To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History
The ultimate automotive history and classic car restoration podcast exploring the motoring memories behind iconic vehicles. Hosted by Doug and Dave, we trade technical specs for the unfiltered stories and family car history that reveal the soul of car culture. Join us every #TorqueTuesday for a deep dive into automotive nostalgia with restoration junkies and vintage vehicle enthusiasts. 🏎️🛠️
To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History
Father-Daughter Car Builds: Viper & Porsche 356
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Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!
What happens when a father and daughter start filming their garage projects during lockdown and accidentally build a YouTube empire with 34 cars? 🎬🚗
In this episode, we sit down with Caroline and James, the dynamic duo behind HH Wheels (and HH Wheels Productions). Broadcasting from their "man cave turned studio" surrounded by muscle cars and vintage signs, they share the incredible story of how a shared love for wrenching turned into a full-blown content creation business.
We dive deep into their "car rich, cash poor" lifestyle, the art of the trade, and the wild stories behind their fleet—including a Dodge Viper GTS bought in a snowstorm and a Porsche 356 acquired through a very unique trade.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
- 🦀 The "Soft Shell Crab": Caroline's 1969 Ford Fairlane fastback that was so rusty it needed 4x4 lumber to stay on the lift (but still launched her first business).
- 🐍 The Viper Saga: How James finally acquired his dream car—a 1997 Dodge Viper GTS—after a six-year search, a secret purchase by Caroline, and a sketchy drive home on bad tires.
- 🇮🇹 The $2,000 Alfa: James's story of buying a 1992 Alfa Romeo Spider simply because it came with the house he was buying (and wouldn't start).
- 🇩🇪 The Dream Trade: How Caroline traded a restored Volkswagen Thing for a project Porsche 356—a car she's wanted since childhood.
- 🎥 YouTube Origins: How watching Richard Petty videos in the shop led to a road trip, a camera, and the birth of HH Wheels.
Listen to Caroline and James' favorite episode as Kat DeLorean shares car stories about her late father, John Z. DeLorean: https://buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/15009054
Whether you're a fan of Mopars, classic Porsches, or just love a good father-daughter team that "gets wrenching," this episode is packed with laughs and automotive inspiration.
🔗 Links & Resources:
- Watch them on YouTube: HH Wheels
- Visit their website: hhwheelspro.com
- Listen to our 60+ episodes on LinkTree 🔗🌲 https://linktr.ee/carsloved
📢 Join the Conversation: Have you ever bought a car without telling your significant other (or parent)? Let us know on Instagram @toallthecarsivelovedbefore!
Connect with Us: Got a great car story? Email us at stories@carsloved.com. Find all our content and social links here: linktr.ee/carsloved.
Podcast News:
- Our co-host, Doug was a guest on the Driven Radio Show Podcast to share the origin story of our podcast and connecting with his late father through his DeLorean project.
- Check out the amazing article about the podcast by Elevate Society and Tal Gur, author of "The Art of Fully Living"
- Feedspot selected To All The Cars I've Loved Before in their list of Top 100 Car Podcasts and 31 Best Road Trip Podcasts For Your Drive
- Our co-host, Doug was featured in this magazine article along with his DeLore...
Warm-up, Shirts, And DeLorean Lore
ChristianYou have found to all the cars I've loved before your authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia where every car tells a story and every car has a culture. It's time to plug in dust off and get a little greased under the nails and slip on that favorite car themed shirt. Speaking of, my co-host, how are you today? I'm doing great. Great to be back here with you. You put the frump in front tacular, my friend. I dig that shirt. Can you stand up? Well, if I stand up, well, okay, look at the look at this. Now he is wearing what looks like an olive draft. Oh, that's pretty slick. It's the blueprint of the DeLorean. Oh, oh, those are the is that DeLorean's patent? The company's patent? Yeah. I love it. Of the DMC what? 12? DMC12. Yes. Do you know what the 12 stood for? Uh 12th bankruptcy he'd been through. Twelfth wife. What? No. It was supposed to cost $12,000. Is that true? It is. That's fantastic. Well, yeah, that's the yeah. Cars and startups, what can you say? It's probably the same for Bricklin. His pre-cursor. Indeed. Yeah, 2X goals. Oh, and uh speaking of movies, what was the Oh you saw a movie recently, and how did that uh how did that go?
DougYeah, so um Groll Turismo. For for yeah, for for background, my son likes video games, not necessarily driving games, but just video games. Yep. And um there's another YouTuber, um, besides the one we're gonna talk to today, who who um Amelia Hartford, who was in Gran Turismo, and uh her YouTube channel is is pretty good. Uh she has some cool cars on there. So um I told my son about it, and he said, Oh, you know, Gran Turismo is based on a true story. I'm like, no way. And and the yeah, the short plot of it is um that Sony via their PlayStation decided in whatever year it was, uh early mid-2000s, that they were going to do a contest for the best drivers on the game and take, I don't know, eight, whatever, and give them a chance to become drivers for Nissan. And true, true story. The uh the guy in it, uh his name is uh Jan.
ChristianSo there's hope for my son, is what you say. My youngest son, who never comes out of his room to be a professional driver. But please continue.
DougJust get him the whole the whole. So uh, yeah, they ended up driving everything. And they the uh star of it. Well, the the real person actually played uh Jan. He actually played the uh stunt driver, I believe, in the movie. But uh I didn't know the name of the uh the star, but Orlando Bloom was in it. It was uh I think 2022 or 2023. Yeah. Is it a great movie?
ChristianYeah, it got good reviews. It looked like the typical uh action summer action popcorn stuff, but it actually was pr pretty well reviewed. I meant to see it, it wasn't in the theaters uh long here. So I will have to check it out.
DougAnd there is a new movie coming out with Brad Pitt. I think it's called F1, which I'm looking forward to seeing as well. Um not being done a video game as far as I know, but um yeah, Gran Turismo.
Gran Turismo And Racing Films
DougUm big surprise. I thought it was gonna be about gaming, it was not. So coming to a small screen near you.
