Stacey David: "The Truck Godfather", Iconic TV and Podcast Host (@officialstaceydavid / staceydavid.com)

On this episode, Chris and Stacey discuss Stacey's iconic truck builds and TV and media career.  It all started in the 90s with the iconic show Trucks! and has evolved to the hit show television show Gearz and Tales of a Gearhead podcast.

With decades of experience working in restoration and hot rod shops, and over 20 years on national television on two hit TV shows, Stacey David has been showing people how to build cool cars and trucks for a long time. His mechanical abilities and fabrication skills have made him one of the most trusted and respected custom car builders in the world today. His incredible work and positive influence have earned him many awards and accolades from the automotive industry over the years, and he continues to work hand in hand with the OEM’s and aftermarket to keep new vehicles and parts in front of the gearhead public. Also well known for building wild, trend-setting custom vehicles like Copperhead, The V8 Interceptor, and Sgt. Rock, Stacey has inspired legions of gearheads all across the nation to “get out there and build something”. 

Follow, Like and subscribe to the podcast on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and your podcast listing platform. Check out our website at classic4x4.com and reach out if we can help you sell your classic, vintage or collector truck or 4x4. Thanks for listening!

Transcript

0:02

Well, hello, classic four by four podcast listeners. I'm your host, Chris Piconi, and we have made it to episode eight of season three. As many of you know, season three is all listener requested topics and guests. And today's, today's guest is, is not only a legend in our world, right? But was also requested by somebody that was rather unique and interesting that you probably all don't expect. So. I want to welcome on the podcast today, the one, the only, the legend, I have coined him, the godfather of trucks and four by fours, Stacey David. What's going on Stacey? Hey, Chris, it's great to be here. Man, that's quite an introduction, man. I hope I can live up to it. Hey, you've already lived up to it, my man. So, uh, Stacy, I can't thank you enough for being on the classic four by four podcast, all your, all your support and everything. Um, so, uh, in the pre-interview today, I was telling Stacy who requested this episode. So I have to share it with all of our listeners. This is good, man. So, uh, when I would happen to mention to my wife, uh, you know, when I was. starting to record season three, that it's all gonna be listening to requests. She said to me, and keep in mind, I'm gonna give a little background here. My wife is not a big fan of trucks. She loathes my trucks to the point where she actually made me find an offsite garage to put them a mile away so she doesn't have to stare at them and have me just at the house playing with them all day long. But she said to me, you know what, can I request a guest? And I said, okay, like who do you even know in the truck and four by four world? And she goes, I wanna hear Stacey David. So my amazing... She's actually in her office in the garage that I converted for her office after she kicked me out of it and I had to move to my offsite garage. So her name is Lauren. Yeah, so this... Yeah. we go to school together or something, Lauren? Why in the world would you request me? So we're going to talk about a little bit later in the podcast on how my wife even knows who you are, right? Number one, but number two, where that little spot in her brain where Stacey's David Stacey David's name lives. So so this episode, it was requested by my beautiful and amazing wife, Lauren, I shout out to her for requesting today's episode. But let's move on Stacey and Let's talk about you. Our listeners really like to know who the person is behind the bill, behind the screen. And how does a kid from Boise, Idaho end up in Nashville with their own custom shop, their own production company and is coined the godfather of trucks in 4x4? Well, that's a long story. I mean, I tell you what, there's a lot of aspects to it. I'm actually writing a book about all of that now because there's so many different aspects of that. But I was a professional musician. Well, before that, I was always a car person. And I mean, from my earliest memories, there's pictures of me three, four years old, you know, in the family picture. And I've got like a marshmallow on one hand and a tractor in the other. I mean, it was always completely enamored with anything mechanical. And it didn't really matter. I mean, cars, trucks, bulldozers, tracked vehicles, snowmobiles, anything with a motor, anything mechanical. I mean, the egg beater intrigued me. And needless to say, I tore all that stuff up around the house trying to figure out how it worked. So I always had that. And of course, music was always that. I was like that for guitar, too. And I started taking guitar lessons at six years old. And so I started playing, you know, and I started playing professionally at 15, which was an interesting story because I was too young to play in bars, but my man, my parents managed to get around that on some occasions. But anyway, I ended up moving back here to Nashville to make a living as a professional musician. And it's a lot different, you know, people are like, well, so you, you wanted to be a star. It's like, no, I wanted to be a professional musician, you know. And that means you get paid to play. And so I had a really good run at that. I did it 20 some years and got a whole history. And I incorporate that into the show a lot. I do the custom guitar, some of which are on the wall here behind me. For all of the big builds that I do, there's a custom guitar that goes with it. And so that's how that all kind of went together and continues. And I still do a lot of music stuff to this day. But so that's how I got to Nashville. And then now the crazy thing when I started doing, I already had an idea of doing an automotive TV show because those didn't exist. This was like in the mid 90s. And I don't know, I was just the Nashville network was right here in town, TNN, one of the biggest cable networks in existence at the time. and they had all the hunting, fishing shows, all that stuff. And I'm like, there's gotta be a way to do an automotive show because everybody likes it. And then, like I said, nothing like that existed. And then I actually had approached them at TNN about 95. I still have the letter. And I pitched them a show that is basically very similar to what Gears is. And they were like, oh, we love it. We'd like to see a pilot. And I'm like, pilot? Yeah, I'm a guy who knows how to play guitar. Yeah, it's a pilot. And then I started checking around, and a pilot's like 10 grand. That was back then. And I'm like, oh, OK, I don't need any. So I'm trying to move forward to get some sort of clip, video representation of what I want to do. A couple of years goes by, and I had told my friends that he was in the music industry around what I was wanting to do. And I was getting kind of frustrated. And then a couple of shows come out. Dennis Gage comes out with my classic car and who has become one of my closest friends in the industry. Dennis and I, you know, we've both been doing it a long time. But then there was Hot Rod and Horsepower, or it was Horsepower and Car and Driver that were done here in town. And so I knew I was on the right path. And then one day a buddy of mine comes in, this is going to blow you away. A guy comes in and goes, did you see Sunday's paper? And I'm like, no, musician. Why was it? He said there was an ad in the paper that they want to host for this new truck show. And so, so I. I answered. up on trucks from an ad in a newspaper. That is completely wild. Yeah, newspaper. What is that? Most people don't even know what a newspaper is anymore. But it was crazy because I went in there and then because people always say, oh, well, that was such a, you know, such a lucky deal. And I was like, yeah, no, I because I was an athlete growing up and I had this football coach that always he'd come in before the games and he'd go, there's no such thing as luck. