Painthouse Heads West?!?!?

Randy Borcherding drops a surprise that instantly changes the vibe: he’s moved Painthouse out of Houston and into the mountains of Utah. We talk through the why behind the decision, the reality of relocating a hands-on custom car business, and what it feels like to start a new chapter at 60. Randy also shares how the move becomes official only recently, why he keeps things quiet until the dust settles, and what he actually gains day to day with less humidity, friendlier traffic, and a new pace of life.

Then we get into the shop details gearheads care about. Randy is now partnering with an established operation called Altered Customs in the Salt Lake area, working in a larger warehouse-style space with full fabrication, body, paint, mechanical, and electrical work under one roof. He explains how two separate booths help keep dirty bodywork away from clean paint, and he walks us through what’s currently on deck, from a clean ’57 Bel Air to big ongoing projects that came up from Texas. The highlight for purists is the 1966 Jaguar XKE convertible: original inline-six, manual gearbox, and a plan focused on preserving what makes the car special instead of turning it into a resto-mod.

We also hit our regular segments with quick, useful takeaways: a racing calendar check-in across NHRA, NASCAR, and IndyCar, plus This Week In Auto History with milestones like the electric starter, Earth Day’s impact on emissions and catalytic converters, Volvo’s safety legacy, and the first modern car radio. In the news, we react to a Bugatti dealership lawsuit tied to warranty reimbursement rates and laugh at how the industry follows the money as Mopar rolls out pet-focused accessories for drivers who travel with four-legged passengers.

If you like car restoration stories, custom automotive paint talk, and the business side of car culture, subscribe for more, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more enthusiasts can find us.

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Transcript

Welcome And Show Rundown

Don Armstrong 0:03

It's the award-winning N-Wheel Time Car Talk Show. Just ahead. Look who it is. Randy Borteting at Bate House with what's working out there. Later, Jeff has the racing calendar. Mars has this week in auto history, and I'll have the stories making automotive news headlines. Howdy, along with Mike, out of this world Mars. We always need more Jeff Zeke, Chief Engineer David Ainsley. I'm Don Armstrong. Thank you very much for joining us on this Saturday morning for our live show. If you're listening on a podcast, we thank you for that as well. And it's a good time to actually bring to your attention that we do have uh a live show Saturdays, Tim to noon. And uh out of those uh two hours we make our podcast. So there you've got the inside skinny. Don't mess it up.

Mike Marrs 0:48

Skinny.

Don Armstrong 0:49

All right. Uh is Randy with us?

Mike Marrs 0:51

Yes, sir.

Don Armstrong 0:52

Okay. Well, let's let's bring him up and let's talk to him. Ladies and gentlemen, here he is, Randy Bortriding, Mr. Painthouse himself. Randy, good morning. My God, are we in the office? What is this? A new showroom?

SPEAKER_01 1:04

There is a little showroom here, yeah.

Don Armstrong 1:08

Has it always been there?

SPEAKER_01 1:09

We're doing fun.

Don Armstrong 1:10

Has it always been there?

SPEAKER_01 1:12

No, no, no. This is a new place.

Don Armstrong 1:15

Wait a minute. What the the is is this is an addition to the shop?

SPEAKER_01 1:22

This is the shop, the new version of the shop. We're out in Utah now. Are you serious? I am serious. I can prove it. There's mountains outside the front door. So you guys have moved? We're in the process. Uh, an opportunity presented itself, and I have long wanted to live in or near mountainous terrain. So I'm 60 years old and decided if I don't do it now, I'm never gonna do it.

Don Armstrong 1:51

Oh my god. Good for you. Well, congratulations. We had no clue. You didn't call and tell us that you were moving or anything.

Jeff Dziekan 1:58

Well, no, I don't have a pickup truck, so I wouldn't help you move.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

After this, I got to call and tell Jen.

Don Armstrong 2:06

She's listening, she found out. Now we know that's not the case because uh she's the boss around there, thank goodness, and uh is is a guiding hand and you're uh messing around with cars over there.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Yeah, yeah. She she was gonna say hi, but she decided to run an errand, and uh she's doing some fun stuff too. So we're having a good time out here.

Don Armstrong 2:25

Well, that's good. I'm glad to hear it. Well, congratulations, man. That's my thank you. So uh will you ever come back to Houston again?

