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Transcript

Chip Foose · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:19
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:29
  This car conversation is with someone I think of as a legend of the industry, Chip Foose.
• 0:35
  He's an automotive designer who's done some incredible things over the years, from movie work to reality TV, transforming everyday cars for people who have a special connection with their rides, plus his own designs, automotive construction and a whole lot more.
• 0:52
  I also discovered while catching up with him after Australia's great race, not only just how much he's a huge fan of the Supercars Championship, but what a great bloke he is as well.
• 1:04
  Bathurst was phenomenal beyond all my expectations.
• 1:08
  Let's talk about that a bit more because it was literally a flying visit for you.
• 1:11
  And Bathurst 1000 for us is a bit like, in Australian touring car terms, our version of the Daytona 500, our version of the Indy 500.
• 1:19
  But I mean, you've discovered it's mega, isn't it?
• 1:22
  I hope to come back because, yeah, the passion and the fight to want to win was so evident when you're watching this race.
• 1:30
  And I know that, you know, I was excited for the end of the race, but I had no idea it was going to be the fight, the battle to the end that it was.
• 1:38
  It was just so exciting to watch.
• 1:41
  Our supercars might start life as a family car, but they end up with a 650 horsepower V8 with wings, a tough stance.
• 1:49
  They're a really unique race car.
• 1:51
  What did you make of them?
• 1:53
  Well, they still represent the production vehicle.
• 1:56
  When you look at it, you know what you're looking at.
• 1:58
  And I think that's the problem we have in America with the NASCARs is they're all the identical chassis, the body, everything else.
• 2:05
  They're putting stickers on them to say that it's a Chevy or Ford or whatnot.
• 2:08
  But it's not like what you have here is the authentic car that has been set up to be a race car.
• 2:15
  On the Friday night of the race meeting, you and I worked on a television show.
• 2:19
  You were a guest for us and you were able to draw or put your own design ideas on Chas Mostert's car.
• 2:25
  He's the 2014 winner of the great race.
• 2:28
  Super cheap auto, correct.
• 2:30
  So what you did, I thought, in less than an hour was remarkable.
• 2:33
  We didn't give you all the tools of the trade really either.
• 2:36
  What was your first impression of the car and what sort of things were you trying to bring to life in it, to inject into it?
• 2:42
  Well, I just wanted to make it look like the car.
• 2:46
  But Frosty, or Winterbottom, which is a fantastic name.
• 2:51
  I love that name.
• 2:52
  We were actually playing off of it.
• 2:54
  Is there a Summerbottom?
• 2:55
  Is there a Fallbottom?
• 2:56
  Because we have Winterbottom.
• 2:58
  But he was a great sport, and we just had a great time.
• 3:01
  And I hope I get to see all of these guys again, because I do want to come back and see the race again.
• 3:08
  And I heard that this may have been the last true eight-cylinder supercar race.
• 3:16
  Well, they've been talking about that, and you would have seen over the weekend the brand-new Red Bull Holden debuting the V6 Twin Turbo, which is a glimpse of the future of the sport.
• 3:26
  It's a delicate balancing act, isn't it?
• 3:27
  Because the fans love the tried-and-true V8 that we've had for 20 years in the game, and you've experienced that now as a newcomer.
• 3:35
  It's an addictive thing.
• 3:37
  People really gravitate to it.
• 3:39
  So I may have seen a historic race.
• 3:41
  I hope not.
• 3:42
  I hope not.
• 3:43
  I think the way they're looking at the moment, it'll still continue that they'll gradually introduce the new gen car.
• 3:49
  That's the plan with wildcard appearances next year.
• 3:51
  But the way the rules are structured at the moment, teams are absolutely still allowed to embrace and to keep that V8.
• 3:58
  But obviously, at the same time, manufacturers have a strong push to what is represented in the marketplace.
• 4:02
  And you would experience that with lots of things, too.
• 4:04
  Yes, and you know what I really was amazed with is the shootout.
• 4:07
  Yeah.
• 4:08
  You know, we've had shootouts in America, but it was never like what you have here.
• 4:11
  I mean, everybody's on the edge of their seat as these drivers are going around the track trying to get that number.
• 4:17
  In one way.
• 4:18
  Yeah, and to see that, you know, Scott got it with…
• 4:23
  .444, I think it was the difference between first and second, almost a full half a second faster than the second driver.
• 4:31
  That's amazing to me.
• 4:33
  Phenomenal.
• 4:34
  He's a phenomenal talent.