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity and we're all like, yeah, whatever. But I always remembered that. And that was a prime example of that. Because in the meantime, I had opened up a custom shop here in town. I was building cars. Keep in mind, I was a car guy all these years. And I was building my own cars. And then I started building customer cars all through this professional musician era. And so I had two lives going. I would go into the recording studio with fingers that were just bloody and beat up. And people were like, dude, what is up with your hands? And what's the scars on your arms? And I'm like, take a look in the parking lot, you know? And they'd be like, that's so cool. You know, it was a Corvette or it was a Jeep or whatever. And so I was doing both of those things and I kept documenting my pictures of my builds and this and that. And also being a professional musician, I was on camera a lot. I did a lot of TV commercials and a lot of television stuff. So I knew how that worked. So when I went into audition for this, they said, have you ever built any vehicles? Because there were thousands of people that answered this ad, and most were professional actors. Yes, Johnny, I know, you know, that kind of thing. But they weren't real car guys. So they said, OK, have you ever built any real vehicles? And I had a whole portfolio of crazy stuff. And they said, OK, have you ever been on camera before? I'm like, well, here's some. television stuff I did and a commercial I did with these guys and all this and they were like so all of those things lined up and they were like You're the perfect person for to do this And so I tell people it's like if you're in a job if you're doing something and you're bored with it Then you're not taking advantage of learning to go to the next step Because you can't go to the next step until you learn what you need to learn there same thing with restoring a vehicle There's a lot of guys that get into it and they're like, well, I want to be a custom builder. I'm like, but can you restore something original yet? Cause you need to understand that before you get into the custom world. If you're going to be really good at it. And a lot of people want to step past the steps and that makes them really. Vacant in some areas, you know, when it comes to building projects or this and that it's, it's kind of like your story when you, um, decided to go in and start selling vehicles. Well, you sold them because you knew the vehicles. You already had the background, so that's important. So anyway, that's actually kind of the short version of how trucks all started. And then the crazy thing is, a lot of people don't realize this, the idea behind trucks, when Joe St. Lawrence had originally come up with the idea for it, keep in mind they were doing car and driver, which was basically test driving new vehicles. So his concept for trucks, was that we were going to be test driving new trucks. And I'd be putting on like tonneau covers and bumpers and that kind of thing. And I told Joe, I was like, listen, I'm not interested in doing a fake show because those shows existed. The toolboxes were empty and the air compressors weren't hooked up. It was just a set. And I'm like, I'm a real builder. I want to do real stuff. And that's where it was very similar to where he said, That's what we want. We want you to do you. And they left me alone. And so the first year I chopped the top on, we jumped into the Wicked Willys. I mean, nobody had ever seen anything like that on TV. And keep in mind these guys are sitting there like, oh my God, why do we tell him that? He's pulling bodies off frames. He's doing ground up. The crazy thing is that people don't understand the battles that I fought in those early days. I was bucking so much tradition from television guys. They were like, you can't do that. Nobody wants to see that. Everything, right down to the type of shirt that I wore. They were like, well, we have to have like a button up shirt because you gotta put the microphone. You see this hole in my shirt? That's where my microphone goes. There you go. And that goes clear back to, you know, I took a knife and I punched a hole in my T-shirt because I'm a T-shirt guy. But oh, no, those first few seasons of Trucks, I had to wear a button up shirt and all kinds of just crazy. You think about it now, you know, people will be like, that's crazy. But, you know, even with the two hosts, everything that was all these barriers we had to break down and the only thing that was saving us, our ratings were huge. Because people wanted to see that and that gave ground because of those sort of shows. After that came Monster Garage and all of those things that showed real fabrication and building. I gotta tell you that is absolutely wild. I mean, I never expected you to tell me that started from a newspaper ad, but like from those show creators and producers aspect, like they had, you know, 1,100 or over a thousand people that applied. So they're doing all these auditions and they're asking all these people the same question. And some people are saying, yes, I've been in front of a camera. And others are saying, but I've never built anything. Other people say, yeah, I built something, but I've never been in front of a camera. And then you show up. and you're like, oh yeah, here's my portfolio of what I built and oh yeah, here's my reels of whatever. These guys must've sat back and must've like quietly been like, oh my God, this is exactly what we wanted. Oh yeah, like this is it, we found the guy. Ha ha ha. Yeah, and I tell you what, one of the things that was really interesting, you'll never guess what I drove there. What was it? When I showed up, they went out because one of the guys, he said, we'll know if this guy's a real car guy, if he's a real truck guy by what he drives. I pulled up, this was my daily driver, a 1970 J 3000 Jeep truck with a big wrench on it. It was that teal green and white big tires on it. That was my daily driver. Oh yeah, no it had the Buick 350 in it. Get outta here. only weird Buick thing. And it was he went out, looked at that in the parking lot and he goes, this is the guy. So I actually have a J truck in my collection right now. I have a 82 J 10 with 65,000 original miles, all original. I mean, everything works. It's immaculate. Sadly, I need to make some room and I'm gonna pass it on down the line and I'm actually selling it right now, but I gotta tell you, it's a long bed townside. So it was what was called the... I guess somebody had told me this once, they called the model that I have, it was the custom, it was the base model, but they used to call it, the way that dealers ordered it, they called it the Rancher Special. So it has the 258 into the T, in the T177, right? Not the T176, because the 177 needs the longer output shaft for the longer bulkhead in the SJ body, into the NP, I think it's a 208, into an NP208. And... I got to tell you, so, but it also has the factory brush guard and the rear tow bumper. So that was, I guess dealers back in the day, it was originally a Montana truck dealers back in the day. They used to order that kind of base model for like the ranch hands, right? But I love it. I'm a big fan of the 258. I have, it's, I will tell you, especially in the SJs, I like most of the SJs have three I'm not the biggest 360 fan, they're not