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Oh, yeah. There's we're still back and forth. I still have work that's still in Texas that will come out here ultimately. A couple of them won't, a couple of them will. Um, we're just in that that in-between phase, you know. This shop is called Altered Customs, and we are I've partnered with Alex, the owner. We're just sort of mashing the two shops together to see what we can make happen.

unknown 2:56

Wow.

Don Armstrong 2:57

Well, knowing you, I think that that won't be a problem. Uh, yeah, uh we know that it'll happen. And uh are are you out there uh close to uh Kendig? Kendig?

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Same city. Uh we're in what's called South Jordan, it's a suburb of Salt Lake.

Don Armstrong 3:14

Okay. Where is he?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Over in, I guess it's Salt Lake proper. Closer to the to the big mountains, as we call them. There's we're in a valley between two mountain ranges, and the eastern side is where he's at. We're on the western side.

Don Armstrong 3:28

So, do you have anything that you've contributed to your partner's shop that you brought from Houston? Did you bring the uh Pink Roadrunner?

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Pink Roadrunner is here. Uh, it is in the trailer. Yesterday we did a photo shoot at a local uh kind of a media studio type uh uh uh warehouse, if you will. Yeah. And uh so it's in the trailer, but here's the cougar. We drove it's up here getting finished.

Don Armstrong 3:56

Oh my god, we haven't seen the cougar painted.

The New Shop And Big Projects

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Yeah, yeah, it's there she is. And I don't know if I can I flip this camera around from restream, I don't know.

Mike Marrs 4:05

You should be able to, yeah. Your camera should still work. It it'd be the same way as at the studio in Houston.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Well, I'm apparently currently technically challenged, so I'm not gonna mess it up.

Mike Marrs 4:17

It's uh it's uh lack of oxygen at that higher L.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

There she is.

Don Armstrong 4:23

That is some really good weed up there in the mountains.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Not here, some of the other states have it, but Utah does not. Yeah, yeah. Well, so anyway, there she is. That looks great. Yeah, we've we've uh we've shown it, and now we're just working out all the little bugs trying to get it ready to drive. He's gonna drive it. Is he not a daily driver? Not daily, but to go to get you know cars and coffees, you're you the type of shows you guys hang out at, that kind of thing.

Don Armstrong 4:53

Yeah, very nice. Nice, nice, I'm excited. So uh are you are you still doing work out of the Houston shop?

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Not at the moment, no. The no ultimately we'll probably either rent or sell the property. So if anybody's looking for a turnkey house shop, uh holler at me. I may have something for you. We know people, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Don Armstrong 5:16

I saw a 57 Chevy back there. Is that yours or is that his?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

No, none of them are mine, you know that. Um 62 or 61 vet here. We're finishing up. LS motor aftermarket chassis. The 57, just a really nice driver. Um, factory chassis with some bolt-on stuff, small block Chevy, you know, just a cruiser, right? I love that though. It looks so clean and cool. It's just your it's you can't go wrong with a red 57 Bel Air at all. Yeah, right. And the uh El Camino you see tucking in under there is one we brought up from Houston that we've had ongoing for a while. And it's kind of hard to give you a shop tour with the camera backwards, but well that's the the environment we have here. We got some interesting projects sort of stacked up there waiting to be dealt with. An old Barracuda Cadillac, Mercedes. I believe that's a another Cadillac. So yeah, some neat stuff.

Don Armstrong 6:16

Didn't you have a helper or two uh in the in the Houston shop?

SPEAKER_01 6:19

We did, but uh over time, when this became a I guess a reality, you know, they were all offered the opportunity to to follow me out here and and they all chose to stay in Houston, which is certainly their prerogative. Right, it's beautiful. Um, although more expensive, and and Salt Lake is a much bigger city than I really gave it credit for. Interesting, yeah.

Don Armstrong 6:46

Well, I remember that they used to have the well, they had the Olympics there back in the 80s, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:51

So yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mike Marrs 6:53

Well, itself, Randy, it looks like you you've got a little more room as far as some things go.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Quite a bit more room. I don't know if you can kind of see behind me as I'm walking here, but yeah, it's it's a warehouse type environment. Alex, my partner, owns several other businesses here. He's his real success has been in the masonry concrete industry, so we are kind of attached to his uh complex here. I see.

