CA&E: One of my favorite parts is the rear deck.
DR: The rear deck was pretty much a replica of the dashboard, and Russ Balazs [see his M3 build on page 66], who is one of my former students from Fishcamp, he actually worked with me on the Expedition. So I knew I could trust him; you just tell him to do something and he is so meticulous. Kenwood told me that the main unit they wanted to see was the KOS-V1000 and we ran out of space, so we decided to put it in the rear deck. Based on that, the idea of replicating the dashboard came about. It just so happens that because of the shape of the car and because it has that big window in the back, you can really appreciate all the work that went into the rear deck. At first he came up with wild lines and craziness, that didn't go with the car. Then, he spent hours and hours and next thing you know, we got it.
CA&E: Then what next?
DR: From the rear deck came the rear seats. At first we were going to do two bucket seats in the back to match the front. That night, me and Russ have dinner and he goes, "Dude, I have this idea of making the seat just one long, long piece." And I'm a real open-minded guy and I say, "Why don't you give me a shape and see how it's going to look like?" The first prototype wasn't quite there. I told him to curve it just a little bit more to give it that Bel-Air shape and next thing you know the rear seats came about. So, that's why I decided to do the four armrests. First the armrests were turned the other way around, but it didn't look right. Next thing you know, we decided to turn it the other way around.
CA&E: Did the suicide doors present any problems?
DR: The old hinges and all that metal had to be rebuilt. To build the pillars, the inserts with vinyl; those pieces were so much work. It was Friday night [three days before CES] at two in the morning and I took a router and cut 20 pieces of MDF to get the shape I wanted... Some things in the car that look so simple took so much work and some things that look really complicated weren't.
CA&E: The motorization in the trunk, would you describe that as simple or was that difficult?
DR: Believe it or not, the motorization in the trunk was a lot simpler than doing the floors. The hard part of motorization is not making the motorization; it's the finish work. You can do motorization in a day or two and it might take you two weeks just to detail and route all the wires. When everything opens, it's still got to look clean inside. Russ built the box and the two side panels. So I was doing all this crappy stuff with the floor that I didn't want to do anymore. So I said, "Russ, why don't you move to the inside and I'll move into the back?" I followed the Bel-Air shape and had the two amplifiers motorized to the side and the TV motorized up. The first time I did it, I go, "OK, this is cool." Finishing up was a lot of work. I should have almost not done it, but all the oohs and aahs we got at CES made it worth it. I'm pretty excited about it, but I'll say this much: The trunk does not compare as far as the amount of labor that the inside of the car took.
CA&E: What would you say is your favorite part of the car?
DR: Probably the floor of the car because I know how much labor went into that and the inserts that go into the floor that say Fish-Air. And after that would be the dashboard and then the motorization of the Xbox controls. The trunk would be my least favorite part of mine, to be honest with you.
CA&E: And you just finished wrapping up some changes to it?
DR: Yeah, it looks totally different now... You like the grille?
CA&E: Yeah, it looks great.
DR: That was all Adam [Knott]. I had nothing to do with that grille. If you notice, if you see the taillights, it follows the line that the original taillights have. Vito and Adam decided to assemble the whole grille. It went with the car and was worth all the work.