reliable. I'll go for a 258 over a 360 all day long and you can never find the 401s unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, okay. So here's a question for you on the J trucks. What's your what's your favorite grill? Do you like the gladiator grill the razor grill the later? I've got gladiator grills hanging up on the walls in here because I every time I find one I grab it Because they're cool, but the razor grill is the one I really like I'm a big fan of the razor grill. I love the razor grill. On any of the SJs, the razor grill is absolutely my favorite. That's a good question. Nobody ever asked me that before. I gotta put that one in the back of my mind and start asking people that when I interview. most go after the gladiator grill because it's that class and it they're rare But I the razor grill man, and you can still find those Oh yeah. And the later SJ grills, I mean, they're all plastic. They just disintegrated, you know, somehow my J 10 still has the original grill, you know, that plastic chrome is, is cracking off a little bit, but it's got, we'll just call it character. Right? So there is a question I ask every single person on that comes on the classic four by four podcasts. And it's always fun. What was your first car or truck? you know, that you drove to high school, you know, when you got your license. My first, of course, I had been messing with cars for a long time, but the first one that I owned, the first one that was actually the one I drove to high school was a 1930 Model A coupe. And this thing was all, because I was a big fan of American graffiti, so I had to have the John Milner car. And nobody could find 32s, but Model As were more common. And this thing looked just like that. No hood, you know, the frame was Zed and all this stuff. No fenders. and or it had the bob fenders on it. And of course I painted it yellow. And is a total piece of junk. This thing had been butchered on by every hot rodder. But I loved it. I mean, I learned more about what not to do off that car. So it was a great learning experience. I mean, all the wiring was red. Somebody just took a roll of red wiring and wired the whole car with it. So there was just, oh yeah, no fuses. You know, just, oh, okay. No gas gauge. I had to go out on dates and I had a dipstick, a paint stick that I'd get out, get into the trunk and dip it into the gas tank to see how much gas that I had. Yeah. I was a high class bait, you know. But you were the guy with the cool car. And that's the five window, right? Is the 1930? the 5-1 to Coop, yeah, that was, it was fun. As you're actually, you're the second person we've had on the podcast who had a hot rod as their, as their first car. And the other one was, do you know, do you know Rob Ida? So I see Rob actually every Thursday, Rob is the iconic hot rod builder. He can't, you know, he grew up in it. Uh, so Rob and I see Rob actually every Thursday at the Asbury park circuit. Uh, he lives in Asbury park, two towns from me. And when I had him on the podcast, it was the same thing. He's like, ah, my first truck was a. I think it was a Willie's Hot Rod. He had a Willie's Truck Hot Rod. That was his first, he does a lot of really cool stuff, man. His shop is a couple miles away from me, but hey, he's one of those amazing people that I'm fortunate that I get to see on a weekly basis, that he's in our local Jersey Shore, you know, car truck community. So, mm-hmm. it was kind of a fair weather car. You know what I mean? You know, it was that first car, but I needed something a little more reliable. So I got rid of that and bought a 1947 CJ2A that somebody had put a 265 V8 in with a three-speed overdrive. This thing was decked. Oh, it had the great seats. And I love it. It was an old Navy Jeep, you know, so it had the brass plaque on the dash, U.S. Department of the Navy. And this thing, it had the headers coming out the sides, dumping right underneath. Oh man, I love that Jeep. It's the one vehicle I own that I never got a picture of. But I actually drove that to college. top, the 2A canvas top or? No, it was like a later model Bestop, and it had the bucket seats in it. So somebody had modified it. It was like a blue lacquer with blue pinstriping on it. It was really well done for the era, especially, this is early 80s, remember. So it was, they still had the original 27 axles in it, and it had like probably 31 inch tall tires. You know, they just, it looked really good. And man, I drove that thing everywhere. I just had a great time with it. And I sold it. when I was going to move to Nashville because I knew I couldn't make the trip to Nashville. So I got a 65 month plan. your internal organs may not have agreed with yeah. I think it was great. You know, I always miss, I miss that Jeep. I've always, always wondered where it went and I always wonder who got it because it was nice. No rust, you know, it was just awesome. Somebody did a good job on it. definitely rare. So. their shifter that came out. It had like five shifters in it because it had the overdrive and everything. But the regular shifter, somebody, it came right up under your legs and then it curved over, so it curved around your legs. So it had that big Roth shifter thing in it. I loved it. So did it have like a Saturn or a Warren overdrive or on the side? Yeah. So it's fine. I've talked about this in the podcast a couple of times because I did, I built again, back to all original specifications in 1965, Jeep CJ-5A Tuxedo Park Mark IV. Oh, so cool. And I got it. I bought it from another enthusiast in our community who had done a full mechanical. uh, rehab of it. I mean, had, had rebuilt everything mechanically, but cosmetically and body, he just kind of threw up the towel and said, I'm done with it. And that's when I bought it. That's when I got it, but I got it all original, all the Chrome bits, everything. But one of the things that he had done on that three speed non-synchronized transmission, right, was he added a worn overdrive. Oh my gosh, Mr. World of Difference. a world of difference. And I tell people all the time, that was my favorite truck to drive ever. I used to go, I used to go first direct into second direct, and then I wouldn't even go into third direct. I would rev up the RPMs and just bring it up into overdrive into second overdrive and then into third overdrive. And man, that thing could conquer the world for that with that little F 134 hurricane four cylinder in it. So, super cool. So, I mean, for all of our listeners out there that don't follow Stacey on all the social channels, you have to follow him on all the social channels, Instagram, Facebook, at official Stacey David, check him out, check out his website online at stacydavid.com. And most importantly, you know, you got to check him out on TV because you've been what TV for what 25 plus years? This is our 25th year. Can you believe that? 25 years, man. It's, we've been really, really blessed. I'm telling you, it's been great. And now I did trucks for seven years, and then we're going into season 18 of Gears. So. Gears is, all of our listeners can see Gears on MAV TV and Motor Trend and the Motor Trend channel also, right? on Motor Channel, of course, YouTube. And, you know, we've got all kinds of new content coming out. I've got several different shows in the works that are all based off of that. So there's all kinds of cool stuff going on. That is neat. Uh, and of course we, we have to mention, you know, I personally think the classic four by four podcast is my listeners favorite podcast or, and, and everybody's favorite, uh, you know, car or I should say truck and four by four podcasts, but everybody out there needs to listen to Stacy's podcast also, which is tales of a gear head. Which you're gonna be on so if they like your podcasts, they're