Don Armstrong 7:20

Very how many how many square feet in the shop there? Do you know?

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Uh I I think it's about 15,000 roughly. Oh it's quite a bit more than I had in Houston, that's for sure. I can't tell if I'm staying in the camera. You are fine. Perfect. Okay. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, it's a nice big space. We've got we do everything here, much like Texas, everything but upholstery. So we do the fab work, the paint, the body, the mechanical, the electrical.

Don Armstrong 7:48

I bet you they got some uh fab, uh some uh uh upholstery guys around there somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

There's there's one we're using out in uh his kind of we say around the mountain. Um he's very good. Uh Seems Impossible is their name, kind of catchy. Yeah, and uh he's done several for these guys, and I've got two shops in Texas. It's funny, I've for years been longing for upholstery shops in Texas because we went everywhere else, and now that we have found some good shops in Texas, um, Sculpt Garage and MTI, I've left. So there you go. There you go.

Mike Marrs 8:27

It's all in the timing.

Don Armstrong 8:28

I have to ask now the racks that I'm seeing some of the cars on up there. Did you bring those from Houston or were they there?

SPEAKER_01 8:34

No, no, I I brought very little equipment. This was a an operational up and running facility, and uh I just kind of stepped in here and brought a few things, but not much. That they they were doing good work before I ever got here.

Don Armstrong 8:49

So, are there people that you've kind of inherited from the old shop that was there?

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Oh, yeah, yeah. There's a whole crew, great guys. Uh, we've got I think myself and six others at the moment. So can always always use more if anybody's in the Salt Lake area and look and holler at us.

Don Armstrong 9:05

Or in the Houston area and want to go to Salt Lake.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Yeah, exactly. If you want out of the humidity, I can help you.

Don Armstrong 9:10

Yeah. Uh, so obviously Jen is involved in this somehow. You gonna spill the beans on that or no?

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Well, she's uh like Jen, she's involved in in everything. Um she's uh it's hard to explain. She's part of a an ongoing kind of a road tour, like you're talking about this morning, but in another location, and I'm not sure I'm allowed to talk about it yet. So she's a roadie. She's helped, yeah, kinda. She's my roadie. Um she's helping uh with that. Around here, they also have a complete full service print shop. So if you need t-shirts, hats, you know, marketing things, that's another one of the businesses here. She's helping with them. So she just she's a little bit of everything to everybody.

Don Armstrong 10:02

Little bit of this, a little bit of that. Yeah, there you go. A great recipe for uh a great outcome. Well, uh, this is this is really exciting news. So you've been holding back on us. You didn't did you tell Mars this? We could have done a remote.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Uh yeah, well, it's it's been ongoing and until it became sort of official, which was not long ago. I didn't want to really stir the pot and jinx it in any way.

Mike Marrs 10:25

So uh now it's official.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Now that it's official, here we are.

Don Armstrong 10:31

Well, it's fantastic. Looks like you got a really state-of-the-art paint booth in there, too.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

We've actually got two. Um, if you look at the setup here, if I can do this correctly, uh, right there is the bodywork booth, and over there is the paint booth. So we have a booth for kind of the dirty work and then a booth for the clean work.

Don Armstrong 10:50

Gotcha. So you can do all the ugly the sanding and and the detail work before it goes into the paint without dusting up everything in the shop.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

You got it, yes, sir.

Don Armstrong 11:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Well, wow. Here's one I can't wait to get my hands on. We got a 66 XKE convertible. And oh my god, I I've loved those cars all my life. So I'm finally gonna get to make one pretty.

Mike Marrs 11:17

Yeah, is it gonna have a drop there? There's another Corvette body. You got lots of stuff to play with.

Paint Booth Setup And Craft Details

Don Armstrong 11:22

Well, let's go back to the XKE because does it have the original engine in it?

SPEAKER_01 11:28

I mean, yes, yes, it's all the original hardware, and it's gonna stay that way. You know, we're not gonna we're not gonna pro tour it or resto mod it. It's gonna stay a Jaguar and pure to its roots. Just I've got an interesting, what I think is an interesting idea for color on it, and we'll see. We'll see what happens.

Don Armstrong 11:46

So, what kind of motor does the Jaguar have in it? Is it a V12?

