Episode 245 with Tim Ryan of the V8 Swap Shop.

The original hot-rod kid is still playing with V-8s; but now he’s taking them off-road. Tim Ryan, owner of the V8 Swap Shop is revving up as your go-to guy. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

3;36 – I got knives pulled on me daily because they knew I had a nickel for milk money 

12:08 – they organized the high school drags and all the high schools were invited to participate; me and my friends rand the show because we all had hot rods             

21:52 – A buddy of mine had a CJ5, it was an eye catcher; we’d meet girls like crazy when in his Jeep, I was the same guy as the one in the old car, but girls liked Jeeps.

28:48 – My wife says she only wanted a guy with a normal nose and a small truck. Maybe God had a reason to make me buy that truck so I could meet her.

38:49 – So, I ended up ultimately back in the automotive world which is where my heart always was. 

43:35 – When is it going to be your Independence Day?

51:22 – Each build is difference, we’re not a cookie-cutter shop.

Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.

Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

Transcript

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[00:00:00.200] - 

Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview-style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the off-road industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call off-road. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active and off-road. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call off-road.

[00:00:46.560] - 

Whether you're crawling the Red Rocks of Moab or hauling your toys to the trail, Maxxis has the tires you can trust for performance and durability. Four wheels or two, Maxxis tires are the choice of champions because they know that whether for work or play, for fun or competition, Maxxis tires deliver. Choose Maxxis. Tread victoriously.

[00:01:13.030] - 

Have you seen 4Low magazine yet? 4Low magazine is a high-quality, well-written, four-wheel drive-focused magazine for the enthusiast market. If you still love the idea of a printed magazine, something to save and read at any time, 4LOW is the magazine for you. 4LOW cannot be found in stores, but you can have it delivered to your home or place of business. Visit 4lOWmagazine.com to order your subscription today.

[00:01:39.540] - Big Rich Klein

My guest this week on Conversations with Big Rich is a small business owner doing things his way. Having grown up in a hot rod family, he learned in high school that girls were more interested in Jeeps than hot rods. So he sold his '57 Chevy Tudor and bought a 4x4. Good morning, Mr. Tim Ryan. How are you doing?

[00:02:01.580] - Tim Ryan

I'm good. Better than I deserve, probably. How are you?

[00:02:05.210] - Big Rich Klein

I'm doing great, and I deserve it.

[00:02:08.680] - Tim Ryan

Yes, you do.

[00:02:12.910] - Big Rich Klein

Glad that you're able to be on the podcast. I want to say thank you so much for joining me.

[00:02:19.530] - Tim Ryan

Well, thank you for having me.

[00:02:21.670] - Big Rich Klein

So I've known you for, well, I think since the beginning at Trail Hero. So like nine years, I think is when we met Hit Trail Hero. I may have met you sooner, but if I did, I apologize that I don't remember. But let's start at the very beginning. And where were you born and raised?

[00:02:44.000] - Tim Ryan

I was born in Los Angeles, actually Torrance, California. Yeah, but we escaped. I always say before it was a thing. We escaped in the '70s. Crime was bad enough back in the '70s, and So we had some family in Salt Lake, and they said, It's pretty good up here. So we left.

[00:03:06.170] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. And so the '70s, you were... Was it early '70s, late '70s?

[00:03:14.150] - Tim Ryan

Mid, yeah. Mid '70s.

[00:03:16.560] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, so you were around 10 or 12 years old at that point?

[00:03:19.920] - Tim Ryan

Yeah.

[00:03:21.760] - Big Rich Klein

What was it like those early years? I mean, you're talking about the crime ridden. Was it more the family thing or Was school trouble? What was the- Well, I had to...

[00:03:36.860] - Tim Ryan

So we lived in Inglewood, ultimately. That's where we left from. And it was pretty rough. Our front yard was the San Diego Freeway, and you know how the freeways are built up in Los Angeles. And so that big wall of Ivy was our front view. But we were right by two big streets. And I was in third and fourth grade and had to walk underneath the San Diego Freeway through the little tunnels and step over the winos that were passed out and the homeless, and walk past a junior high where I got knives pulled on me daily because they knew I had a nickel for milk money.

[00:04:13.300] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:04:14.830] - Tim Ryan

People trying to break into our home when they saw my dad leave, and they knew we were home without a dad, so they tried to break in then. It just got crazy. We got out.

[00:04:24.910] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. And so getting held up for milk money, huh? Yes.

[00:04:30.410] - Tim Ryan

Silly. I don't know that they ever would have stuck me, but I wasn't willing to find out. I was that smart at that age anyways.

[00:04:37.920] - Big Rich Klein

Did you always keep your money split between two pockets?

[00:04:42.320] - Tim Ryan

There wasn't really much to split. It was a nickel.

[00:04:45.750] - Big Rich Klein

A nickel, okay. You couldn't bring two nickels and give one up, huh?

[00:04:51.910] - Tim Ryan

Exactly. One in the other pocket. Apparently, I wasn't that smart, though.

[00:04:58.810] - Big Rich Klein

All right. So What were those? Besides the trauma of going to school and getting held up for milk money, what else was it like down there?

[00:05:10.750] - Tim Ryan

Well, so my dad and his best friend, who I still consider my uncle, Uncle Dave, this guy, he's one of a kind. He's crazy. But they grew up together. They grew up building cars together. He's quite a case. He's quite a personality. Everybody there has since migrated to Arizona and Utah. But I grew up in that world. If you can envision American Graffiti and Hollywood Nights, those movies, that was their life. That was exactly their life. To this day, I'm still hearing crazy stories of the stuff those two used to pull. I kept thinking we needed to make a movie out of it or something or at least film it. That was Nathan Riddle from Crawl Zones' idea when we were talking about it on the way down the trail hero one time. He was like, We need to go film these two while we still have here. But they were always building hot rods and old cars, and my uncle transitioned into choppers in the '70s and stuff. But he had a 10 car garage down there in Torrance, and that was it. That's where I grew up, was old cars and be in building the hot rods.

[00:06:18.420] - Tim Ryan

And so it just came to me as a little kid, and then I grew into it as a teenager and stayed with it.

[00:06:26.180] - Big Rich Klein

So what did your dad do for work?

[00:06:31.380] - Tim Ryan

He and my grandfather were both truck drivers in LA.

[00:06:34.630] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. So they did this stuff as a hobby. So they did this stuff as a hobby. So they did this stuff as a hobby. So they did this stuff as a hobby. So they were drivers of some type?

