How is that to deal with?ĬF: The biggest downfall about the success of Overhaulin’ is that I just can’t take my son and enjoy a car show. I don’t care what the underneath is as long as I get to be creative and build something no one has ever seen before.Ĭ/D: With TV exposure comes fame. That’s how they used to build them back in the ’20s and the ’30s.Ĭ/D: Could you hot-rod something like a Tesla?ĬF: I don’t think it’s impossible. I would love to find a chassis and design and build my own body. It will look like an original Cadillac until you look underneath.Ĭ/D: Is there something you’d like to build?ĬF: What has really been on my mind a lot is that I want to build a Duesenberg. Last night, I was in the shop until one in the morning fabricating on Wes Rydell’s ’39 Cadillac that we’re building. She helped us, and we got through it.Ĭ/D: Are you going into the shop every day? Or are you spending more time on designs?ĬF: That’s the great thing about this job.
Legal bills.Ĭ/D: Have you learned how to protect yourself from that?ĬF: Well, I married an attorney. I can say that just about everything I made on Overhaulin’ was spent there. When he didn’t deliver cars, people came after me. All I did was a drawing, and I was supposed to collect a royalty when he sold or delivered a car. ĬF: How did you know I was thinking of them? That was a nightmare.
As a builder you’re thinking, “We’ve got to push the envelope,” and that’s not what it’s about now.Ĭ/D: What is the pitfall of licensing your name?ĬF: You’re not in control of what someone else is doing to your reputation.Ĭ/D: Unique Performance in Texas, which collapsed in 2007, had a license to build ’69 Camaros under your name. The way they’ve done the judging, your guess is as good as anybody’s about what you need to build. C/D: So which is better: the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) or the Ridler award?ĬF: Boy, that’s getting political, isn’t it? The difficult thing with the AMBR award right now is that there’s no target on the wall about what you need to build.