm, like Skyjacker was the only one that ever put that ever made an eight-inch coil, six-inch and eight-inch coil.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: They're the first ones to do the six-inch, they were the only ones to do an eight-inch coil for the Cherokees, and um, so yeah, it was pretty standard.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: Even if I was building, you know, at the time I was even trying to make my own long arm kits.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't afford the whole rock ready kit.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted it, trust me, I wanted it.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, I ended up doing I'd make my own long arms and I would do the eight-inch coils and the eight-inch um nitro eight thousands or nine thousands, whatever they were.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then the skyjacker leaf springs because and the pitman arm, yeah, the drop pitman arm, because they were the only ones that had the drop pitman arm.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: And that was the Cherokee was dad's first off-road rig, too, because at the time it was only two-door Wranglers, and you know, dad had four kids, and then I came later on, uh, but then so he was like, I gotta take my kids wheeling, and it had a back seat, and so that's where all that came from was just dad needing that for room for family.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we tried.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Shanna's first car, my wife's first car, when we first started dating, she had a Scout 80.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: And um her dad sold it while we were at school.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and she had so much work in that thing.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: The thing was just mint, but it had just had that four-cylinder, that slant four.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so later on, I would say, gosh, the kids were teenagers, young teenagers, maybe maybe preteen.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I picked up another scout, built another scout, and we tried to go camping in it.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: And even as big as those scouts look, when you have, you know, I'm 6'5, right?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, so me, my wife, two very well-growing kids, a dog and all your camping gear, I had about a one-foot by one foot window to look out the windshield.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: This is not gonna work.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, we had to kind of stick with uh full sizes when the kids were a little older, but um, but yeah, Cherokees were where I was at.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: I wheeled a lot of Cherokees.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: I built a couple um one of the rigs that I built that I started really doing the hardcore wheeling with, the first rig that I I did a two-door Cherokee, and you know, unibodies don't really like one tons.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I can blit brace and plate and brace and plate, but they still it just starts fatiguing them.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter how you know if you're wheeling them hard, they'll they'll remind you they're a unibody.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so I ended up building a Toyota 4-runner.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, when I did leaf springs, I kept it low slung, found a set of one-ton axles and a f you know, under a guy's truck, a farmer's truck out in the field, and and uh got them for dirt cheap, basically just for the cost of pulling them.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: And uh built my own built my axles and and uh you know it was that that forerunner when I got rid of it was a raisin.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: There was no straight panel on it.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't mind beating on that one.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: But oh yeah, but I wheeled some hard stuff with that.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like I uh you know, some what most people consider some of the hardest buggy trails, like out in Colorado here in Western Colorado, there's a trail called Boulder Canyon.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and up in the Black Hills, there's one called Captain Crunch.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm pretty sure I'm one of the very few people that took a leaf sprung rig through those trails.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like cool.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, when people say you're you know, my S10, they're like, man, that thing just wheels so good on leaf springs.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, well, I got a lot of leaf spring experience.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm not saying, like, I'm not saying that, you know, it's not a good truck, but it would wheel way better on links and you know, coils or coilovers or something, you know.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's still you can just you can do it on leaf springs.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's still a budget way to get into this sport, yeah, you know, and and have a good time.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you look at Jeff, a white scout, he's running leaf springs front and rear.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's doing everything we're doing.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: So well exactly that kind of brings us to a good next question here.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: So you've built some, you've built a lot of rigs, you've built some cool rigs, and you have a great community and a great following.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, the Jeep groups and everything, or the groups and everything like that.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: So over the years, what would you say is harder to build?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: The perfect rig or building the community that you've built?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um honestly, I would think realistically, um, I would honestly say it's probably harder to build the rig.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Because with the community, I don't know.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: I for me, I feel like God always has a plan for everything we do.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes, and he allows things to happen, whether good or bad, you know, um, but he'll never put us through anything we can't handle.