[00:06:39.570] - Tim Ryan

Yeah. A lot of it was with Garrett Air Research. It does the turbos and stuff. Okay.

[00:06:46.320] - Big Rich Klein

What was school like for you besides not having milk money every day?

[00:06:52.720] - Tim Ryan

It was pretty average for elementary school down there, and we left... Let's see, I think I was going into fifth grade is when we moved and then moved to Salt Lake City at that point. Okay.

[00:07:04.570] - Big Rich Klein

The transition to Salt Lake City, what did you think when you got up into that area?

[00:07:11.640] - Tim Ryan

I liked it, overall. I mean, it's hard as a little kid or at any age, going to new schools and stuff, but I had got used to it. Honestly, my parents were divorced when I was extremely young, before elementary school age. Between moving and back and forth to parents, I thought about that recently, and I told my kids, I said, I went to 10 different elementary schools, and they went, What? I was used to change at that point, and it was not too bad. But I'll tell you what, the first thing I realized I liked about Utah was the change in seasons. I love snow. I still to this day love snow, and I love snow wheeling, but seeing all four seasons was new to me. In Los Angeles, we had a banana tree that was producing in our yard, so that seemed weird at Christmas, but I just immediately I love the four seasons.

[00:08:02.860] - Big Rich Klein

When I moved to Idaho, I thought the idea of having snow on the ground was going to be great until... And it was, as long as we were able to keep the house warm. But the garage, I couldn't work in it because the floor was, there was no insulation in the garage. The floor was concrete, and it It got dang cold up there.

[00:08:34.260] - Tim Ryan

Yes. It was a radiant heat, cold.

[00:08:37.440] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. You have that propane heater, turbo thing that you plug in the wall, hook to a propane tank. It was like a little jet engine. And I had to have that thing less than a foot away from my hands while I'm working. And I thought, that can't get shit done here. And when when Shely and I finally went on the road full-time, Halley, the youngest, went to college. We decided to move out, and so we rented the house and sold everything. And as we were driving away, I was like, Wow, this is great. I don't have to go back. We don't have to move back to Idaho. And she goes, what? You don't like Idaho? And I said, well, I like Idaho. It's just I can't live there if I can't work on things. It's just too dang cold.

[00:09:30.880] - Tim Ryan

Yeah. Yeah, it's a different type of cold, too. When it's on cement, that radiant cold will go through your bones. That and the outside wind. Yeah.

[00:09:42.060] - Big Rich Klein

It's always windy, it seems. It's too close to Wyoming.

[00:09:48.600] - Tim Ryan

Well, they always say in Idaho, it depends on where you're at, because Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho take turns, jabbing each other. One sucks because the other one blows.

[00:09:58.460] - Big Rich Klein

Correct. I used to say that about Cedar City. It's always windy in Cedar City because St. George Blue and Salt Lake sucked. So then you're going to school now up in Salt Lake area, and how are you as a student?

[00:10:19.920] - Tim Ryan

I would say I was above average. I wasn't a valedictorian. I wasn't a straight A student, but I had above I didn't even really put myself out there to try and Excel, and I would get Bs and B pluses and A minuses. I wasn't a valedictorian. I was a screw off in a class clown, to be honest with you.

[00:10:46.260] - Big Rich Klein

Really? I wouldn't have thought that.

[00:10:48.140] - Tim Ryan

I would much rather make people laugh than do homework.

[00:10:51.680] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Okay. I get that. I got in trouble for that a lot. Did you participate in in any sports or any activities like that in school?

[00:11:03.690] - Tim Ryan

Through high school, I played soccer. We were the first years of a soccer team at the high school I went to. So it was called a club. It wasn't as organized and didn't get all the funding. But I wanted to play football every year, but I never played as a youth. And so I just had this image, football players are big and bad, and I probably couldn't get into that. And then when the team comes out every year, I'm like, I'm bigger and faster and stronger than half those guys. But basketball, my whole family is really into basketball. All my siblings, including my sister, played high school ball and we're quite good at it. But every time there were tryouts, the coach always wanted his previous team from the previous year, so I didn't make it through every cut until the final cut, which is when they ran plays from the previous year. So if you didn't play the previous year, that's how he got his own team back. The rest of us were running around trying to figure out where we were supposed to be. They didn't even explain the play to us. So we looked like we didn't know what we were doing.

[00:12:08.270] - Tim Ryan

But yeah, I was athletic. I was 6'1, so I wasn't short. But I was athletic. But the only organized sport I played was that, was soccer. But my last couple of years of high school, they organized the high school drags, and all the high schools in Utah were invited to participate. Me and all my ran the show because we all had hot rods in high school, and it already spent all our time out at what used to be Bonneville Raceway in Salt Lake City, and ultimately was Rocky Mountain Raceway. And of course, now they've closed down. But the high school drags were an absolute blast. That was where I felt at home.

[00:12:52.730] - Big Rich Klein

So your dad built street rods, and then you guys moved up to Salt Lake, and he continued to do that?

[00:13:04.110] - Tim Ryan

Not as much as in Salt Lake. I mean, he kept a couple of his cars, but he sold off most of them before we moved because we just really couldn't get them all to Utah. And it really made me sad because he had a Model T for me. He was saving for me. I knew that at the age of eight when we moved, but he had to sell it. I was bummed even at that age, but it all worked out. But he still kept a '28 Model A roadster that he and his buddies a group project they all built, and he bought them out. They used to go down to where the Corvette Club hung out in Marina Del Rey and call out Corvettes and never lost a one, he said. But it was a small block. It was a 327, a Muncie four-speed and Ford nine-inch rear with homemade ladder bars, homemade headers, and all that stuff. It was an absolute blast. In fact, I was spoiled. That's the car that I got to learn to drive in. Nice. Yeah, I was a little spoiled in that aspect. But He also kept one that he still has to this day as a 1933 Buick, a Victorian, I believe it's '58 series.

[00:14:07.170] - Tim Ryan

It's a show car winner now. It got mothballed for a number of years where we had all the kids at home. He got laid off with the Jimmy Carter era recession in the construction industry. It sat in Mouth Falls for a few years. Then when everybody moved out, he was able to pull it back out and do a restoration on it. It's a car show winner everywhere now. Nice.

[00:14:28.570] - Big Rich Klein

When When you guys moved up to Salt Lake, he started working construction, or did he continue trucking?

[00:14:37.690] - Tim Ryan

He spent a lot of years in construction up here. That was the bulk of what he did. Yeah.

[00:14:40.940] - Big Rich Klein

All right. What was the first What was your first car? I know that you said you got the '28, you got to learn to drive in it, but what was your first car?