SPEAKER_01 11:51

The six. The Nline? The Nline Six? Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah, one of the one of the prettiest engines ever made.

Don Armstrong 11:58

And and is it an automatic?

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Nope, manual.

Don Armstrong 12:01

A manual four speed?

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Yes, yes.

Don Armstrong 12:05

I guessed something right. I know I'm sorry, I don't, I don't not up on my Jaguars.

Jeff Dziekan 12:10

Well, I suggest I suggest uh an LS then tub it out. No, yeah, no, he's not going to do that.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

He's not gonna do it painting black. You know, if if it wasn't such a good car, it's very pure, it's very original. Okay, I'd go for that, but uh it's too good to change. We're just gonna upgrade the paint, freshen up the interior, and and it's a Houston customer, and we'll send it home after that. You can drive it home, yeah. That would be a fun road trip. That way, yeah, it would. And XKE through the mountains. Oh my gosh, that would be awesome.

Don Armstrong 12:43

Now, are you are you currently working on something other than getting the shop set up and all that, or have you already got all that done?

SPEAKER_01 12:51

The shop's up and running. I I'm here just uh trying to fit in as best I can. We have a wonderful painter already. Scotty is his name. Uh his real name is also Randy, but he goes by Scotty. Um so uh I'm not gonna step on his toes. I don't need to. I I still enjoy other parts of the process. If I need to paint, I will. We still sell our custom colors, so you know, things like that are still as they were.

Don Armstrong 13:18

And so if we wanted to get a hold of you, because uh we've got some sort of special project and we want some special paint, then we just go to painthouse.com.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Yes, yes, or you can email me or text me. It usually starts with a phone call or a text, and we just take it from there.

Jeff Dziekan 13:35

So the painthouse is still going to be the active name, or are you changing the name also at a later date?

SPEAKER_01 13:41

The the plan is to label this painthouse. Uh you know, I thought about Paint House West or Paint House something else, but we decided just to keep it simple and uh and at some point it will be branded Painthouse, yes.

Jeff Dziekan 13:55

Oh, very good.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

That is very cool.

Jeff Dziekan 13:58

Are you excited? I'm excited.

Don Armstrong 14:00

You know, it's it's it's hard to tell with really portraiting about excitement. Oh, it's all those paint fumes, you know. That's what it is. But you know, uh it's it's funny because I know inside you're really pumped.

Jeff Dziekan 14:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Oh, I love being out here. The the city's wonderful, the the lack of traffic is nice, the lack of humidity is outstanding, and uh everybody's nice. You know what you know what you don't hear here? Nobody honks their horns. They let you in traffic. If you're hauling a trailer, they let you get in and out of lanes. It's they're very polite people here.

Mike Marrs 14:30

How big of a town is it in the area that you're in?

SPEAKER_01 14:34

You said you're outside There's tons of little uh dozens, if not hundreds, of little birds all around Salt Lake. Um Salt Lake itself is not that big, but the whole area, kind of like Houston, right? It's all spread out. And uh there's thirty or fifty little cities around Houston, but Houston proper it's big, but it's not the whole area by any means.

Mike Marrs 14:57

Right, right, right, right. So you're in a big city, but you don't feel like you're in a big city.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Yeah, yeah, I guess that's the way to put it, right. How's Jen handling all this? She's uh believe it or not, she was more excited about it than I was.

Don Armstrong 15:10

She's thriving, is what she's doing.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

She's we miss our people in Houston for sure, our friends, kids, grandkids, obviously, but it's fun to have a new, I don't know, direction. Yeah, you know, we've been in that place for 30 years, dang near, I think, 25, and it was just time for a change.

Don Armstrong 15:30

Now we didn't hear about the house. Is there a house attached to this property, or yeah, do you get to actually go home and back and forth?

SPEAKER_01 15:38

At the moment, we are living in an apartment upstairs, which is nice because again, much like in Houston, I'm I live at work. I don't know if you'll be able to see it, but up there, those windows, that's sure sort of a loft apartment they have built into this warehouse, and we're just able to live up there. It's nice, convenient.

Don Armstrong 15:56

Yeah, no kidding.

Jeff Dziekan 15:57

There's there's a a television show out of Utah about aliens and space and kind of things out there. I've I don't know if you've heard of that, but uh, I catch it on TV every now and then.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

I have not, but rumor has it there's a lot of that kind of stuff going on around here. Yeah, there's an actual TV show about it. Interesting. Interesting.