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I I hope that none of us ever have to go through all the stuff that Job went through, you know, because I don't think I don't think I could handle that.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: But and God knows that.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: He knows he's only gonna give you what he can handle.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: But um when you're talking about uh authenticity, I mean there's I've had a lot of opportunities as as uh I've grown this channel and and grown a following.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: I've had you get a lot of people behind the scenes that want to offer you a lot of money to push things.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of things that I just don't believe in or don't.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: And um I feel like that shows as you know because people can kind of see through the through the crap, you know.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so as you know they see people jumping around like, hey, this is the best.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no now this is the best.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no now this is the best at you know every six months because that's the person giving them the most money.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think people are starting to become a lot more wise to that.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: And and seeing that.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's kind of one of the things that I just feel like I I won't you know I don't want to do that.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: I know I could make more money but when when you've been completely broke you really don't have anything to worry about.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's like what's the worst case scenario?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm back in a 1964 trailer sleeping in a closet like whatever.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and that's so so but building a perfect rig is hard.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like because every time you build one every single time I don't care how many times you build something you're like the next time I'm going to do this or I'm not going to do this every single time.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: I have still yet to ever build anything like that has everything I want in every direction I want.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well and I think that says a lot about you though because obviously building a rig is hard but you have the personality the genuine the who you genuinely are what you see is what you get.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah you're loyal and people see that in you.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: So therefore you're going to have a great community because they see that and they're going to they're going to be drawn to you because it's natural.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's like yeah this guy don't sell out he runs good products he's not going to want run what tears up because I've been around him if it's going to break he's not going to want it on his rig.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: So he's definitely not going to sell it.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: So money's not the issue he's not going to sell out so therefore the community aspect I could see that being super easy because I'm like oh that's that's cold.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean that's good dude.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well and I think to build off that like you touched on authenticity the people who are jumping around their words lose their value.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely and it's like you know when you have somebody like you it's like that you know you can trust what you're saying.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well I I grew up on handshake deals and uh you know and you your your your word is your bond.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes that's all you got.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah I never had you know I I don't have a college education education education.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Education I mean I do have a couple associates degrees for different little small things but that that you know even in the world today they only consider that a high school diploma.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah um that's not saying I'm not smart.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't actually graduate high school six months yeah I did graduate high school six months early um because I knew exactly what I needed to do to get out and I just didn't find school I like learning things but I like learning what I want to learn.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah right um I felt like for me you know a public school wanted me to learn what they wanted me to learn and I wanted to learn what I want to learn.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like I you know we didn't have automotive class and it's like man that's you you want to see me get straight A's let me work on an engine let me do you know let me build this stuff let me do something here that this is what I want to do and that's you know I was always a blue collar kid I guess I just I really liked I enjoyed being out getting my hands dirty let me work with my hands and being able to show something that I've created like I made this bam you know and set it out there and uh that's something that that I I've always just enjoyed doing so even when you know I I thought when I was younger I wanted to work on cars for a living and so I started working at four wheel parts um before they were before they had sold out you know before the Adlers had sold to Trans America and everything.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: And um basically that was in the era of the TJ yeah and so I put a lot of gears and a lot of jeep wranglers and a lot of TJ lift kits a lot of just two and three inch lift kits and um and so I I learned real quick how to do things fast and how to make them good because I didn't want anybody to come back with gears.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: You never want to have to have gears we don't want that at all.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: No so um you know I can't tell you how many hundreds and hundreds of gear sets I put in in vehicles um at that time and then you know and it was great for me because I would get takeoffs right these cars would come in they were brand new right and it's like hey even though that shock it doesn't fit my rig I will make that shock fit my rig because that's that's a brand new shock.