To All The Cars I’ve Loved Before | First Cars
Christian and Doug explore automotive nostalgia & personal car memories on our podcast— featuring true automotive stories and childhood car memories from everyday enthusiasts.
To All the Cars I’ve Loved Before shines a light on everyday enthusiasts, from father‑daughter/father-son duos and automotive brand launch managers to the restoration students and expert-level instructors at McPherson and Weber State Colleges. Real stories, real people, real passion—thats why our car podcast stands out from others.
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To All The Cars I’ve Loved Before | First Cars
How a McPherson College Grad Arrived at F40 Motorsports | Mason’s Classic Car Path
Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!
Join To All the Cars I’ve Loved Before for a deep dive into automotive restoration as Mason—a McPherson College graduate—traces the journey that started in high school and took him from a record-speed Model T build on campus to working alongside Wayne Carini at F40 Motorsports. Sparked by an episode of Chasing Classic Cars, Mason explains how hands-on training, peer wrenching, and judging at the Audrain Concours shaped his career, then walks us through the resurrection of his 1965 Ford F-100 pickup and daily-driven Mustang GT. Along the way he shares smart upgrades that make classic car preservation practical—think LEDs, electric fuel pumps, and power brakes—while preaching his core belief that every vintage machine deserves regular miles, not museum dust. Whether you dream of restoring your own project or just crave insider stories from one of the world’s top shops, this episode delivers high-octane nostalgia and actionable insight.
Mason's favorite episode is with Andrew who shares details of what it is like to own and drive a Trabant and his dreams of a Tucker - https://www.buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/17009738-classic-cars-automotive-adventures-from-trabant-to-tucker
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Welcome back to All the Cars I've Loved Before, your authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia, where our guests are unique, each auto has an era and every car tells a story. So you know it's time to plug in, get a little grease under the nails and slip on that favorite car theme t-shirt, hat or jacket. But before we do that, as often as my want, let's welcome back our listeners from all over the globe Ireland, kazakhstan, germany, welcome back, welcome back. So when we say that this is an international program, we mean it. So welcome back to our international listeners as well. As stateside Ashburn, virginia, not far from Doug, san Antonio, texas, portland, oregon, st Paul, minnesota and Winchester, illinois, welcome back. Glad to have you all aboard. And how you doing? You doing partner? What's going on over?
Doug:there, got the delorean back from the shop. What does a car guy do after having his car gone for a couple months? He immediately starts ripping it apart to do other things lovely. So it becomes inoperable. So I remove the dashboard, um instrument cluster binnacle. I had a um, another one recovered by a friend in the delorean club for a modest fee, and so now I have a beautiful, brand new looking dashboard that I need to install. So I have to rip out the old one, which has a big crack in it and it's faded, and oh, so, so how hard was it to get the new one or the refurbished, whatever you're replacing?
Doug:It was difficult to say the least I think there were about 18 screws bolts that I had to get at. Actually probably closer to 20. And it's just some prying and gently and lots of things to take out, including the instrument cluster. While I had it out, I put all leds in the instrument cluster is that it easy done? I had already bought them in advance. It's pretty, pretty common um upgrade in. It reduces the electric Anytime you put a.
Doug:LED it reduces the electrical draw on all the old wiring, and so you're making the car better along the way. So now every light in my car inside, outside are now all LEDs.
Christian:Yeah, and also the LEDs should last way longer, of course. Yeah, and also the LEDs should last way longer, of course. And there's a lesson in there for sourcing as much as you can the small stuff, work ahead, work ahead, work ahead. Don't pinch yourself for time. Make sure it's all under the roof, and then we've got this big project. You can kind of get it all done at the same time. Well done, man.
Doug:Yeah, and I had my 13-year-old Good stuff.
Christian:So without any further ado. It's not about us, it is about the guest in this program. So thrilled to have today's guests on. Tell us a little bit about today's guests, how they entered your virtual garage and let's get a name to go with that face.
Doug:Yeah Well, let's see, a month or two ago we had interviews with a student instructor duo from McPherson College in Kansas. And, with the magic of the internet, if you connect with certain people on Facebook, let's say then you start seeing all their friends pop up. And I saw Mason pop up and so I clicked add friend, I sent him a message and, you know, fast forward a month or so. Here here we have them, and Mason being a graduate of McPherson, uh, McPherson college there, um, uh, in majoring in our restoration management, and I think he graduated about two years ago. We're super lucky to have him.
