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Throttlecast by The Ride Lounge
Love for cars
Throttlecast by The Ride Lounge
Throttlecast: Episode 12
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In this episode of Throttlecast, Grant sits down with Jim Florek of Monster Customs to talk about his journey from installing car audio systems in his driveway to building a leading custom shop in the Southeast.
Jim shares how he and his partner grew the business from a small startup in 2010—taking on complex jobs other shops avoided—to earning a reputation strong enough to attract celebrity clients and major opportunities. A key turning point came when they pivoted into government and emergency vehicle upfitting, scaling rapidly into high-volume production while maintaining strict quality standards.
Along the way, Jim breaks down the realities of entrepreneurship—building trust, hiring the right people, and letting customer relationships drive growth. The episode also highlights his passion for cars, from high-end exotics to nostalgic classics, and how that passion continues to fuel both his business and personal life.
At its core, it’s a story about taking risks, evolving with opportunity, and building a brand rooted in reputation and consistency.
Guys, welcome back to another episode of Throttlecast. I'm Grant Van Broom here with my good friend Jim Florick from Monster Customs. How you doing, brother? How's it going, man? It's doing good, man. Awesome. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Glad to have you. Awesome. Doing some big things, a lot of transitions in the business. And man, we have a we have quite the history, man.
SPEAKER_00Oh man, we go way back to little like car rallies around Atlanta. That's right. Cruising around with some of the exotic car guys and uh having a little fun on 285. I remember those call days.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 2013. And uh yeah, it was right. Yeah, we were at Perimeter Mall. Yep. And I was in my uh, we'll call it an AMG. It was a C class. It it had the look though. And that was before I was kind of on my way to becoming the McLaren brand manager shortly after that. I didn't know it was gonna happen, but I just knew I had to be in the scene. And I remember meeting you. I didn't even know you owned Monster Customs at the time, didn't even know what that was, you know, in my early days in Atlanta. Um take us back to that day. Like where were you at in you know, at life in that point?
SPEAKER_00So, you know, it was still building a brand, uh, building a reputation. At that time, I had the uh CTSV that vengeance had built they had built for me, which was pretty cool. Um, but it was still building a brand. Uh it was still coming up, earning people's trust, and trying to be the best car customization shop, you know, in Atlanta. And so there was a lot to to do. There was a lot of building to do at the time. And I was still in that phase. My mindset was like hustle and work, hustle and work, and um let's build a brand, you know, and that's what me and my business partner have done. Uh, we've put our head down and went to work and um created a great reputation for just doing what we say we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And for somebody watching this for the first time that doesn't know who Jim Flork is, I mean, who are you outside of the business? What does your day-to-day look like?
SPEAKER_00Man, you know, for me, I'm really always knee deep, and my mindset is business. Um, you know, I always concentrate on how can I get to the next level. I love creating relationships in business. I love connecting people in business. So for me, I don't think that ever turns off for me. You know, I do like to, you know, relax a little bit when I when I can, but I'm always on the move. My brain's always running. Um, you know, I'll probably sleep four hours a night because I'm just constantly thinking of the next way to just do better and be better. And so it's it's tough.
SPEAKER_02You know, especially when you know that you're climbing a mountain that you're gonna reach the top of. It's like, yes, and what's next? What's next? You almost have to like manually turn it off, like saying, Hey, I'm I'm I'm putting my uh my MacBook away, I'm turning my phone off, and you force yourself into another situation where you're not thinking about business. It happens to me at least.
SPEAKER_00So that's so tough, man. I just don't know where the off switch is for me. Um, I've just worked so hard to get to this point, and um to me the road is is never paved easily. You're always working toward the next level, and um, I don't know if I'll ever retire. Yeah, I mean I will, but um, I just can't imagine slowing down anytime soon. I've got a lot of gas left in the tank, so I want to keep going, you know.
SPEAKER_02Seems like you like just purely being in the thick of things.
