I Could Be Your Neighbor

[Rod]

I have a new contributing article with my stories on a online car/race enthusiasts website called Bangshift, follow me this year! with some back story, and current tales of good and bad, heres the start

I Could Be Your Neighbor

But once you learn more about me, I’m sure you’ll be glad I’m not. My name is Rodney Prouty and what I am trying to say is: I’m a regular guy. I picked up some skills building stuff as a kid growing up in a generation (and household) where if you wanted something you either bought it with money from your paper route or you built it from crap you found in your Dad’s (or your friend’s Dad’s) garage. I didn’t have a paper route.

I have owned and driven some great cars through the years but, like you, I always wanted a true muscle car and I had become infatuated with the Pro-touring movement. Mine is not a story of a guy who’s Uncle left him a stock ’65 Mustang as a parting gift after years of teasing about skinny adolescent legs. My story is of a guy who took a chance on a shell of a car, scoured junkyards, asked everyone he could for their project cast-offs, had Craigslist as a screen saver and wasn’t afraid to learn how to do a little paint and body. A big part of my learning curve was saturating my evenings staring at (and reading) every thread on every car build forum I could in hopes that it would help me learn how to do things and what choices to make in my build.

By day, I work at Gotelli Speed Shop – a great speed shop that has contributed to racing history for 50 years; but let’s be real, it has not made me a millionaire. I spend all day telling guys who throw money at their cars, how to make them faster, louder and ‘hotter’.I find a lot of our customers want a faster car but don’t race; A louder car, that is too loud to drive to work; And, a ‘hotter’ car to show off to their buddies and wear out diapers waxing.

One of the most difficult questions, it seems, for my customers to answer is “why?” Why do you want your car to go faster, be louder and hotter? So many hot rod owners don’t have a goal in mind for what they hope their car will do and therefore, they are either in a state of a perpetual build or constant lust for the latest and greatest they just read about in some car magazine. My car was a rusty piece of crap that I paid $100 for.......read the rest here

[regal454]

Rod, was that your 68 in the background on the Draguar Roadkill Episode?

[Rod]

Rod, was that your 68 in the background on the Draguar Roadkill Episode?

yes it was! the guys from Hot Rod magazine came to the shop and built that thing in the parking lot I was going to move the car out of there way, but they wanted it to stay there during the shoot, so yes my car Plain Jane had a guest appearance on the show and in Hot Rod Magazine

[Bigblue73]

Great article - Looking forward to more. I wish I had neighbors like you by the way.

[bosses son]

Yeah you should move and be my neighbor!

[Rod]

Yeah you should move and be my neighbor!

you said I couldnt park my cars on your lawn?

[Quickboat]

I have enjoyed all of your posts so far so count on us to check out Bangshift....neighbor!

[aray327]

If you were my neighbor I would be over all the time! Your wife would have to start setting a place for me at dinner.

[1red68]

I'm thinking of moving to you.. it's flippen cold here.

[Tomswheels]

Nice Rodney!

[perry mitchell]

You sound like a guy just like me and a thousand other guys. Two things that make us different; I had a paper route and when I started messing with cars, there wasn't an internet or forums to look up for advice or instructions. I had to make my own parts like caliper mounts to install 4 wheel disc brakes on my 57 Chevy for example. I wish I could have been born 40 years later. Very entertaining story. Keep up the good work.

[Rick Dorion]

So cool. Side note - a speed shop closed it's doors here a few years ago. Very sad. Back on topic, keep up the good work/writing!

[Rod]

You sound like a guy just like me and a thousand other guys. Two things that make us different; I had a paper route and when I started messing with cars, there wasn't an internet or forums to look up for advice or instructions. I had to make my own parts like caliper mounts to install 4 wheel disc brakes on my 57 Chevy for example. I wish I could have been born 40 years later. Very entertaining story. Keep up the good work.

I started messing with cars at 12 years old my neighbor was a painter, he paid me a $1.50 for a days work to sand (by hand) cars, at 16 I worked summers at Riverside Raceway after 3 summers for them, I was 18 I went to work for Boyd Coddington in Stanton California for a year, that was a long time ago!

So cool. Side note - a speed shop closed it's doors here a few years ago. Very sad. Back on topic, keep up the good work/writing!

sad to see speed shops close because most shop price, and order summit or jegs thinking there saving a dollar here and there but you cant buy back the years of experience that members of a speed shop contain, our engine builder is 83 Bruno Gianolli, the one time partner of Champion speed shop, Nor Cal Speed Shop, Reggie Jackson's High Performance and now back were he started his career back in 1962, Ted Gotelli our owner has only 49 years experience, all that history would be lost