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Mark's Monster Garage....3800 sq ft

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IGO2XS

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Sarasota, FL
Wow, nice rides! The associated paperwork alone with each car makes my head spin. That's a lot to handle let alone the actual build. Great job as always!

I will tell you its mind boggling sometimes. Yesterday was a bigger day than most but $4500 worth of parts were delivered from 5 different venders. It is alot to keep up with........then they have to be installed. There is so much work that goes into each one of these builds.

Hey! A '69 Trans Am! I'm going to guess that is a clone. Not sure of exact numbers, but seems like there were only 7 or 8 factory Trans Am Convertibles in '69.
Either way that car looks great.

I dont want to break your heart but it is a clone. Its a nice car with a 428 in it. We are just about done with the lowering kit, exhaust, and headers. This guy has two of them and we are doing the same work on his other car.

WOW Mark, I haven't been on the page for quite a while. I stop and see some amazing work. Not that I would've expected anything less. The wife and I are planning a trip to Florida this summer and are planning on being Sarasota for a few days. Hoping to be able to come by and meet you and see the shop. Would love to see the original garage that started it all also.

I hope you will come by to the shop and the garage. I would love to show you around.......I insist.

We have a wide variety of cars in the shop right now and they keep coming. We just had this Shelby Series 1 delivered yesterday for some work. The owner just purchased it at Barrett Jackson and someone had covered the car in plastic. It ended up leaving yelllow stains all over the car so we are going to be painting the front and rear of the car.





The outside of the shop is a total mess and it is really driving me crazy. We have started work on our downdraft heated paint booth. I was going to buy a new crossflow booth but I really wanted a downdraft. I bought this booth from a local body shop that was going out of business. Its was in extra nice shape so we picked it up. So between the booth laying all over the place and the construction going on it does not look real nice outside. I hope this is the last time I see this kind of mess.

The booth is going in up on the loading dock. I have removed the concrete and am digging out for the pit. I will be filling in the ramp area as I hope to use this room for further expansion of the building.






 
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Signal10

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West Central, Indiana
First off I would like to say Thank You for taking the time to continue sharing your journey. I Know first hand how hard it is to run a business let alone taking the time to share with "people on the Internet". Also you appear to be a very humble person and that's very refreshing in today's world. I only wish The Godspeed operation as it is today was in Danville,IN. I live in Crawfordsville and would come beg for a position with your team. My wife has asked me many times if I could do anything what would it be. I always tell her restore classic cars but there isn't a strong client base in my neck of the woods but you are affording me the oppurtunity to feel like I'm at least involved in the industry. I'm not a Florida fan but the kids have Ben asking to go and if we do I plan on coming and meeting you. God Bless

Dennis
 
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IGO2XS

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Glad to found this thread again. I got some reading to do.

Glad you are back!!

First off I would like to say Thank You for taking the time to continue sharing your journey. ........... I'm not a Florida fan but the kids have Ben asking to go and if we do I plan on coming and meeting you. God Bless

Dennis

These guys on GJ are my friends so I feel like I need to keep everyone updated. Come and visit anytime....we love visitors.:thumbup:
 
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IGO2XS

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We are finally getting the NSX-R re-assembled. We spent weeks trying to get a match on the color. Not only is it a pearl but the mid-coat has a green hue to it when looking at it from different angles. Yes, it is a multi-step.....tinted primer, lambo yellow, the mid coat, and then the clear. We finally located the guy who built this car for the Fast and Furious movie and he was a big help. The car had been painted twice so between a close match and our friends at PPG paint we got it. We ended up taking everything off the car (except doors).......it was all painted in pieces to give the best quality paint job.




Today we got started on the lettering on the side of the fire truck. The owners wanted real gold leaf paint so we brought out the 24K gold. Our artist is local and primarily does custom bikes but also specializes in hand lettering. The gold leaf is hand turned and it will end up with a black hand painted outline when completed.








As a parade vehicle we needed a nice quite fire truck with a silent exhaust system. The owners of the truck wanted to have a little fun so we installed some exhaust cut outs.....one flip of a switch in the cab and they are basically running open header exhaust!!:thumbup:

 

E.rodz

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I have to check in on you once in a while just to make sure you are still making progress! keep up the great work!:beer:
 
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IGO2XS

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And a line-lock ?? :willy_nil

The owner came in last week and asked if we could put a blower on the 351. I said we could but I wasnt going to let him! Good people......customers like this are few and fair between but the build has gone far enough.:)

I see a vw engine?

Whoops.........yes I didnt want to talk about it!!! My commercial sign contractor has a VW and we put a new motor in for him. No, we are not a VW shop:lol_hitti One thing for sure we do have variety!!