ChristianSpeaking of small screens, let's chat a little bit about our website that you have done some pr pretty wonderful work on. It's actually going through version two. We got an outside consultant. Actually, a gentleman based in Nigeria, fantastic guy, super smart, backing us up. And it might be out by the time you hear this episode. I think it will be carslove.com. CarsLove.com. Check us, check us out. Um, and one last mention before we go to new users and then pivot to our guests today. Our YouTube, we've been doing more and more on YouTube thanks to your amazing graphic editing skills. I'm only getting better. Indeed. Still a long way to go. Thank you. Well, it's good. That's that's a plus when you start from the bottom. But um yeah, so are we still trying to post every every week? We were posting every other day, but that was a lot. But it's it's coming out.
DougYeah, pretty, pretty often. Pretty often. There's a uh there happens to be a 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona electric vehicle at the dealer near me. Um, so I was actually gonna roll. You gave it the walk around. Yeah, like maybe tonight and do a better walk-around video, and we'll we'll put that out there. So it was fun. Love those. It's thank you. It's great because there's nobody there at night.
ChristianYeah, it's great. Yeah, it's it's fantastic when you break into places, that tends to happen. Well, it's new listeners. Welcome. Hey, we have some new listeners, my favorite part of the show. Uh so we were right, the people listening from Japan were from Tokyo. We took a guest there. Uh, welcome, new listeners in Reykjavik, Iceland. We continue to have people in dribbles and drabs listening from Paris and let's see, where else? Ontario, Canada. Welcome. Reach out to us. I'm Christian at carslove.com. He is Doug at CarsLove.com. Uh lastly, Kuwait City. And that's not Kuwait City in Arkansas, Kuwait City in Kuwait, other side of the world. Welcome, welcome. Please reach out. If you like what you're hearing, please do give us a review. Positive if you can. Please be honest, but please be positive. On um Apple Podcasts is typically where people are hitting us up. But where else are we, Doug? We're on Spotify, Spotify, um, Castro, all the all the top podcasts.
DougYes.
ChristianYou can even find us on the AM dial. I mean, we're everywhere. You wouldn't believe it.
DougOr um, the best way to find everything, including all the platforms, is go to our link tree, which is L-I-N-K-T-R dot E slash cars love.
ChristianDo we call it our digital switchboard? But you can, hey, everything we're up to. YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, um, our social security numbers. Yep. Everything is there. You will not want to miss it. Well, on to today's guest. I'm really excited, and before I hand over to Doug to tell you how we cross paths, I want to say that we've had uh tandems on the show here in the past. We've had Father Son, we've had um
Website Revamp And YouTube Plans
Christianmentor, protege, uh, actually a couple of shows at the collegiate level, which should be published out there. Uh Weaver State, one of our shows here. Uh I've interviewed my son for the show, and he talked about uh driving uh he's in the Army Reserves, talked about his drive in Humvee. He had a blast doing that. And so we have a father, this is so unique today, and we're so pleased. We have a father-daughter combination who has this uh really interesting family business and a YouTube show. They couldn't be more interesting, more fun, more talented, or have more zany positive energy. Caroline and James, welcome to the show.
CarolineThank you. Hey, how are you guys?
ChristianOkay, and now you look bundled up. How how cold are you in in that in that man cave turned garage, turned studio, turned it's like 65 in here.
JamesIt's not bad. Not too bad.
ChristianOh my god. That's giving me the chills here in Florida, man. In the Florida panhandle, it gets lower than 70, and I put on a parka. That's how I do it. But you look great, you sound great, and and um before we get your backstory, Doug, how did how did the they this duo end up on the radar?
DougYeah. So um let's see. I think I want to say it was in December. I had some terrible cold. So what did I do? I sat around watching YouTube videos about cars. Grow the brand. Yeah. And um, it's when I discovered uh HH Wheels or or HH Wheels Productions uh with Caroline and James, and um reached out to Caroline via uh either direct email or the form on their website. Uh I believe it's HHWheelspro.com. And uh Caroline nicely replied back. I asked them to be on the podcast given, especially given the theme of uh father-daughter and trying to do more family themes. And she so kindly replied, and uh we exchanged a few emails, and here we are.
ChristianYeah, and and out there in listener land, if you want to put a smile on your face, go to youtube.com, type in H H wheels, and the these videos are short ones, they're long ones, and uh it just so much fun, great production values too. This stuff should be on TV, which I'm sure it will be one day. But how did this idea come into your head, Caroline or James? Take it away. How'd it happen?
CarolineI mean, I'll happily break the ice on this one. So originally we kind of just met in a very serendipitous way, which I'm sure we'll talk about later. But uh he was in his shop working on a steam charger, and I was kind of bugging him here and there, kind of wanted to help out because I've always been a naturally born, mechanically inclined human being. And he was kind of like, nah, like, you know, there's no there's no place for that,
New Listeners And Global Shoutouts
Carolinewhatever. Not so much the fact of being a woman, it was just really like it was his man cave, it was his thing. He wanted to figure it out. I also think he was in here throwing a wrench or two because he couldn't get the thing to run, but you are there, anyways. So I started hanging around. I kept bugging him and bugging him, and eventually just kind of grew into all right, fine, great, hand me that wrench, okay, put this carburetor on, whatever. And it was kind of like sweep the floors, and I was just happy to be there. And eventually it kind of just grew into this idea of okay, I know you have this background in graphic design and freelance editing, which I carried for a good while. And he's like, Well, I've always wanted to do a TV show, so we got this wild hair one day, and we were talking about this dream car we both love to have, and I remember it like it was yesterday. It's one of my favorite memories that I'm sure I will cherish for the rest of my life. But we're sitting here ranching on this 72 charger, and in the the TV or the shop TV, there was the video of Richard Petty's 71 Roadrunner, all blue, race car out, and I was like, that's a cool car. And he's like, Yes, I absolutely adore it to own one of those.
JamesLet me intervene real quick. By the way, YouTube was on 24-7 in our shop, not to mention, yeah, like all the time. So, you know, we're we're completely getting you know our inspiration as we're making this go. We're we're watching stuff and getting inspiration.