Christian:Mason, welcome to the show. How are you this afternoon?
Mason:I'm good. It's good to be here.
Christian:Fantastic. Well, first off, is everything he said accurate and correct? Now that we have you to fact check Because I don't believe it just if I see it on the internet, if he's click an ad, friend and this and that can we get a fact check from you Is everything there correct? That is exactly how it happened. I love it. You told me that. So how did McPherson end up on your radar? Tell us a little bit about the program.
Mason:For those who may have not heard the prior episode or forgot, tell us a little bit about the program and then how you find out about it and what attracted you to it well, uh, my dad and I were always fans of wayne carini's chasing classic cars and one saturday, while I was, of course, sleeping in as a teenager, my dad was watching the show and he did.
Mason:Wayne did an episode visiting mcpherson college, talking about it being a four-year degree and everything, and this was about the time I was nearing the end of my high school career, so I he didn't know what I was going to do after school and I knew I needed to go to college, but what for? I wasn't really interested in much. And um, my dad sees this episode, he comes and wakes me up and he says you gotta, you gotta look up this. This school they have a four-year degree, it's working on the classic cars and like it can't get any better. So I I did my research, I looked, looked around and discovered they have a, a big car show every year in may it's always the first Saturday in May and so we, I told him about it and I said you know, we could go visit, go see the car show and see the school and everything. So that was my junior year of high school.
Mason:So then that would have been we would have gone in May and I loved it, we we got a tour from one of the students at the time and just seeing the shop and the facilities One Kansas is gorgeous in the summer and spring oh wow, and so that was just great. And then everyone there was just so nice and everyone takes the time to get to know you and remember your name. So even by the end of the weekend people were calling me name that I I couldn't remember all these people's names.
Mason:So it was very special and I just knew I had to go there and I applied and the application process is pretty uh pretty.
Christian:It was pretty rough, or not not rough competitive, competitive, competitive At the very least, competitive right yes.
Mason:Yes, we had to. At the time they were only taking 30 new restoration students per semester, oh wow. And I had to submit a portfolio of I think it was 25 photos and I had to have a comment for each one explaining what I was doing in the photo things I've worked on, the things I was doing. And I also had to write a little paper about myself, why I want to go there, why this interests me, where I come from, kind of thing. And then I also, I think I got my high school auto shop teacher to write me a letter of recommendation as well, and so you have to get accepted into the school first and then into the program, right? So I got accepted into the school and it was exciting. And then eventually I got my acceptance letter from the school saying I was in the program, and it was a big deal, it was a lot of excitement.
Christian:That is so what an origin story, you know that's. That's better than any Marvel superhero origin story I've ever heard and that is impressive. Now, you didn't. You didn't grow up anywhere near McPherson, kansas, so you were a ways away. It's not like you were next door. I mean, there was. There was a lot, there was a lot to go through here to make this happen, to even visit. So, um, wow, the, the, the, the magic of the referral and your dad waking you up and you taking the, uh, taking the challenge and the initiative Yep.
Christian:Yeah, a hundred percent. A hundred percent, yeah, very interesting. So in interesting. So another great thing about McPherson is that you can study different things and I thought that was so interesting and I guess that the restoration well, the car program is the major and there are different emphases within it right, history, I guess yours was restoration, there's technology. Can you talk a little bit about the different areas of study and if you considered others or you knew exactly your path?
Mason:And then you have the management and the history, and I always forget all five, but I had at least one friend in each one, so I know about all five of them. But actually after I had been accepted, the summer before I started there, I got a call from one of the employees, just kind of get some information before I started and what I wanted my major to be. And he asked me and it was one of those things I was not ready to commit to this for four years. I have to make this decision. And he said he assured me I could change it anytime I needed and whatnot, but just to get me started, and he explained all five of them and I um, at the time, my, my all time dream was to eventually own my own shop one day, and I wanted to know what was going to go on behind the scenes too. I wanted to know if I was running out of money or not. So that's why I basically ended up choosing the management emphasis.