• 4:35
  And that team with Roger Penske now as part owner of a DJR team, Penske, I mean, they've
• 4:41
  come on in leaps and bounds this year they are serious serious players in our game you also visited the Gosford Classic Car Museum um early in the the week that's about an hour's drive north of Sydney 450 cars on display they're about 70 million dollars worth lots of good things for sale too did anything catch your eye what did you like
• 5:00
  What a museum, wow, amazing.
• 5:02
  And they did have a FUS 69 Camaro that, you know, I had an agreement with a company called Unique Performance.
• 5:10
  One of only eight cars that were built was sitting there.
• 5:13
  And when I saw the sign, I said, so everything's for sale?
• 5:16
  How much for this one?
• 5:17
  330,000, I said, well, I can't afford that one right now, my wife would kill me.
• 5:21
  Well, that's another good excuse to come back then to check that museum out when you're back next time.
• 5:25
  What did you think generally of Aussie cars, the Holden Commodore, the Ford Falcon?
• 5:30
  Well, I actually want to look into the Ute, the Holden Ute.
• 5:33
  I would love to get one of those as my daily driver in California.
• 5:37
  I don't know what I would have to go through or if I could even bring it into the States.
• 5:41
  But seeing the drivers going around the track and a couple of those that had been modified yesterday, I'm in love.
• 5:47
  What is Chip Fusa's daily drive then?
• 5:48
  When you get off the plane, you and I are talking here in a hotel lobby before you jet back out to the States.
• 5:53
  When you get to the other end, what's your daily drive?
• 5:55
  My daily driver is a Ford F-150.
• 5:57
  It's a 2010 Platinum and nothing on it has changed.
• 6:02
  Why?
• 6:03
  Standard.
• 6:03
  It was bone stock.
• 6:04
  Before that, I had one of the Fus edition Ford F-150s that I, you know, it was getting older and I was having a few problems with it, so I just drove it into the dealership.
• 6:14
  It was number one of 498 that were built, and I drove it straight into the dealership and said, that's my trade-in.
• 6:21
  And,
• 6:23
  It was pretty funny because the car salesman started fighting over who was going to get it.
• 6:27
  So one of the guys actually kept it because it is number one of the 498 that were built.
• 6:32
  And they said, you're going to give this up?
• 6:33
  I said, yeah, I'm done with it.
• 6:35
  That's crazy.
• 6:36
  The jaw would have dropped, A, that you wandered into the dealership and that you were giving that up.
• 6:40
  You're from Santa Barbara, California, originally.
• 6:43
  Automotive, anything with wheels, chip, is in your blood.
• 6:47
  From a young age, that was very, very clear.
• 6:50
  The big influence is family and particularly your dad, right?
• 6:54
  Tell us a bit more about that.
• 6:55
  Well, my father is my hero to this day.
• 6:57
  And I started sitting next to my father at the age of three.
• 7:00
  He was quite a talented artist himself.
• 7:03
  And when he would draw something, I would sit next to him and I would copy what he was doing.
• 7:08
  When he would finish, he would leave it on the table and I would draw it over and over and over again.
• 7:12
  And at the age of seven, I started going to the shop to work with him.
• 7:15
  And at that time, I met another designer that he was working with named Alex Trimbulus.
• 7:19
  Alex worked for Auburn Duesenberg Chord back in the 30s and 40s.
• 7:25
  He designed the Tucker, and then he was the head of the Thunderbird Studio for Ford through the 60s.
• 7:31
  And when I saw his artwork, I knew that that's what I wanted to do for a living.
• 7:35
  And he told me about Art Center College of Design, which is where I went to get my degree in industrial design.
• 7:40
  You graduated from there with honours.
• 7:43
  I mean, so clearly, you know, your dad and, you know, we understand now where those influences have come from.
• 7:50
  How important was the degree getting all that, you know, the training in that regard versus the daily influences, the industry influences that you're current?
• 7:59
  Because it's a constantly evolving thing, the ideas, the influences in the marketplace, isn't it?
• 8:06
  It's interesting that you ask that because I had gone halfway through art center and I left and started my own business in Santa Barbara.
• 8:13
  You know, I couldn't afford to stay and continue my education.
• 8:17
  And I was working for another company called Asher corporation.
• 8:21
  Uh, I ended up taking my business into their business.
• 8:25
  They became a, you know, they were one of my clients became a full-time job.
• 8:29
  And I was still doing side work at night with my equipment in their facility.
• 8:34
  Well,
• 8:35
  And I had started dating my wife.
• 8:37
  We had been together for a year and a half.
• 8:39
  And one evening the subject of marriage came up.
• 8:43
  And she looked at me, she says, well, I'm not going to marry you.
• 8:46
  I said, then why are we together?
• 8:48
  And she looked at me, she says, well, you have potential.