CarolineIt was grease in the wheels for sure. So we're getting these ideas and we're seeing all these people all over YouTube, and thankfully our playlist was pretty diverse. Um, and we got all these ideas, and then a week later, before I knew it, this guy's looking at 71 satellites and 71 roadrunners, and oh, they're in Alabama or they're Mississippi or whatever. And um, we knew somebody who had a semi-professional camera, like, all right, let's bring the cameras, maybe we'll film it, maybe not. Let's go on this road trip. So we go on this road trip, film the whole thing. We have a friend of ours at the time uh edit it and turn it into this video, and we're like, okay, let's just run with this. And we we kept up this whole production and we went with this whole Mad Max vibe of it all. And we rallied a bunch of people in our town for the first month or two because we really wanted to have our own URL. So on YouTube, you have to have at least 100 subscribers and be like 30 days old. I think that's still the same parameters, but anyways, we rallied around and we're like, okay, we'll release the YouTube video after we have a real URL because nobody wants to go to youtube.com forward slash dash RK, you know. Okay, indeed to establish ourselves in the best way or put our best foot forward. So that's kind of where it all started, and we released one episode and we're like, okay, cool, got a thousand views, like that's so awesome. Let's release the next one.
JamesAnd then we also this is why you have to have someone young in your group because good point. I'm only just now starting to kind of understand what she just said.
Introducing Caroline And James
JamesYou know, I mean, you know, technologically, I'm I'm not the computer guy, so having her be able to transmit all this and go to YouTube. I was told to go on YouTube a long time ago, but I just didn't know how.
CarolineNo, you didn't understand branding, so you knew that having our URL was the best way to kickstart this thing, and we're like, okay, you know, we came up with all these hypotheticals of what if we fall flat on our faces, or what if we grow instantly, or like all these different scenarios, and we're like, you know, we'll just figure it out as it goes. And at the time we were kind of like just messing around because we were at the height of the COVID lockdown and we weren't going anywhere, we weren't doing anything, and there were plenty of cars around us, and we were also at the point of buying more that were like, all right, well, this is a good way to socially distance ourselves.
ChristianWhich we did, which we did in the shop. And that that's so interesting because you you you seem the perfect creative duo, the two of you. And you seem to uh um fit each other, you know, where where one has experience, the other has uh, you know, you you have all the skills that I'll alternatingly need. And that's the way Doug and I are on this podcast with each other. Like I there's no way I could do what he does, and I bring my own special sauce to the mix. So talk for a little bit, if you would, about being creative partners and your ability to kind of fit, fit with each other.
CarolineI definitely want to start this because the one thing that I noticed from the get-go is the vision that he's always had for anything he does. So when he's fabricating metal or he's putting together a bicycle, or the most impressive to me is really when he sees a video in his brain, and sometimes it's hard for him to properly articulate it all because there's all these crazy great ideas like flowing through his brain. So just watching him do it has always been something that has inspired the living heck out of me because I feel like I have pretty good creative skills in some places, but the visualization is really a highlight and a skill that he carries that I don't I don't want to necessarily say that I don't carry, but I think he carries for the team here, where he can give me the idea and give me the play-by-play of what he's thinking. And then my creative brain comes in to where I'm like, okay, this is how it's gonna be edited, this is gonna be the music we're gonna use, this is this is how I'm gonna make it look. We have it shot. So it's really cool because, like you were saying, with your relationship, ours is very similar to where if he doesn't do something, I do it, or a lot of times even in the shop, he does things that I learn so much from. And then there's things like when it comes to powder coating and seracoding something that has been self-taught, or I've self-taught myself, he picks up, you know, and or in a project or a build, he he puts that responsibility on me. He takes over something else.
JamesI think that's more what it is. I'm like, oh, Caroline can powder coat this. Wait, Caroline can pair this up for me.
ChristianYou know, now it's she's yeah, I mean, she's something else, man. You you you open up these videos and just like, oh my gosh, she cracked that transmission open. She's pulling this cut, she's and then I see her out in a paint splattered shirt. She's she's you know, expertly putting this. There's it's almost hypnotic to watch when somebody's man, get that get gets that paint line going and back and forth. Um, just good stuff. She can do it all. So, James, do you agree with what she said?
Origin Of HH Wheels Collaboration
ChristianYou think she's got something here?
JamesAbsolutely. Yeah, she's uh I mean, I I've been dissecting, you know, this was a dream of mine, you know, to be uh do a TV show or something, you know, for a long, long time. I mean, since we were kids, you know, we'd go to the movies and you know, we want to be in the movies or or you know, write a movie or do something along those lines. With my buddy, one of my best friends out in California, um, we used to talk about it all the time, and we still do. We still do talk about, you know, oh, this would make a great movie, or this would do you know, it would be fun to shoot this this way or that way. Um, we still have those conversations, but uh he's well anyway when we when she's talking about vision, I've spent probably like you guys, over the last 10 to 15 years watching other shows. I don't just watch the show when I watch someone if I watch a TV show or I watch another YouTube show, I'm watching how they shot it, and I'm wondering how that made like why am I interested in this, you know, and I constantly analyzing that video and holy crap, I just watched this for an hour and a half. Why am I why am I so into this? And so I I look at that video in a different way, as if I was shooting it from a camera and visualizing myself shooting it as a camera, and that's I think where a lot of that comes from. Talking about where I'm I'm visualizing how this is gonna look on camera when we're shooting, and then she takes it and goes, Oh, you know, when I when I edit it down, she takes it and goes, I see this now, and then makes it just so much better because she can put the right music to it, she puts the right voiceover on it. Yes, what's going on when we're when we're doing something, or if we're doing in fast motion, showing our work, uh showing what's happening and why she can explain that to our audience. And um and uh again, I was talking to you guys earlier about you know, you can listen to her voice all day long. It's it's uh it's fantastic, very pleasing, very pleasing. She's got a radio voice. Uh absolutely in saying that it's um kind of like yours, Christian. Oh, well, thank you for that.