Don Armstrong 16:15

We'll we'll come over there and we'll we'll give you a tour of that aspect of your new life. Yeah. Oh my god. Well, I'm so excited for you. We all are, and uh what what a what a what a great uh turn of events. And you know, anytime you got something new you want to talk about it, give us a call. We'll get you on.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Indeed, guys. Thank you.

Don Armstrong 16:37

Hey, thank you. Tell Jen we said hi, best of luck to you, and we'll be in touch.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

All right, take care. Bye-bye. Thank you too. Thank you, Randy. Good luck.

unknown 16:44

See you.

Racing Calendar Highlights

Don Armstrong 16:45

Okay, uh, just ahead. Uh Jeff has the racing calendar, Mars has this week in auto history, and I'll bring you this week's auto news headlines. The in-wheel time car talk show is back after this. The Tex Max dining experience is defined by Lupi Tortilla, your destination for Texas's best beef fajitas and frozen margaritas. Since 1983, Lupi Tortilla has served authentic and time-tested recipes made with the freshest ingredients. Atmosphere is part of the award-winning experience of Lupi Tortilla, all developed in a little house near Highway 6 and I-10 in Houston. Visit any of the Luffy tortillas and you'll see the same attention to detail in each and every location. Start your loopy experience with queso flamillado and guacamole, along with a classic frozen margarita. Dine on famous loopy beef and chicken fajitos or pepper shrimp brochette, or a French or vegetarian entree, and finish with a scrumptious flan for dessert. Find loopy tortilla in Houston, College Station, Beaumont, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, Fort Worth. There's a Texas location near you. The recipes are authentic and time-tested. The ingredients always fresh. Loopy tortilla. Eats pretty good. The N-Wheel Time Car Talk Show thanks you for 15 wonderful years. Yep, our first show aired May 7th, 2011, on the local radio station. Then it was a move to the digital world and social media, and you followed. Thank you. We continue to build and grow our fan base, and it's all because of you and your auto enthusiast friends. We appreciate your support. It's always great to see you at our remote broadcast, too, and we hope you'll continue to stop by and say hello. It's been a great ride, and we hope to bring you more fun and adventure right here on the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show. Join us again next week when we're back at the same time for our live show. That would be 10 to noon Central Time Listen and Watch on InWheeltime.com, Facebook, and YouTube. If you miss that, you'll be able to connect through a podcast from your favorite podcast channel anytime. All right. Time now for the racing calendar, sponsored by Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge.

Jeff Dziekan 18:50

And thank you for that. We've got NHRA going on right now. It's the Four Wide Nationals, and they are in Concord, North Carolina. I watched a little bit of a rebroadcast of it yesterday, and uh not a big fan of it. I don't think a lot of people are, but it is what it is. So go ahead and check out the code.

Don Armstrong 19:05

Which one is that?

Jeff Dziekan 19:06

It's the Four Wide.

Don Armstrong 19:07

Oh yeah, no. NHRA Four Wide.

Jeff Dziekan 19:09

The Z Max driveway. Yeah. Uh you got Formula One is still kind of uh off May 24th, just as toward the end of next month, is when they're gonna be back racing again. Uh they've been off because of the conflict in the Mideast. You've got the Long Beach ran last week, so May 9th for the Indianapolis road course coming up. They're gonna be testing and running and doing all kinds of stuff, the prelim to the Indy 500 coming up on uh the end of the month.

Don Armstrong 19:33

Wait a minute. They run a road course? Yeah, they run a road course, yeah.

Jeff Dziekan 19:35

Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, and then you've got the NASCAR boys, uh, the folks there, they're in Talladega, so it's Dega, baby.

Don Armstrong 19:43

I've been to Talladega. Yep, you've got a massive racetrack.

Jeff Dziekan 19:46

Yep, uh, 3 p.m. Central on the CW network for the uh O'Reilly and then the Big Cup guys are tomorrow, 3 o'clock on Fox. And then uh our boys, uh not going to be running until May 15th and 16th, but that's the lawnmower racing event. So get caught up on that. The Mid-America Motor Racing Series, the Slingin' Dirt Nationals are the WRD Motor Raceway. So there you go. Check those out for racing. And your local guys, your local tracks and stuff. So get out there and enjoy those.