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because I put new shocks on it because they wanted a bigger lift.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: So so that that part was nice I just realized that I wanted to work on my stuff more than other people's stuff.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I learned a lot of tricks uh you know with doing a lot of that just little tips and tricks and things and then like I said through my own failures and then I tried to listen you know when somebody when I've been around somebody that's been around the block and I watch you know especially somebody that's like has built a lot of things yeah if I you know I'll I'll just sponge up what they're doing.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'll watch them in a shop and I'll just sponge up what they're doing.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: So um one of my buddies uh Pat Helgeson uh one of my good buddies you know he's he's made a really successful life he never even finished high school but he became a welder owned a welding business um and has a very successful life um now he's you know retired but why you know when when we'd work on stuff or he'd be working on stuff I just watch how he's metalworking and how he's doing things and and it uh it's like oh that's a cool trick you know oh I'm gonna pay attention I'm gonna do that yeah you know and so there's things you learn from people like that where you know you can just even just watching them if it's something you're interested in you know you really want to you're gonna soak it in and uh you know so you and a lot of people don't know who Pat is but like to give you uh uh Dave Freyberger from like Roadkill his real popular military scrambler that Pat built that originally so like that was you know it was in magazines and it was like you know flat bellied a lot of people don't realize like there's a lot of cool tricks in that Leafsprung scrambler that uh that he built so he has a I always joke with him I'm like you're the most non-famous famous person I know because he built he built a lot of rigs for people built a lot of things for people like really high-end parts and things for people that nobody knows about I mean he's built fuel tanks for custom buggies you know big buggy companies and and things like that so yeah he's a um but yeah just paying attention to stuff like that even when I'm in you know old machine shops you know I'll just pay attention to what these guys are doing because a lot of you know a lot of these uh guys have been around the block you know same thing they've learned lessons through mistakes it's like yeah if I can learn something from them and not have to make that mistake and keep my fingers and toes like I'm I'm stoked yeah yeah don't do that way we'll call him stubby for nothing yeah so you said you worked at Full Wheel Parts um I know you also worked in the oil field correct yeah so um that was I was never afraid of working um I mean even when I was in four parts like I like I was still buying and flipping vehicles right so I had two jobs so when it made the most sense um when I I was like you know oil field they work two weeks on two weeks off but they work you know 12 and a half hour days I have no problem with that like that I'm already doing that right yeah um so yeah I got into the oil field and that you know I'm gonna be honest I love the oil field for for um giving me the opportunities it did I never really enjoyed the job um it was a job that it was a job yeah I didn't enjoy it paid the bills it absolutely paid the bills and it gave me the chance to come home and be with my kids even though I missed half I was there for half and I mean they're there for half so I was able to I had days where I could actually work on a rig not just a weekend and I could finish something out quick and I you know I learned the faster I could get it done the faster we go out and use it you know and then and then you know that's what kind of pushed us into homeschooling the kids because then once we homeschooled them it's like hey dad's home for two weeks we're gonna go wheeling Oregon yeah or we're gonna go wheeling out here wheeling out there and so that was you know like I said um Shanna did a thing on it actually she had a kind of a a big group that was following her because she was posting a lot of pictures and stuff and she did a thing on I don't remember what it cost us granted fuel was cheaper but we kept track of the fuel cost the food cost like we were going to Walmart and just doing um just doing uh like a bucket of chicken and it was like$4.99 for a huge bucket of chicken where you get like four different chicken um you know legs yeah chicken yeah chicken legs waist yep and all that and and that's what we would eat for dinner you know and then you know if we had any left over very rarely because if you've seen my son then you understand that but you know so we were we budget we would budget travel and I got a cheap cab over camper so I could still haul my rig and I had an old trailer with trailer like house trailer axles um and 17 spare tires because those things blow up like it's going out style yeah yeah they are maypox for sure that they are they're not even May pops they are gonna pops yeah yeah but um but we we would take you know what most people would consider big vacations for very reasonable amounts of money um extremely reasonable amounts of money and uh and so that was that allowed the kids to be able to experience a lot of the country um and and then we could still like said homeschool them and then so they're still getting their school done and a lot of times even towards the their high school years um you know when sports you know kind of gets in the way at that point you know because they they were both very active in sports but even then they would be like you know they would want to really work hard on the two weeks that I was gone yeah so that when I came home it's like hey I can take a week off and hang out with dad we're gonna do this so you were you were really you were making the sacrifices in life in those two weeks every two weeks you made a sacrifice so that you could give back so that you could be with your family and have the things you wanted I mean definitely um even through the growth of of even doing that like when I went when I left from the drilling side went into the I mean I still went to the directional side that job didn't have a schedule so that first year um that was a tough tough year for all of us.