ChristianThat's all I bring to the table, and I'm not just a free face, but I would tell you, and I I told you this when we were talking before, thank you for your kind words, but the production values of your show, just off the charts. You you both have this really warm chemistry that works. I mean, for for my money, it's just as good, uh, if not better, than anything on TV. So I think you guys just keep shipping, keep putting it out there, and you are destined for greatness. So if Doug doesn't have anything else here, let's climb into the nearest DeLorean, go 88 miles an hour, back to where it all happened. If it's okay with Caroline, I would like to start with James. Let's talk about James's first car. Where did you get it? Where did it come from? And what was it?
JamesUh, 66 Mustang jacked up in the back. Oh, wow. Smashed match on, or the wheels did not match on it. I remember that. It was probably as close to Joe Dirt as you could probably get in a 289 automatic. Um, again, the air shocks in the back were were key. The wheels were were too big to fit into the wheel wells. I remember this. And I I mean, I specifically remember doing donuts and that thing and just having the biggest smile on my face doing it. Um, and uh I got it by working, I worked in a restaurant, and the chef at the restaurant, I was a dishwasher, um, he kind of sold it to me on a you know, give me a hundred every two weeks kind of thing, and you know, that's that's how I got it. Um, and it it was a time in the 80s where you could buy a muscle car that was fully functioned, not rusted out for 2,000 bucks, you know. I mean, yeah, buy that 68 Camaro or that 66 Mustang, or I mean, heck, Dodge chargers, man. You could you could buy uh my brother bought a 69 Dodge charger for 500 bucks, you know, in 1906. I mean, so you know, those times I think that's where I got my influence from is both my brothers, you know, at the time. I've my I have uh two older brothers uh that I was living in New Mexico with, and one was the big Chevy guy, that's all he had was Chevy's, he was race Chevy, big Chevy truck, and then uh
Creative Roles And Production Vision
Jamesmy other brother uh he was Big Mopar guy, big Mopar and um uh Ford. So he had Ford Mustangs and uh Dodges. So those guys would argue all the time about what was better, and I just took all that influence, and I think you see it in my shop, it's it's Mopar and Chevy, and I have one Ford. Um, because I'm not a big Ford guy, but uh but I will say it's Mopar and Chevy pretty much. You she'll she'll attest to that.
ChristianVolkswagen and Volkswagen, of course, you know, which is that's it, yeah, and hopefully it this won't convey uh over the audio of the podcast, but they're sitting in uh over their shoulders. You can see uh this massive Goodyear banner, Continental tires, I think a Texaco sign up here. Uh you'll see it if if if we get this up on the YouTube channel, but um just love the shop that's their studio everything. Yeah, you go on YouTube, you'll see it, and it's awesome. Well, it started as a man cave, then became a shop, and now is a studio, and you know, and I guess now it's Caroline's cave. Speaking of Caroline, what was your first car?
CarolineMy first cool car or first uncool car, that's a real question.
ChristianWell, let's let's neat leave no automobile behind, and let's hear about the uncool one too. We just won't spend a lot of time with it.
CarolineUh, the first uncool one and the first real car I ever had was a 2001 Dodge Dakota. Little extended cab. It was a good point A to point B car, but right around the point where it was ready to go, uh, the control module and it decided to go out. So I was driving down the road, it would honk the horn randomly, the wipers would go off, or I'd be driving home at night, leaving my first job, and the lights would go on and off. So that one, I think it stuck around for probably about two or three years before eventually we sold it off to somebody who I hope fixed it. I'm not really sure.
DougSo you're uh that's not your first cool car. Was your was your first cool car the car that followed the Dakota?
CarolineIt partially. So at the time I kind of just like borrowed cars and borrowed my brother's car. Um, then eventually when I turned 18, I decided it was a good idea to go buy a financed vehicle. And then about a year after owning that, I got into a pretty solid accident with it and they ended up totaling the car. So I went back to being carless. Didn't have a whole lot of money to my name. And I ended up getting a 1969 Ford Fairlane fastback that was pretty risky. But living on a 12 by five mile island going to work, it's not too terribly far. So it was a pretty solid point A to point B car. And um, that's really the car that got me into finding my passion for classic cars. Um I worked in restaurants at the time, and most of the restaurants around here will just have you park in their normal parking lot. Some places have you like park in the back or whatever, but everybody enjoyed it because it was a classic car in the parking lot of all these brand new cars. So I'd have people come up and leave notes on the car when I'm at work, or I'd be getting out because they'd see me roll. Oh wow, they'd stop me and they'd start telling me about whatever. And the funny thing about this fair lane is it wasn't badged as a fair lane, or at least it wasn't openly out there, it just somebody stuck GT on the side of it. So people thought it was a Ford GT. Like, whenever I got it, it was labeled as a Ford GT. So people like, oh, I used to have a GT, and I'm like, did you?
JamesI gotta intervene here just slightly. Do you want to tell them what the nickname of this car was?
First Cars: Mustang, Fairlane, And Lessons
CarolineWell, so here's the funny thing. Um, after driving it for about a year and him rescuing me, because the thing always broke, I would either have power steering issues, the battery would die, um, or God knows what else carburetor issues, and he'd always be the one I'd call to help me out. Um, but it was so rusty that it um it got the nickname the soft shell crab because if you put it on a lift, you have to have four by fours running from front to rear and from driver to passenger, otherwise it basically like almost look like it was melting over the lift, which my goodness sounds like you're bragging, and I I just understand that this is not something to brag about.
JamesOkay, so the daily occurrence with this car as she showed up at the shop would be pieces missing off of it, like paint chips with large rust, you know, holes coming off weight reduction, and uh and I mean, you know, uh she had duct tape and areas holding paint on and stuff. I mean, it it was really it was to the point where it was it was just unsafe. Um, you know, it was a parts car for somebody if they wanted to, but I mean, really, if she if she was, you know, to get into an accident or T-boned or anything like that, you know, the cars, the cars really are not that safe anyway from those days, right? One that's that's that that rusty and that that soft, it's just um, you know, but it looked great from like 50 feet away, and that's all really mattered to me at the time. It's just cool for for a 50 feet, yeah.