SPEAKER_00Yes. I thrive off of business, I thrive off of connections and networking. That's really what my strong suit is. And having a name brand out there is huge, you know. Um, some people just like to be behind the scenes. I'm not that guy. I like to be out front, I like to get noticed, I like to create relationships um and take this brand to the next level. And so far, I've been able to be pretty decent at it and do well.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. I'd I'd definitely say that. Let's rewind all the way back. You spent two decades in the car audio world before working or before Monster Custom Customs ever existed. I mean, where did that start for you and like what was your what was the car that you worked on that made you realize this is your thing?
SPEAKER_00So, you know, it was early on, you know, my dad was always into music and cool stuff growing up, and you know, we didn't have a lot of money growing up, and still to this day, my you know, folks didn't have a lot of money, but my dad would always do cool stuff like work on cars in the driveway with me, um, got me started in audio systems back in the 80s. We put our first stereo system in together in the driveway, and that kind of got me hooked. I was already a music lover from him at an early age, and then he started introducing me to audio, the audio side of things, which got me hooked. And and then there's, you know, of course, with that comes horsepower, um, everything else, and muscle cars. And so it really started there. And then when I had, you know, first got a chance to start working at a local car stereo shop in Buffalo where I'm from in New York, I like jumped at the chance because this was like not only just a hobby, but it was a dream. It was something that you enjoy doing. So it's not really work when you get to create cool stuff, and then you get to see the look on people's face when they hear their car for the first time and they get in it and start turning up their favorite music. You're like, I created that. Oh, yeah. That's super cool. I was able to install that. I did something that not a lot of people could do. So that was the early stages of where it became really fun and started building a name for myself. That's awesome. And approximately like when was that? Man, that was 90s, early 90s, like 92-ish, as I was with Custom Radio in Buffalo, which was a huge, and still till this day a well-known shop. Then I was with another shop there, Daryl's Car Audio, which was super cool and great people there. Um, and I still have contacts with all those guys still till this day that are still doing it in that area. Um, and um just built a brand, and then I went on to work uh with circuit for Circuit City for quite some time. Oh, right on. And um, yeah, grew my business uh, you know, and my knowledge with management and everything with Circuit City for a few years, grand opening a few stores in Buffalo. Um, and then it just you know started to go back into the mom and pop shops. I met up with a buddy of mine that had a car stereo shop in Niagara Falls, New York on the American side, and um left Circuit City to just kind of tone things down a little bit and um moved here in uh 97 and began to really grow myself and then boom, here we are. It just kind of led me to where I'm at today and with all of my connections and and clients.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and then your your partner is uh Terry Terry Don.
SPEAKER_00Yep, that guy is a powerhouse. Um, you know, most people will never make it in business with a partner because partnerships are tough. But I'll tell you, man, I've been blessed to have a best friend and someone like Terry uh in my life that's been phenomenal. This guy is just man, salt of the earth, easy. We both bring something to the business that makes it work perfectly. There's things in the business that he does amazingly that I don't really care to do, and vice versa. And together we just create a a powerhouse that's just unmatched, and we've been doing it for well over 16 years together, which is cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's amazing. So you opened up in was it January 2010? Is that correct?
SPEAKER_00Right around October ish of 2010. Yeah, you know, we it was just after a lot of the market had crashed in 08 and stuff. Oh yeah. Um, and we said, you know, uh we have a great following. This is either gonna be amazing or it's gonna not go so good. And we took the risk, but just through word of mouth, um we started thriving early on and grew quickly.
SPEAKER_02And that was just like a little, what, like 600 square foot shop at the time?
SPEAKER_00We were in Kennesaw, it was called the Attic Storage Facility. It was like a two-car garage in the back with like a little office and a bathroom. Oh man. And we started there and uh had some buddies of mine that were owners of Opera Nightclub, and they um uh commissioned us to build them a party bus, and we put uh TVs in the windows and stuff, and they were it was wrapped, it had stereo on the outside, and they would basically take um people, you know, back to their hotels and stuff like that from the nightclub. So that was kind of cool advertising for us, and that kind of got it um started for us. That was like and we had NBA clients and stuff like that too.