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: I put in I worked uh like 324 days that year I was away from and that was that was like this yeah I missed a whole year of my kids' life and I was like we can't do this yeah that'll make that'll push you right on out the door yeah and I was working way longer hours um than 12 and a half there's some days I was working I was up I've learned that I'm good for about three days I can be about up for three days straight before I start seeing shadows I get way too loopy yep yep and I'm sure that probably pushed you right on into full-time automotive and what you're doing now like being gone that long and well having you know having guys working under you um especially in a job that if you mess up you know lives are at risk that they're at risk you really learn you learn how to teach people because I I would say I would say learn how to be a leader but really you learn how to teach people because you can tell somebody to do something a thousand times but if you or you know and you can demand it however you want to say it but if you actually show them hey I like to do it this way and this is why because if I've done it this way this happens or I've done it this way and this happens so if we can just do this every time then we know this works really well and it's the most efficient if you got an idea you know I'm willing to think it over and we let's try it but if it fails we're going back to this yeah right you know and um sometimes you know people still need that you know they're like hey I need to try it my way and then they're and then see if it you know and sometimes sometimes it worked very rarely um because it's kind of the same thing like I would listen to the older guys in my you know in my profession that had three or four fingers missing you know and uh don't do that yeah and it's like yeah I'm gonna make sure whatever he says don't do I'm not doing that yeah um but uh yeah so it kind of it taught me it taught me the the value of how to teach and then that's one thing I really like to instill in my videos is add add things like that where it's like hey the here's a trick that works for me here's something that's worked for me you know over the years or or you know this you know this little shortcut over here this that and the other because anytime you can save time or have something that you're not gonna have to go back and work on is always going to be a plus.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely so after the oil field and you know the all the other things that you did in your career when did it come to the point of you know getting a camera and starting doing these videos that you do so the funny part about that is even when um even before I got in the oil field um which I gave half my life to it but we I actually had a a camera even in high school and I loved sharing what I was doing.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I'd I would take pictures and then I picked up a one of the little like eight millimeter cameras that uh you know takes those little tapes and uh at a pawn shop I think and I would film and I still have it I have this little Sony editor thing and you'd put the tape you'd hook it to your tape recorder and to the editor and watch it on your TV and you'd cut it up fast forward and rewind and you'd make another tape in the VCR out of your out of your recorder.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I was doing that even basically in my teens.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think I started really doing that at uh probably 17.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: You were way ahead of the game.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah well I enjoyed doing it and then even when uh YouTube came out I was filming trails because like I helped put in um you know one of the first trails we did here for summer camp uh was Chinaman's Gulch which is now renamed Yansing but next to it is Carnage Canyon and that was one of the trails I helped put in and so um I filmed that one time like filmed driving that trail and put it on YouTube when YouTube wasn't monetized.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: YouTube is brand new and that video got like 24,000 views which was unheard of really that's really cool.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: And didn't you know obviously I made negative dollars on that because like I said there was no not even an opportunity for monetization but it was just hey I get to share what I do and get people motivated you know they're like oh yeah I need to build that you know or I need to you know get into that sport you know and so I I think it's a great way I think it's a great family sport.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's uh a lot more of a family sport than most pe most other sports out there.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them are single person sports I mean or even team sports but only so many people can be involved where in the off-road world anybody can be involved and it doesn't really matter what your physical stature is or what you know um you can go out and and enjoy nature.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah for that that was uh yeah that was just that's how it all started with a little eight millimeter camera.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know doing it doing it on the on the side and then um just posting stuff up and then it just I was like hey well I'm just gonna keep doing this and then well it really seems like you were you really wanted to just share share with everybody else what you were passionate about like what you loved and how much you loved it.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you know whether y'all love it or not I want to share this with you because this is my passion whether it was working on the car building the car driving the car all the things that go into play with it.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like I just want to share that with the world yeah well and I think you know I think everybody deep down wants something they can leave for the next generation right like you could say leaving a legacy but they want something they could leave you know uh you know like hey you know it was super cool that you know so you know somebody did this or somebody did that and so you know I hope that you know I try to build videos um where even you know five ten fifteen years from now they might be beneficial to to a kid that's like hey I don't have any money you know but hey this guy Colt built this thing he showed me how to a trick to fix this thing yeah that cost me zero dollars or whatever you know I just need to drill a hole here or you know or do this or whatever and and so that's one of the things you know just because I've been there right you know I allowed you to give back yeah then it's like hey you know I want to make sure that other people can do that too.