INTERVIEW BY OWEN WEBB WITH CHAD ACKLAND ON HIS 'RAD RIDES' EXPERIENCE

Chad Ackland was the inaugural Scholarship winner, on his return I spoke with him about the experience. After a week to come back to earth, here are his thoughts.

How long were you in the US?
4 ½ Weeks Flew out from Adelaide on the 28th January and arrived back on the 2nd March.

Which shows did you attend over there?
28th Jan – 1st Feb: Grand National Roadstar Show in Pomona, Los Angeles This show was overwhelming with more than 1000 cars on display and a lot of trade stands spread out over 8 pavilions. There were many cars from Foose, Troy and other top builders from America. There was even a well known car from Australia called Mercules, a 1950 Mercury Coupe. Some other stand out cars built by Troy was the recently finished 1932 Ford Pickup of George Poteet that won the Blackie Geijian award of excellence and a 1956 Chrysler 300-B of Rodger and Nancy Ritzow, which won the Chip Foose Design Excellence award. There was also the NHRA Motorsports Museum in the same complex with a lot of history of old and new race cars, it’s was pretty cool to see where hotroding and racing cars started from back in 1896.

26th Feb – 28th Feb Autorama, Detroit This was another great show not quite as big as the Pomona show but still of hi quality. There are 8 cars in contention for the Ridler award; this is called the Great 8. The Ridler winner this year was Tammy Ray with her 1933 Ford Phaeton called Gold Digger. George Poteet’s Ford Pickup also did well getting a list of awards. This building had two levels, the main show cars and the elite were upstairs and the Rat Rods and other cars were on the bottom level. This is where the top car builders donate trophies for their pick including names like Fay Butler, Gene Winfield and Troy Trepanier.

26th Feb – Tour of Roush and Jack Roush’s museum Just to explain how big this company is, they employ over 1800 people in North America and Europe and do it all from; Build Rolls Royce spit fire motors, Machine and make parts for Nascars, Machine engine blocks, heads and other mechanical bits ’n’ pieces. Performance conversions for Ford Motor Company Build simulators for training purposes Do their own carbon fibre and fibre glass parts All trimming, wiring, mechanical, painting, fabricating is done in house. His museum was filled with Nascars, concept cars, old race cars as well as old cars he had as a kid. There was even a shed full off Rolls Royce V12 motors for his own personal use. A female Ridler winner, what was that like? It is good to see the girls getting involved, something I think is becoming more and more common, showing there are no restrictions in this industry.

How long at Rad Rides?
Approx 3 weeks After travelling from Pomona we arrived in Manteno Illinois on Wednesday 3rd. I began work at the workshop that day and continued through until Thursday 25th, working a couple of Saturdays and a Sunday as well.

Did you work on any special builds, which ones?
I worked on a 1956 Buick repairing a lot of the panel work, rust repairs and other modifications. I also worked on a 1954 Buick that had a Mercedes Benz G55 AMG donor car. The V8 motor makes 368kw/500hp and has all original Mercedes electrical system. I performed a series of modifications to this vehicle including preparing rust, filling holes and making custom seatbelt slides.

Did you have the opportunity to work on the business side as well?
As a business owner it was a good opportunity to see how a professional shop like Rad Rides runs not just on the building side of things but also how things are run behind the scenes. This has a lot to do with their marketing, maintaining their image and making sure the customer and the builder have a good understanding of a vehicles progress. Communication with his customers and also fellow workers is a vital key to a successful job.

What were the stand out vehicles in the shop?
Blow Fish – a 1969 cuda Salt flat race car that holds the World Record for its class at 255MPH. The engine was a turbo charged Chrysler 4 cylinder hemi head that puts out 1000hp. The aerodynamics of the vehicle is a huge part of its success.
Passion – a 1956 Chrysler 300b. The engine is a twin turbo 2008 Dodge Nextel cup R5. This car had a full handmade chromemoly chassis and other custom features such as steering wheel gauges. Awards it has won in 2010 include Chip Foose Design Excellence award, AMBR Outstanding in its Class award and Sweepstakes award for Best Custom.
1932 Ford Miller Hauler – This pick up is a detailed piece of art that is a credit to the Rad Rides team. With its polished louvers that have been masked off and painted around and lots of little machined bits n pieces that have been made at the shop on the C and C machine. It picked up a number of awards at both the Grand National Roadster and Autorama shows including AMBR Outstanding Detailed Truck and Car award, Sweepstakes Award Best Truck, Blackie Geijan Ward of Excellence, 1st place in the Altered Rod Class, Outstanding use of Paint and Colour, Outstanding Detail and Display.

What were the 3 major things you have brought home?
1. The latest trends with paints and other engineering tricks.
2. The different tools and techniques they used to carry out a job from start to finish, making work easier and more efficient.
3. A better understanding of the business side of things.

Any major differences between US and Australian custom car building?
Some builders have the advantage of working with teams of more than 40 people on the one project; this is something I noticed at Pomona. Around 4wks can be spent on blocking back and polishing outer panels. A small number of builders have tools such as power hammers, Pullmax and C & C machines and know how to use them to create panels and one off pieces, which works in their advantage, where as myself and many other shops in Australia still use hand tools and English Wheels to create the same panels. Overall Australia is probably not that far behind, we are just doing things in a smaller scale to the US.

What are you going to do with your skills you brought home?
The skills and knowledge I have l gained I would like to put straight back into my own business and strive to build some of Australia’s most successful hot rod and custom cars, whilst helping other car enthusiasts that are as passionate as I am.

What contacts and friendships have you made whilst in the US?
I have developed a strong friendship withTroy and his family.
George Poteet: One of Troy’s best customers.
Roger and Nancy Ritzow: Another good customer of Troy.
Scott Killeen: Team Killeen, Publisher of Build Book.
Glen Grozick: From Billet Specialties.
John: From Classis Instruments
Jim and Mike: From Ring Brothers.

A special thanks to the Rad Rides team, they were a lot of fun and made me feel very welcome.

It sure sounds like you had a beaut time over there?
It was one of the greatest experiences of my life, making a lifelong partnership with Troy and the team and would like to thank everyone involved from Australia for making this happen. Hopefully you will keep the scholarship going as it will improve custom car building into the future. I can’t wait to see Troy and Jack out here for MotorEx in July.

Will you have any cars ready for MotorEx?
I was hoping to have an Elite HQ Monaro ready but with what I saw and learnt over there it wont be finished, maybe we will show it in bare metal with all the fabrication done.

I’m so pleased for you, keep up the great attitude, work standard and all the best for the future. I have spoken with Troy and Jack, they said they were really impressed with Chad and couldn’t believe his skill level and ability to adapt, they also said they weren’t quite sure what to expect as Chad was lodging with them but couldn’t have been a better recipient. Troy tried to get him to stay for good or at least another month which couldn’t happen but I’m sure Chad will return in the future. I would like to thank everyone involved for making this such a success.

The first female Riddler winner



Rad Rides shop with the Buick Chad worked on in the foreground



Some of Jack Roush’s awesome collection of vehicles



George Poteet’s new 32 Miller Hauler, the latest project



Nancy Riztow’s Chrysler, one of the best finished cars ever built



Chad drove from Los Angeles to Chicago with the team through the snow, a new experience for him



Chad filing up the π panel on the 56 Buick, Troy was so impressed with his work he didn’t want to let him come home



Chad and Troy, obviously got on well



Some of the builds on display at the workshop



No shortage of work, what a great layed out workshop