[00:14:55.870] - Tim Ryan

My first car was a '57 Chevy, a two-door Bel Air. Oh, wow. Yeah, it started out spoiled. Well, okay.

[00:15:01.910] - Big Rich Klein

I say spoiled, but yeah.

[00:15:03.950] - Tim Ryan

But really, what it was was a project my dad had picked up to fix and flip and make some money on. But it was to say it was a shell is not an overstatement. To get it home, he had to bolt wheels on it. He had to sit on a milk crate. There's no interior, no power train. He had to use vice grips and place the steering wheel and use the handbrake. It It was a shell. That's where I learned. My dad, like I said, he brought it home for him to fix and flip and make some money on. But I guess... He and I had some rough times in high school. I was lippy, and he was old-school. Buy the book, and you're going to get... I got my butt kicked more than once by a size 12 boot. But I guess he says to this day, I made some comment about dropping and out of high school, and I think if I did, I don't recall saying it, but I probably did that just to get under his skin and stir the pot a little bit. But well, it worked in my favor because he thought, Man, maybe we could make this father and son project and help our relationship and all that.

[00:16:15.150] - Tim Ryan

And so that's what we did. I learned how to rebuild wheel cylinders and master cylinders instead of just bolt new stuff on like we all do these days. I learned it from the ground up and had to come up with every piece and every component at it. And was washing dishes at restaurant to earn money at age 14 and 15 for it.

[00:16:34.240] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[00:16:35.730] - Tim Ryan

It was a fun project.

[00:16:37.300] - Big Rich Klein

So was it a local restaurant, something really close?

[00:16:40.650] - Tim Ryan

Yeah. I ride my bike to work thing just a few miles away.

[00:16:45.120] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Yeah. What about... Did you attend the dances and all that stuff?

[00:16:56.020] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, we did. Me and my buddies. I had a core group of fans. My graduating class, to be honest with you, I really didn't like many. It was clickish. Me and my buddies just hung out and we did our thing. We had our core group. We all had hot rods. Two of us had '57 Chevy's. One had a '55, one had a 55, one had a '59 that his grandfather brought new. Another one had a '58 Impala. That thing was our core group. There was a place in town there that looked like an old '50s hamburger joint. It seemed natural. We made that our hangout. But we did. We all went to the dances and proms and stuff.

[00:17:34.570] - Big Rich Klein

With the movies out like American Graffity and Dazed and Confused, did you like those movies? Do you like those movies? Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

[00:17:48.740] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, for sure. In fact, the soundtrack of my life, I swear down those years was Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. That was in Salt Lake City, State Street. Cruising State on Friday and Saturday nights was a big deal back then. Me and all my buddies in our cars were always up there. There was an old Grand Central store that later became Fred Meyer. But their huge parking lot right there on State Street in downtown Salt Lake City area ended up being a big car show every Friday and Saturday nights. Guys would bring their families up in the cooler and the chairs. Just like a car show, we just hang out and talk cars. Somebody'd go find somebody and they'd go off and drag somewhere. It was a great time.

[00:18:32.860] - Big Rich Klein

The car culture nowadays is so much different than back then for the youth. Our young days don't equate to the same thing that the youth of today has.

[00:18:48.420] - Tim Ryan

Absolutely. They don't have a clue what it used to be like. It was quite cool then.

[00:18:52.440] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. The street takeovers and everything, I think that's about the dumbest shit I've ever seen in my life.

[00:19:00.000] - Tim Ryan

You and me both.

[00:19:01.240] - Big Rich Klein

Talk about just, I don't know.

[00:19:05.690] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, I'm not. I don't approve any of that stuff. I'm glad even my kids, they didn't like that stuff.

[00:19:12.740] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, mine are all into crawling. Yeah. So through high school, you're doing the Hot Rod thing. Did you guys have shop classes?

[00:19:26.700] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, we, fortunately, they hadn't done away with that stuff back then. So we had auto mechanics, and we took that every year. It was a fun class. We enjoyed it. We did a lot of stuff to our vehicles in there.

[00:19:40.100] - Big Rich Klein

And then out of high school, did you What was the job after dishwashing? What jobs did you file through?

[00:19:51.680] - Tim Ryan

Oh, gosh. Through high school, well, there was a pizza hut in town there that I worked at till all hours of the night. And I didn't care that you were underage. I'd work till 3:00 in the morning after you got done clean up. But a retail store, a home center, a hardware store, I worked there as well. Just trying to earn enough money to fix that damn car up.

[00:20:13.300] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:20:15.380] - Tim Ryan

And then- A little bit of landscaping as well. I forgot about that till just now. Condominium, property management stuff.

[00:20:21.660] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:20:22.650] - Tim Ryan

Yeah.

[00:20:23.910] - Big Rich Klein

And then when you got out of high school, what was the next step?

[00:20:29.680] - Tim Ryan

Oh, Let's see. My dad and I butted heads a bit at that time, of course. And about two weeks after graduation, my buddy and I moved out. We got an apartment. And, of course, we were closer to State Street then, so we could spend more time cruising State on the weekends.

[00:20:45.170] - Big Rich Klein

Was that by design?

[00:20:47.740] - Tim Ryan

No, it's just what was available, and it was convenient that it was located there as well. It was an apartment complex back in the... What would that have been? Early '80s, I guess. I graduated it in '82, so it would have been '82 we moved out. We had that whole group, though. There was even more. That kid I moved out with had a '72 Chevelle that was extremely fast as well. It's funny. All these friends of mine with the old cars we go up and stay straight. Of course, a lot of guys, we're trying to meet girls as well. I mean, that's part of going up there. But we finally had one girl say one night, Why do you guys like these bubbly cars? And we're like, What? You're weird. Get out of here. But we go up there in my... Yeah, they have the bubbled shape to them is what they're talking about, like a bathtub. You don't understand. Cool. Get out of here. Well, I had another buddy that had a CJ5 that he had rolled, but then completely frame off, restored it. It was a buddy of mine calls the Skittles colors yellow, but he did black and chrome.

[00:21:52.700] - Tim Ryan

The '80s were definitely the chrome era, and so our cars were all chrome, too. But that Jeep was such an eye catcher. We'd go up on State Street in his Jeep, and we'd meet girls like crazy. And I'm like, I'm the same guy as the one in that old car. They like Jeep. So after that, I always wanted a Jeep.

[00:22:16.110] - Big Rich Klein

And when did you get your first Jeep?