SPEAKER_02It sounds like they they then not only took the people back to the hotel, but they brought the nightclub with them on the way. It was cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, you've got big screen TVs in the windows that everybody can see from the outside. It's wrapped really cool. We put speakers, uh marine speakers on the outside of it. So it was cool. You had music playing uh with the whole uh loop of their whole commercial of the club going. So it was super cool, man. It was just a great time to really get started and really get our feet wet and get that exposure was amazing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and we've talked a little bit about some of the jobs that the larger shops didn't really want to deal with. Yeah. Um what kinds of builds were those in the beginning and why were they willing to pass on that work?
SPEAKER_00You know, a lot of people don't want to get into the mechanical side of things. Yeah, so for us, we were doing a lot of stuff that, you know, wasn't just car stereo because we said to ourselves, we're gonna be a custom shop, we've got to go above and beyond car stereo. So we were doing like engine swaps and and things of that nature, mild performance stuff, even you know, like bolt-on superchargers, simple things. We weren't digging completely into the engines and doing full engine rebuilds, but we were doing custom interior work, stuff like that. And um, there's a lot of shops that were trying their hand at it at the time, but they weren't quite fulfilling the needs of the of the client, and the clients, you know, they weren't really happy, so they would come to us and um you know, for us, we challenge accepted, we want to make sure you get your car back the way you want it. We have a reputation at stake, and um, we did everything that we said we were gonna do, and and then some, and that's how we really built that reputation in the industry.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And so when did it start to feel like Monster Customs had real momentum, like it was gonna become something bigger than just a side quest for you?
SPEAKER_00You know, what you start getting the celebrity clientele, you start getting people like Ludacris calling you out of the blue, getting my number, Shaquille O'Neal, um DeBrat, she was super awesome. She's still a good client. I still talk to Chris, you know, he'll text me from time to time, Shaq. Like, that's when you start to know that you're doing it right when word gets to those people and they have your number and all of a sudden call you one day out of the blue and you're not expecting that call. Um, then you know that you're you must be doing something right because the word of mouth is what really blesses you in business. Um, you know, it it's your word at the end of the day. How well did you stand up and do what you say you were gonna do? Did you do it well? Um, and that's what really that's when we really started to figure out, hey, this is really taking off. We're getting these calls, we're getting noticed. This is kind of where it's at. This is where we want to be, and now we just need to hold it there and and perfect it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I can definitely attest to that because I remember I was at Motor Cars of Atlanta one day after my career had started there, and I had sold this kind of mogul, I guess you could say, uh, a few cars, helped consign them. And then just one day on a Saturday out of the blue, like 10 minutes before this guest showed up, he goes, Hey man, future's gonna come see you, he'll be there in 10 minutes, and literally sold Future of Aston Martin, dead loss. Like out of nowhere, didn't have it planned or anything. Right. Um, and that really kind of helped my momentum out. So I can attest to that big time. Um, now the jump to the 11,000 square foot facility, you know, Terry described us as like a defining moment. Yep. Um, how did you think about that decision and what was the feeling in the room when you signed that lease? I know that was a big step for you.
SPEAKER_00You know, it's scary as as anything else. You know, even when you're starting business, you got to take a risk. You're leaving a guaranteed paycheck at another shop to to venture out on your own. So it's scary. But you say to yourself, you know, at some point you got to break free and take the risk and take the chance. If you don't know what's out there and you don't at least try, you're never gonna know if you're gonna be successful or not. So we signed that first lease. It was um a realization, like literally brought me to tears, man, because we walked out in that bay, we had like a grand opening party and had people over and open house, and at the end of it all, it was like eight o'clock at night. We finally shut down the lights are there, and we just kind of stared out into the bay, and we're like, and at the time we thought that place was huge, but for us it was, you know. Yeah, and um we're gonna stand out there and it just bring it brought tears in my eyes. I'm like, man, you know, the realization of hard work and where you gotten to and you didn't think that you would ever get there, um, that's huge. Yeah, it's that really makes an impact. And so it was a realization moment, and we knew at that point that we were really gonna have to hustle, we were really gonna have to put it our best foot forward because if you don't, you're not going to succeed. You're now taking it next level, and now you have to prepare for that next level. Yeah, that's a big deal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and you know, you've had you've been featured in many publications over the years, ride Rides magazine, yes, TV appearances. In fact, I think one morning I was getting ready and I had the news on for whatever reason, and you're on the news. I remember I sent you a text. I'm like, yo, bro, here you are. Like, what did that do for your business and you know, for you personally?