DougAnd that's that's a big car.
unknownYeah.
DougAnd it was a two-door, right? Yeah, it was a two-door, yeah, with really long, heavy doors, right?
CarolineYeah, it well, maybe not heavy anymore, but heavy enough. Also, the door lights didn't work very well.
JamesThey're getting lighter every day.
CarolineIt did get lighter every day. Every time I take a pretty sharp, like right-hand turn, that whole door would fly open. It was, I think why I sound like I'm bragging about it is because it's such a nostalgic vehicle for me now because of what it's brought me and how many cool people I've met, and how I've kind of in a way rediscovered myself, and especially at that time in my life, being 18 now to 25, like my life has changed a lot, and that car was there for it, and it somehow got you to still put up with me, so I'm cool with this.
JamesYeah, but it's long gone. It yeah, I'm still in the hospital.
DougWe're working on you, um that, Rodney and and you sold it, right? Um, to fund your first business, which actually helped a lot with this business, right? There's a nice tie-in with your creativity.
CarolineYeah, it um at the time, like you said, it was kind of unsafe. And the guy who bought it, I'm surprised he bought it because he thought he was gonna restore it. But I was like, you know, if that's the path you want to go with it, I didn't have the means at the time, and I was ready to to get out of working for other people and start my own first business um in t-shirt printing. Uh, it it kind of just it worked out in such a great way. I can barely understand it to this day because it was just the most perfect scenario at that time. Um, and right around then, too, it also helped me live the lifestyle I needed to live and obviously put food on my table, and then initially it kind of sprung me into where I am now at the time. I was just kind of doing it and it kept growing and kept getting bigger and bigger. And right around that time, too, we started really committing to the YouTube channel, and it really helped because we were able to create our own merch and I have a background in graphic design, so it was this nice correlation of okay, we can make the YouTube channel look pretty and we can make video graphics, and you know, the whole nine yards that go into it. I know, I know you guys totally understand that. So um, yeah, it was it was a really good blessing in disguise. The time it didn't seem like it just felt like a very strange adventure, but now I definitely uh cherish those memories for sure.
DougSo your uh what was your second car? And then then we we have to ask James about his because I think you guys were twins. Twiningly the family came and separated by a few years.
CarolineYeah, well, so my second car I've been really wanting to get into building physical because at that time I had been around enough people in the automotive industry or in the automotive hobby who were doing full restorations. I was watching him do it and I was like, I just want my own car. Like, I it's not that I didn't want to help. Anybody, but I wanted something that I could claim as my own and make my own. Um, so I bought a 1974 Volkswagen Beetle in a small town basically in central Georgia and pulled the trigger. I'd saved up like every time I'd go to work, I'd save probably 50 bucks and I'd just throw it in a shoebox. And eventually I was like, okay, this is gonna be my car money for not a reliable vehicle, for a project vehicle. And um, one day I pulled the trigger on it because I made a stupid offer to a guy and he wanted to sell it that bad and bought it.
JamesAll unbonounced to me.
CarolineYeah, he had no idea, by the way. I just came, I showed him up. Um, I left at like 11 o'clock in the morning with another friend of ours and came back at like nine o'clock, rolled it off the trailer, it barely ran. I barely knew how to drive stick at that point, too. I was kind of just winging it, and uh he was along for the ride after that.
JamesI was just like, oh, it's a Volkswagen, you know, like I mean at that time it was just like, oh, you know, I'm all muscle car, I'm all about every muscle card out there, and you know, I was like, ah, it's a Volkswagen. But then, you know, with with the way it was,
Volkswagen Stories And Early Wrenching
Jamesit was a Volksrod, you know, the way it was all set up. I could I started wrapping my head around it, and then uh seeing how passionate she was about the car, you know, what are you gonna do? You're gonna you're gonna support whatever she wants to get into. And now I'm I'm really into the Volkswagen world. I I never thought that I would be this much into the Volkswagen world.
CarolineWell, but it also started with your car, too.
DougYour second car, right?
JamesWhat my second car? Well, and that was a Volkswagen, right? Well, I mean, uh it's a I had the funny thing was is I had I I'd sold my my Mustang to get a crotch rocket motorcycle, right? So right, everybody wanted a crotch rocket motorcycle because Tom Cruise, so I do that. Um, can't afford the insurance on it, so I ended up selling the motorcycle, and my next car I had to get something that was affordable. And uh so we went and my dad at the time he he's like, hey, there's a 1974 super beetle for sale in the telen cell or whatever it was uh at the the town we lived in, and he he's like, Do you know how to drive stick? And I'm I'm I'm like, uh you know, sure. And I was like 16, 17, something like that. And uh so this has all happened in like a three or in a year's period of time. I had these three vehicles, but uh we go and look at it, 500 bucks. So it's $500 for this car. I drive that literally. I I know how to ride a motorcycle, I come off a motorcycle, she knows how to do the clutch and all that. But and I'd driven a stick before, but I it'd been it'd been a while, probably I was probably 14, you know. So I I drive it home across town, get it home, we get it insured, all that stuff, get a plate on it, and I drive that for I don't know, I think two years uh through my high school years, and uh I I couldn't kill that car.
CarolineWhat color was it?
JamesIt was blue. Um, and I'm not kidding you. I piled people in it. We partied in that car. It was it was really good. I jumped it a couple of times in the desert. Um, could not kill the car. But I had this, I don't know. I had just I don't know that I didn't want to, I didn't want to work on another Volkswagen. Like I did, it was just kind of like I don't even think I ever changed the oil in that car. Like I don't even I didn't work on cars before I was being a teenager, and so I I don't know, it was um I probably should have kept it, you know, hindsight, but um I ended up selling that thing after two years, I ended up selling it for 500 bucks. So I took two years in solar for 500 bucks.
ChristianI mean, if we'd only knew to keep the fun ones, you know, the ones that really reminded us of the great times. But you know, I guess sometimes in life you don't know when you're going through a great time. And so that's why this show I think is so resonates with so many people, because man, I had such a great time in that car, you know, such a great time in that car.
