What About Custom Trucks (Part 2)?

Kevin talks to his friend Brandon Matthews about truck customization, focusing on interior design, performance modifications, and cost analysis for building a custom truck. 

Better Questions website - https://www.ivoryimpact.com/better-questions

Find the Better Questions Podcast on your favorite streaming site - https://linktr.ee/betterquestionspod

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Better Questions Podcast. The show if we care to go deeper. We are opening space for more honest conversations, meaningful insights at the fast-moving world. Every week we pick a topic that sits down with pictures, towards, and calendars. Not only to hear not what they already know, but to explore what they are filtering. And now, here's the host of the Better Questions Podcast, Kevin Hope. What's best to dive into, Mike.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

Do you want to do EGR delete and everything, or just to basically get rid of the death system and go with everything else?

SPEAKER_01 0:40

I mean, what is the EGR? I actually, why don't you educate me? What it I I just know deaf and EGR go hand in hand. What what's the pros, cons?

SPEAKER_02 0:48

So, EGR, you run coolant through exhaust gases to warm up the coolant, basically. They are prone to leak on like the earlier ones. Like the 60s had a big problem with EGR leaking. Um it's not so much a thing anymore. A lot of people just block them off or leave them on, unplug them. But it cleans up the engine bay a lot when you do remove them.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

So it it it it would be if I was gonna compound this or go build it to the tits, I'd want to get rid of it. But if I'm just trying to make if I'm just trying to make it louder, make it run a little better, I don't need to remove it.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

No. No.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

And we can always we could always do it later. We gotta get a different down pipe, I assume. Yeah, let's just do the let's just do the we can do the thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Yeah, I mean the down the down pipe on your truck's gonna be a pain in the uh the rear end. You gotta you gotta I think you gotta remove the turbo if I'm not mistaken. So it's gonna be involved? Yeah, it's gonna be a little bit of a I thought Jack's truck was bad, but I've uh been reading a little bit on the new Duramaxes, and yeah, it seems like everybody removes the turbo to get that that big cat that's right behind the turbo off.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Alright, man. Well, why don't we get the parts ordered and just if we can do it ourselves, we do it ourselves, eh? Yeah, yep, that's not a problem.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Uh and then I sent you a uh a Facebook for those seats. They got heated and cooled seats, whole new seat cover. It's not like your seat cover you're thinking of, it's just basically a whole new seat that wraps around your factory one. What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_01 2:27

And is that um is that for so you've got somebody that's gonna do the full interior for the DuraMat for the LBZ? Is that what we would want? Is that like for ultimate interior?

SPEAKER_02 2:42

That's for anything you want. I mean, if you look on his uh Facebook or socials, you'll see he's everything from like hot rods to um 90s Chevys.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

And that's just so, but he takes it as it is and changes its appeal. It looks different, but it's not ergonomically any different. So that that could work, but you'd still have to order, you'd be so essentially what we could do is order base model cloth seats and replace them with his stuff, right? That would be what that would give us.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

For no, the day the Dave's upholstery guy would redo like everything, it wouldn't be just seat covers, it would be redoing the seat completely. What I said.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

No, that's I got Dave's for the LBZ. Sorry, I might have said, but this the Catskin guy is what you're talking about, right? Catskin is just a seat cover, that's just sleeping it over so you can have a custom. It's really nothing different than the factory, but it's got a nicer uh aesthetic, but it's not gonna feel much different.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

You're not gonna get any better massage or no, not getting better massage, but you can get heated seats and cooled seats then, and you can change the pattern and colors and everything else of the seats. Do you know what that costs? I do not know. I did email them to uh get quotes on basically I said your truck.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Your uh Yeah, no, I'd just be curious. I guess my question would be so if I get cloth seats, let's say I order, let's just say we take cloth seats out of a uh base model GM, can they make that denali? Like, can I end up with heated cooling and recover it? Or I gotta I gotta start with a denali seat. Because I think if you start with a denali seat and add, you're not gonna do it, won't work, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Yeah, no, you you start with your factory base model cloth seat, and then you add like that seat cover comes with the heating element and everything in it.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Oh, we gotta just figure out pricing then, if it makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Yep, which I am working on. So I will soon.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

And then that Dave guy, so he's good for resto mods. He's not really good for the so we still don't have a solution. So Catskin might be might be the solution or a solution for our our cab overs, but that we're missing yet would be the modular build your own back seat, build your own.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Yep. Still be missing that.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Build your own console. So we still that is still a to-do for us, yeah?

SPEAKER_02 5:04

Yep, yep. And then going back, so I was just looking on the old the old interweb um the last few days. Looking at ordering a brand new cabin chassis from all three manufacturers, you can get pretty loaded cabin chassis. I mean you can get a uh um bighorn from Ram and uh LTZ, I believe it was for Chevy, and a Lariat from Ford.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

When you say cabin chassis, you mean with no bed? Yep, no bed. But you'll still be looking at you'll be looking at every bit of 70, 80 grand for that, no?

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Uh brand new Lariat with like I I built one, a Lariat Ford, um, with the crazy color that I would like and like all the bells and whistles you can add. It was like 82,000.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

82K. Okay, and then verse, okay, and so what you would what you're proposing is we take a Lariat or an L and but so an LTZ, so you're at 80 grand, so then if you want to bespoke the interior and you want to put a bed on it, we would need to be competitive in the space, we would really still need to be a bed and interior for 20 grand, right? Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Do you think we can do that? Depending on the bed, so that's where I mean, how wild you want to get with the bed? That's where it comes, and then how wild do you want to get with suspension? You want stock suspension or stack wheels?