gonna love it because you're gonna be on it I am honored to have you interview me and us kind of switch seats. That's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to that recording. So thank you very much for having me on Tales of Gearhead too. So anybody can listen to that wherever you listen to your podcasts. But one unique thing that I learned in our pre-interview today too was, you are, again, I've coined you the godfather of trucks and four by fours of course, right? You know, you are the personality and the voice of our truck and four by four community, and you're obviously a very accomplished musician, but you're also an author and a writer. So tell me about some of the stuff that you've written. Well, I've got one children's book out called The Purple Bicycle that you can get right on our website. And basically, it's a story. It's really funny how that one came about. I wrote it years ago. And it's about you. You remember growing up as a kid, we all had bicycles. And, you know, that's that was your first bit of freedom. Your bicycle, you could leave home, you could hang out in the neighborhood, you go play hide and seek with everybody. And that bike became your first. vehicle. I can still tell you, by the way, what my first bike was, which was a white GT Performer. Oh, of course, pegs on the front and back, you know, the whole nine yards. Well, the whole idea behind that story was that everybody's bike kind of took on the personality of the person. You know, you had the person that was kind of big and strong would have like a mountain bike, and then you have the guy that was a fast runner would have the 10 speed. And then you have the guys that did all the BMX stunts and stuff, you know, they would kind of fit that personality, you know. And... I thought how interesting would it be if we covered some issues where, you know, because the problem is a lot of people when they go through life, they get very envious of other people. Well, if I just had that person's fill in the blank, if I had that person's money, if I had that person's build, if I had that person, you know, whatever. And that makes us really miserable people when we think that way. So to kind of illustrate that to children. I was like, what if a bicycle did that? And so it's a story about a bicycle who happens to be purple in color. And he goes out and all the other bicycles and he starts wanting to be a different color because he thinks that's associated with a skill that another bicycle has. Now I wrote this long before all of this race stuff and, you know, Black Lives Matter and all that stuff was happening. And it really deals with that kind of stuff in a comical. simple children's way of how foolish that is, you know, when we start looking at that. So most of the stuff that I write has that. I just finished one out. It has to do with music or cars, you know. One that I just finished that I'm getting Shannon Watts to actually do the illustrations on is called The Little Hot Rod. And it's the story of a car, which could be a Jeep or a Jeep. generation of us, right? Absolutely, it's all for that. And so I've got several of those things and I've got a whole series of little TV shows or books that have to do with kids growing up working on cars. And the good thing about that series is that my friends are gonna be written into it. So you'll probably end up in that story. As one of the little characters, it'd be like, there's little Chris. Yeah. Well, anybody that knows me knows throughout my entire life I have never been little, right? Little was never anything ever anybody ever said I was. I was always big Chris, right? You know, I think even in high school I was like 6'4", 300 pounds, right? Yeah, exactly. So that's cool. we're doing a bunch of stuff. There are a lot of things like that. I have a lot of people asking for some music stuff. So I've started to put together an album of car songs. A lot of them I've written. Some of them are classics, just to kind of show that. One of these days, I'll get it finished. But. Is there anything that you don't do? So TV personality, right? Podcast host, right? Author, accomplished musician. I mean, do you dance and juggle somewhere in there too? I've tried those. No, there's a, we do a lot of stuff like that. I've just, yeah, I've always had a lot of interests and a lot of things like that we've been involved in. So, and that's one of the things I try to encourage people is like, you know, get out and experience life and try stuff. The biggest thing, and I was having this conversation, I've had this conversation with Foose a while back and it usually comes up as I'm talking to people. When we look at that like you say okay you know you're the godfather of the truck thing it's like that's kind of funny to me because I would never look at myself that way and a lot of people don't realize that there was a time when that I didn't know jack about cars and neither did foos and Jimi Hendrix didn't know how to play guitar they had to learn and there was a time they went through that learning stage when they sucked but you're doing the best you can, you know? And so I try to tell people to get out there, learn this stuff, instead of trying to jump ahead and be the expert now. I see a lot of guys on YouTube trying to do that and they're trying to be an expert, but they're not. It's very obvious they're not. It's like, don't do that. Just do what you can and, you know, let it go that way because people will point out a phony but they'll recognize somebody who's trying, you know? Somebody's just trying, who's learning from their, from their mistakes. Like I, I've been my entire life, every time I've, you know, sorry, I've been very entrepreneurial and every time I've the first, it's all a learning curve and there's a lot of mistakes, but it's just not giving up and, and continuing to learn from those mistakes and happiness is I learned a long time ago. I, when I was young, I thought money was happiness. It was all about money, money. That's what will make you happy. And I, as I got older and had a lot of fun stuff, I realized it's not about material items. It's not about your bank account. You know what it is? You know, it's about being content. Being content is what equals happiness, right? Being content with what you have, the people around you, your family, that's where happiness lies. And sadly, I wish I knew that when I was a lot younger, but hey, you know, fortunately we all grow up and you know, shoulda, coulda, woulda, right? Yeah. that's the thing. Everything's a learning experience. And the day you quit learning is the day you die. You know, there's always new things. There's always new things. Always be a student. But you mentioned something that actually reflects in my own life, right? So I didn't grow up, I grew up in New Jersey, in a suburb of New York City. I didn't grow up in Idaho or Montana. I didn't have a dad who had a flat fender like yourself and an outbuilding where he could teach you to tinker. My dad was an art teacher who drove a like pea green diesel Volkswagen Rabbit, right? If you remember those, it was a manual transmission. are hot, man. People love those rabbits, those diesel rabbits. But back in the day, they weren't that hot, right? So, but like, and my mom was a nurse, she drove a Volvo wagon. Like I didn't, I didn't grow up around trucks or anything like that. It's not something that I've always been into cars, right? As you know, cars and trucks as a young buck, but you know, nobody ever had them in my family. I was never exposed to them. And you know, I'm gonna fanboy out a little bit and I'm gonna say like, really like at the point in my life where I was very impressionable, which was like my... later high school years, early college years, and even the first