I have to check in on you once in a while just to make sure you are still making progress! keep up the great work!:beer:

Thanks for checking in.......I like keeping track of you too.:thumbup:

Very nice work. There was a write up on the HAMB a while ago about gold leaf lettering. If I can find it I will try to post a link. I found it.
http://vimeo.com/14985356?utm_source=feedburner
Ryan.

Thanks Ryan! He is doing the work the old school way. He striped the black line around the lettering on a few of the letters and it is going to look beautiful.
 

Skyline

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Quick suggestion on the gold leaf lettering...have your lettering guy put a coat of varnish over the gold leaf. It will not hold up very long without it.
 

dubber

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Canada's Capital
Last weekend I realized the Annual Devereaux-Kaiser Antique Car Show was happening this weekend and made the last minute decision to attend it as a vender. I have not done any advertising other than Facebook so I thought I might start getting involved with some of the local shows. I have the perfect trailer to use as booth and I just needed to dress it up. It just so happens I am doing a car for a guy show did my business sign and he can do decals so check this out.


Sweet Rig. I think that is PERFECT for a little advertising and getting the word out.

BTW Also huge fan of the F&F NSX :thumbup:
 
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IGO2XS

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We finished up two cars this week......the NSX and the Shelby Series 1. I thought they might look great together in a photograph.:thumbup:





 

bashr52

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VA
Whoops.........yes I didnt want to talk about it!!! My commercial sign contractor has a VW and we put a new motor in for him. No, we are not a VW shop:lol_hitti

is that the new or old engine sitting there? Hopefully it's the old one and you didn't have to try and tune that engine with the junk pinto carb installed!
 

BBSkylark

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Niagara Region, Ontario
Hi Mark,

Thanks so much for taking the time to show me and my wife your shop last week, it is absolutely amazing! The quality of workmanship on your vehicles is truly first class! I have no doubt your business will continue to grow and prosper. We will be sure to stop by again next time we are in Sarasota!

Your friends from the North.

Erik
 
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Kevin54

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I had to comment before I forget, as I'm back on page 55 trying to get caught up, but I ran across this pic and I read the article, and kept looking, and looking, and I thought WTF are you doing putting Cadillac quarters on this Corvette for. Good Lord I'm having a bad day. At first glance I swear they looked like custom Eldorado quarter panels. :tard:

7454BA8D-E864-4962-813D-3C69C7554D24.jpg
 
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IGO2XS

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Hi Mark,

Thanks so much for taking the time to show me and my wife your shop last week, it is absolutely amazing!We will be sure to stop by again next time we are in Sarasota!
Your friends from the North.
Erik

Erik, I am so sorry we could not get together at the Monster Garage. the week got the best of me and I am really disappointed we didnt get together again.:sad: Please come and see me the next time you are in town!!

..just read this thread; thanks for the glimpse into another world!

Thank you so much for checking us out!
 
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IGO2XS

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I had to comment before I forget, as I'm back on page 55 trying to get caught up, but I ran across this pic and I read the article, and kept looking, and looking, and I thought WTF are you doing putting Cadillac quarters on this Corvette for. :tard:

Damn, you had me scared for a minute!!!:lol:
 
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IGO2XS

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Hey guys, guess I will get back in the swing of things here. I have lots of pictures to post and I will put something on every night this week just to catch up. Lots of things going on at the shop and a bunch of new projects. Check out this 57 Cadillac we brought in last week. It has been owned by the same family since new and it only has 29,000 miles on it. The interior shows little wear other than the leather looking old. The chrome on this car is in unbelievable condition. We are going to strip it and put a new paint job on it.






 
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IGO2XS

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Last week we moved my 63 Split window coupe into the clean area. The bodywork is done and now we are mocking up all of the systems......A/C, wiring, mounting ecu's, etc ext....more or less putting it together so we can take it apart and paint it.








We had a pretty clever idea for the fuse panel. We were finding it hard to find a convenient spot under the dash so we ended up mounting it in the glove compartment. Our fab shop built a cool little bracket for it and I think its going to work out nice.








Here are the headers I am using. I am a dealer for Ultimate Headers and they are beautiful. These are the brushed stainless but they are also available in mirror finish. I have sold 3 sets of these in the last week as guys really love the look and they are definitely a nice product.

 
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IGO2XS

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Wow, that's like *** on wheels. Looking forward to more pics of that car!

Thank you Bob......you just reminded me I ordered a killer set of wheels for this car today from Nutek. 19 x 9.5 in the front and 20 x 13 in the rear. I will have some drawing this week to share of the wheels. These guys build these wheels one at a time.:thumbup:
 

don long

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southern california
Hi Mark
Haven't posted here for a while but have checked in often
I'm glad to see the vette show up again. It's coming along quite well
I see your story board in the back ground it looks pretty full Congrats on your success!!

I'm looking for a place to mount my fuse panel this week and I have no forward glove box to hide mine in. It may end up in the trunk :shocking:

Thanks for being so open and willing to share. You have helped me on my vette more than you know.