• 8:54
  And I was a bit puzzled and I said, what do you mean by that?
• 8:56
  And she says, she had graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara.
• 8:59
  So she had a college degree.
• 9:01
  She says, I have my college degree and I want my spouse to have a college degree.
• 9:04
  She says, if you were to graduate from college, I could see being married to you.
• 9:08
  And I was completely caught off guard from this.
• 9:11
  Straight back to college.
• 9:12
  Yes.
• 9:13
  But I had another company that was trying to hire me away from Asha Corporation.
• 9:18
  I called them up.
• 9:19
  They made me an offer.
• 9:20
  And I figured with the offer that they were making me, I could save my money for three years and then get back to Art Center and graduate.
• 9:29
  Now, I would be moving to Michigan from California.
• 9:32
  But they were one of Asha Corporation's clients that I was doing work with.
• 9:37
  So I agreed I accepted their offer and I told my boss I was leaving who was Alon Clunet and I
• 9:44
  He looked at me and says, don't do that.
• 9:47
  He asked me why.
• 9:47
  I told him the whole story about Lynn, who is my wife now.
• 9:51
  Told him that I needed to graduate college so that I could marry her because I knew I wanted to be with her.
• 9:56
  And he says, I'll send you to college now.
• 9:59
  You give me three years after you graduate.
• 10:01
  And he paid for it, and I was at school a month later.
• 10:04
  It was phenomenal.
• 10:04
  I owe Alana a huge...
• 10:07
  Thank you for that.
• 10:08
  But I went and graduated Art Center.
• 10:11
  My graduating project was a Chrysler-sponsored project.
• 10:16
  And I did something for them that was completely taboo.
• 10:19
  They had asked us to create a niche market vehicle.
• 10:22
  The example they gave us was a guy that might work out on an exercise bike every day.
• 10:27
  Maybe he charges a battery, puts it in a car, and gets to and from work.
• 10:31
  I did several examples of that for them, but then I did something that Art Center was really against, and that was looking back at muscle cars and hot rods.
• 10:41
  And I designed a modern day hot rod for Chrysler, as well as a few muscle cars.
• 10:47
  And Tom Gale, who was the president of design for Chrysler, when he came in, that's who I was presenting to.
• 10:53
  And he looked at my two, I did two presentations.
• 10:56
  He looked at the two presentations, he says, I know what you're doing here, this is our project.
• 11:00
  But what are you doing here?
• 11:02
  And I said, well.
• 11:03
  Backup plan, wasn't it?
• 11:04
  Yes.
• 11:06
  I said, well, you asked us to create a niche market vehicle.
• 11:09
  And in my mind, doing this, we're also trying to create a customer.
• 11:14
  I said, what I'm doing over here is I'm catering to a customer that already exists.
• 11:18
  There are guys out there that absolutely love the old muscle cars and hot rods.
• 11:22
  I said, why don't we design a brand new one?
• 11:25
  Because what they're trying to do is put modern technology into those older vehicles.
• 11:29
  Let's do something that represents that to them.
• 11:31
  I said, it's not today's designer's fault that a designer in the past chose to go away from a great form and design something that was completely new.
• 11:41
  If you look at cars, there are two cars that are the best examples of an evolution of design.
• 11:47
  The Corvette, you can see how it has evolved through the years, and also the Porsche 911.
• 11:53
  But still true to their original shapes and some of their, they're unmistakable, aren't they?
• 11:57
  Right, and it's fantastic because you can see how that they've evolved.
• 12:02
  They didn't completely abandon and come out with something totally new like other models have.
• 12:07
  And I said, we have the ability right now to go back and look at some great cars that existed that were abandoned.
• 12:15
  Let's grab from the past and evolve that into something that's modern.
• 12:20
  And that's also the same project that opened the doors to do the new Mustang, the Camaro, the Volkswagen Beetle.
• 12:28
  And when I graduated,
• 12:30
  I had 14 different job offers, people wanting to take advantage of what I had done, which they've done since then.
• 12:37
  And I've been lucky enough to have been involved with a few of those companies, bringing some of these cars back.
• 12:42
  I want to just rewind a fraction, if I may.
• 12:45
  You talked about the influence of your dad before from a drawing and design point of view and working with what he was doing as a youngster.
• 12:54
  What about the cars in the garage back then?
• 12:56
  What kind of family cars were in the garage back then?
• 13:01
  Well, we couldn't afford to do all the things that we really wanted to do.
• 13:03
  My dad, he actually, I remember in 1975, he built a 1948 Ford that was the car that he really wanted when he graduated from high school in 1953.
• 13:17
  So he went back in time, and he collected all the parts from his friends.