couple years into my career, which is also gonna, by the way, play into how my wife ended up requesting you as a guest. So I literally would watch a lot of TV shows, and the one TV show that I watched religiously, which really formed my love for chucks and four by fours that I've now enjoying. in this part of my life and career, and it's everything to me, was trucks. So if some people have their father that shows them the ropes and has trucks, I have Stacey David to thank for that. I'm telling you what that means. I can't tell you how much that means to me man when people say that I have a lot of people now coming up going I'm in this industry because of you and I'm like you know in my thing you if somebody came up and handed me a Grammy or an Oscar and said or put me in the Seema Hall of Fame or whatever I wouldn't give a rat about that compared to that compliment right there. because there's a future in that compliment. You know, a trophy is just something that sets on the wall, you know, and that means so much to me because that's what those shows were about. And see, over the years, I remember when Monster Garage first came out, it was the first of the reality shows. It was automotive reality shows. It was based off of what they were doing on American Chopper. And this was about the third or fourth year of trucks. So we were well established at that point. And Trucks and even Gears has always been a how-to show. That's what we do. We don't do reality stuff. And there is a big difference, a whole different approach. And one is, you know, a how-to show is about learning and showing people how to do stuff. Reality shows is really about me. Let me show you what I can do. Ain't I amazing? And it's all about shenanigans and that kind of thing. And there's a place for that as well. But I remember people coming up and going, hey, you know, how are you gonna compete with Jesse James? And I was like, I'm not. I'm like, Jesse does his thing and I hope it works for him. I said, but we don't do that. You know, that's like, that would be like going to a music thing. That would be like Eric Clapton saying, I'm going to play like Chet Atkins. I had two different worlds, different styles, different things, and each has their place. You know, and the people that like one is going to go there. The people like the other one's going to go there. But. You know, so but the far reaching effects of that, it means so much more to me to hear that. So that's awesome. thank you enough. Like, you know, I didn't have, you know, I had, my parents are amazing people. They gave me a great upbringing, but I didn't have the garage out back with the flat fender that I could tinker on. You know, I had Stacey David on Saturday mornings that really spawned my love for trucks and Florida for us. So I can't thank you enough for that. But we also have to talk about how my wife ended up requesting Stacey David, of all people, right? So. yeah. I graduated college in the early 2000s and I had a job in finance right out of the gate for a company I had interned for. And we were living in a one bedroom apartment in New York City on the east side of New York City. And every Saturday morning, we used to wake up, we would make coffee and order our bagels from the world famous Asa bagel on Second Avenue. And we would watch. Trucks. So I don't remember. And at that time, I think Trucks was on Spike, I believe at that point, right? So. past TNN. Okay, so that was probably year four or something like that. Yeah. I don't remember when you actually aired, but you re-aired I think on Saturday or Sunday mornings, but I believe it was Saturday mornings. And so that was like our thing. We would sit down, drink our coffee, eat our ace of bagels, right? I still remember this day, we used to get two sesame bagels with olive cream cheese, right? So all the listeners, that sounds disgusting. But in reality, it's... If you're a New Yorker, it's amazing, right? And we would watch trucks, right? And I watched a lot of car and truck shows at that time, but that was the one show that my wife would not bust my chops on about watching, right? She would sit there and enjoy it. I always thought that she was just doing it to be nice, but all these years later, 20 years later, out of nowhere, she says, I wanna have a listener request and I want it to be Stacey David, which is... mind-blowing that you lived in my wife's brain for 20 plus years somehow. I tell you what, that's awesome, man. That's great to hear. And like I always say, it's probably because it's that guy with the girl's name. You know, I got with Gail Banks one time out there because he's a really good friend of mine. And I said, Gail, you know what we need to do is you need to get me and you and Carol Shelby and Connie Coletta and we need to open a hot rod shop. And either that or do nails and hair. We all have girls names. And of course, Gale was like, oh, that's hilarious. He said, of course, Carol Shelby might not get a kick out of that. That's too funny. That is too funny. Actually, I will tell you out of today, I saw a, do you know what New Legend 4x4 is? So, well, no, they do not power wagons, they do scouts, right? So Sean Barber, who I'm fortunate to consider a friend, who I consider a friend and, you know, I've had on the show before. but he actually just built a 1967 Scout 800 for a mutual friend of ours. And he has built like all his stuff is investment quality builds, six figure builds. These things are amazing, they're beautiful. And he's built in his 20 year career, he's only actually built about 200 of these bespoke investment quality builds, right? So this was, and that's between Scout IIs and 800s. And a friend of mine stopped by my garage earlier today with his new Legend Scout 800. And man, that thing is like nothing. It is ground up build on a JK frame. The only thing, with an LS, I mean, the only thing other than the badges and the body, that is the only things that are actual original International Harvester. This thing is gorgeous. And the caliber of the build is just second to none. And the fact that I got to see one of those, right, in person, when there's only 200 out in existence, is rare. So that was my fun this morning, when I was tinkering around doing the interior on my K5 Blazer in my garage. Oh, I love the Scouts. I've always been a big fan of theirs. I actually I was doing a thing for the History Channel one time, and it was the history of the four by four. And actually, you can see the show if you log on to Netflix or whatever. But I did a couple of them for him. And unbeknownst to me, Ford was one of the main sponsors of this show because they didn't tell me that, but we had shot it in our shop there. And so they asked me about the beginnings of the four by four world. And I started going on about the scout. And then I was like, you know, the scout was the first thing. And I said, basically the Bronco was a total rip off of the scout and everything. And cause it was, you know, scout international had the idea. They just didn't have the motor. You know, if you look at the original scout with the optional half cab and all of the things And then you set an early Bronco right beside same vehicle. They're both square boxy things. The difference was obviously Ford had a better suspension under there and they had the motor and, um, but body wise, you know, they offered it in a half cab, they offered in the full top. They offered all the roadster doors. They all did that. You know, I mean, Jeep did that too, but, uh, it was all. I gotta tell you, those scouts are coming up in the market. We're starting to see the Bronco effect right now. So like, you know, Ford announced that they, oh, and they've come down actually. I just talked to a client the other day that reached out to ask me