SPEAKER_00You know, it it's one of those things that people, you know, exposure is great. Um, media publications, doing shows and things like that, it's great. Um, I'm just I'm a regular guy like everybody else. I'm humble. I just want to get out there and perfect my craft. I just want to give people that are coming to see us what they've paid for and show that I'm worthy of them spending their money at my shop and at my facility. So for me, I love the exposure, but at the same time, I've got more pressure on me to make sure I'm giving them what they're paying for because my reputation and my work ethic means more to me than anything else. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'd agree. And uh just shifting gears a little bit, obviously it's you've been decades in the making, it's taken a lot different direction now. But going back to kind of these custom builds, what are some of the more or maybe one of the most outrageous builds that you guys have ever done that you'll never forget?
SPEAKER_00We've done some cool stuff. I mean, you know, we had one gentleman who's a good friend of ours. Um, we actually built him a uh uh Georgia um uh tailgating vehicle. So he's a big Georgia fan, loves to go to the football games, and uh we built him a custom truck with a motorized cap where you can go out and hit a button, the cap raised up, and then TVs motorized, flat screens, you know, and we had a full bar in there that pulled out. Um just cool stuff like that. I mean, we did exotic stuff, of course. We've done wheels and tires. Um, we did a couple of uh big trucks. Uh one of my good clients, uh Bruce Irvin from the NFL, we built him an awesome truck with a full Kelderman lift kit, 42-inch tires on it, big wheels. Um, I mean, we just had fun doing some really, really cool stuff. So there's just so many vehicles we've done over the years. It's hard to pinpoint specifically, but some of those outrageous things where we went over the top on them and it those are what really stand out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, was there a build maybe one time where you're just like, man, I don't know. This thing is really just, you know, it's being a lot more complex than what we thought it was going to be.
SPEAKER_00We we had a couple of those we've done a few resto mod builds that were a pain because at the end of the day, you know, you're trying to retrofit newer powertrains and stuff into older vehicles, and there's been a couple of resto mods that were just a real nightmare to get everything dialed in perfectly when it came to the plumbing and the mechanicals and the electrical side of it. So there's been a couple of them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um talk to us a little bit about the pivot to government truck contracts, emergency vehicles, because I mean this is a completely different world than the custom audio and celebrity builds.
SPEAKER_00How did that door open? So it was just a couple years ago, and you know, we were still heavily in the retail world and the custom world, doing what we do best. And um, I'd gotten a call from a friend of mine, he said, Hey, a neighbor of mine is uh Georgia State Patrol, and they're having problems just getting vehicles built, let alone built in time or done right. They have some equipment, they need some Durangos for their SWAT team done. They've got five or six of them. Is there any way you guys can take a look at the equipment, maybe get their lights and stuff put on for them? Because they're just sitting there, they've been sitting forever. So we said, sure, um, bring it by, let's take a look. We took a look at the equipment, um, was wheeling equipment, and um, we were familiar with that stuff, and we said, hey, yeah, drop the vehicles off. So they brought them to us. We got we probably knocked them out in like three weeks, which is unheard of, and they were rock solid. We solder all our connections, yep. And they came to pick them up and we're blown away by how good the work was and how clean the wiring was. And they were like, Hey, why are you guys not doing this? Like, there's a big need for this. Um, you guys could do very well, you know, building police and fire vehicles. And so Terry and I sat and talked about it, and then all of a sudden, people, other agencies started calling us because the word got out. Those guys at GSP started telling people how quickly they got them back, yeah, and that's unheard of. And then we literally blew up in like a month or two to the fact where Terry and I had to just sit down and make the decision to just shut down retail at that point.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and this, you know, it to an average person, it sounds like okay, you got one phone call, this happened overnight. But I mean, you had notoriety already. Like this was a cool move for these guys, too, right? It made sense, but it's almost like you're already known already.