DougSo and and uh Christian, if I may, when uh when Caroline was talking about the Fairlane, I just want to share this. I had a good friend in high school. So you mentioned somebody put GT on it. So I had this friend in high school, he had a Chevy sprint, which was basically a Suzuki, and he had changed, I guess he had to replace the hatch, and he put it was a different color, the uh rear hatch, and he put all these different things on it. And I remember him telling me different labels of different cars. We used to walk around the junkyard sometimes after school, believe it or not. We probably should have been in school at that time, but trying to pick up girls, I guess, in the junkyard. But go ahead, how do we? That's the place to do it. But yeah, um what he uh he told me he got like a parking ticket in the senior lot at school. I was one year older than him. And uh he's like, Yeah, the ticket said like it said all these different cars, and none of them was even my car because the guy just wrote down he didn't know the principal didn't know anything about cars, he just wrote what he saw. Well that'll teach you.
CarolineWhen I got that speeding ticket, I asked the cop in a joking way when I saw him at the courthouse on my like court date. Um I said, Do can I dispute the fact that this isn't my car? And the guy just looked at me because I was like, This isn't this car. I was being such a smart, smart teenager.
ChristianBe careful with that. Be careful. It's a very fine line between spending the weekend and the slammer, and yeah. So we we don't want that to happen to Caroline.
JamesI want to touch on something now. 1974 Beetle today is much cooler than in 1986.
ChristianGood point, very good point.
JamesSo understand me driving into the high school parking lot with a $500 1974 Super Beetle. Okay. Now, I was the only one there like this, okay. If I didn't hustle out and get in my car, okay, from class, if I got some, you know, a teacher needed to talk to me for a little bit after on our last class, I would come out and my bug would be bounced
The Viper Quest: Price, Timing, Obsession
Jamessideways by all my buddies.
DougYeah, they they picked it up and moved it.
JamesYeah, and I had to sit there and wait for the cars to move for me to be able to move. So understand I was made fun of quite a bit with that bug. Um, so maybe that's where you know, all that's long gone. I don't hold any ill will. I love those guys. I hope they get a good laugh out of that.
ChristianNow, let me ask, I love that. That is a fantastic story. Thank you for sharing. Now, what would have happened if you would have pulled in uh instead of uh the Beatle, uh, a 97 Viper? I think that would have gotten you way more street cred. And we're gonna move forward a little bit in time because I love this story. And uh you gotta drop what you're doing, go to YouTube, type in H H wheels, and look at the Viper episode. I think it's a multi-episode arc. Do I have that right? Does it take several episodes to tell that story, or is it only in one? Just one so far. Just one, just one. Okay. But on number two right now. Can can y'all please talk about that? Because I love that episode. And how how did it start? How did that, where did it come from? And um, Caroline, can you tell that story? And James hop in is needed.
CarolineYeah, I I think maybe if you give a little bit of a backstory on why you've always wanted a viper and how forever, or at least my forever, at least the last like five, six years, it's felt like it's endless talk about how this viper is his Mount Everest. It's this big hill or this big mountain he wants to climb. And that stuck with me ever since he mentioned it.
JamesBut if you give a little bit like details of why you always wanted a Viper, I think me explaining how I found a Viper will definitely Yeah, I uh since '96, when they came out with the GTS, that was the car that you know was something that was unitanium for me. Um in 96, I was 26 years old, really new in my business, uh, never, you know, living paycheck to paycheck, uh, not really knowing if my business is gonna succeed or or fail. You you're you're in that that mode that first 10 years of it, or you know, and and I'm just busting my tail and just working. And uh you know, going through life, uh raising kids, uh you don't really have an extra, you know, fifty thousand dollars to throw down on a vehicle. And um so you know, you don't finance a vehicle like that either. You know, if you're going to have toys, they have to be able to be outright purchased, and then you you're the caretaker. You're not in my opinion, uh a car like that. I mean, I could have I I got to the point where I could certainly have gone and fired financed something like that, but uh it doesn't make sense to be you know to be doing that. That's just not smart money.
ChristianI mean didn't quite fit your life at the time, to be sure, yeah.
JamesYeah, so uh, you know, as I got older, uh, I think 2017, I got really serious about thinking that I'm going to invest in one of these vipers, and I want a 96 or 97 GTS, and I don't really care about the color. Uh, and at the time I didn't really think of condition being uh an you know, I probably wanted at the time in 2017, you could have bought a GTS for like 50,000 bucks. Uh I hadn't I didn't have a spare 50,000 at that time. I was still kind of coming out of trying to figure out my business and and stepping away and trying to figure out how to sell it, that kind of thing. Um it it took several years. I mean, we got into I mean, six years later actually, before I could sell my business and and it was the right time and that kind of stuff. But I told my wife that my deal is when I sell my business that I'd like to have, I want to get a viper, you know, I just want to have a viper from 2017 to 20 uh 23. They doubled in price, you know, should have bought it back in 2017, and then I would have had something that was worth the investment, that kind of thing.
CarolineWhich I've got a huge ear full about on a regular basis.
JamesWell, it was just like you know, for for six years. I mean, I've been really serious about we need to buy a Viper. I gotta buy the Viper, you gotta buy, you know, I'll find it. Planting the seed.