• 13:21
  You know, he wanted to build a flathead, which nobody, in 1975, nobody wanted a flathead.
• 13:26
  So guys were just giving him stuff to build his car.
• 13:29
  He built the entire car for $3,200 what he had into it in 1975.
• 13:35
  And I remember Gray Baskerville from Hot Rod Magazine, he named it Nostalgia.
• 13:40
  And that was when the older cars and the retro stuff started coming back.
• 13:46
  And that was, you know,
• 13:48
  That type of stuff really inspired me.
• 13:51
  And I actually own that car today.
• 13:54
  My dad had sold it in 1990, and he sold it to a friend of ours.
• 14:00
  And that friend, he and I stayed in touch, and I kept telling him, you know, I want that car, because it's also the first car that I ever did any metal work on.
• 14:07
  And working with my father, he allowed me to do the gravel pans on the car.
• 14:11
  And, you know, it really meant something to me because when my dad finished it, I remember it was on 16 different magazine covers back then.
• 14:20
  And I don't have all the magazine covers, but I have a few of them.
• 14:24
  But I own the car.
• 14:24
  It's in the showroom at the shop today.
• 14:26
  I love the fact that it's got the family connection, that you've kept that or got it back.
• 14:30
  I think that's so cool.
• 14:32
  What about the first car that you painted?
• 14:34
  Because that was before you were even a teenager, if I'm right.
• 14:37
  A Porsche 356, is that right?
• 14:39
  How did that go?
• 14:39
  And what was the plan going in from a design point?
• 14:43
  Well, it was nothing special back then.
• 14:45
  I mean, we painted Porsches.
• 14:47
  If you were to walk into my father's shop, we'd probably have 15 to 20 different Porsches at any given time.
• 14:53
  And it was just a bathtub that was sitting there, and that was the first one that he allowed me.
• 14:58
  Actually, the first thing I did is I just primered it completely.
• 15:01
  So any runs or any of that, we were going to sand it out anyway.
• 15:03
  We were just putting cover on it.
• 15:04
  But, yeah, that was the first car that I got to paint.
• 15:07
  And like I say, it was nothing special.
• 15:09
  You could buy that car back then for $5,000, $6,000.
• 15:13
  Amazing, you were 12 at the time, is that right?
• 15:16
  Yes, I was.
• 15:19
  This is Greg Ruston, you're listening to Rusty's Garage.
• 15:22
  More with Chip Foose in a moment.
• 15:25
  In this series, I speak to some of the most passionate riders, drivers, designers and collectors I know, as well as racers from the Supercars series, including the man many regard as the modern-day Peter Brock, Craig Lowndes.
• 15:40
  It wasn't until the point where Brock sat me down and then explained, turn one to the last corner, where to place the car, how to run the car, what to look for, how to flow the car, get off the brakes here, allow the car to do this.
• 15:53
  And then from that point on, I got faster and faster, and I got more familiar with the feel of what I needed to do and drive the car and how to drive the car around a place like Bathurst.
• 16:03
  Listen to the full episode with Craig Lowndes here on Rusty's Garage.
• 16:14
  Drophead is another name for convertible, most commonly used by the British.
• 16:19
  You know, because convertible is apparently not posh enough.
• 16:24
  When I told friends that I was going to be chatting with you today, they were like, no way.
• 16:29
  I love Oberhaul and, you know, the reality TV show that kicked off, I think, in 04, more than 100 eps.
• 16:36
  Was it born out of more or less an extension of the work that you normally do and the great stories that you invariably find out about the owners when they come in with these cars?
• 16:45
  How did it all kind of kick off?
• 16:47
  Well, it's interesting.
• 16:48
  I always thought of Overhawn as, you know, it may have been a car show, but I always thought of it as a people show.
• 16:53
  You know, the cars were just catalysts to tell their stories.
• 16:56
  But where it came from was, if you remember, there was a show called Rides.
• 17:00
  Yes.
• 17:01
  Well...
• 17:02
  I actually, before there was rides, I got a phone call from Jesse James, who did Monster Garage.
• 17:07
  Now Jesse called me, he says, hey, bring your portfolio over to a meeting with some Discovery executives.
• 17:14
  We're gonna do a show called Monster Garage and he wanted me to be his partner.
• 17:18
  So I came over and I met with he and these guys and we talked about the first episode was gonna be a Mustang turned into a lawnmower.
• 17:26
  Second one was going to be a Ford Explorer turned into a trash truck.
• 17:30
  And I'm thinking to myself, you know, you're trying to build these monsters on television.
• 17:35
  And at the end of the episode, there's really no value to the car.
• 17:39
  You're building it to perform a task.