Christian:That way.
Mason:I could take the short classes, know how to work on them and whatnot. But then also, when I'm looking at the books, I understand what's going on and I can do math and stuff. Sure.
Christian:Yeah, that makes sense to be able to kind of extrapolate and know where you want to go. Impressive, doug. What do you think?
Doug:Very very impressive. Yeah, my daughter just got into a college and different program, but she is for musical theater and she had to do the exact same thing. She had to apply, get into the college. Then she had to go for many colleges. She had to go do auditions. Some auditions were remote, most were in person. And then you get into the program and so you know it's, it's an, it's a lot of work, right, it's not just hey, I got in, it's, you got in, but you didn't. You got into the program, and that's another thing. Do they? Um, mason, I'm curious if you get into the college, do you have, can you and let's say you didn't get into the auto restoration program? Would they allow you to attend and then could you more easily get into it the following year, the auto restoration program?
Mason:great question they do have the option where you can uh be what they call a transfer, and so you can transfer into the program okay okay, I've had a couple friends do that. Um, there was I've even had friends who they. They came to the school for sports.
Mason:They were in baseball or football and they were recruited by the team and they get there and they end up making all the friends with all of the restoration guys and they realize they they like cars just as much as we do and they either get in and do football at the same time or they transfer over and stop doing the sports and move to the restoration. So there's they do. It's it's hard to get into, but for a good reason. But they do give you plenty of options to try and get in because it's there's plenty of us with the passions they want us to be able to.
Christian:Yeah, yeah, and and it is the most fun you'll ever have, reading a course catalog where they have the course descriptions of the classes. I just what I found. I just poured over all of them and so interesting, like anything else, hey, these are your core classes, you got to take these. And then here's the elect, here, your electives All right, possible elected and then, depending upon your emphasis, these are going to be your, your courses that you study to ensure that you have that core knowledge for them.
Christian:And the wonderful thing about this program is you're so focused on what you want to do. It's obvious you have the passion and very often they have or there's either a job waiting for you, some sort sort of internship. The whole thing is built to get you to the next specific step, and that's wonderful, because you really don't want to waste any time as a young person. So how did it help you set up for your next step of your career? And and where are you now? If you can share?
Mason:so I'm currently at f40 motorsports with Wayne Carini. That is the fun part of the story that I like to share about myself. It was the episode of his show that I saw in high school and found out about the school and went to the school and then with the school, I was on the Model T building team and there was a group of five of us. We would take a 1926 or seven I can't remember the year now and uh, 1926 or seven model t and we it was a running and driving we'd drive it up and then we'd take it all apart all the way down to the pieces and then we'd basically perform in front of an audience. We'd put it back together as fast as we could and drive it away and our best time that I ever did with the group that I was
Mason:with was, uh, five minutes and 14 seconds from uh pieces of a car to a running and driving car. Wow, and so doing that, we, the group of us, we got invited to the odd drain concourse in in Newport, rhode Island, and we were up there doing our performing. And then we also, each of us, got to be apprentice judges for the actual Concours Day on Sunday and I got put in. We each got put in separate groups and I got put in a group with Wayne Carini and at the time he was basically my hero well, he still is.
Mason:I mean, I have this awesome job, but at the time he was a hero that I was wanting to meet and so I got to spend the whole day with him, spending time judging and stuff, and I, before we had got to judging, I had got to talk to him and tell him about it. Was his episode that got me to the school and now I'm on a school trip meeting him and he really enjoyed it and he kind of put me to the test and, uh, while we were judging, he would give me things to look out for and there was one. Uh, the two cars in the class we were judging they were really neck and neck and so we were looking for something to separate the two give one first in class and he had me looking at the date codes on each of the wheels of the cars and one car had all the date codes matching and the other car they were all different dates, did not all match and so that was what determined the first in class.
Mason:And so from then on he, he, really we really got along and he actually exchanged contact information with me that that trip and invited me to come out and visit. So I came out. That was in, uh, october of my I don't remember, I think it was my junior year or sophomore year of college.
Christian:Wow.