Don
 

Crown

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Awesome Cadillac and nice to read it stayed in the first owners family. Looking forward to all the pictures.
 

ratdoggy

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I had to comment before I forget, as I'm back on page 55 trying to get caught up, but I ran across this pic and I read the article, and kept looking, and looking, and I thought WTF are you doing putting Cadillac quarters on this Corvette for. Good Lord I'm having a bad day. At first glance I swear they looked like custom Eldorado quarter panels. :tard:

7454BA8D-E864-4962-813D-3C69C7554D24.jpg

Damn, you had me scared for a minute!!!:lol:

Don't feel bad Kevin....As I thought he was building something like this myself....
 

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IGO2XS

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Just checking in with some progress reports and also I wanted to share something with you guys I have not shared on public media. If you are a car enthusiast you know about GoodGuys.......the largest hot rod association in the world. They have over 70,000 members and put on huge car shows across the country. They called me a few months ago and will be coming to GodSpeed Rides to do a story on us!!:thumbup: It is an incredible honor to have them recognize us and a magazine article will follow. I was standing at the end of out shop today with one of one of first guys to come on board with me reminiscing about our paint area located in a 14 x 20 room. As we looked across the shop with all the projects, cars, people working........with a tear in my eye I said....."what the hell was I thinking"!!!!!:lol: We laughed but we have come a long way.


I hope you guys arent getting tired of seeing the firetruck. It is getting real close now and looking forward to seeing it done. 1400 hours so far and thousands of dollars in parts. The wheels just came in and I thought you would enjoy them.






We finally got the new 480 hp LS3 for the 57 Cameo pickup. I ordered a Billet Specialties surpentine pulley system and it looks awesome......it should for $2700! We put the Ultimate Headers on and it really sets it off....brushed stainless is so cool.







We have another sweetheart of a project going on........a 66 gmc van. Man this thing is cool. My first vehicle was a 1973 Chevy van and at 16 years old it was my first chance to customize a vehicle. As a drummer in the 70's it was so cool to be driving a van. So this 66 van project is right down my alley. We striped it down to bare metal and this thing was close to perfect......





 
Joined
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I hope you guys arent getting tired of seeing.....

Sir, with all due respect, and if I may be so bold, I'd be happy to see what you had for lunch today (the "before", not the "after", of course).
With the amazing facilities and projects you have going on, I feel like I'm watching "The Mark's Monster Garage TV Show".

So yea....rock on man. Please continue....
 
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IGO2XS

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Sir, with all due respect, and if I may be so bold, I'd be happy to see what you had for lunch today (the "before", not the "after", of course).
With the amazing facilities and projects you have going on, I feel like I'm watching "The Mark's Monster Garage TV Show".

So yea....rock on man. Please continue....

Bob, speaking of lunch I can tell you...1. I always eat lunch at my desk and have foryears........I dont go out to lunch.........and right now my wife has me on a diet so I eat what she prepares for me. My wife has been into fitness for 20 years and at 52 years old she looks unbelievable in a bikini:drool:.......I guess she wants me to look a little more attactive:sad:...damn I miss onion rings. thank you for the support

Oh my, Love the van! Can't wait to see what's in store with that.:drool:

We are dropping a v8 in it, A/C, and quite a bit of work. Full paint job, custom bumpers, and some other fun stuff.

Love all of the projects! I know you are busy, but I enjoy every every post. Thanks, and keep them coming.

I am glad you enjoy the thread. I really feel at home here with you guys.

Please no comments about me having the same hair cut as the dog. These are pictures of my first vehicle and where taken around 1974.





I am on the left and my brother Todd on the right. Believe it or not I have an original piece of this orange **** carpet in my office over at GodSpeed. My mom saved everything!

 

Bob Heine

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Boy, talk about flashbacks.

Summer of 1955 I was 10 and my parents took their first big road trip. When we stopped for gas somewhere in west Texas, there was a brand new white with red spear Cameo parked at the station. It was the coolest pickup I'd ever seen and I thought it was a custom.

The Grand Canyon and the rest of the national parks we visited were impressive but for me the best part of the trip was seeing all the cool west coast customs and rods. After that trip all my allowance money ($0.25 a week) was spent on Car Craft, Rod & Custom and Rodding and Restyling magazines. Back then those magazines were pocket-book size so I could hide them in my schoolbooks (Hod Rod was too big to hide). I probably should have done my homework -- maybe I'd know multiplication beyond 12 times 12 instead of how to swap a V8 into the chopped, channeled and sectioned '54 Chevy Dream Truck. I don't remember much about King George of England but I know a lot about George & Sam Barris, Gene Winfield and Tony Nancy.

Your shop provides me with a new and fresh road trip with little flashbacks down memory lane. Thanks for the ride-along and congratulations on the GoodGuys recognition.
 
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