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah absolutely so all things considered you know taking into account everything you've learned and the knowledge you've gained over the years if you were to sit down with 20 something year old Colt what advice would you what advice would you give them the it it probably went to deaf ears I uh you know I remember being even in my teens and I you know it's like so as a kid like everybody has a thing right I want to be a firefighter I want to be a policeman I wanted to be a ninja why why a guy my size want to be a ninja that's completely impossible you would never be climbed no yeah you're gonna hear me coming miles and miles away I'm a mouth breather like all the bad things right and uh but like I would jump off the roof and I'd just be like oh I could just Batman roll and I would you know two stories whatever like I jumped off rocks we climbed you know we climbed around in all kinds of cool places and and you know I just felt springy and you know of course the old guys are like you know your your knees are gonna hate you and I'm like yeah whatever old man and then here I am now with two bum knees um but yeah so so I I wish I could say I could go back and tell myself hey you know but at that age 20 year old me I think I still had too much testosterone going and it's like no I'm just I'm I'm gonna figure it out on my own you know and um you know I and I think most guys would agree to that I think most people are at that age are you're just hardheaded and stubborn you're gonna conquer the world I I got this I don't need you input exactly especially well I mean even like I said you know I got I graduated high school early in the summers me and a couple of buddies of mine we had our own house like I was working then um you know even in school that's how that's when I really first learned how how long I could stay up without going to sleep because I was in in one of the towns that we weren't too far of Cripple Creek that just turned it into a gambling town.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's an old mining town still a mining town yeah um but they turned it into a gambling town to try to revive the the town and I'd clean casinos from two to eight in the morning.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: I still went to school wow yeah um so so yeah you get out of school you hang out with your friends then you're like oh no I gotta go to work yeah and uh and you know one of the things with my parents a little bit different than others is they had me and my brother really really late in life and so um it was a kind of a different um it we were raised a little different you know because they while they still did stuff with us there was you know it was more of a uh they were laid back you know they were at that age where they were eh whatever you know I remember doing that kind of stuff they're almost like yeah it's almost like having grandparents versus parents you know so um so yeah it was a little bit different so we you know I got I I got in trouble for not you know letting them know where I was a few times but not not a whole lot but I do remember you know being married with with a daughter and calling my parents and asking them where my brother was because I couldn't get a hold of him and they're like and he was still in school and they're like I don't know we haven't seen him for like three or four days and I'm like I remember getting in trouble for that you know like you haven't seen your kid for three or four days you know and he lives at home like um so so yeah kind of a different time but um and a different type of being raised I think most yeah most parents don't let their kids out of their sight anymore and and mine were on the complete other end like I was talking about the other day is my dad used to you know I used to have him drop me off in the woods and I would just go hike in the woods and camp for days on end.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: You build a whole new respect for the woods when you camp in it by yourself.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: You hear everything.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean it's a whole nother level it really is and uh and uh you know on but that's why I've always had a hard time with like people getting lost at least in the mountains because I can understand it in some place like maybe even in in Alaska but you keep walking if you just keep walking you'll always find a road I you know eventually you'll always find a road yeah and and uh and then I would find a road and then I would you know because I would go straight into the woods it's like I want to go find stuff and I found some really cool stuff I found neat lakes I found I found uh you know obviously it's before Google Earth where you could really choose where you wanted but I found caves and all kinds of stuff came across plenty of animals all the time and but you'd always find a road and then I'd hike up the road till I found a house and then I would knock on doors until somebody answered and then I'd be like hey do you mind if I use your phone?
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_02: I got to call for a ride.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and then I would call my parents and they'd you know and be like I have no idea where I'm at and then you know people would be like oh well this is our address kid you know and and then Dad come scoop you up come pick me up and uh yeah so it's it's just a different different time.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well and I think you know that builds you know from that experience and your willing experience that's why this week was so great.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know because you have all these destinations and all these areas that you've explored where somebody like me from Louisiana comes up here hasn't really seen a ton of Colorado and I mean this this past three or four days has just been absolutely unreal.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely it's been awesome absolutely and uh to go off of that not only knowing where to go but knowing every single thing about where we're at the history of it.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: The history lessons we got were probably better than school for sure.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was better than school there's no doubt it was a true summer camp to learn about some history of Colorado and the trails which was awesome.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_02: A huge plus to the trip that was already awesome so well thanks Colt I appreciate you doing this with us today.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_02: Appreciate great week if you guys want to check out the trip you know you check it out on Colt Builds It and then what it'll also be on Fab Rats and Trailmaders YouTube as well.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yep they'll both have it on theirs as well awesome yeah Colt thanks for having us brother we had a great time this week thank you guys for coming really fun to have you all right