SPEAKER_00So I mean, a lot of years go into that. It was cool because we were able to take what we know in the custom world and how OCD we are about, you know, clean wiring and and build quality and really flip that over into this realm, and it's made a huge impact, and it's made us now really one of the top upfitters in the southeast. Oh, yeah. And so people are trying to figure out how's Monster doing these vehicles, how are they getting so many of them done in in a couple weeks' time? And you know, it there's a lot of processes and procedures that Terry has put into place and I've put into place that really help move these vehicles along quicker, but yet never lose sight of quality. The quality control's always there. Um, we just deliver vehicles that are meant because of the way that we do our processes and procedures. It's gotta be. And if we're gonna put police officers out on the street in a vehicle that we had our hands on, it better be safe because we're not gonna be responsible for a major accident or someone's life being lost because our emergency equipment didn't function properly. That's it.
SPEAKER_02And I'm sure you've seen some trash from another shop come through and you're like, Yes, what the hell is this? Yeah, this is awful wiring.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you see it all the time, and you just wonder how do these people that don't take pride in their work still stay in business because there's still people like that that are out there still doing work, and you don't know how that they stay in business, how they function, but it's out there, and all we can do is perfect our craft and keep doing it the way that we the only way that we know how.
SPEAKER_02Now, is it true you guys are the only upfitter that actually provides a lifetime guarantee on your work?
SPEAKER_00Is that true? Yes, absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Lifetime warranty on it because we solder the connections, uh, because we use harnesses that we have custom made, um, literally, you know, not to sound cliche, but our stuff, our work is bulletproof. When you use good harnessing, quality connections, you can build a vehicle that will last because those vehicles are going to be torture tested, they're gonna be put through the ringer. So we're doing stuff to make these vehicles very rugged, very durable, and we want to stand behind everything that we do.
SPEAKER_02So building a business in the trades is you know, is hard in ways that don't always get talked about. Um finding keeping skilled people, yes, uh, managing cash flows on on big builds, client expectations. Uh, what's some of the hardest challenges that you guys had in the early years?
SPEAKER_00Um in the early years, it's just finding good quality people. Terry and I have a specific standard of which you know we like things done. So in the beginning, when you decide that you want to pass the torch and say, hey, we're no longer gonna be in the bays installing ourselves, we're gonna hire some good people. You're just very wary of making sure that they're gonna have that same mindset. If you're gonna pass the torch to other people in the installation bay, you want that same quality workmanship. You want it to be looked at as, hey, these guys are back there, they're gonna treat that vehicle like it's their own and install as it as good as they would if they were doing it for their family member for themselves. So for us, it was key to make sure that we had quality people that did it to our standard and really enjoyed what they did, you know, enjoyed work. They wanted to come to work and create amazing things and do it on a scale that no one else is doing. And now when you take that kind of pride in your work, that's a big deal. And um, that's the type of person that we wanted working with us, is we wanted people that were passionate about it.
SPEAKER_02Was there ever a job, a client, uh, a financial situation where you thought for a moment, uh, and it's probably a rhetorical question because I'm an entrepreneur too, where you just thought, man, I don't know if this is gonna work out.
SPEAKER_00You know, we've had difficult clients um in the past. There's nothing that really stands out. You know, we did things so uh well and communicated so well with most of our clients that there really wasn't that big of a deal. You'd get a couple of people here and there that would nitpick or say, hey, your price was too much or whatever. I'm like, you know, we're pretty well on scale with what other people charge, you know, and what that saying goes, that you get what you pay for, the quality. So you'd have a few people that would nitpick here or there, but nothing that was ever where we ever had to call the police or get anything like that involved. Everybody was pretty well aware of the quality of workmanship that they were getting when they would walk through the door. So it knock on wood, it's been a really good, good, uh smooth transition um through the years to where we are now.