SPEAKER_01 6:38

And I think the next question would be for me is if we if we order it with donut wheels and no suspension, how does that do we go from 80 to 60 or do we go from 82 to 78, you know? Because see the difference. Because I mean you can sell it helps, but but by the what's that?

SPEAKER_02 6:57

You can sell, like if you were to get a Lariat um cabin chastity, you can usually sell brand new takeoff wheels and tires for the$1,500 to$2,000 just for the wheels and tires factory ones. Usually. Another thing to throw into it, but that I mean helps cover some of the cost of just something you're just gonna throw away regardless.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Because even if you get donuts, uh stack of donuts. What do you think we're yeah? So you uh do you have any idea? Yeah, so you could sell them for$1,500, but then you're gonna spend for new rubbers, you're somewhere we and we would be doing this on our side, so we're gonna be spending another three grand probably for minimum.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

Wheels and tires. I mean, you can get some cheaper wheels and tires, but if you want like decent wheels and some you know aggressive, long-lasting tires, you're gonna be into you know 2500 bucks just for tires and probably two to five grand for wheels or rims.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Yeah, so we'd be at a net ad. So we take that truck to with just wheels and tires before you put a suspension on, so you're actually at 80. I'm gonna call it, we'll just say we add five grand, so you're at 87 grand, and then you add a suspension, you're probably another five grand. So we're at 92 grand, and we haven't touched the bed or the interior, so we probably have to do a little bit a little bit more refined. I'm not saying no, I'm just saying I think we gotta order them stripped down. I just I'm curious. I think the number, and I if we can get them, I think the question would be we still don't know. It's like what is a custom interior, so we can find that out from this guy on my truck.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

That's that's my my goal. If we ordered it, if we ordered it stripped with no interior and we took old seats from somebody else's truck, you know, I'm I feel like there's gonna be a little bit of dumpster diving and turning turds into turning turds into gold, but I think I think I think what we want us to be able to do is like a fully kitted custom truck sub 110 and and like something close for like 95. Like I think that would speak, but I don't that's the in my head. I mean, I think we could push it to do 120, but it's like I think better like toaks our bread for us, you know what I mean? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Sorry. I no, you're good, you're good. I I I agree with that, and that was for the upper model trucks too. I mean, we could get an XLT, which substantially drops the price. Because if you're redoing the Intel anyway, I I don't remember now. I it was substantial. I was like, oh dang, like I think it was in the high 60s.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yeah, I think it might even be low 60s. I think it's high 50s. Like, I think you could get really base stuff, but then then but then then the question becomes all right, so we buy one for 5060, it's new base, and like if you strip it down, it seems easier. Like if you get rid of donut tires, like we would order these things, they would be rolling stock, right? We would have to put wheels on them, we'd have to put suspension on them. But I think uh if you start in and around 5060, then you can then you have money to throw at badging, then you have money to throw at a dash, then you have money to throw to council, like you can then you can get the interior right and tight. But I'm not and I'm not saying no, cat skin might be the ticket. I'm like, but if that interior is like something to be coveted, which I don't know the cat skin is, I'm like cat skin is like different. That's cool. Yeah, I'd spend a couple grand different, but it's like this is like a seat you want to sit in, a council that's built to you. Like, I I think the console and the modular back seat is like figuring out who could do something for us for that would be I think would be awful.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

But I'm where I've I've like I said, I've emailed a few people with cut like that do custom interiors. It's it's uh not getting back to me the quickest, so it's now it's gonna be cold calling them because I've emailed them, so it's calling them.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Well, don't be shy to get me involved because this Dave guy would be able to tell you. So, like if you were corresponding with him on email, I'd get him on the phone and just say, Hey, so you're gonna do the older truck, and it's like, who do you know who? Do you know who we could go to? So that's great. We'll bring in the LBZ down done deal. Yep. We want to be we want to be ordering stripped down. We want to we want to be ordering. Honestly, if you ask me, I want nothing in the interior. I wouldn't want to do redo, like, I'd want to put our own dash in, honestly. But I think dash dash we can leave alone, center console, uh, epic seats, and a modular back seat is like who who could we call? And he'd be like, I don't know, maybe try this guy, who maybe will try that guy, who maybe and finally, and like you know, the real the real place that you might have to go with this, and it's it's gonna get laborious. So just know that this is all part of it. I'm hoping. Did you get a computer yet?

SPEAKER_02 11:45

Yes, I'm I'm back up and going.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Oh, nice. Okay, just keep your notes because all of this is informative, because all of these are partners in varying degrees in the future world that we're building, you know what I mean? So then, like every conversation is not a lost conversation, and we're just doing our homework.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

So exactly. But I would be curious, and that's why I've emailed so many people because you email them, I tell them about the LBZ, and then the cabin chassis look into anywhere from five to ten a year, and if they are interested, they'll email back, or they'll be like, hey, like this Dave guy was interested in just the LBZ. Yeah, so I'm just hoping some people I mean, I started emailing Wednesday, Thursday, and I've gotten a few responses back, but you can tell people that aren't interested and the people that are.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

It's so yeah, well, that's fine. Um I think I owe uh a little bit more refined go forward for us, but this is good. I mean, we're making progress, so I hope it doesn't feel like you're wasting your time. I mean, it'll it's gonna take us a bit okay. Cool.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Thanks for listening to the Better Questions Podcast. If you have questions or comments on this episode, feel free to reach out to us through our website, which you'll find in the show notes below. We also have a link to your page that lists most, if not all, of the sites that stream the Better Questions Podcast. And you'll find a link to that in the show notes as well. So you can click on that, find your favorite site, click on over and subscribe to the list. This continues to be at 1530. And we're happy to have you along to the website.