- People find out that what I do,
they kind of like, "No way."
I don't change my style.
The way you see me is the way I dress.
I wear my glasses because that's who I am
because they know what I do and how I do it
and I am very successful.
(intro music)
My name is Danny Rodriguez
and I'm from Bakersfield, California.
My family calls me Abby.
When I was about two years old,
I didn't know how to say my name right
because my full name was Danny Albert Rodriguez.
So when they asked me what my middle name was,
I would say Danny Abby Rodriguez,
so everybody in this family and my friends and stuff,
they all know me as Abby.
(upbeat music)
I have a 1938 four door sedan.
It's a Master 85 series.
It's a little under the Master Deluxe.
It's two-tone beige; dark beige, light beige.
It has tweed interior.
It has a 350 four watt main, 350 turbo.
Some of the options I have are like the visor.
I put the skirts.
I did the passing eye light.
I also have a swamp cooler.
They're really hard to find nowadays
because most of the them that you find,
they're usually rusted out
or they're all beat up
and this one I found in San Diego
up by Chicano Park and it was in good condition.
The wheels are replicas of the original artillery wheels
back in the 40s; they're repops.
They look just like the originals.
The reason why I had to go with the repops
is because the bow pattern for the newer type of frames
are usually five, five on four and three quarter,
so I ended up going with repops
because I didn't want to go with the six
because I had changed the frame already.
The toppers that we have on the license plate,
we had specially made.
I have the Lowrider emblem.
I have our icon from Classic Dreams
with Felix the Cat on it.
This is a 1938.
The hood emblem is a little different.
I like the '39 hood emblem,
so I decided to go with the '39
because my vision of it was pieces that I liked on it.
I like what I see and I love that '39,
so I put that '39 hood emblem right on it.
Master 85s did not have a lot of chrome.
They were a plain jane.
The difference between the Master 85s and Master Deluxe is
there is more chrome on the Master Deluxe.
The back windows, they roll back on the Master Deluxe
but on the Master 85s, they don't; they're stationary.
It's all upgraded.
It's a daily driver, so I had to do a lot of upgrades on it
because it's always on the road.
And that's what I love about it
because I can take it anywhere I want without hesitation.
I've had it since 1990.
Some friends knew that I was looking for that year, a 1938,
that year has a lot for me
because of the referencing to my dad and my mom
were born in 1938.
When I finally found it,
it was like half a shell.
There was no front end, nothing.
It was complete frame and half a body on it.
Took it home and showed it to my daughter
and she was out there checking it out
and she goes, "I want this car," so I told her,
"Well, you're going to have to help me build it."
When I do a car, all my kids are with me.
They'll help me sand.
They'll help me do any little thing that I need,
they're there for me; my family.
I have five kids.
I have three girls and two boys.
Basically all my cars I've put together,
it's always about my family helping me out.
I was born in Porterville, California.
I was actually raised in Bakersfield.
We was tight little community, you know,
in Bakersfield and I loved it.
It's really great.
My dad was born in Porterville
and my mom was born in Delano
and they met by my mom's brothers,
who my dad used to pick them up from school
and go cruising all the time.
So he used to pick up the brothers
and when he met my mom, he fell in love.
I have one brother and one sister.
When my sister was born, she was born with brain damage.
She turned into an epileptic.
She was only two.
I was the oldest.
I seen what she was going through
and it really, really hurt me
because that was my baby sister
and that's the only one I've ever had.
My sister was the special one.
We almost lost her at about three
but some miracle, and with prayer,
she came out of it but with more brain damage than thought.
I just wanted to take care of her.
She was special-ed.
She went to special classes.
She went to Rafer Johnson Special Olympics
and she won an award for swimming.
It was really nice.
She got the gold medal
and the celebrities that gave her the gold medal
were Rafer Johnson himself and Barbara Streisand.
She kind of grew up, you know,
and she kind of wanted to do things on her own
and she did function, really good
but I lost her three years ago
due to diabetes.
It runs in our family really bad.
I miss her a lot.
She's always been a part of my life.
I did try to show her to drive a car one time
and she wrecked it. (laughs)
It was my Delmont (laughs) but I always remember her.
She'll always be in my heart.
I liked to help my sister all the time
because I knew that she needed help
and so all those volunteer times that I put in with her,
and what she going through,
what other kids were going through,
when I seen that and I go,
"Wow, these kids need a lot of help,"
and that got me to thinking, "Wow, maybe this my calling."
I decided to be a teacher in special-ed,
working with special-ed kids: autistic, mild/moderate,
moderate/severe disabilities.
I love it.
I see these kids.
They need help.
These students of mine, they're special
and I wouldn't change my career for the world.
I'm a special-ed teacher for Bakersfield School District.
I love my job.
I've been there for like 23 years
helping special-ed kids;
helping them achieve their goals and objectives.
It's really a fascinating thing, to see them grow up,
and to see them accomplish something.
You know what I mean?
I've had kids that were totally disabled,
they couldn't even read or write or sometimes talk,
but I knew what they were saying.
I could feel them and know exactly what they needed
and what they wanted.
The most rewarding part of my profession
is actually seeing students achieve their goals;
to see them be successful.
A lot of people don't think that kids
are going to amount to anything
but they can with a lot of love,
a lot of affection, and a lot of patience,
they can reach that goal and succeed and be something.
And I want that for these kids.
I belong to a Classic Dreams car club.
I'm one of the founding members of it
and it's been around since '75.
We're a family club.
We do a lot of fundraising.
We work with school districts.
We work with the Crippled Children's Society.
We work for Ronald McDonald House.
That's what it's about;
helping (inaudible) out.
When there's a need, they come to us.
That's what we do, we help out.
I feel that the way society is right now
and the way things are going,
we have to all come together and help one another out.
Help our students out.
Help our kids out.
Unity within the families is what we need.
We need to pull together instead of apart
and keep ahold of what we have
but we do got to recognize
that there are people out there that need help
and we need to have an understanding and help them.
Know what I mean?
In any way we can.
My name is Danny Abby Rodriguez
and I'm a special-ed teacher
and I'm a Lowrider Role Model.