SPEAKER_02And uh do you have anything uh you I guess what do you know now about?
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, it's just one of those things that it's it's marketing yourself and building the brand. Yes, we have a lot of stuff out there like social media that you can post on and things that you can do, but ultimately it's the way that you treat the customers and have them go and tell their people and their friends to that's the stuff that like I I knew it early on and I had a passion for it, but if I could preach that to anybody now, um it's build your brand from within with your people and then let the customers do the talking because the rest of the stuff on social media is yes, it's doable, but it's so there's a lot of noise out there. So a lot of stuff gets overlooked on social media. So build your brand within. Um let your customers be the noise for you. Yeah, they'll go out and tell people and and do things that sometimes that social media can't do. So if I could tell anybody anything, absolutely grow it within, do big things with your clients and let them brag for you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's really good. I mean, I can't tell you how many I mean, I would go into you know, the last few months when I was actually selling, you know, uh vehicles and I mean I remember one month I had like eight referrals, four repeats, and then I maybe picked up the phone once and helped somebody new coming in, you know, and it just becomes a becomes a normal.
SPEAKER_00And another big thing, invest in your people. Yeah, because your people are going to grow your brand. You can't do it on your own. Um, if it wasn't for great employees that Terry and I have, we couldn't have gotten to where we're at because they make the difference. They're helping you grow that brand, they're putting their passion and their work ethic um out there and helping you grow a brand. So, man, invest in your people, believe in your people, hype them up, reward them, reward them, grow them because they are one of your biggest assets in business.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. So you've been doing this for over 20 years now across two shops. What's the wildest client situation you ever walked into? The one that still gets told that still gets told around the shop.
SPEAKER_00You know, it's lucky for us that we haven't had a lot of animosity. We've been very chill and laid back behind the scenes. You know, we've always loved doing the stuff for celebrities and things of that nature, but we've really never had a situation that's gotten out of hand per se. Yeah. And it's been too wild where we go, oh my God, you know, we we get the over-the-top builds where somebody spent six figures on a cut custom truck with everything that you can imagine, you know, the big builds. But man, we are very fortunate to have had like no animosity, that's great, no issues. Like, man, it it doesn't happen very often in the retail world that you can go that many years with a smooth, clean record and not have animosity or a customer that freaks out or anything like that. Like, we've been very, very fortunate.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. What's the build that maybe over the years you've been the most proud of where when the thing turned out at the end, you were just like, that's exactly what we had in mind. Customers' expectations blown through the roof. Like the one that really will go down a history is like, I remember that car better than any of them.
SPEAKER_00You know, it's crazy because we've done so many builds and we've done a lot of stuff where it's wheels, tires, or a stereo. It's really the over-the-top stuff that we've done. Um, like for instance, that guy's uh tailgating vehicle that we built for him. He still loves that thing till this day. It's been out there running flawlessly for probably six or seven years, and that one stands out because it had so many moving parts. I mean, in the back cab of the truck, we had a custom rack built with home audio stuff in there, like a home theater style setup for all the speakers outside. It was very complex. There's a lot of moving parts to it. And yes, you don't look at that as like, oh my god, that's an over-the-top, you know, custom car, but it was a very complex vehicle with a motorized camper top and all the cool stuff on it, and it blew everybody out of the water. Every time you showed up for a Georgia game in the parking lot, everybody was blown away. Oh, yeah, but I mean, it had cameras all over where people could see themselves in the big screens and do karaoke and stuff. That's a lot of things. It was super cool, man. I said, and we're not generally known for doing the West Coast custom stuff or the pimp my ride stuff. That's not really who we were, but that was fun. It was a fun, fun build for sure.
SPEAKER_02And then you're surrounded by incredible cars every single day. I mean, maybe not so much anymore because it's mostly Fort Explorers and Dodge Durangos per se. Yes. Um I'm still jaded. But what what has that done, you know, to your personal taste over the years? I mean, has it refined it, numbed it, or made it more extreme?