[00:22:19.260] - Tim Ryan

I did not get my first Jeep till... So we got married young and started having kids right away, too. So Jeep never made anything that really worked for us. And so I'd always built Blazers and Suburban and stuff over the years. And I didn't get my first Jeep till, my gosh, less than 10 years ago, I think. Okay. I always had big block Suburbans and Blazers and things like that. And I really got into the '69 to '72 Chevy's for a while, and I still love that body style. Right. They didn't... Yeah. So I've had Blazers and Suburban over the years. My first Jeep, believe it or not, is my Jeepster Commando that I have now.

[00:22:59.240] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And what year is that Jeepster?

[00:23:03.410] - Tim Ryan

'67. '67.

[00:23:06.080] - Big Rich Klein

Now, that's swapped?

[00:23:08.180] - Tim Ryan

Not yet, but I have all the components for it. It's all sitting in the shop and waiting for me to have time, but customers' vehicles come first. Correct. They pay.

[00:23:18.300] - Big Rich Klein

Some businesses think that.

[00:23:21.120] - Tim Ryan

I always said that when we got into a bigger location, that as soon as I got in there, I would start building mine because I've got a JKU frame for it, and I've got Superduty axles, and I've got an LQ9 six liter for it, and I've got all these components for it, and I can have a rolling chassis as soon as we get all that part done. But as soon as we got moved in here, I'm like, We are so far behind. I can't even think about working on my own stuff right now when people have been waiting for months and months to get their vehicles in here. So still sitting. Right.

[00:23:52.400] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. That makes sense.

[00:23:54.030] - Tim Ryan

I feel like that would not be a very good display of integrity if I brought my own stuff ahead of others that have been waiting and they've paid. Right.

[00:24:00.720] - Big Rich Klein

Unless you're doing it from 2:00 in the morning till 5:00 in the morning.

[00:24:05.110] - Tim Ryan

Yeah. And we're so stacked full right now that I couldn't even fit mine in there anyways. Okay.

[00:24:12.040] - Big Rich Klein

So you're living with a friend, an apartment out off State Street somewhere. What were you doing to make ends meet? What were you working at?

[00:24:26.620] - Tim Ryan

Me and some of my friends worked at a mom and pop type parts store in West Valley City, right by where we went to high school. It was just a cool little parts store, and we were all just working there and building our cars. That was our direction in life at the time.

[00:24:42.850] - Big Rich Klein

How long did you work at the parts store?

[00:24:45.910] - Tim Ryan

I started there during high school as well. I was probably there about three years, I'm guessing. Great guy. Bob Childs was the owner. He was more of a grocery store background guy, but a retailer and just super individual to work for.

[00:25:03.210] - Big Rich Klein

And how many of your buddies worked there?

[00:25:05.860] - Tim Ryan

I think there's three of us there at peak, and everybody else that wasn't working there was usually there hanging out. It was like a car show in the parking lot Of course, the old parts stores that have bar stools in front of the counter. It was more of a hangout.

[00:25:20.790] - Big Rich Klein

As long as it attracted customers.

[00:25:24.070] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, it actually did. In fact, there was one police officer in the area that I was building an old car, too. He and I became friends. We started doing a lot of horse trading for parts and helping each other out thing. I had stuff because I'd bought an extra car and tore it completely down for parts and then send it off to the crusher when there's and useful on it. We all had parts stashes. I'm sure my parents loved that because I was still at home part of that time. This police officer and I, we did a bunch of trading, and people like that would just come in and do business because they'd see the cool cars in the parking lot. It worked out pretty good for the owner as well.

[00:26:02.830] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. What was the next step after the parts store?

[00:26:06.780] - Tim Ryan

I actually went on a church mission for the LDS Church. A year and a half went down to Venezuela, learned some Spanish, had some good times, and then came back. It was the worst decision ever. But after I got back, for whatever reason, this was 1984, decided I didn't want to work on cars anymore, and I wanted to be a yuffy or something. I don't know. I'm embarrassed to this day to admit it, but I traded that '57 Chevy N for a a Toyota four-wheel drive. I wanted to go wheeling.

[00:26:34.050] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:26:35.630] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, it was a big move in the wrong direction. My dad tried to tuck me out of it. He tried real hard to tuck me out of it. But in the end, dad doesn't know best when you're that age.

[00:26:47.330] - Big Rich Klein

True. Very true. I've been through that on both ends of that.

[00:26:51.920] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, I regret that to this day. People often ask, is there... I see people on social media, in fact, even asking, what vehicle do you regret the most selling? And I'm like, oh, hands down.

[00:27:04.110] - Big Rich Klein

I've got a couple, but my first car was a 54 Volkswagen Bug that I had built a pretty strong 18 35 for it. And it was all California specialed out, slammed and all that stuff. Oh, yeah. And I had that through... I used to drag that around from from places that I lived for years with it not running. And I finally sold it when I was in Cedar City because I was leaving Utah, going back to Northern California, and I needed the money to be able to move.

[00:27:48.440] - Tim Ryan

Makes sense.

[00:27:49.150] - Big Rich Klein

And the guy that bought it was a local guy there that promised me he wasn't going to cut it up and that they were going to restore it. I don't know if that's what he did or not, I mean, I had, even though I had changed everything to fiber glass, all the bonnets, and the fenders, and everything else, I still had all the original stuff. And I mean, I used to carry that stuff around all the time. And I mean, I had it from, well, what was it? '72 to '99, '99, when I finally sold it.

[00:28:26.080] - Tim Ryan

Wow, that's amazing.

[00:28:27.260] - Big Rich Klein

It probably didn't run the last 10 or 15 years. But I always wanted to fix it back up. Never did.

[00:28:37.670] - Tim Ryan

I get that. Yeah.

[00:28:38.680] - Big Rich Klein

So then you get this Toyota pickup, and How stock did it stay?

[00:28:48.970] - Tim Ryan

Just a lift in tires is really all it needed. That thing wheeled really good, quite honestly. It was an '82, a little 22R. It was a good little truck until it wasn't, as they say. But it had the four speed instead of the five speed. I didn't know at the time, but those were notoriously weak. Then I got married shortly after. It turns out there was probably A reason why I bought that without knowing it. But my wife, she claims to this day that she always had this image in her head as girls grow up, what their weddings are going to be like, what their husbands, who's going to be their husband, or what's What's it going to look like? She only wanted a guy with a small nose, a normal nose, and a small truck. Those are her requirements. Maybe God had a reason to make me buy that truck so I could meet her Otherwise, I don't know that she would have been interested in me.

[00:29:47.700] - Big Rich Klein

So you have a small nose?