Don Armstrong 20:15

Yeah, and um our our announcer friend. Um he is at some big track. Was it Kansas? He's uh apparently he's made the big time. Yeah. I don't know what he's doing. He's doing play by play of the public address system.

Mike Marrs 20:31

He's up in Fort Worth. Uh O'Reilly. O'Reilly's doing a big deal up there for the week because of the races and stuff. So he's up there with them. Yeah.

Auto History From Starters To Radios

Don Armstrong 20:41

Yeah. Yeah. Well, like I said, good. He's uh hit the big time. Good stuff. All right. Uh time now for this week in auto history, Mr. Mars.

Jeff Dziekan 20:50

You got this, Jeff? I'm gonna find it here. Uh auto history.

Don Armstrong 20:55

We got it. Go ahead, Mike.

Mike Marrs 20:56

Go ahead, go ahead. All right, we're gonna start the week on April the 20th in 1902. Now, if you remember, cars were still using hand cranks then, and they were kind of causing problems, they were considered dangerous. Obviously, they were physically demanding, so they needed something else. And so Charles Kittering was actually working on developing an electric starter for the cars because Brian Carter of Carter Car Company actually died because of the injuries he got while using a hand crank. So that kind of pushed things on through. And he actually ended up creating Gilco, and Cadillac was one of the first companies to utilize his electric starter that he was developing because Cadillac engineers could not figure out how to make it work. They tried, they couldn't. So uh Leland came over to Mr. Ketering Kettering and got him to modify it and make their system work. Now we're gonna go to April the twenty second, nineteen seventy. Now, this was Mr.

Don Armstrong 21:53

Morris, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we can't find all of your uh video. Exactly. So you're gonna have to find it for us. We thought that we had it, but we don't have it.

Mike Marrs 22:04

I'm going to tell you right now, it is no longer with us. Okay.

Don Armstrong 22:07

Well, good. That's why we couldn't find it. Continue on, sir. Continue on.

Mike Marrs 22:11

So the um Earth Day. Earth Day, 1970. Now, this is the first Earth Day. Now, this is really a turning point for the auto industry because supposedly public concern over pollution pushed the lawmakers towards stricter emission standards. Now, this is what came up with the EPA, the Clean Air Act. You got catalytic converters, cleaner engines. Again, it was the lawmakers enacting this on behalf of the American public, much like they did for the EV cars, killed off the muscle cars and changed things forever inside the automotive world. April the 24th, 1962 was the first mass-produced turbocharged car in the U.S. Strangely, you know, this was Oldsmobile did this with their jet fire. And it's based on the F-85 model, and it came out with a turbocharged V8. Now, this was a 215 V8. Now, this is an aluminum V8 engine. And it was a pretty good engine. I had one that was naturally aspirated, ran fine until it got hot. Then aluminum didn't like all that. But it worked really well enough to kind of lead to some of the technology that we use currently in the industry. And then April the 25th, 1927 was when Volvo was officially founded in Sweden. Now the idea was to emphasize safety and durability that would dwork on the roads that were in Sweden at the time. They were pretty rough, apparently. The first car, the OV4, came off the assembly line, and 280 cars were built that first year. Now, Volvo would go ahead and become very innovative with safety features, you know, like the three-point seat belt. Now, this is something they famously made available to all manufacturers for no charge. Just here. We developed this. Now everybody can use it for the safety. Then in uh April the 19th, 1954, Mercedes rolls out the 300SL Gullwing. Now, this is a very iconic vehicle for uh Mercedes bands. It was based on some of the race cars at the time, and what really makes it stand out is the distinctive Gullwing doors. It had a lot of advanced engineering in it, featuring fuel injection, which was very rare at the time. Made it very had a remarkable performance. You know, it would do 162 miles per hour back in 1954. Now, this is uh it became a very big symbol of their post-war innovation and luxury, and to the point that instead of introducing the car in Frankfurt or Geneva like they normally do because it's Mercedes-Benz, they actually rolled the car out at the New York International Car Show instead, because they were trying to make that worldwide application real quick. Moving on to April the 29th, 1930, the first modern car radio was demonstrated. Now, there was a lot of different things going on, a lot of people were developing things that were working, but to become commercially viable, it was Motorola, which at the time was Galvin Manufacturing, that actually came out with one. It was definitely considered a luxury feature, mainly because it was about the third of the price of a new car at the time. It was$130, and you could buy a new car for four or five, six hundred dollars. So it transformed driving because they got it to the point where they were basically making mobile entertainment hubs that we use today. You know, everybody just you don't have a car without having some sort of audio system in it. And uh Motorola itself blends motor and Victrola, and that became the marriage of the automobiles. And I really found it interesting that I found the reference to Blaopunk, Blaopunk Audio, 1952. They were putting stuff into cars. So they've been around a lot longer than I thought.