SPEAKER_00You know, I still love high-end vehicles. I'm a horsepower guy at heart, you know. So I've had a lot of fast vehicles. I'm I'm horsepower driven. I've had exotics and all that cool stuff. Uh, I see them. I still love those cars. They still have a profound impact on me. Um, I love all of them. I like old school cars, muscle cars, exotic cars, anything with horsepower or with nostalgia, it drives my passion. I'm a motorcycle guy. I've got a a custom Harley that's done up with a big stereo on it.
SPEAKER_02So you're getting some work done of that, currently aren't you?
SPEAKER_00I'm getting my paint work done. My buddy uh Chad Hampton at Hampton's Design is doing that. I just dropped the bike off with him. I'm just anything with a motor and wheels that's gas driven, yeah. Really, I'm passionate about it. Kind of like this room here. There's a little bit of variety of everything. Yeah, you've got a lot of cool stuff here. This is what it's all about. You've got luxury with you know horsepower built up here. And this is kind of a setting that, man, one day I'd like to have that at my house. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. And walk me through, I guess, some of the most significant cars that you've owned personally. Um, not what you built for clients, but what you've actually bought for yourself.
SPEAKER_00Man, so cool stuff. You know, I've had Corvettes and CTSVs, high horsepower stuff. The one that got away was the 488, or not the 488, the 458 Italia. Um, that was my favorite car, naturally aspirated car. I happened to find that car on Facebook in a group, um, a wholesaler's group that I was in, and everybody was passing up on this car because it had like 28,000 miles on it. Everybody was scared of it. So I got the VIN, uh, ran it by Matt Lucky over at Ferrari, and um he said, Man, this car is awesome. He's like, it was just serviced recently. You shouldn't have to sink any money into it. You know, I was worried about having to immediately put money into it. He's like, it's got a clean car fax. He's like, There's no reason why you shouldn't pick this car up. So I really literally got that car at one heck of a deal. Um, jumped on it immediately while everybody else was second guessing it and um got the car, and I had it for six months, and then I had a doctor come along and made me an offer at the time that I couldn't refuse. And I'm like, now I should have kept that car. That was the one that got away.
SPEAKER_02Beautiful spec too with the the gray with the red interior. Yes. Was that Grigio Silverstone?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah, yeah. And so now you kick yourself, and now I wish I could have that car back. But um, you know, it's one of those things. I'll get another one. If that's one of those ones you got to have, I would like to have that. I'd like to have a GT3RS at some point, you know, love the Porsches. Um, and I've got some stuff planned for the future. That's right, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Can you talk a little bit about maybe some of the cars that's that are that are on the way?
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, I've got you know a couple old schools. I just got rid of a 69 Chevelle. Um, I've got the iRock, and then I've got a ZR1, uh the new vet on the way uh in orange. So the Habanera Orange. Uh, I've got that one coming. So I'm hoping in the next two weeks um to take delivery of that.
SPEAKER_02So it's so incredible. We're getting cars now where a thousand horsepower is like, I mean, this one has a thousand, that one has a thousand. I mean it's just getting insane.
SPEAKER_00You never think in this day and age that you're just gonna jump into a factory-built car that's got those those kind of numbers. It was unheard of. You know, you get a car like this one, my IROC back here, it's like 165 horsepower. That's okay. And you know, but it's like back in the day, that felt like it was fast. Oh, yeah. You know, and um, you got these modern cars now that are so ahead of the curve and amazing to just jump in a stock car and have that kind of power is just incredible. I gotta have it. I'm just that guy. I gotta have the horsepower.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm just addicted to it. Yeah, what a what a phenomenal engine they put in that thing, too. The flat plane crank, then just all the power.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And it's just bone stock, it's like a thousand fifty uh bone stock. And I know that's not at the wheels, but that car now, vengeance and everybody, they're figuring out how to tune these things now. They've got the software from HP tuners now to crack them open and tune them. So you throw an exhaust on there with a tune and a couple of tweaks, and these cars can you don't have to do a lot to these cars to just have them. 1500 easily. Yeah, easily.