[00:29:50.890] - Tim Ryan

I have a normal size nose.

[00:29:52.740] - Big Rich Klein

Normal size nose. Apparently, it's been good enough. I never paid attention.

[00:30:00.020] - Tim Ryan

I thought that was an interesting feature that somebody would be interested in, but it worked.

[00:30:04.490] - Big Rich Klein

I win. And your wife is Sherry, correct?

[00:30:07.420] - Tim Ryan

Sherry, yeah. Sherry, okay.

[00:30:10.120] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. And how many kids do you guys have?

[00:30:12.370] - Tim Ryan

We have four. Well, eight now because they're all married.

[00:30:14.900] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Yeah.

[00:30:17.500] - Tim Ryan

Just married the last one-off in June, in fact.

[00:30:20.160] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[00:30:21.780] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, we got a great group. We have nine grandchildren.

[00:30:25.280] - Big Rich Klein

How did you guys meet?

[00:30:27.470] - Tim Ryan

It was a blind date, and we were engaged two and a half weeks later.

[00:30:31.590] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:30:32.650] - Tim Ryan

That was pretty quick. I mean, three months to the day after that, we were married. We were like, Let's just get this done.

[00:30:39.530] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Excellent. Still going strong.

[00:30:43.110] - Tim Ryan

Still going strong. She still likes me for some reason.

[00:30:46.000] - Big Rich Klein

It's that normal size nose.

[00:30:48.250] - Tim Ryan

It must be the nose. Yeah, she's a sweetheart. She's good. We just celebrated our 39th anniversary.

[00:30:57.430] - Big Rich Klein

39. Wow. Congratulations.

[00:30:59.740] - Tim Ryan

Thank you.

[00:31:01.600] - Big Rich Klein

That's good. So you got the Toyota pickup truck and the normal size nose. You meet Cheri, and were you You came back from your mission. What were you doing work-wise?

[00:31:19.340] - Tim Ryan

Property management. In fact, my dad had got into that a number of years before, and so I actually joined the same company, and I was his assistant manager. So that was interesting because we got along a lot better than we used to. But he and I are two that we butted heads a little bit, but we were a lot better at that time, of course. We managed some high-end condominium properties in the Salt Lake Valley.

[00:31:46.630] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Do you attribute that to the year and a half mission?

[00:31:52.590] - Tim Ryan

Not so much. It was just more it's who you know. And he knew one of the higher ups in the company, and they had need for not I only help there, but later on, I actually moved on and managed some of their properties myself. When you're first starting out and you're needing a second hustle, Park City was trying to become a nationwide resort, but it wasn't near as grown up as it is now. I go up there on the weekends, Friday night and Saturday night, till about 3:00 in the morning or so. They called it Security, but it was driving the drunks to and from town and picking them up at 3:00 in the morning from the bars when they shut down and that stuff. It made for some interesting stories, I'll tell you that.

[00:32:38.680] - Big Rich Klein

Really? Oh, yeah. Without naming names, you want to share some?

[00:32:44.730] - Tim Ryan

Well, like an example, we had a snowstorm come in. It was the only condominium complex that had been built out by I-80. As you come up over Parties Canyon, that of Salt Lake, and you get into Park City area. It's completely built up and there's businesses and homes and everything everywhere now. But back then there was one condominium complex that went from the front of Drode up the hillside, and people had started buying those and renting them out. There was no such thing as Verbo or Airbnb or anything. But travel agents, I guess, would get people from the East Coast and come out here for ski vacations and rent them. You get a lot of people from New Jersey out there, it seemed to. They were always the most interesting sort. Oh, my gosh. I mean that annoying. It was East Coast big money. Annoying. But they had this... You'd see those one ton van chassis with duly rears and the bus type thing on the back, like the rental car companies used to have and stuff. They had one of these that we would use to take residents or visitors back and forth into Park City because it was probably about a 10-mile drive or so.

[00:34:01.220] - Tim Ryan

Main Street in Park City was quite popular at the time, and bars, and restaurants, and nightclubs, and things. And so we, like every hour on the hour thing, drive people into town and pick up people and bring back people that are ready to come back. And this one weekend was a major snowstorm. In fact, I don't know that I'd seen one since that big, but it dropped 6 feet of snow in 24 hours. And at the time, I had a '71 Blazer I was building, and it got around just great. Back when 33-inch tires were huge, and I just got my 33-inch mutters on it, so I thought I was pretty cool. But I was bringing home a load of these people back from Park City. In fact, everybody was trying to fit on the bus at the same time. So I'm pretty sure I violated some rules back then, but I've had that thing so full. There was not even standing room. Ladies were sitting on the engine dog house. There was a van type chassis, and coming back. It had dualies on the rear, and they were pretty much bald. It was snowing so hard and coming in sideways, you couldn't see past that short little hood.

[00:35:12.260] - Tim Ryan

Well, the road going into Park City is built up, and so it drops off steep on the sides. This is the only time that bus full of people that were been drinking all night long were quiet. They were deathly silent. Everybody was a little freaked out. When I'd feel your... I always call it the Helen Keller method of driving, because when I feel the tire go off one side, I'd cut back. But with the snow coming in horizontal, I couldn't tell how far I'd cut back until the tire goes off that side of the road. So we ping-pong like that all the way back to the condos. And then the condos were built on a hillside, so it was a steep drive up there. And I told everybody, I'm not sure if we're going to be able to make it up here with these bald tires. You might have to get out and walk. But somehow I was able to keep the momentum going and got them all there, and I actually got a standing ovation. But I had all kinds of fun with those people. I'd always tell them, if you look over here like a tourist guide or something, if you look over there, you might see bear and dumb stuff like that.

[00:36:13.620] - Tim Ryan

It was funny. I just work them. I just work them.

[00:36:17.100] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. And did you get tipped?

[00:36:21.170] - Tim Ryan

On occasion, not so much. It wasn't really a tipped position, but some people would.

[00:36:27.240] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. Okay. So then what was your next step?

[00:36:33.760] - Tim Ryan

Oh, let's see. We started having kids about then. I spent a lot of years in retail, running parts stores. And then mid, let's see, it must have been mid '90s, I got a promotion. I was with the Autozone and took over four states for them. I covered Northern Utah, Western Wyoming, all of Idaho and Montana. And they were starting to build stores at that time. So I was in charge of all the stores that built there. And so I was in charge of all the stores that built there, and it was a ton of windshield time. And they kept giving me lip service that they'd give me more money or cut down my area because it was just always windshield time. They never came through on any promise. So I made my own luck and left.