• 17:42
  And I'm back at my shop trying to build the most beautiful pieces of rolling drivable art that I can possibly build.
• 17:49
  And I thought, you're going to put me on television building these other things that are going to overshadow what I do.
• 17:54
  So I said no.
• 17:55
  I wasn't interested in doing it.
• 17:57
  And it's the best business no I've ever given.
• 18:00
  Because then a few months later, Bud Brutzman, another producer, came in and said, Discovery wants to do a show based on your life.
• 18:07
  And originally they wanted to do a reality show just following me 24-7.
• 18:11
  I said, no, that's not going to work.
• 18:14
  They wanted to film me building the next car and going to a show.
• 18:17
  Well, that was 11 months out.
• 18:18
  I said, you don't want to film for 11 months for one episode.
• 18:22
  I said, let me call Jay Mays, who was the director of design for Ford then, and let's see if he'll donate a car that we can build for the SEMA show, and we'll go to SEMA.
• 18:31
  And Bud says, what's SEMA?
• 18:32
  I said, trust me, that's the show you want to go to if you're going to do a television show, because everything in the automotive industry is there, so everybody's going to see something that they like.
• 18:44
  And I called Jay.
• 18:45
  He donated one of the 2002s when they were coming out with the new Thunderbird.
• 18:51
  He donated a Thunderbird.
• 18:52
  I had designed it.
• 18:53
  We built a car called the Speedbird and took it to the show.
• 18:56
  We won best of show awarded from Ford Motor Company.
• 18:59
  We filmed it.
• 19:00
  We invited a bunch of different cars out to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
• 19:04
  And that was the episode.
• 19:05
  and Bud comes back after we had finished up the episode.
• 19:09
  He gave it to Discovery.
• 19:11
  They loved it so much that they ordered it as a series.
• 19:14
  He says, what are we doing next?
• 19:16
  I said, no.
• 19:17
  I said, you know, I had almost killed myself trying to get that car done, and I lost 27 pounds building that car.
• 19:24
  Had gotten almost zero sleep for seven weeks, and I said...
• 19:29
  Let me give you a list of different hot rod shops and shops that build custom cars.
• 19:33
  And you can send a crew to their shop once a month and film what they're doing.
• 19:38
  And if I give you 25 shops, in 10 months you can have 25 episodes.
• 19:42
  There's no way we're going to do that.
• 19:44
  So that's what we did and that's where rides came from.
• 19:47
  But I said to them, I said, it'd be fun to do another show that's similar to Monster Garage because they were building that car in a week.
• 19:55
  I said, but let's take people's cars that they don't have the money or the means to restore that car, but they may have cars in their garages or side yards.
• 20:03
  We just need to grab those cars, build it and give it back to them.
• 20:05
  So it's a feel good show.
• 20:07
  And Bud had the idea of stealing the car or pranking him or taking it and saying that it was impounded for parking tickets, which they didn't have any parking tickets.
• 20:15
  And it was a brilliant idea.
• 20:17
  I think it was so much fun.
• 20:19
  We pitched the idea to Discovery.
• 20:20
  They ordered seven episodes right off the bat.
• 20:23
  We did the first seven and then they ordered another season and another season.
• 20:26
  We did five seasons before the economy turned.
• 20:30
  And then fortunately in 2008, when the economy did turn, we lost our advertising of the automotive and the banking industries.
• 20:37
  So we didn't have the funds to continue the show.
• 20:40
  So we went on a five year hiatus and when they called me back and said, we want to go again, I said, I'll do it.
• 20:46
  But on a lot of those episodes that we were doing them, we did every car in eight days or less.
• 20:51
  And I really didn't sleep for those eight days.
• 20:54
  So I told him, I said, I'd love to do the show again, but I'm getting older, I need to sleep.
• 20:59
  I'll do the cars in two or three weeks.
• 21:01
  And that's what we did.
• 21:02
  We filmed for another three and a half years.
• 21:03
  So total of eight and a half years of filming of Overhawn.
• 21:06
  Been on the air for 14 years.
• 21:08
  We did over 130 vehicles and it was a pleasure to be able to do that.
• 21:13
  I get asked all the time, what's the favorite car you've done on Overhawn?
• 21:16
  It's never the car, it's the people that we did it for.
• 21:20
  When you did a car for somebody and you really moved them and they understood what we had just given them, that was an amazing feeling.
• 21:28
  And one of the cars or recipients that always sticks in my mind is a gentleman named John.
• 21:35
  And John was in his mid 40s.
• 21:37
  He had bought a 69 Plymouth Roadrunner convertible when he was 15 years old.
• 21:42
  And his dream was always to put a 426 Hemi in it.
