The speakers were originally going to go in the doors, but two things: First of all, there was no original wiring harness going to the doors. And second, I wanted a car that sounded as good as it looked. If I could fit two six and a halves per side, I would do some kick panels. So here we go again, let's start cutting some metal. And I was able to fit two Kenwood six and a halves separate on each side of the vehicle in a completely sealed enclosure and mold that kick panel to the floor. And, let me tell you something, Keith Lehmann, vice president at Kenwood, sat in that car at CES and looked at me and said, "Fish, this car sounds good." The owner of the car, the only requirement he had was for the car to sound good.
CA&E: And you had to take all that out to finish the upholstery?
DR: Yeah, I did suede inserts in the floor and it's got 3 1/2 yards per side of vinyl. It took about seven hours to wrap each floor with vinyl. When you're vinyl-wrapping you have to compensate for the thickness of the vinyl. And in this case everything is vinyl and suede, so you have to compensate for two different thicknesses. That adds so much more labor.
CA&E: Did you have to go through a similar process with the doors? What did you do?
DR: I didn't want to go crazy with the doors, just so it's got a little originality. It's got the old door cranks-everything is manual. The door panels are real basic; believe it or not, it took me a day and a half to do the door panels, but it works with the car.
CA&E: What about the seats?
DR: Originally I was going to build my own seats, but obviously with the time that I had it was going to be impossible. So I went to the junkyard and told the guys I'm looking for some seats, something with metal in the back. And these two old seats [from a '67 Thunderbird] were sitting right up front that had been there for 10 years collecting rain and they're all rusted. ... I can't believe I paid $250 for some old crappy seats! I took all the metal apart and sandblasted everything. And then I had to build all these brackets to make sure the seats fit perfectly.
CA&E: And the center console?
DR: I wanted to make something real classy, not too big, not too bulky. The center console was the last thing I built in the car. It still follows the Bel-Air shape if you look at it from the top. Putting the touchscreen TV in was an afterthought because originally it was going to be a bottle of Patron that motorized and two shot glasses, but I ran out of time.
CA&E: How did Kenwood get involved in the build?
DR: Well, Keith Lehmann, I go back with him 10 years when he was president of MB Quart and I had my shop in Florida. I did about four or five projects with him. I mentioned to Keith, "Imagine if I put all this new technology in an old car." And he liked the idea a lot. The next day we made the contract and he goes, "Fish, you don't have a lot of time." For CES cars I usually start working in August or September, not Oct. 2. So I was kind of scared at first because I didn't know if I would have enough time to do something worthy of CES. Keith Lehmann's got a lot of confidence in me and he took a chance on me and of course I want to thank him and Kenwood.
CA&E: Did you have much help?
DR: One of my former students came and started helping me with the fabrication and after that Vito [Colon], my wiring guy, he's one of my best friends, he closed his shop in Boston and came out. And one thing led to the next. I met my painter, and through the painter I met the air-bagging guy and the same guy could do the suicide doors, and his brother had a water jet machine so he cut all my aluminum. My landlord is a mechanic. It's one of those things that was never planned-all of these guys got involved in this project. It's just craziness.