[00:37:18.450] - Big Rich Klein

I understand that. I had that same thing happen with the Cragans, with CSK before they became, before O'Reilly's bought them all up.

[00:37:27.970] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, back in the days when they were always in bankruptcy.

[00:37:31.720] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, exactly. So you started to do your own thing, you said, or go a different direction. What did you do?

[00:37:43.720] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, I just, I was trying to get off the road. Our boys were teenagers and my wife was tired of being a single mom. They were active boys, and I don't mean active like always doing stuff. They're active always doing crap. They needed a dad in their lives. So I just took retail job here in the valley and that ended up working into... I ran this Best Buy that they built here in town for a couple of years. But that company is just extremely hard on their general managers. It's a really high turnover position. So I left there as well. Actually, I left there because the position that I had taken, I said, look, you know what? Let's just put me back in assistant position. I'm not digging this GM thing. They were always down my neck about any little thing. They didn't do any advertising on television for six months. And as a result, sales nationwide dropped a little bit. Well, they were trying to hold the general managers accountable for stuff like that. So I said, just put me back to an assistant position. And we did that. And things were going great for a while.

[00:38:49.880] - Tim Ryan

And then the company wide, about every 18 months, they do what they call an operational model change. And they have a big PR campaign that comes out about This is not job loss, it's reorganization. But it is job loss. There's always job losses whenever there's a reorganization of structural change. There's two assistant positions in the stores that were dropped, and mine happened to be one of those. So they did a layoff, but they did it really good. They carried our Cobra on medical coverage for a year and six months salary, and they did it right. For as many things as there is, I didn't like about the company. They sure did layoffs correctly. So I ended up ultimately back in the automotive world which is where my heart always is. But novate conversions, the gentleman that owns it just happened to have a neighbor that I somehow came in contact with. I don't even remember how I met him, but I was doing work out of my house, just make ends meet and that stuff and word of mouth and just kept growing and growing. This guy suggested to me that I needed to meet his neighbor.

[00:39:52.040] - Tim Ryan

He owns a place in town that makes Jeep parts. I went, I'd like to talk to this guy. We did. He realized he needed me and I realized I wanted to be there. I actually just started doing shipping and receiving for him. Then I'm old school, hardcore work ethic thing. Anytime I'd see something that needed to be done, I just jump in and do it. On, even from maintenance and repair things. And so he liked that. We had a chat at some point, and he decided to make me his Chief Operations Officer. And it was good. We did all kinds of fun stuff. They never did any marketing or advertising. And I'm like, well, we need to grow this company. I don't know how to not grow a company. So we started doing marketing, advertising. That's how I came in contact with Rich was we jumped in as one of the big sponsors of Trailhead right off the bat because we could see the potential and his vision was excellent. So we started going to vendor shows and Jeep events and having a presence like that, brought in all kinds of additional sales people that didn't even know we existed and what we did.

[00:41:02.390] - Tim Ryan

So that was good. It was a successful run there.

[00:41:06.070] - Big Rich Klein

And you grew the business, and you guys started doing... Because before, you guys weren't doing installs, correct? You were just creating the different products and the kits, basically? Correct.

[00:41:20.990] - Tim Ryan

Yes, exactly. In fact, the salesman, they had at times three and four salesmen, and always trying to find what that correct number of salesmen was. But I was always trying to push to get benefits for our employees because first off, you have to have a good benefits package to attract good people. We needed machinists and things like that. I said that the only way you're going to attract good people is if you have good benefits and pay and things that will benefit their families. I was always pushing for benefits and things to attract these good people. I was always looking for different revenue streams. And that's one That's the reason we started doing the marketing and advertising, and that helped greatly. But we could have done it better. We had some limitations we couldn't work with. But the salesmen were always saying that, Man, people are calling in and asking if we would do the conversion for them because who better than to do the install and people that develop the product? And so that's where I said, Look, here we go. It's another revenue stream. Why don't we start doing installs and sell the product we have?

[00:42:28.280] - Tim Ryan

And we did that for a while. And there wasn't really good support for it within the company. The culture was such that some of the guys there just wanted to do the same old thing we'd always done. Like, JKs were huge at the time, just coming out. And I said, Well, the companies that don't change and adapt to modern trends have failed. Look at places like Montgomery Ward and Sears. And there's a whole list of companies that have failed because they didn't change and adapt. So we started doing installs and it went good for a period till it didn't, and there just wasn't enough support to keep doing it. And so that went away, and it is what it is.

[00:43:09.830] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I think I was the last one.

[00:43:13.030] - Tim Ryan

Yes, I believe so. There was another one from Texas that was in the same situation.

[00:43:17.740] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. So then you left Novate, and you started your own business again.

[00:43:29.170] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, not too long after.

[00:43:31.320] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And that's the V8 Swap Shop?

[00:43:35.740] - Tim Ryan

Correct. Yeah. I got so much support through the industry, and you meet so many people, especially if you go as a vendor to these events, that nationwide, and even worldwide, I've got customers I ship parts to in Chile and all over the place just from having been at Novate and put them on the map in terms of marketing and advertising. And I just learned, I've met so many amazing people. Well, like you and Shelle, for example, that's where I met you guys, was at Trail Hero. So much support. There's a guy in Ohio, he owns a company called QuickDraw Brand, and he does exactly that. He's a great mechanical engineer, and he manufactures Bell Housing's amounts and all these things to do different types of conversions in different vehicles. And he started out, and his main line was that R2.8 turbo Cummins, in fact. And I kept getting this random text from him, When is it going to be your Independence Day? He's constantly pushing me to go out on my own. And another really incredible friend, Jake White, that owns CartoTracks, he kept pushing me as well to just do it, take that leap.

[00:44:47.230] - Tim Ryan

He told me his story and how neat that was. They're very inspiring. I had taken a job for, in fact, a jeeper, in fact. Dave Paulson, a local guy, really great guy. He and his family-owned a trailer sales and repair company here in town. I worked with them for about a year, and COVID hit and really messed things up. I still kept getting these random text from my friend, When are you going to make it your Independence Day? Just go for it, dude, thing. We had an employee there who was going through cancer treatments at the time and still comes. She was so dedicated. She'd come to work everything. There was my wife and my daughter and I at home still, and one of us got sick. It turns out it was probably only a cold or something, but the symptoms mimicked COVID. We're like, Man, I can't go back to work not knowing. If I got her sick, I would feel horrible. It could kill her with a low immune system that she had during chemo. We all got tested for COVID. Of course, that I was on, I'm trying to think of a timeline here, but it was on a Thursday or Friday or whenever it was.