• 21:45
  And when I read that in the submission, I called Mopar Performance and they donated a 526 Hemi.
• 21:52
  And we went ahead and put that in the car.
• 21:54
  I put a Hemi badge on the side.
• 21:56
  Now John was a giant of man, about six feet four, maybe 280 pounds.
• 22:03
  And normally on the episodes, Bud Brutzman, the producer, would introduce the A-Team to represent what they had built for each of the owners.
• 22:12
  And when John looked at the car for the first time, he had a crack in his voice and he says, does it really have a Hemi in it?
• 22:21
  And Bud says, go ahead and look.
• 22:23
  He took advantage of that moment while he was already emotional.
• 22:26
  John walked over to the car, opened the hood, and when he saw that Hemi sitting there, this giant of a man dropped to his knees and started to cry.
• 22:34
  And on the episode, because we have to edit it, we only have 46 minutes to show you what we just did in eight days.
• 22:40
  You only saw John get emotional, tear up, and then say thank you to all of us.
• 22:46
  In reality, John dropped to his knees, started to cry like a baby, and it took him over 25 minutes to compose himself enough to be able to say thank you to all of us.
• 22:55
  There wasn't a dry eye in the house, but that's what it meant to me, was to be able to do that for somebody, that's the greatest feeling in the world, to make their absolute dream a reality.
• 23:07
  And I got to do it 130 times.
• 23:10
  Well done.
• 23:10
  I mean, the mix to me in that sense from a TV point of view, a concept point of view is perfect.
• 23:16
  And over time, I mean, there were vets, there were Navy SEALs, there were all kinds of different people that you helped out along the way.
• 23:23
  I want to come back to the fun aspect as well, because coming up with the pranks, the ideas of, you know, pinching the cars and, you know, these elaborate stories, was it fun to come up with some of that stuff and then to execute it?
• 23:37
  It must have been cool.
• 23:38
  Bud Brutzman, the producer, is absolutely brilliant at that.
• 23:42
  He's the one that came up with 99% of the ideas.
• 23:45
  I'm not an actor, and I'm a car builder.
• 23:48
  And I said, what you're gonna film, the Discovery Channel asked me, when we started filming the second episode, they came out, and before we started filming, they called me into an office, and they said, is there somebody on the A-team that you can throw a wrench at, or that you can fire to create some drama?
• 24:04
  And I said, I'm not an actor.
• 24:07
  And number one, everybody in here is donating their time and trying to do their absolute best.
• 24:13
  I said, these are professionals coming together, having a great time doing something special for somebody.
• 24:19
  I said, your drama is what Chris and Courtney were doing in first season.
• 24:23
  I said, that's where we need to build up the drama and what we're doing to the owner.
• 24:27
  And the greatest thing about it is that the home viewer is in on it.
• 24:31
  And Chris was absolutely phenomenal at pranking people, putting in the fake teeth.
• 24:36
  And he's a phenomenal actor.
• 24:38
  He pulled off some pranks that were just fantastic.
• 24:41
  And what I loved about it when we were doing it that way is they would go out and they would film whatever they were doing or they would do the phone prank in the middle of the shop so all the A-team could watch it.
• 24:53
  But if they went somewhere and did some prank on the owner, they would come back and we had a big screen TV with some couches in the shop.
• 25:01
  All the A-team would sit there and we would watch what Chris had just done to somebody.
• 25:04
  So the first five seasons when we were pranking the owners, that was my favorite.
• 25:10
  And I can see a car and I can tell you who the owner was and what happened and everything else.
• 25:16
  When the network said that they didn't want to do the pranks anymore, now we were letting them know that we were going to do their car and they would do the car and then give it back to them.
• 25:24
  To me, the emotion was gone.
• 25:27
  They spent a week thinking about, what's my car going to look like?
• 25:31
  Where before, they thought their car was stolen.
• 25:33
  We let them know that we had it, and then we brought them in immediately and showed them their car.
• 25:37
  So the emotion was raw and real.
• 25:40
  And that's what I love.
• 25:41
  But some of the later shows, I don't remember the people's name.
• 25:45
  It kind of became a job, but it was still fun to do.
• 25:48
  But it wasn't like the beginning.
• 25:50
  Bud had the best ideas in the world.
• 25:52
  And doing the pranks was just so much fun.
• 25:57
  It made you not even think about all the endless, tireless hours that you were putting into the car.
• 26:02
  You just wanted to get it done because it felt like it was Sunday night and you're over in your buddy's garage trying to get his car going so he can drive to school in the morning.
• 26:10
  You never say never, I think, probably in this game.