CarolineYes, the right one just never came along. And and every year in like January, February, he and my stepmom would take an RV trip out west. They go see family, they go hang out, like they just they go live it up for two months, especially when he had his bicycle business. It was a really good way to kind of relax because that was the absolute low point of our tourist season. So it was a good time to leave the island. And um it this I feel like is a perfect example of perfect timing because I had just joined, I think it was the Viper owners or Viper Club America, basically on Facebook, and they put all kinds of stuff on there, people working their cars, cars for sale,
Secret Purchase And 1,500-Mile Drive Home
Carolinewhatever. And there was this post. So this car that I ended up purchasing was in the comments of a post. It wasn't even an actual post. So this guy was talking about I it was uh a wrecked Viper, and he was looking for basically a body that he could put his power plant into. And somebody had shared this car. So this car apparently had been previously posted on Facebook Marketplace. I can't remember how long back, but anyway, someone shared this post about it still being on Facebook Marketplace, and it was truly the worst-looking 97 Viper GTS I'd ever seen. It's blue, has the white stripes, but the headlights are murdered out, the taillights are murdered out, the interior is a little kind of ragged on. It's got 140 plus thousand miles on it, which wow is unheard of because most of the people they drive it, sure, but most of the people who drive their vipers have less than 50,000 or just hit 50,000 or like 100,000 miles plus was unheard of on a viper. So that's why they chose this because the body itself was in great shape, but the motor power plant was just undesirable and just it didn't make sense. I think the guy also had turboed and did a bunch of crazy stuff to the one that he wrecked. So I saw this and I reach out to the guy. This guy's up in Minnesota, we're down here in South Carolina, and I'm talking to him back and forth for like a month or two. And I'm thinking, okay, I don't have the funds to put down on a viper, but I bring it up to my stepmom and I'm like, hey, you know, he just sold his business. This is something you wanted to do. What do you think? And she really helped out a lot with the money side of things. And ironically, while they were on that road trip, this whole came about. He went and looked at a couple vipers. There's this one guy, where's Andy?
JamesHe's in Arizona, Beaumont, Texas, or whatever. But meanwhile, on nowhere close to you.
CarolineHe's looking at vipers.
JamesNo, I'm making like detours on the trip out west to go and vipers on the way out to two. Oh, you got it bad, man. You got the fever bad. So I'm like, uh, well, I just sold our, you know, sold the business. I'm like, we're doing this, you know. I'm gonna get my viper. And uh, so I'm trying to figure out he's trying to make it work. I'm trying to figure out okay, we can buy a bad viper and go and road trip at home. Me and Caroline.
CarolineOh, he's also trying to make a whole production out of it.
JamesSo I'm thinking in my mind, I only I only want to get a viper if we can make content with it. You know, that's that's my whole process. Like, oh, you know, we've got a viper, we'll buy it out west, and we'll road trip at home and we'll catalog all that and make content with it.
CarolineSo that's my whole mind you, I'm over here stewing the pot. And I this is why I was like, I need to let my stepmom know that she cannot let him buy a viper like that.
DougRight, no matter what.
CarolineShe's a good force of nature, she'll just be like, That's that's a no, and it's not happening. So thankfully, he was easily swayed by that. Or, or what she did is she did like subliminal commenting where it was like, Oh, you know, it's not that cool.
ChristianI feel like we can do better, we can do better.
CarolineYou know, for a 55-year-old man, this is gonna look you like she she laid it on. She did really good, it was great. Anyway, so I'm bringing this whole idea to fruition. Then I'm like, you know, trying to talk to this guy about hey, we want to film it for a YouTube, and then we get in this whole conversation. This guy has a background in production, and like it this took like two months almost to make this entire thing happen. So I got really lucky. And thankfully, when my dad's on his RV trip, he doesn't really keep tabs on me. Like when we're working together, it's always like, Hey, can we come to the shop at this time? Like, we have a schedule, but at this time we were just like doing our own thing, separate human beings. So I made the deal, I gave the guy a deposit, and then what happened is this huge snowstorm hit Minnesota. So all the travel plans and everything got postponed. And I was talking to my now fiance, and I was like, We have to drive this home for two reasons. Content because my dad will kill me if I buy this car without telling him and not make a video of it. Second of all, I want to have 1500 more miles in a Viper than my dad. Just so we ended up setting the whole deal up, and this guy was like, You want to do what? And I was like, Yeah, yeah, it's fine. So we fly to um we fly to Milwaukee, and then we ended up getting a rental car, drove two hours north, bought the car.
ChristianThis is on the show, by the way. This is on the show.
CarolineYeah, bought the car, paid for it, the whole thing, and then we drove it all the way home to South Carolina on two bad tires and two new tires that do not fit the car.
ChristianAmazing you're still here, by the way. But yeah, so there is that.
CarolineWell, the thing is, I don't like the cold. I've kind of mentioned what we talked about before. Being in South Carolina, anything cold I don't like. They had a freaking warm winter up there. So although there was snow on the ground, it wasn't slick, it wasn't super icy, which kind of sucked for some people there, but for us it was great. So making it home wasn't too, too bad, other than the fact that we're like trying to scrub all the black paint off the headlights. I mean, it again what you can. It's a miracle that we made it home in one
Trading A Thing For A 356 Dream
Carolinepiece, but then not to mention, I still had like another two, three weeks to hide the car at my house in my garage. And where we live, word gets out pretty fast. So I couldn't drive the car anything. I literally had to buy this thing until he got home. And then I remember calling him and saying, Hey, I bought a car because before we left, we made a pack, we're not buying any cars, like, not gonna happen. Okay, and he has his whole temper tantrum, and then all of a sudden I roll up to the house and he's just speechless. And it's just it it was so much fun.
ChristianIt was it was man, you're giving me you're giving me the goose flesh here. Golly, you gotta go see this episode. Y'all gotta go see this. I need one of my kids to do that for me.
JamesMy God. You got me. Hey, by the way, she bought three cars while I was gone.
ChristianOh that that yeah, that'll teach you to make a pact with that one.
CarolineUm Viper made up for it, okay?
ChristianViper made up for it for sure. But I'm water under the bridge. Let's not go any further. Let's tell all of our viewership and listenership to go check it out on YouTube. It let's pivot to Caroline. And Doug wanted to ask you about your 356. Can we can we get into that just a little bit? Doug, was there anything specific or did you just want her to did we want to sit back and let her regale us a detail?
DougYeah, um I believe she sold or traded a Volkswagen thing for it. So with that, Caroline, tell us about it.
CarolineYeah, I did actually. That I had bought this, that was one of the cars I bought.
unknownOh yeah.