Mason:And I think it was my junior year, and then he invited me to come visit so that following March and spring break I spent everybody goes to the beach or something. For spring break I went to Connecticut to visit Wayne Carini and see his shop and everything and he showed me around and I I basically got to spend the week working there and I learned so much in that week it was amazing. And halfway through the week or so he was introducing me to some other people and he said, yeah, mason's going to decide if he wants to intern here or not. And this whole time I thought he was deciding if I was going to intern there or not and so I said, well, if it's up to me, then, yeah, I would love to do this. No choice to be made, yeah. And so then it was decided that I would come that following summer and, uh, do an internship. And so I did my. My dad and I drove up from Houston all the way to Connecticut in June. So just a few months later and, um, so just a few months later, we drove up with our family's car and I got to have that for the summer and my dad flew home. So I spent the summer.
Mason:Wayne has an apartment in his barn for the upholstery guy and stuff Whenever people come from out of town and need a place to stay to do things with Wayne.
Mason:And so I got to stay in that apartment for the summer and I got to work and just do some of the coolest things with him Go to the concourse and stuff and by the end of the summer I just loved it there so much and I loved working at the shop. I loved all the guys at the shop and just the experiences. And so I pulled Wayne inside one day and it was I think it was on the weekend or whatever. I mean I was basically at his house. So I saw him a lot and I asked him. I said, if it's possible, I really love working here. Once I have this one school year left, if I could come back after I graduate, I would love to come back and work. And he said it took him about two seconds to decide and he said, yep, you can come back, we'd love to have you so awesome man. Well, my, what my uh full circle story that I really love.
Christian:Well, I I want to say two things. I guess three. I want to tell you congratulations about 10 times. Congrats to the 10th power. The first thing. Second thing is that is so impressive the way you just willed all of this to happen. The third thing I want to say is what a wonderful detail about the tires where you were looking for delineation. How do you separate one and two? And Doug, that's's gotta go up on YouTube if it's okay with Mason, that's just a wonderful story, Fantastic.
Christian:So what do you think, Doug? Is it about time to to take him in the way back machine and to the phone booth that teleports or whatever? And let's, let's go back to the first part, and I think it may have something to do with his background. Might be the best background we've had on the show, but I'll let you take it from here Sure, sure.
Doug:You bet. But before we do that, Christian, I just I do want to put Mason on the spot. He answered in our intake form that his favorite episode that he listened to was the Trebon episode. And, Mason, if I can put you on the spot, why did you enjoy that episode so much? And I'm friends with that guy. He actually lives pretty close to me. That's how I met him.
Mason:Okay, I'll keep it nice then. Yeah, no, no, if you want to come down to Maryland, great answer, come on down.
Christian:You can have a ride in a Trebon and a.
Doug:DeLorean and a bunch of other cars.
Mason:Hey, there we go. I have to be honest, I haven't listened to very many.
Doug:I don't listen to a whole lot of podcasts, so that was.
Mason:It was one of the few that I have listened to and I enjoyed it because I love learning about cars I've never heard about before and those usually I guess they would fly below my radar, I guess never, never been something that's really caught my eye. And so hearing so much about them and the cool stories that they had to share and stuff and I had to look up those cars after listening it was fun stories to hear, Such a good point and it's international history too those cars.
Doug:Yeah, yep, and Christian and I grew up towards the end of the Cold War, right, and so those were cars we might have heard about but we had never seen and we never would have seen unless we were overseas. Until you know, fast forward what 35 years later, they're all over the place now and people who grew up with them maybe because they were living in East Germany can now have those cars in the U? S or whatever country they're in now, and they're actually maintained. It's, it's such a cool. It's such a cool story. We had somebody on who had a Skoda I think it's actually pronounced Skoda which was was that from the Czech Republic? Yeah, yeah, yep, yep. So that was another car. We had never heard of another.
Christian:Oh, funny that you mentioned that Some Czech listeners tuned in for the first time and I didn't mention that in our geographic where people are listening from. But I'd totally forgotten about Skoda and I bet that's what prompted it. It's the first time we'd ever had anybody from there.
Doug:Listen, but it could have been one of my, absolutely from Belarus and he he knew of Skoda, but he called it Skoda, oh, okay. Well, we don't have the fantastic accent like he has, but we can say it that way, Not even near so. So no, thank you. Thank you for that, Mason. Sorry for the sidetrack, but Christian wanted me to pop you in my time machine. Try and get it up to 88, which I think it'll actually do, even though the speedo only goes to 85.