• 26:13
  Was there, looking at your website recently, for example, I know there's a little note there to ask fans because you probably get inundated with questions about, you know, could you come and do my car or this, you know, that sort of thing, and that's obviously stopped for now.
• 26:26
  But are there other television projects in the pipeline?
• 26:29
  Are there other things that you might like to try and do in that sort of area?
• 26:32
  We're actually talking with Discovery and Velocity now.
• 26:36
  They wanted to get started on something, and I told them I couldn't do anything until after SEMA because I've got deadlines that I'm trying to build for the show.
• 26:44
  And so Discovery and Velocity have a pretty big presence at the SEMA show now, and we'll be meeting there talking about what we're going to do next.
• 26:53
  Movie work, there's been plenty of it over time.
• 26:56
  For me, Disney Pixar's Cars is a real standout.
• 27:00
  Just explain what you did there and how it helped to bring the animated characters to life, that process.
• 27:08
  What was that like?
• 27:09
  It's interesting how all these different stories are intermingled, but when we did the Speedbird for the ride show, John Lasseter was at the SEMA show with his team doing, shall we say...
• 27:23
  their research for the first Cars film.
• 27:25
  And when John saw my Speedbird, he fell in love with it and started talking to me about building one for his wife.
• 27:31
  And he had asked me, are there other shows that he and his team should go to to be inspired for the film?
• 27:37
  And I told him about Good Guys Pleasanton, Street Rod Nationals.
• 27:41
  And I said, I'm going to be up there.
• 27:43
  We can all meet again if you want.
• 27:45
  And I happened to bring Christopher Titus's
• 27:48
  56 handyman wagon that I had flamed.
• 27:51
  And when John saw the handyman wagon and the flames on it, he fell in love with the flames that I had designed.
• 27:56
  And he says, you know, I have a character in the film named Ramon, it's a 59 Chevy, and I wanna paint him purple and I wanna do flames on him.
• 28:03
  I would like you to design the flames.
• 28:05
  So the first film, I did Ramon's Flames and then also did some quick sketches of Lightning McQueen at the end of that show.
• 28:13
  He gets the white scallop and the white wall tires.
• 28:16
  I worked on that graphic for him.
• 28:19
  And then John called me again and said, we're going to do Cars 2 and I want to redesign Lightning McQueen's graphics and also some graphics for Ramon again.
• 28:27
  So I did all the graphics for both cars as well.
• 28:30
  And then it was quickly after that that John called me up.
• 28:35
  the little town of Radiator Springs in California Adventure, which is part of Disneyland.
• 28:41
  And he says, I need your help.
• 28:42
  He says, would you paint my hard hat for Groundbreaking Day?
• 28:46
  He says, I want it painted purple with the flames like Ramon.
• 28:49
  So I went ahead and did that, and he says, and I want to invite you over to Groundbreaking Day.
• 28:52
  So I was there for that event.
• 28:56
  And at the end of the event, John walked over, and he put his hand on my shoulder.
• 28:59
  He says, I need your help here.
• 29:00
  I said, what do you need me to do?
• 29:02
  And he says, well,
• 29:04
  In the films, Cheech Marin is the voice of Ramon.
• 29:08
  He says, but you are Ramon's talent.
• 29:11
  He says, while we're building this complete town of Radiator Springs, he said, I would like it if you can come in, walk around, look at what you see, and anything that you think Ramon would have had his hand on, custom painting or doing anything with,
• 29:26
  That's your job.
• 29:27
  So for two and a half years, I got to go in while they were building it and custom paint whatever I thought that Ramon would have done.
• 29:35
  And it was a dream job.
• 29:36
  I had just had a blast.
• 29:37
  I was able to bring my kids in there during the construction.
• 29:40
  I have some fantastic photos of them when it was being built.
• 29:43
  And it was another dream job for me.
• 29:47
  One of the questions I often ask is Dream Garage, and you've talked about your dad's car that you acquired back and probably not wanting to ever park with that now.
• 29:56
  Are there any other cars that you would aspire to own, to modify, to, you know, what is on the dream or the wish list for Chibfus?
• 30:07
  I feel pretty lucky and blessed.
• 30:08
  I've had some great cars.
• 30:09
  I've got some fantastic cars and projects right now.
• 30:12
  But I'm a year into my five-year plan that I started.
• 30:16
  And the five-year plan is that within five years, I wanted to have a Duesenberg that I could modify.
• 30:23
  Because when you bought a Duesenberg, you bought a chassis.
• 30:26
  and the chassis may have had a grill, a hood, a cowl, a steering wheel, seats bolted to a frame, you had fenders, you had all the lights, but you didn't have a body.
• 30:36
  So you would take it to a coach builder, they would design the body and then build the body of your dream.