CarolineUm one of those three that we just talked about, um, because it came up for sale. And I was like, oh, we'll just go look at it. Like, you know, it's close by. I've been wanting one, then I bought it, and then I did a full restoration on it. Yeah, and we went out to California and I saw this 356 from a mutual friend who used to run a car show I used to go to. And he had this 356 that an older gentleman had basically given him. Um, he unfortunately had uh stage four cancer, so he's looking for someone to give the car to kind of thing. And um, my friend, he is having a baby, and it just didn't make sense to jump into another full restoration. So he offered it up for trade on Facebook because he does a lot of off-roading kind of stuff, and this thing that I've built and pretty much finished was just the ideal car. And I know he was specifically looking for a thing, so I kind of just put some feelers out there. I was like, you know, let's just a little shot in the dark. I've always wanted to own a 356 ever since I was a little kid. Like, even before I was into classic cars, it was like the car I wanted to have at my wedding. And when I came up to this car and it popped up, we had another mutual friend who was just finished building one and he owns a few. And I don't know, at the time it was just kind of this weird gray area where I was like, okay, can't get too excited, but I'm excited and I was like, I'm not betting on it, like I'm just not thinking about it. I was not letting myself bask in any glory until that car was in my possession in my own garage or shop. So eventually it all came to fruition, and now we have it, and it's still unreal to me every time I walk into my shop to see it because you know we talked about how the Viper was his Mount Everest. I don't even know if I'm this is like my Antarctica. It's so I didn't even think I was gonna see this at this point in my life. So um I feel incredibly blessed to not only have the means to be able to build it, but also have it in my possession.
JamesYeah, you know, they're 10 to 20,000 bucks for a kit or and then the real ones are millions of dollars.
CarolineSo it's again one of those things that was just like I just never thought that this would be in my world right now.
DougAnd uh go ahead, though. Oh, I was gonna say you you mentioned uh your fiance. Um, will the car be ready for your wedding?
CarolineThat's the goal.
DougAwesome.
ChristianLove that answer.
DougLove that answer.
JamesYeah, now a few things, but we we are gonna be uh pretty hot and heavy on it in the next few weeks. Uh so you'll see some episodes coming out on that on the 356.
DougAnd yeah, just just the buying, and then the episode where it's up and Caroline's like, Well, this is rusted. This is rusted. Like it made me think uh it's your next uh soft shell crab, right?
CarolineWell, the funny thing is as we talked about it when I had mentioned it to him, and uh some of our friends in California at the time were like, You need to own that car, and we just looked at the pictures of the body and we're like, even if everything underneath it is completely roached out, the body is worth the trade. And we're like agreed. We went in it, went into it with the lowest expectations. So I think we were moderately pleased, and then when we got there, we're like, are we actually gonna own this?
Rust, Locked Engines, And “Get Wrenching”
JamesLike, is this the same, you know, locked up motor and transmission problem that we have with the the oval. I mean, so we we we went through some uh locked up, I think we went through three vehicles in a row with locked up engines that we had to take out and boat anchor them out the back door.
unknownYeah.
JamesUm, so yeah, that's been kind of interesting. You know, you got to have some spare engines hanging around your shop for sure to do what we're doing right now.
unknownYeah.
JamesWe like to keep the cars running and driving as quickly as possible.
DougAbsolutely.
JamesShow people that you can do this, and I think that's what our whole part about get wrenching is our motto, you know. And uh I think another reason it was at a point where we were thinking, why are we doing this again? And and I was like, Well, it's not just to see us on YouTube, it's it's more to motivate people to get in their garages and actually get out in the garages, get wrenching. You can do this. If we can do this, you certainly can do this.
CarolineBecause I think that's the fun thing about trading, too, is this is something we've never explored um ever, really. We've talked about it, we've tossed it around with even mutual friends, and it's just never really come to fruition like this. So it's kind of cool to see like this dopey little Volkswagen thing that I was pretty blessed to not have a ton of money into um to trade for something that is so meaningful to us and to me, uh, is wild.
JamesYeah, sweat equity. We had a lot of sweat equity in that vehicle, so it was not a lot of cash. We're we're very car rich and cash poor right now. Um, I think we're like at 33 cars. Four of them, 34 cars. So whoa, yeah. Um, so we we have plenty of cars to make content with, so we're kind of not we need to trade out. We need to if we look at another car, we we have to try to get rid of one in order to be able to make room for it here. And I have another lot somewhere. Well, I live on an island, so we have another lot that we are storing cars at, so it's not so uh the disease, yeah.
ChristianI like but you don't want the cure. Um well said. I dig it, I dig it. Well, this was just so much fun. Thank you for uh spending some time with us, and it was just really a pleasure, Caroline and James, to get to know you. And for everybody out there, again, uh go to YouTube. It's HH Wheels and over 200 videos. And we're not talking about you know, 230-second episodes, we're talking real meaty stuff. You'll you'll be pleasantly surprised by the production values. It's a blast, it's a lot of fun. It's our favorite recent wormhole. So, Caroline and James, thank you both. It was wonderful to meet you.
CarolineThank you for having us.
JamesAppreciate it, Doug. Thanks, Christian.
ChristianYeah, we had a blast. We're gonna have you back. Yeah, no, well, yeah, he's he's take taking the words out of my mouth. Yeah, what what I would love to do is have you back in uh, you know, is it's kind of your show evolves and our show evolves. I would love to just have you back and see, you know, maybe if uh if the 33 cars become 66 cars becomes 128 cars or whatever it is, if we can if we can just make that double. That's a joke. Sorry. Oh, Jeff Jeff, somebody give him CPR quickly. Oh god.
DougOkay, let's get the Viper and the 356 done first, Christian. Take it easy.
ChristianYeah, we gotta end this show before somebody gets hurt. You have just heard two all the cars I've loved before the high revving, low mileage, late model herd, round the world. Yes, authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia. He is Doug Reach Him at Doug at CarsLove.com. I am Christian, reach me at Christian at CarsLove.com. He was Caroline, there were James, our new favorite people. Please follow and tell a friend, write a review, check out our link tree, l-inktr.e slash carsloved. I'm sure we'll see you at the next local car show, showroom, race trip, or concourse. Appreciate your listening, and we will see you next time.