Christian:You'll need a dashboard to tell if you're actually going that fast.
Doug:But maybe We'll see well the key is to test the dashboard before you put it, before you put it back in, because the point because of the way leds work. So anyway, that's on the list, but hop in the time machine and tell us about your first car, and I love this story. I don't want to take too much from it, but you've got several generations your dad and your grandfather involved in it yeah, so it was, um, I always like to say it was a hobby of my dad's.
Mason:It turned into my passion, um, so he was the one who got me into cars growing up. He had a 1998 mustang that I just adored. Um, I've always been a mustang guy, but that was my dad's car and it was a Mustang. It was just so cool, um, and so that's what we would work on together and eventually my dad got a 1978 F-150 that we would work on together and stuff. So we're clearly a Ford family and I'm a Ford guy, and so I had, um been saving up my money, um, when I was so, when I was 16 16, I'd saved up enough money that I was looking for my first car so I could get back and forth to school.
Mason:And my dad, he, was more familiar with Craigslist and just looking online for vehicles for sale and we knew I wanted to have something, a classic, because I'm a car guy, I can't drive a normal car to school. I think it's got to be something interesting. So I um, we looked around and I I really decided I wanted a truck. I wanted a Ford pickup truck, and there's just so many fun things about pickup trucks and so I'd saved up my money and my dad had found the ad on Craigslist and we had gone through a few either people who didn't get back with us or they didn't. We couldn't agree on a price or whatever. But we came across this one. I was a huge fan of it. It was a 1965 Ford F100, single cab, long bed. It was a V8 automatic transmission. At the time I didn't know how to drive a stick shift, so that's really what I was looking for was automatic, and it pretty much checked all the boxes. And it was not too far from us in Texas. We were in Northwest Houston in spring is our town and it was in Lufkin, texas, which is East Texas. So we and it's it's interesting it's actually my mother's father that went with us.
Mason:He has been kind of the mechanical one. He's really handy. Both my grandfathers are very handy, but my mother's father, he's the automotive handy guy, and so my dad wanted us to have as much help as we could going to look at this, because I didn't know that much. My dad knew more than I did, but he didn't feel like he knew that much and so as much help as we could get and he had his trailer. So that was a really big helpful part. So we we made the trip all the way out there.
Mason:Um, we had to get up pretty early. I do remember, um, it was just far enough away that go there and come back for the days. It was a good bit. So we went out there and we looked at the truck and we got to drive it. Um, I didn't have my license at the time, I was a little bit slow on my driver's ed, so my, my dad drove it around and he liked it. And then we go to put it on the trailer and it wouldn't start, it wouldn't run and we couldn't get it on the trailer. And the guy that start it wouldn't run and we couldn't get it on the trailer. And the guy that we bought the truck from, he was the nicest guy. I think he was really nice also because he knew why we were there. It was for me, it was for my first car, and so he ended up going to the auto parts store. He probably bought like a hundred dollars worth of parts trying to fix it so that we could get it on the trailer.
Mason:And we eventually got it. Um, it was mostly a lot of me watching all the all the men really go at it and work together and problem solve it was. It was really cool to watch at the time and so, um, we got it, got it up on and then, uh, my, we had brought the money, we had brought the money that we agreed on and, um, it was supposed to be mine. So my dad hands me the check and says all right, go give it to him. And me, being a shy, barely 16-year-old, I had to just walk up and hand it to him and then so they give me the. No, you have to give it to him and shake hands Thank you, sam Pleasure, doing business with you.
Christian:Negative official.
Doug:Yeah.
Mason:So I did that and we, we brought it home and put it in the driveway and my dad and I worked on it all all through high school. I never actually got to drive it to and from school, um, but we, we did work on it on the weekends and the evenings and stuff and we would get it running.
Mason:And then we'd end up having another problem and it wasn't running so, but it was running and driving, uh by the time I was ready to take it up to canvas with me for, uh, my four years.
Doug:So that's kind of where that started for my, uh, my first car awesome and and uh, we always ask people what happened to the car, but truck in this case, but you still own it, correct?