• 30:41
  Well, I would like to buy a Duesenberg, peel whatever body that's on it, off of it, restore the chassis and design and build my own body.
• 30:49
  So I've got a few projects that I wanna finish.
• 30:52
  Like I said, I'm a year into it.
• 30:54
  I think three years from now, what I'd like to do is I'm going to line up about 10 of my vehicles and take them to an auction, sell all of them, and then I want to buy a Duesenberg, and that's going to be my project.
• 31:05
  I'm hoping to be somewhat retired and maybe not doing customer cars at Foos Design.
• 31:11
  I want to be able to pick the cars that I want to build for myself and build those.
• 31:16
  Hopefully my wife goes along with the whole program.
• 31:19
  Lots of people talk about the future of the automotive landscape and some worry about it being sort of bland, vanilla, autonomous cars.
• 31:28
  To me, it seems there will always be a need for something that stands out in the crowd, to still personalise it, to have something unique, even if it is autonomous.
• 31:38
  Is that a view you'd share?
• 31:40
  Yeah.
• 31:41
  That's like saying that we're going to get rid of fashion design.
• 31:43
  Yeah.
• 31:44
  Because that's what the automotive industry is.
• 31:46
  It is fashion.
• 31:47
  It's people personalizing cars for their own likeness and what they enjoy.
• 31:52
  And even if the cars are autonomous, I still think you're going to have customized autonomous vehicles.
• 31:57
  But when you look at kids today…
• 31:59
  You know, I know that when I grew up, we wanted to be in the front seat and see where we're going.
• 32:04
  Kids today, they're in the backseat and they're on their Game Boys or their iPhones or iPads.
• 32:10
  You know, it's my kids.
• 32:12
  I remember putting them in the car.
• 32:14
  They were devastated if they didn't have a video on.
• 32:17
  We're not going to get video if I put them in my truck that didn't have video, where mom's cars had video cameras or screens in the back of the seat so they could sit in the back and just watch it.
• 32:27
  You know, I can see these kids that are growing up today with all this entertainment in the vehicle, getting in an autonomous car, not paying attention to where they're going.
• 32:35
  They're just punching an address.
• 32:37
  They're going to end up there.
• 32:38
  but they're going to enjoy their own personal social media or whatever they're doing in the car while they're traveling.
• 32:45
  But I still think that people that want their cars personalized, there's still going to be a life of customization.
• 32:52
  That means then that there'll still be, hopefully, passion for cars.
• 32:56
  You've done wonderfully well in blending passion and occupation.
• 33:00
  I love cars, motorbikes, things like that as well.
• 33:04
  You just hope that that next generation finds some attachment to that, don't you?
• 33:09
  I just hope that the government doesn't make it illegal to drive what I call the hard parked cars, the cars that had chrome bumpers and the cars that we're modifying on shows like Overhauling and cars that I'm building at my shop.
• 33:21
  If they say it's illegal to take them on the road and you only have autonomous cars, that's going to be a sad day for me.
• 33:27
  But as long as we're able to take those cars and enjoy them on the road, these vintage cars, I think there's always going to be this lifestyle for a lot of people.
• 33:37
  I say this a lot of times and just out of humor, but it's also very true is I feel lucky and blessed that I get to make a living doing something a hundred percent unnecessary.
• 33:46
  We don't need another hot rod in the world, but the greatest thing about this whole industry is it's a hundred percent passion driven that guys were willing to reach into their pocket and pay us to build their dream.
• 33:56
  And that is a dream job.
• 34:00
  On the next episode of Rusty's Garage, I talk with former Australian Top Gear host, driving instructor and pure car nerd, Steve Pizzati.
• 34:09
  quartz watches came out in the 70s, yeah?
• 34:11
  Everyone's got, we don't need mechanical watches anymore because these are way more accurate and they're cheaper and all that sort of stuff.
• 34:15
  You go, great.
• 34:16
  So those people that don't care about a watch, buy a cheap quartz watch, accurate, or use your phone.
• 34:20
  But those of us that love the fact that a guy in Switzerland spent a month not seeing his kids to make me a watch, you love the fact that it's been, you know, fussed over and it's an enthusiast making something for another enthusiast.
• 34:34
  And that's what's going to happen with cars.
• 34:35
  Most things are going to be electric boxes that,
• 34:37
  A to B, you're going to get in it done but us car lovers are going to get these enthusiasts making these really specialised things knowing that you don't need to drive it every day because you've got your electric box so they're going to make something for us passionate people and I can't wait, I sincerely can't wait for autonomous cars Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell Audio production by Darcy Thompson
• 35:14
  Listener.