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- [Voiceover] premiumbeat.com
- Yeah, thank you for coming to the final stop
of the Hot Wheels Legends Tour,
before we pick our 15th winner
that is actually gonna join the other 14
from across the nation in SEMA in Vegas.
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- So what stuck out to you guys?
- I don't know if anyone took a look at that van,
like the apocalyptic.
Had the motor the motor sticking out the top.
I mean, the story on that was just amazing.
He teaches, and he brought the whole shop
in to work on it, and I just thought that was awesome.
- And, I don't know if you guys saw
the '56 Oval Window Baha with paddle tires,
but you know, that was kind of a clashing of cultures,
you know, the kinda Baha stuff with a little bit
of low-rider and metal flake.
- A hand-built car was that exotic sports car.
And he made his own molds, it's electric.
- [Host] How often do you have a CTO as part
of a build team?
That just says how high-tech
- And they've been building it for many years. Yeah.
- The '57 Nash, to be honest with you,
the moment it pulled in, I saw that as a Hot Wheel.
They built that car in three months.
We've seen Nashes our whole life.
You would have never seen one like that,
and the way they did it.
The chassis, the wheels, they rolled the fenders,
tucked them back in.
A lot of attention to detail.
- You ever wanna talk about old school,
how 'bout that Graham?
Get your magnifying glass out, it's beautiful.
- The '38 Graham's got amazing body lines.
The whole front was redone.
I mean, you're talking 8 years of build.
But it was an ugly Betty.
- It was a 4-door. - He took a 4-door sedan
Cut it up.
You have to have a really good vision for that car.
But they way it finishes, it lays down to the floor.
It's California, baby.
That's exactly what it is.
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- Thank you guys for coming out
and letting us check out all of your cool rides.
We really love it.
(Applause)
So with that said, we did have to pick just one
of you guys, unfortunately.
As a group, we've decided that it is going
to be Steve Howard with the '38 Graham.
(applause)
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- [Steve] Hi, my name's Steve Howard.
- And I'm Karla Howard.
- [Steve] We are at Ray's Service, California.
I call it a '38 Graham Shark Nose,
and Shark Nose is kind of a slang nickname
for it when it came out, for obvious reasons.
But it's technically a Model 97.
I've been a Honda car mechanic my entire life,
so I'm retired from doing that.
So, you know, I've been into cars since I was old enough
to figure out what they were,
cause it just kinda runs in the family.
Some of the Hot Wheels that I have are pretty streamlined.
Art Deco, I would imagine.
There were a few that inspired me.
I've always admired this style of car,
because I've always been intrigued with Art Deco.
I saw my first one in 1968,
which coincides with the start of Hot Wheels, actually.
So, I saw it in a wrecking yard.
I thought, wow, that thing is stylin'.
And this one I found, kind of word of mouth
after talking to a few guys.
This was a parts car to a stock restoration
a man in eastern Washington had,
so I called him just out of the blue and he decided
he would sell it.
So the rest is history.
Well, Karla was mostly in charge of doing a lot
of the interior work.
Karla did the seats, and the door panels,
and the carpeting, and I pretty much handled
the fabrication end of it.
I really couldn't tell you on the hours,
but thousands probably.
- Easily thousands.
It was all new, and it was my first project,
and we opted to buy a sewing machine off Craigslist
and just made patterns and went from there.
Heat seaters is all we have to keep warm.
And in Washington, that was kind of an issue for a while.
- Yeah, we've been stuck in the rain a couple times.
Well, the frame's all custom-built.
And the suspension is a little bit of off the shelf stuff.
Yeah, the engine's nothing special.
It's actually out of a '95 F-150 Ford truck, you know.
It's not a performer, it's just a cruiser.
I'd be laying there at night wide awake
and like, oh yeah I can do this or I can do that
and you know, and I can't wait to get out there the next day
and do that, you know.
And fabricate another piece, see if it works.
- And that's garage spirit to me.
- That's garage spirit.
- Making it work.
- I am shocked.
I mean, the competition is fierce.
Southern California is the center of the known universe
for the car world, and I'm thinking,
well I'm gonna stand a chance like a Popsicle
in a blast furnace at a show like this, you know.
But hey, it pulled through, and I am impressed.
I am really happy.
Well, I'd have to say that that would be pretty nice,
you know, kinda have your car immortalized in a model
that's gonna probably sell
quite a few of them over the years.
- To have it happen, I think that it would just
be fantastic to have all the hard work and dedication
that we put into it be shown to everybody else.