Mason:I do, and I have heard way too many stories of people selling their first cars and every single one of them has a just always regretted it. Yeah, and so I've made it my mission to never have to sell it. I never want to sell it and, um, if the time comes that I have to to make ends meet or whatever, then I'll do what I have to do. But for now. I don't plan on ever selling it. I'll continue working on it, continue making it mine.
Christian:Oh, that truck will last forever. I mean, that truck might outlast you, but it's interesting how it was a deliberate choice to keep it a deliberate choice. A lot of people may not bond with their first car, and we have a lot of people on the show that either wrecked theirs or some untimely demise Seems to be yeah, exactly.
Doug:Or it was a hand-me-down. Yeah, why should I put oil in?
Mason:it. What's the point?
Christian:Yeah, but you kept yours. You kept yours Very, very precocious move.
Doug:Very nice. And I did want to ask, since you kept it um, so obviously you needed some work. Was it mechanical? Was it body work? Um and uh, how did having the, the truck with you at mcpherson I hear they have um, do they call it the barn?
Mason:they call it the sheds, the sh? Sheds. I knew I was close.
Doug:Did you do work on it there and how did the things you learned at McPherson, as well as the instructors and your fellow students, how did that help you with certain aspects of repairing the truck, if it did?
Mason:Yeah, so I've done quite a bit of work to it over the years since having it, for actually probably about eight years now, I think. So I've done a lot over time. When I first got it it was running and driving. The brakes were a little iffy, so we did some brake work and then it sat for a while because I still didn't have my license.
Mason:So then sitting causes things to not run yeah so, um, it was just, it was just lots of tinkering with it, and then, when I got up to school, I um had some steering issues that I had to work on, and so that was my first time working on my truck with friends that I had made and stuff, and so it was.
Mason:It was really cool how quickly things can get done when everyone when there's there's you, who is really work-driven wants to get it done, but then you multiply it by four or five.
Mason:You know all these guys who want to help you get it done. So I had to pull my steering box out of the truck and send it off to get rebuilt, and so over the years at school, in the sheds, I would work on it and I would have friends help me work on it. Um, because it's that's one of the really amazing things about going to the school was you get students that come from all over with tons of different knowledge, coming like backgrounds with different levels of knowledge. So I pretty much came in pretty low knowledge level and I, of course, learned so much but through my time there. But I'd have friends who sometimes you wonder why they're even there, because they know so much they can almost teach the classes themselves too. It was. It was always really really great, and so if I had trouble working on something on my truck, they would help me out because they knew what they were doing.
Doug:And then it was always um an unwritten agreement.
Mason:Like you help me, I help you. So whoever? Helped me on my truck. I would. I definitely would not um shy away from whenever they need help on their project cars and stuff. And over the years I put a seat cover on the bench seat and I upgraded some of the wiring.
Doug:When I got it.
Mason:There was a lot of wiring, nuts and no-nos under the dash, sure. So as basically, as I've learned over the years where, through it's, through school and through working at the shop, I've I've, uh, I guess, upgraded more things that I've learned. Oh, that's not that good to be on my truck. Well, let me, let me make it better, and so, and it's been almost kind of fun, and it makes me laugh sometimes when I work on the truck, because I'll even go in and fix things that I had worked on before.
Doug:And then I go.
Mason:I can't believe I did that, but at the time that was a great, great fix. So Yep.
Doug:Yep, You're like who's this idiot?
Mason:He did that. Oh, that was me.
Doug:Yep. But it shows the progress that you've made, right yeah, and you're concerned to make it better, right yes, and I, and so there's.
Mason:You talked about wanting to take the engine rebuilding class. Yes, once you take some of the classes, you can take the advanced versions of the classes, and that's what I did. I've always loved mechanical things and so mostly mechanical work, and so I took the engine rebuilding class and then I wanted to take the advanced engine rebuilding class, and in that class a lot of times you can bring provide your own engine to build. So I did the engine in my truck. Oh, awesome.