to represent the sale and market and advise him on the sale of his Bronco, his first gen Bronco. And, you know, I showed him all the comps and everything and he said, wow, the market has changed. I said, yes, it has. We talked about all the analytics and. And he's going to move forward because he's just, he wants it gone. But, uh, you know, the, he rode, he had it, he had it early, but, you know, we saw that Bronco effect where Ford announced that new Bronco and then the first gen Broncos just shot up through the roof. Everybody had to have the first gen Bronco. Uh, and now we're starting to see that same cycle happen with scouts, right? Especially the scout twos, you had the travelers, the terrors, but especially the scout twos and even the eight hundreds where. Now that Volkswagen Group is saying, hey, we're gonna bring the Scout back as an EV. I mean, the Scout market has just run up. These things were like throw away, rotted vehicles and fields 10 years ago. Now people are clamoring to get them. It's amazing how the cycles work and how the markets work. But let's talk about some of your projects. And I know you have done hundreds of builds, hundreds of projects, but. And this is a hard question to ask, but what was your favorite build or project you ever did? That's like asking your favorite child, man. Favorite child. I hate that. You know, I had talked with Chip Foose about that a lot, and he hates that question too. Now his answer is always like, the one I'm working on right now. I'm like, yeah, great. You know, but it's one of those pat answers because it gets you out of really answering the question. I tell you what, I mean, there's a lot of answers to that. Everything that I build has a purpose. I don't ever build anything just because. And that's, you know, so it's not just to amaze people or bolt parts on or build things or fabricate something. It has to have a purpose. So it depends on what I wanna get out and drive or what I wanna enjoy that time. So some, you know, vehicles that were built for like SEMA or for different clients and things like that have a different degree of Love there's always your DNA in them So there's that but there are some that stand out obviously the sergeant rock project Which I've got sitting right around the corner here that's that power wagon that I did and You know, I'm Yeah, I've got it. Actually I do I have one here. I'm gonna send you showed it to me, R.P. Yeah, that is so cool. Yeah, we got those on our website, but there's a whole story about how that came about. But obviously a very strong support of our military, that's what that build was all about, was to recognize our military. Matter of fact, I've got several military style builds because they're so influential of everything that we do, especially in the Jeep and 4x4 world. So there's that one, obviously the Copperhead truck. was very unique and came along with a... It was a 67 C-10 truck and started out as a frame and cab and a title. And basically the point of that build was to show that was right when replacement body panels and bodies were starting to become available. And nobody had ever built a truck using mostly reproduction parts. Basically, like I said, I started with the frame and cab. So all the front sheet metal, all the bed, all the rear sheet metal was all aftermarket replacement stuff. And a lot of the stuff didn't fit that well back then. It's gotten much better. But it was the start of that to where back in the day, if you were trying to restore something, especially a truck, because they were the drags of society, you know, if you had a Camaro, you could probably find a replacement fender or hood. Mm-hmm. because people started repopping those. But trucks, they were way down the list. And so you had to hunt junkyards. If you were restoring a Scout or a Bronco or a pickup, you tried to find one that had no rust on it, or you had to fix the rust. And this was kind of the start of a change of mentality of the aftermarket, that you can get something with just a good cab and all the other stuff, you can get brand new. And so that was very influential. The fact that I got the very first 572 crate engine from Chevy that went in there, when I set the tone of that, oh yeah. And so there's that, you know, there's a bunch of, of course, the crazy horse Bronco. It's still out there. It changed hands again. I think I went through one of the auctions and a guy contacted me. I try to keep track of where they're at. Mm-hmm. and the guy contacted me that had it. He says, hey, I've got this, got your crazy horse Bronco. I got back with him and never heard back from him. So I don't know if his wife killed him for buying it or what. But anyway, so there's that. And right now, one of the new projects I'm getting into on the show. Oh, I don't know if you saw last year, I rolled in, I'll get this. I go into a garage. I'm getting ready to do a Cherokee chief now. I always loved the chiefs the full size. Yeah my absolute favorite. I had an all rust free one that came out of California, needed a complete build. I wasn't going to get to it on the show. So I'm like, probably ought to trade that or move it on something. Now I grew up, dad always had the Jeepster commandos. And they were kind of an odd bird, but they were really cool. Dad did things with that you should never be able to do with a Jeep. So I had that childhood thing. So I always wanted one because dad would never let me modify it as a kid. You know, dad was like, got to be stock son, factory original. He's like, oh my gosh, that's like the worst thing you could say to me. You know, so I always wanted to take one and modify it. So a friend of mine gets with me and he goes, hey, are you interested in the Jeepster commando? And I was like, well, yes, I, I happen to be. So I go over to his garage and there sits a 1967 factory convertible. Now. I. I don't know if you're familiar with the factory convertibles. They had a power soft top and the continental kit on the back. never even heard or seen of that before and I'm a Jeep guy inside now. They only made like 1,200 of them. And so I get hold, so I work a deal. I trade the full-size Jeep on it. I get it back, and I figured it's got 108,000 miles on it looking at the odometer. And I start pulling it apart, and I get hold of the Jeepster man out there, Mark, Jeepster man, who specializes in parts for those in early Willys. And he about falls through the phone. when I show him pictures of it, he goes, you realize what you have there. And I was like, well, I think I got a, cause there's no rust really, it's all there. It's got butchered wiring, typical things. I said, but I think, I originally thought it was 108,000 miles, it's showing 8,000 miles. I said, I think it's an 8,000 mile original. And so we started looking at stuff. He says, you definitely have that. And so I did a thing on the show last year with it because I had originally set out my plan for that was to throw some good axles under it, put a V8 in it, do a nice, put 35s on it, nice trail rig, you know, that kind of thing. Now here's a question though. Did it have the Buick Dauntless V6? So it's amazing. Almost all the commandos that I ever come across have the Buick Dauntless V6 in them, even though they were, I believe they were factory with the F134, the Hurricane, right? Or what was the four cylinder? Okay. Mm-hmm. four cylinder or the v6 and that v6 is a fantastic engine You know, that's what dad had in it has in his so I got to looking at it And that was one of the things when you get something like that You know, you don't butcher something like that up that vehicle original one of those sold at mecome last year for 65 000 Pretty much in that kind of shape So what, you know, and I'll get into that. That's some of the stuff I want to ask