[00:46:05.400] - Tim Ryan

We all had to stay home in quarantine. The results came back, I think it was over the weekend, and we were all negative. I texted him and said, Hey, good news, I can come back. We're all cleared now, and we didn't want to take that chance with that guy there. I get a text from him on Sunday, July fourth. He's trying to cover his base as well, and their attorney recommended that I go two weeks with a negative test at the end of that still, too, to protect everybody. My wife and I were looking each other on this Sunday, July fourth, and we're sitting there at the table and she says, So is today going to be your Independence Day? I'm like, You back me? She's just, Yes, I do. Then, Hell, yeah, it's my Independence Day. I let Dave know and I'm like, Hey, I am so sorry, but I feel like it's really time for me to go do my own thing now, and I got to do it. He understood. He's an entrepreneur, a businessman, and a jeeper, and he fully understands. I've never looked back.

[00:47:15.610] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent.

[00:47:17.030] - Tim Ryan

It's so good when I have my wife full support like that, though, too.

[00:47:22.190] - Big Rich Klein

It is extremely important to have that family backing.

[00:47:29.120] - Tim Ryan

Absolutely. She's my 50/50 partner. Yeah.

[00:47:33.000] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. And so did you have a building already, or did you just start doing things out of the garage?

[00:47:40.240] - Tim Ryan

How did it go? I did start one project in the garage, but looking for a building. And there's a guy in town who I've known him and his family for a long time. When we moved up in the Cash Valley, it was late '97, like Thanksgiving weekend of '97. And so we've been I consider myself a local now and just love it up here. But I've known him for a long time, and he does a lot of things with real estate and buildings, buying and restoring and selling and stuff. I asked him to keep his eyes open for something for me. He ended up with a small building just outside of the downtown area in Logan. It was small, but when there's nothing in a building, it looks bigger than it really is, that feeling.

[00:48:28.310] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, yeah.

[00:48:29.710] - Tim Ryan

I I walked in there and I went, Oh, this will do. This will do. Good place to start. It didn't have any heat. It was a cinder block building. It was good at first. It worked really good, but I I had so much some work from the off-road industry, people referring people and people coming to me that I'd met elsewhere. It was amazing. It grew way faster than I anticipated, to be honest with you, way faster. I was that small building. My son, who was at Novak Conversions at the time, he's really good at what we do as well. He'd come help me in the evenings, and I had another buddy that's an amazing fabricator and technician, and he'd come help me in the evenings when I needed it. Just couldn't pump things out the door as fast as I wanted, but You mentioned that little turbo-style heater, propane heater, you plug in the wall. That's what I had for the first winter, and it was cold. But it was good. It was good. We pump some good stuff out of that building, and we've been looking for a bigger location for three years plus.

[00:49:34.780] - Tim Ryan

If you're not in this area and in tune with the real estate market, you probably wouldn't understand. But there was nothing available that would suit what we do or be zoned for what we do. There's just nothing available. I had real estate agents that were friends of mine watching. I had just people, family and friends watching, people that work at parts stores in the valley that I know of watching. That's how I actually ultimately found this new building that we got into in September was one of the local parts store managers says, Hey, I found a building you might be interested in. I'm glad he said that because it's the perfect upgrade.

[00:50:16.390] - Big Rich Klein

So you just moved into the new building this September?

[00:50:19.730] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, this last September. Two, three weeks ago, we did a grand opening type thing and had my buddy that owns Burley Burger Chain down in in Utah, had him come up and grill in some... They do amazing gourmet burgers. Had him up here and had a bunch of friends from the Jeep industry come up and support us. And it's a little parking lot, Jeep show. It ended up going all the way down the street, both sides of the street. We're starting to sell RC cars and parts now. My kids that are into that built a cool RC course on the outside of the building. We gave away a couple of RC cars in a raffle. It was a fun day. We had to bring in some patio heaters because it was snowing But it was a good day. It was very well-attended and just a lot of support from the Jeep community. This industry is pretty amazing at that, aren't they?

[00:51:09.570] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. It's family.

[00:51:13.380] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't agree more.

[00:51:15.490] - Big Rich Klein

So what's on the horizon? What are the plans?

[00:51:22.660] - Tim Ryan

Well, right now we're just continuing on trying to catch up on the list. I got to the point where I was losing business because I tell people, At one point it was like, I know I'm about a year out, but I can't tell you exactly how far, because each job is different. Each build is different. We're not a cookie cutter. Some places that do this type of thing will only do an LS3. It's what they know, it's what they do. But we'll do pretty much anything anybody wants. I mean, I've got carburet old small block Chrysler we're doing in a '65 Valiant to modern Jeeps and Gen 5 GM power trains and everything in between. So We try and leave it up to the customer what they want, and we'll just make it work. And it works really good. But I started losing business because I was telling people how far we are. At one point, guys would say, Yeah, it's a lot of money. I got to save up anyway. So that's fine. Put me on your list. We haven't paid a non-refundable deposit. We realized that after about a year or two in to keep the schedule honest, as I say.

[00:52:23.620] - Tim Ryan

But eventually, we're so far out on the schedule that guys are like, I wanted it by this event, or I wanted it by this date. And so I get it. We're losing business, and that's like a knife in the heart for a business owner, isn't it? Right. Yeah, so we just we had to make this change. And so right now it's a matter of just getting caught up, pretty much. All hands on the wheel, basically.

[00:52:53.150] - Big Rich Klein

And how many employees are you up to?

[00:52:55.790] - Tim Ryan

Two additional, myself and two employees. And my son is I stole him from Novak. He knows this will be his future, and he's really good at what we do anyways, and he loves it. So it was a great fit. And another young man that I've known for a long time, and he's gone to... There's a school up here called Bridgland Applied Technology College, and they have an automotive course that's really good. And he has taken that and then have been working at a shop in Salt Lake for a number of years, getting his experience and background and dying to learn what we do. And I've always known him to be an incredibly hard worker. So we brought him on as well, and it's worked out really good.

[00:53:35.380] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. And advertising? What are you doing for advertising?

[00:53:41.270] - Tim Ryan

It's word of mouth. I mean, I haven't put any money into advertising because I'm so far behind right now. I can't really bring on a whole lot of work. That's your extra. Until we get caught up. So another reason that I just love this industry, they're so supportive. All you got to do is maintain your integrity and take care of people, make people happy. So it's all word of mouth, honestly. And I love it. Excellent. Excellent.

[00:54:09.010] - Big Rich Klein

So you continuing to look for a bigger building, or are you going to expand more employees We're- We're going to play that by year.