Mason:And it was a great experience and I'm still actually not quite done. I it was a. I wish I would have taken the advanced class before my final semester of school because it turns into a time crunch. And I got it in and running. But with the car show coming up and graduation coming up, I didn't quite get it finished and it it started making a noise on the break-in period and we weren't sure if it was a catastrophic noise or not, so I never got to actually finish finding out if it was okay or not. But I did build the engine and I've since had it shipped up here to Connecticut and I've been having it in storage because I've just been so busy, and now that the weather's getting great again I'll get it back out and work on it. And the mechanics at the shop have also. They haven't.
Mason:One of them happens to be a ford guy, so he has told me he would love to help me work on it too. So I'm just very lucky with all the resources I've had with this truck yeah, it's the gift that keeps giving.
Doug:Surround yourself with smart people and good people and you know, and tools and all these things right.
Mason:Absolutely.
Doug:Yeah, and these days there are so many resources out there right between the YouTube videos, right? Maybe you've even put some up there, who knows?
Mason:Not quite, but I am youtube mechanic certified.
Doug:Yeah, you know I, I heard that, you know, I, I think, um, I think, uh, uh, what was her? Uh, ava gregory uh said that in on our podcast when we had her on that she was youtube mechanic certified. Um, so, uh, before we talk about your second car, which is also Ford, I did want to ask you, and we like to ask this question tell us about a song that makes you think about the truck. I think it was a song that you listened to in the truck, right? But in thinking back and preparing for this podcast, you shared something with us.
Mason:Yeah, I'm a huge fan of pretty much all what's I guess considered classic music. Now I listen to it so much I don't consider it classic, but I love all genres. But being from the South, I guess I prefer country, and so 80s and 90s country with joe diffy, and he has a song, pickup man, and one of the verses says when I was 16 I saved a few hundred bucks. My first car was a pickup truck and when I heard that song I just knew that he was talking about that was me, so I I would listen to it in the truck. I listened to it all the time and so it was a very, uh, relatable song.
Doug:Yeah, yeah, it definitely, definitely a good fit and uh, so I do want to ask about your uh, ask about your second vehicle, which was not a truck, but it was a it was a mustang.
Mason:Yes, the 1991 mustang gt. Uh-huh. Um, I I love mustangs, as I said before, and uh, I say I pretty much love any year of mustang. You know, the mustang 2 gets a little hairy, but I'll still give it some love um yep, but I love this mustang. It was, uh, it was the 302, the five liter, with a five speed manual, and that's really the car that I learned to drive stick shift.
Mason:I, I was taught on my freshman year roommates. Uh, 1969 oldsmobile 442, a big block with a four speed. That's where I really learned how to drive stick shift. Okay, um. But then daily driving a mustang is really where I got comfortable, because I got it in between school years, um, so it was a summer when I was home and I had to get to my job during the summer and if I, if I couldn't drive my stick shift mustang, I wasn't going to get to work. So, um, which, funny enough, was at a classic mustang shop. So I, I was really living the mustang dream at the time.
Doug:Yep yeah, there are lots of mustangs there, I'm sure, and they probably heard you uh pulling up definitely about a mile away.
Doug:Yep, yeah, yeah, one of my, one of my close friends in high school had one, had a. It was a 1990 mustang gt I think it was blue and they, the all the gts had the uh what gray bottom. The lower half of it was gray, the the plastic on the bottom. Yep, yep, the gt flares, I guess you would call them. Um, yeah, it was such a neat car and and 225 horsepower even back then was a lot, especially in a light car like that, that thing could, oh yeah, shred some tires like, and that's what he did in it yep, I did the same, yep yep, fun, fun for that.
Doug:Um, yeah, so the mustang you don't have anymore, the truck we know you're never going to get rid of.
Mason:Um, what would be your dream car my ultimate dream car is the 1967 westing uh. Gt500 eleanor. Uh, from the movie gone in 60 seconds with nicholas cage. Um, ever since I saw that movie I fell in love with that car and that's one of those cars. People either love it or they hate it. Um, but I love it and one day I I hope to hopefully eventually build my own. That would, it would probably I would. I think that would be more fun. We'll see when the time comes around if I'd rather buy one than build one, but for now I'd like to build myself one. Yeah.