Don Armstrong 25:48

You know, I uh actually had a uh bought a Blaopunk radio for one of my cars in years past. It was pretty good.

Mike Marrs 25:56

Yeah, yeah, nice stuff. Anyway, that's some of the things we found in automotive history this week that we thought were rather interesting.

Bugatti Lawsuit And Pet Accessories

Don Armstrong 26:02

A Florida Bugatti dealership filed for lawsuit uh alleging Bugatti of the Americas wrongfully canceled its right to perform warranty work in retaliation for requesting higher labor reimbursement rates. Lawsuit also claims breach of dealer agreement, discriminatory vehicle allocation, and illegal direct-to-customer sales. Bugatti, Miami, said it was retaliated against for requesting an increase in its labor warranty rate. Oh, wait for you, wait for you hear this. According to the complaint, Bugatti, Miami asked in September of 24 for an increase in its warranty parts reimbursement rate from 100.49 percent to 160 percent. That request was approved. Then in June of 2025, the store asked for a hike in its labor reimbursement rate to$1,350 per hour. Negotiation led to an agreement to raise its hourly rate to$1,100 from July through December in 2025, then up again to$1350 as of January 1st. But in February, Bugatti said it would no longer authorize the store to do warranty work because of its excessive labor and parts markup. You think but wait a minute. How much do the cars go for? Like four million dollars?

Jeff Dziekan 27:16

Yeah.

Don Armstrong 27:16

So you can get a stripper for about$1.4 million. A stripper car. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stellantis is launching a line of accessories designed for those on four legs rather than four wheels. Mopar, the automaker's parts and service division, calls its newest items available for purchase online and through dealerships Mopar. So look for that online.

Jeff Dziekan 27:44

I want that deal.

Don Armstrong 27:45

Yeah, exactly. Uh Stillana's, by the way, cited data saying 78% of U.S. pet owners travel with their pets. And that annual spending on pet items now tops$150 billion, and we want a piece of that. Mopaw. Mopaw.

Mike Marrs 28:02

Mopaw.

Don Armstrong 28:04

All right. Hey, we'd love to hear from you. Shoot us an email. The address here is info at inwheeltime.com. We're back right after this quick break stay with us. Your car is a direct reflection of you, so don't be satisfied with color fade or a dingy dull appearance. Get rid of those terrible automated car wash scratches. Gulf Coast Auto Shield is your save the paint company. John Gray and his team of detailing experts can help your cars finish without a full repaint. Searching for real experts in window tent or windshield protection, Gulf Coast Auto Shield. Dash cans, radar detectors, Gulf Coast Auto Shield. Got a new car? Get it protected as soon as you take delivery. If you don't know which of the multitude of protection products to go with, John Gray will give you an honest opinion and won't sell you something you don't need. John will help you understand the many options and pricing right on the spot. He's your guy to have your ride looking its best and protected too. See the state-of-the-art shop yourself, free tours anytime. Gulf Coast Auto Shield is easy to get to, located just south of the Southwest Freeway on the Sam Houston Parkway. Gulf Coast Auto Shield, full service luxury car care today and online at gcautoshield.com. Gift giving should be meaningful, and we have an idea. A hand-painted custom illustration of your car from one of the nation's leading artists. Now you can get one or a car show poster customized for you, a friend, or a loved one. Bill Sites will be happy to guide you through the process. No matter what the day, birthday, anniversary, or any day, an autographics custom illustration adds an extra touch of class to any home. Call Bill today, 832-922-0963. That's 832-922-0963. That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show. I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning on Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and our InWheelTime.com website. Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartPodcast, Podcast Addict, TuneIn, Pandora, and Amazon Music. Keep listening, and we'll see you soon.