[00:54:17.960] - Tim Ryan

We're going to see what the market demands. So we might have to get a bigger building at some point. I don't want to grow too much and too fast, though. I mean, some companies have outgrown their riches, and then they get into financial trouble. So we're going to keep an eye on this. We're leasing this building. I figured our next step, this was in my long-range plan, was leasing a building and growing the business. And then in the next few years, as the business grows, it'll probably be time to put up our own building. I've got some ideas how we might want to do that, extra space that we can rent out at first until we grow into it and stuff like that. But right now it's just all hands on deck, just trying to keep up with it and get caught up.

[00:55:04.590] - Big Rich Klein

And do you have the time to participate in any of these off-road events?

[00:55:10.900] - Tim Ryan

Oh, yeah. In fact, I'm sure you've heard of the Idaho Vintage Jeep Rally? Oh, yeah. R. J. Jack. Yeah, my buddy. Yeah, my buddy R. J. Puts that on, and it's just fun. And any Jeep event you go to, you get some amazing people. But that one brings in... There are people coming from Washington, Oregon, California, South Dakota, and all parts in between. And it's just a blast. And of course, old Jeeps are just cool. So we hit that one every year. Trail Hero, Rich is just such a good supporter anyways. In fact, I've got one of his engines here now. We're looking at which direction we want to go to build it for a project he's got coming up, and he sends me people. I told Rich, We'll be there as a vendor. We'll be there. So right now, it's just a matter of trying to get caught up, though. But we'll be down at the Winter Jambury this year as well. That one's a fun event as well.

[00:56:07.920] - Big Rich Klein

So how many projects do you have in the shop right now?

[00:56:12.450] - Tim Ryan

I got three of my own waiting to get in. I just pulled my TJ over so we can start doing some stuff to it. But let's see, we've got five vehicles at the shop currently, one of which is one really nice guy out of Wyoming that He's got a beautiful LJ, and he didn't want to wait as long as it was going to take me to get to it. And I fully understand that, so he took it elsewhere. But it needs a lot of help. And so we're doing stuff to help him out right now and get it dialed in. And then so it's not a full conversion, but we're doing a lot to it. And then we've got about, I think it's four others there for full conversions right now.

[00:56:55.230] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. Excellent. Well, I'm glad to hear that things are going in the right direction, and that it looks like the future is bright.

[00:57:06.180] - Tim Ryan

Oh, absolutely. And it's such a fun industry to be in, too. It's cliché, but people say this thing is you don't work a day in your life if you're doing what you love. And man, I'm telling you, I'm just having so much fun at this.

[00:57:21.130] - Big Rich Klein

That's awesome. And anything else? You're going to take some time for yourself and your wife Now that you're empty nesters now, right?

[00:57:33.290] - Tim Ryan

Yes, we are. Well, we are in a sense, but our youngest that got married, we said, you two, why don't you just come stay with us for a while? Things are so expensive these days. Housing prices in Utah followed California. It's just extremely expensive for kids to get a start. So we told them, think about it before they got married, and you're welcome to come stay with us and help with the yard work and things like that. So it's a bonus. Then they said, yes, we like that. It's a bonus. I get help with the yard work, and they get some chance to save some money for a down payment or whatever they want to do. We still have them here, thankfully. We love it, too. We don't want them gone. We love it when our kids come over. We just had everybody stay this weekend, too, for Thanksgiving. We do our Thanksgiving on Saturday, not Thanksgiving Day. So all the married kids can go to their other in-laws on Thanksgiving Day and not have to choose or trade off. That way everybody gets to get together every year. Right. And so they stayed over the weekend and we just had a great time.

[00:58:37.360] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Yeah. Excellent. If people want to find out more about the eighth Swap Shop, How do they do that?

[00:58:47.280] - Tim Ryan

The website is v8swapshop. Biz. Com was already taken. So it's. Biz. And then we're on Facebook and Instagram. Instagram pretty much killed our account because I was just too busy and not posting much content. And so there's a v8_swap_shop. And that one we're just not doing anything with right now because the algorithm has killed it. So we started a new account recently that's got dots between the words. So V8. Swap. Shop. Okay. Excellent. So we'll start doing some more content, but we just been trying to keep up with the flow and not doing a whole lot of posting.

[00:59:27.930] - Big Rich Klein

But you still take reservations for vehicles to get in line, get in queue? Absolutely.

[00:59:35.920] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, absolutely. I'm working on multiple quotes at any given time, in fact.

[00:59:40.990] - Big Rich Klein

And you're doing anything. You're not just doing Jeeps or off-road vehicles. If you got a Valiant in there, yeah.

[00:59:49.670] - Tim Ryan

Yeah, I got a '65 Valiant. We're going to do a whole V8 swap on it because it's a local guy. His father passed away and it was his, so it's got a lot of sentimental value, but he wants it to We're going to be able to get you up and go a little bit. So we're going to do some work on that. And any square body LS swaps, we got people looking at those and hot rod. So, yeah, we'll do it all.

[01:00:13.540] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. Excellent Yeah. All right, Tim. Well, thank you so much for spending this hour and talking with me and explaining what it is that you're doing and how you're doing it. And I know you'll be successful at it because you are a hard worker and you understand what it takes.

[01:00:36.220] - Tim Ryan

It's true. I'm not afraid of hard work.

[01:00:39.760] - Big Rich Klein

That's important. And instill that in your kids. Sounds like you have with at least one of them. He's in there working with you.

[01:00:46.590] - Tim Ryan

Yes, with all of them. I've instilled that. I learned that from my father and instilled that into my kids as well. And they all Excel at everything they do because they're intelligent but harder workers as well.

[01:00:56.720] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Well, Tim, thank you. And You have a great rest of your day and say hello to everybody for me, and I hope to see you maybe at Easter Jeep, if you're out there.

[01:01:09.920] - Tim Ryan

Yeah. Will you guys be at Winter Jambury by chance?

[01:01:12.160] - Big Rich Klein

No, I'm not going to make Winter Jamboury, but I am going to be at Easter Jeep this year.

[01:01:16.250] - Tim Ryan

Okay, well, good. Then we look forward to seeing you. Tell Shellei, hi for me, please. You guys are great. We appreciate your support as well.

[01:01:22.100] - Big Rich Klein

All right. You take care and have a good one.

[01:01:25.180] - Tim Ryan

Thank you. You too, Big Rich. All right. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

[01:01:27.890] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have, or if there's anybody that you have that you would think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can. Thank you.