Doug:Yeah, and you know I should have asked you early on. I know you mentioned putting a seat cover on the bench seat and whatnot. What have you seen as like kind of tasteful upgrades, especially working at F40 Motorsports, that people are asking for? And I give this great example, like my DeLorean, you know, front end, rear engine, rear wheel drive, right, but steering's still kind of heavy. It's a stick shift as well. I have tennis elbow which I can't seem to get rid of. It's a 50 plus the age 50 plus thing that you get even if you don't play tennis, and I had some other friends were doing it too. I had electric power steering added to that and it made it like a different car to me. It was. It's so much more enjoyable. So just just wondering if, if, whether for your truck or customers that you've seen, would have been some kind of modern upgrades that are important that you feel enhance the car but don't take away anything from it I do.
Mason:I've seen a lot of power brake conversions. Um I one thing that I don't know it doesn't really increase the drivability. But, uh, electric fuel pumps on cars that don't have them, they, we sometimes will install them with a switch under the dash so you can't even really see it and we'll hide the, the fuel pump and everything. But most of the customers that we have their cars are in a collection and they sit and even just being where there's actual winters and salt on the road, and so people put their cars away for the winter so they sit for, you know, months on it at a time.
Mason:So when they, when you're trying to start them up again, that, especially the, the really old cars with the six volt battery systems, they, they, just they struggle to crank over anyways on a full battery, so trying to get the fuel all the way up to the front of the engine and get it started. So the electric fuel pump are really great because they flip the switch. You fill up the carburetor, you're already ready to go pump the gas and it should fire really quickly and that way you're not killing the battery and the starter and stuff. So just simple things like that that really help it out?
Doug:yep, and it could make the difference between somebody put barely driving a car that's a classic to driving it a little more, which I I think goes into one of the causes that Christian's going to ask you about real quick.
Christian:Yeah, just as we guide the podcast here gently towards the off-ramp, we ask our guests what are causes or things that are important to you, that you espouse or that you're passionate about, and you had a very interesting answer. Should I read it back to you, mason, or can you paraphrase? It has to do with a lot of cars just kind of sitting around and, as you alluded to, that's the worst thing you can do to anything mechanical.
Mason:Yeah, I believe that all these cars should be driven, and as much as a car that has sat for a while and needs help getting running again is job security for me. It hurts me more to see all these cars sitting for such long periods of time and just getting neglected and deteriorating without any love. And I'm not a crazy funky spiritual guy or anything, but I almost believe that cars have souls. You can talk to them sometimes, so it sounds a little crazy.
Mason:You know it makes it sound better, but um it, it helps. Like you don't, you're not gonna, you're not gonna leave your best friend and uh, you know you never talk to them and whatever, like you're, you're gonna keep. You know you don't have to drive these cars every day. They're, they're fun cars to bring out on a nice day or whatnot, but but letting them sit for just years and years and I know things happen, but but if you, if you don't have to let it sit and you shouldn't- Well, I?
Christian:the funny thing is, I think you win either way, because if they sit, you're going to fix them, but anything mechanical will have to be fixed at some point, and that's where you step in. So I think you're going to be busy and passionate about this field for a very long time to come, mr Mason, and I want to thank you for taking some time with us today, because it was a distinct pleasure meeting you and speaking with you, and we wish you all good things, my friend.
Mason:Well, thank you. Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed it. You bet you are welcome back here anytime, and we wish you all good things my friend.
Christian:Well, thank you. Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed it. You bet you are welcome back here anytime and we would love to check back with you every so often to see what you're into, what's your latest project, et cetera, et cetera. But for now you have just heard the high-revving, low-mileage, late-modeled herd round-the-world authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia. He's doug. Reach him at doug at carslovecom. I'm christian, reach me at carslovecom and this was mason. You know the best way to connect with him, apparently, is how doug did it just add a friend? Add that friend button. Mason magically appears. If you like what you're hearing, please follow and tell a friend. That helps us grow in continually finding guests and telling these stories. Try out carslovedcom, especially the carousel of memories, as we like to call it. Send us the pictures of your automobiles, we'll get them up there. Check out our link tree, our digital switchboard, which is L-I-N-K-T-R dot E slash Cars.
Christian:Loved Always. I'm sure we'll see you at the next local car show, showroom, race show or concourse. We appreciate you taking a lap with us. We will see you next time.