you is on, when you're on our podcast is about the auction deal. But, so the way I approached it on the show is like, what happens when you buy a project with a certain plan in mind, and then you learn something about it that changes that? What do you do? And so that's how I addressed it. Because that happens all the time. The people will buy an old Chevelle, and then they'll find out, they thought it was a factory SS come to find out it's not, or the other way around, or there's a bag of money in the backseat, or a dead body, or a history of some, seriously, crazy things have happened like that. I mean, if you find... to that question is you don't do anything. You refurbish it. You get it to pristine condition and you admire it. Yeah. Yep. and you know and what I try to approach people on Because they'll look at it and they go well It's my vehicle I can do anything I want and technically you're right you can And you got the freedom to do it's free country. Wonderful Just understand what you're doing And then when you go out to the car show and people absolutely rip you to pieces For butchering up something don't say we didn't warn you because they will, you know. We all have to play our part in preserving history because the fact of the matter is that the internal combustion engine is going to be a thing of the past in a few years, let alone a 1967 Commando factory soft top, power soft top. Like, I mean, I do agree with you though, and I'm a big advocate, I talk about this a lot on the show, where it's your truck, it's your time, it's your money. Whatever you do with it, you... As long as it puts a smile on your face, no matter what anybody else says or what anybody else quabbles about, as long as when you open up that garage and you turn that light on and it puts a smile on your face, that's all that matters. But I will say, butchering up a piece of history like that is definitely a sin, no question. Well, it's just, I just want people to know the whole story. In other words, it's like, let me just tell you all aspects here, then you make your decision. Then if you willfully tear something up, you can't say, I didn't know. You know, and then, you know, because guys do that. You know, they'll tear stuff up and keep that kind of thing. Just to show you how important that passion is, have a really good friend, car collector. Had a big collection, had Hemi cars, muscle cars, Ferraris, had all kinds of stuff. Got tired of taking care of 30 or 40 cars. Ran them all through the auction, sold them all except for three cars. And the one he kept was a 1977 Camaro that had the big, tough interior fur in it. Big wide side pipes and the sides. Kragermags on it and it said Showtime on the side. It was right out of 1980, you know, whatever. And he kept that over, it pretty much had a big flake in it, had all kinds of murals all painted all over it. It had the big teatops and everything and you know, the fake wood and all that junk in it. And the thing was, his wife looked at him and she said, okay, you got rid of the Ferraris for that? He goes, that was the car I wanted in high school. That's the car that makes me smile every time I go out there. And I said, you and me both. As soon as I walked in and saw Showtime, I couldn't help but start laughing. Because I was like, now, I wouldn't have kept it over a Ferrari, but that was his childhood, you know? And it's like, more power to you, man. That's, if it, and he'll have more fun out of that. I had a big two, four barrels sticking out from under it. It's great. He'll enjoy that more than he'll enjoy any Ferrari or anything else in his collection. It's... you, when he takes that down to Cars and Coffee, that will get more attention than anything there. Oh, no question. It's funny that you say that somebody just liquidated a lot of their collection. I recently did that, I'd say about a year ago. I had just a bunch of trucks, I had like eight trucks and I got to the point where it's a lot of time and it's a lot of work. And I just kinda, I wasn't, you can't drive, you can only drive one at a time. There were only a few that I was driving. So I adopted this mentality where if I'm not driving it, I'm not enjoying it. and I'm not giving it the love it deserves. It needs to be passed on down the line to somebody that will, right? And I started to do that. I started to get rid of, you know, I had a Grand Wagoneer and a CJ eight scrambler, which I probably shouldn't have gotten rid of because I built that from the ground up, right? I actually started with a title and a VIN plate. And it's amazing. These CJs you could build from the ground up with a throttle down custom frame. Like you said, the body panels. Yeah. But I've whittled down to three right now, and it's so much more pleasurable just to have the three that I use, I drive, I enjoy. There's a lot to be said about that. But it's like you said, you know, you gotta learn eventually, right? What do you have in your personal collection right now? Well, there's all these ones from the show. I've got my tow truck that I'm finishing up. That's my international tow truck. That's heavy metal. That is awesome. Is it a medium duty? Like, is that the 345 in it or? No, it had the 304 in it. No, it had the 345 in it that I got running. Got rid of that. Now it has a nasty Duramax diesel in it. And it's 650 horse, 1,300 foot pounds. PPE did the motor on it. And that is. Full custom deal. It is a load star 1600 cab over. And it got the big dual tow beams out the back. I started on the show a few years ago, and that one kind of got stalled with COVID, so I'm back on that one. Then I have a 59 panel truck, Ford panel truck, with over 1,000 horsepower, blown big block Ford in it. That's the SR-71 truck. That'll be back on the show. I've got a snowcat, an old thigh called snowcat. I'm in the. is, I could talk about thigh call snow cat. Now here's the question, is it two tracks or the four track with the pivoting body? Okay, okay, okay. my gosh, the Tucker's are awesome. They're hard to find too. The the Thaikos are the ones that look more like the tank. They were like in the Shining, you know, and I have the Imp, the smaller Imp and I'm looking to pick up a Sprite, which is the bigger one. Then I have a tracked military vehicle. I got a Husky 116 out there. which is an amphibious Vietnam era. So there's that. I've got my 99 Dodge four by four. I've got the Jeepster. Just picked up that Mighty Might. I've got the Cheetah that I'm doing. I have my 70s van that I'm putting an LS7 in. It will, oh it will, and Side By. Oh yeah. Yeah, it'll either have the shag carpet in it or the wood paneling. or like the little round fishbowl window in the back. Ha! it is a panel truck. So I'm gonna do the mural. I'm gonna do some sort of crazy drawing on it. And instead of side pipes, I'm putting zoomies to stick out the side. So I've got the same thing going on. The vans are hot. The vans are hot now. Same thing. Yeah, they're coming into their own right now, man. But no, I wanna guess what Stacey David daily drives, right? So what, I'm thinking, so this is a weird phenomenon that I've noticed with truck guys, right? We all have these classic American and European trucks, but a lot of truck guys, including myself, drive a Toyota as our daily driver. And the justification is, I deal with all these classic trucks and four by fours in my garage that I'm constantly tinkering with. There's always something going on. For my daily, I don't wanna deal with that, so I drive a Toyota. So I am thinking that you drive a Toyota Tundra. I would like to have a Toyota Tundra. I like Toyotas. I've always liked Toyotas, you know, from the Land Cruisers and all that stuff. My daily driver is a Ram, a Dodge Ram 1500. And it, what's that? Yeah, with all the leather interior and stuff. It's 2012 and I'm on my third motor in it. And you know, it's... I tell you what, I've got my 99 Dodge, which is my short bed. That's the little red wagon. And that was my daily driver for a long time. And I'm actually going back through that and refurbishing that. I love that truck. But the problem is I needed something. I needed a four door truck because I'm carrying clients and people around all the time. So the ram that I've got is my main thing. It's four wheel drive. And I use it to pull my trailers and all kinds of stuff. So that's my main. I'm a truck guy when it comes to that. I just use it for everything. I'm always throwing stuff in it. That's super cool, man. That's awesome. So you hear it here first. The 99, or actually no, the 2012 and the 99 Ram is Stacey David's daily driver. That's awesome. That's super cool. As we get into the end of the podcast here, what projects are you working on right now on the show that the listeners can tune in, check out your show, Gears on MAV TV and Motor Trend, to take a look at. A lot of the ones I mentioned are on there, but one that I've just started, I'm really excited about is it's a 1940 Chevy coupe and I'm building a basically a basic hot rod. And, you know, and the reason I've gotten into that is because as you notice the values of these vehicles and stuff going up, the really hot thing now are like 60s, 70s, 80s muscle cars and on up into the 90s and that kind of stuff. The Fast and Furious crowd is starting to move into that. And what has happened is all of these 1940 down cars are really affordable now. And they're coming out of garages of guys that have passed away, or they're just too old to mess with them, or they've been passed down to family members. And a lot of these were cars that these people hoarded for a long time. So they're either all original or they were turned into a fairly decent street rod through the eighties and nineties. And now nobody wants them. They have Tweed interiors and you know, the pastel paints and all that kind of stuff that nobody really wants. So you can pick these things. I picked up this 40 Chevy coupe. This is a pretty much rust free five window coupe for $7,000. does not surprise me. And nobody wanted it. And everything is available for that, either original or hot rod. So basically what we're doing is showing guys, let's like, okay, here's how to build a nice, fun, affordable hot rod, kind of taking you back to the basics. No fuel injection, I got to try power on it, you know? But I'm not going into a particular era. You gotta be careful with that because it's like, I'm gonna build a 50s era car. Well. Now you're buying a bunch of used parts and you're trying to buy things, you know, and for the guys that want to do that, that's great, but it doesn't really help the guy, this kind of a beginner trying to get into it. You know, like in this 40 Chevy, you know, I didn't want to do the LS route, but a small block Chevy is the engine to go. Now you could put a nailhead Buick or something exotic, but you're paying twice the amount of money to build one, find one, you know, and that's for a different level of builder. This is for these young guys that are like, you know, I want to get into something for 10 grand, 20, you know, whatever. And it's like these old hot rods is that sort of car. You can pick these things up. Zach, one of the guys that works with this, you know, he's a young guy. He just picked up an old Model A with a rumble seat. And I think he gave $12,000 for it, drove it home, you know, all original. And he's going to do a real kind of 50s build on it. because that's what he's into. But you see, I mean, you can't get into a second gen Camaro for even close to that. No, you know what it is is, and I've seen this being a student of the market is the cycles are purely tangent on the generational change, right? So at one point, you know, those 40s and 50s, it's a coming of age thing, right? So what did you love like us 80s kids, right? So I'm an 80s kid, us 80s kids are the ones that have driven up the classic truck and four by four markets purely You know, C and K, 10s and 20s, the K5s, the CJs, the Scouts, right? You know, the FJ, you know, land cruisers, I can go down the line. That's what was cool and interesting. And on the road when we were little kids, you know, and the movies and we were looking at our parents' window in the back of that, you know, that green diesel Volkswagen Rabbit, right? When we were driving down the street. And then they became throwaway cars, right? They just, they cycled out. They were pennies. And now we've all gotten into our late 30s and 40s and we have discretionary income and we're like, that's what I want now. And we just run this market up, but we all get older and eventually we can't deal with them anymore. We don't have the time. And as that generation changes, there isn't a buyer on the other end of that. So that is awesome that you're reinvigorating these, I don't even want to call them value vehicles. bringing them back into the fold, and you're really recognizing the heritage and the importance of keeping those alive. And see the thing is, thank you for that because that's very important to me on that. And another thing to look at here is that street rod market is kind of what started the aftermarket. So if you go to any aftermarket company like I did it, the steering column guys, they're coming out with newer steering columns for later model vehicles. But if you need something for a 40 Chevy, they got 10 of them, you know, because they established that market 20 years ago. So they still have those part numbers. Same with the wiring harnesses, same with, you know, if you want to put air conditioning in it, you call up vintage air and they're like, oh yeah, we have a kit for that car. You know, it's already there, you know, and they're cheap because that's not their hot product. You know, that whole market has already been established. So. Well, now people are gonna listen to this and start going out and running up the market, buying these things and running them up, running them back up. But hey, we're gonna be having this conversation in 20, 30 years from now. And we're gonna talk about 80s CJs and 70s, square bodies and those things are right now, just they're hot, the Scouts, the Broncos, first gen Broncos, they're hot. But 20, 30 years from now, we're gonna be having the same conversation. You're gonna be like, I just got a first gen fully restored. original Bronco for seven grand, right? It's a $60,000 truck today. So, yeah, it's just market cycles. It's the way things work. But Stacey, I really can't thank you enough for being your time, your participation, and being a guest on the Classic 4x4 podcast. It's not only very important to our listeners, but also myself, the fact that I get to, everything, the guy that I idolized and taught me how to tinker and really, you know. was the person that put that spark in me and that drove that love for classic custom modified trucks and four by fours is on the other side of the screen, I get to interview them at this point in my life. So that's special to me. Yep. So thank you so much for joining us today. Stacey, your time is again, very appreciated. And for all of our listeners out there. You got to follow Stacy on all the social channels that official Stacy David check them out online Stacy David comm of course watch him on TV At his show gears which is on MAV TV and also on Motor Trend and you gotta listen to his podcast Available wherever you listen to podcast tales of the gearhead cuz you might hint Have your favorite podcast host as a guest on that Tales of Gearhead podcast. I don't know. Is it gonna happen, Stacey? Is it not? We don't know. Ha ha ha. Thanks a lot, Stacey. Have a great day, man. you, you too.