SPEAKER_02Probably even up to close to maybe 2,000 with factory internals with just everything dialed in. Yes. And not only that, just the times that these cars are running is just insane. Like what's that thing? It runs like a nine from the factory or something like that. Oh, yeah. Like a dead nine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then you got the ZR1X, which is the front motor assist, electric assist front motor. Eight. That thing's just insane. And that one hasn't, you know, you start tweaking and tuning that car, and you've got it's just amazing now that the American technology is catching up to the European horsepower and specs, and now you've got an American supercar that's you know capable of keeping up with all the the American super or the uh European supercars. Oh, yeah. That's a big deal. You didn't have that before.
SPEAKER_02I mean it beats 99.9% of the cars out there. Yes. Bone stock, no miles leaving the desk. I know these cars still gonna have the uh you've had a couple of the uh the C eights and stuff. Two of them. Yeah, and uh I guess they're still gonna have that limiter for the first few hundred miles.
SPEAKER_00500 miles is generally the thing. You'd be cruising around, you exactly like hit 501, and all of a sudden you see the digital dash open up, all the RPMs go wide open, and now you are given full rein, full horsepower to really enjoy the vehicle.
SPEAKER_02I was so excited for every single like real YouTube video of these guys that are driving along and they finally hit the mileage and it unlocks. I'm just like, man, that's got to be a great feeling.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I've done it a couple times. I had the the blue one, the rapid blue, and then a black one. So I've had time to you know play around with these cars and have fun with them. But now I'm looking forward to this one because the horsepower on this thing is just insane. So once this one's unlocked, to really feel what it's capable of is gonna be just I'm I'm really, really excited.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so going back to uh Monster Customs, obviously you guys are doing a lot of government contracts right now. Yeah, you're at the point where you've outgrown the current situation. Have you have you guys have have you upgraded your facility yet? Or is it still in the works?
SPEAKER_00I know that's in the plans, right? We're we're good right now. We've got 50,000 square feet in Smyrna, so it's still able to hold what we're doing. We're doing big volume work now. Um any, you know, in any given point in time, we're doing 20 to 30 cars a week, which is unheard of in my business. Um, and we're working our way into other realms of emergency lighting, which is amber white, which is tow trucks, trees construction, stuff like that. So as I'm going to start growing that this year, then I think at that point we may need to look at extra space, but we're really moving in the right direction next level wise, and this building's been key for us to get to where we're at, and it's good so far.
SPEAKER_02Uh, I mean, it it doesn't sound it sounds like you got everything kind of figured out with what you can handle, but I mean, outside of your company that's doing phenomenal, yeah, uh is there a lot of competition in this space?
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, there's a couple uh people doing them here. There's a shop in and a place in Ackworth and couple around um that do it. Um they're great uh upfitters. They're they're not quite with as many installers as we have and such. So we're just kind of doing our own thing on our level the way we do it and keeping our head down. Yep. And we're great at what we do, they're great at what they do, and we just kind of stay in our lane, keep our head down, and keep pushing for next level.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And obviously, you know, in the next five years, 10 years, I mean, as you've seen it with AI, supercomputers, quantum computers, all this, and just technology in general is going to take a massive leap. I'm sure you guys are well ahead of that curve. What are you guys doing to kind of prepare for what's coming next?
SPEAKER_00Are you so with our realm, there's still so much hands-on that you need. It's like anything else. If you're building a home, you're doing electrical or plumbing, you have to have hands-on people. You have to have boots on the ground. So for us, you know, building these cars, unless we get to a point where we have a fully automated shop with robots, it's really still not something that's feasible for the aftermarket world. Yeah. We're always going to need good employees, good people that can do wiring, soldering, take the vehicles apart properly, um, put them back together the way that they should be done and with a quality time frame. Um it's always going to be hands-on in our industry. So at most, the thing that could help us in AI is that it's easier to design the layouts of the vehicles with AI stuff with that equipment, but we'll always need our employees to come in and build the vehicles and and have their hands on them. Gotcha, yeah. So luckily.
SPEAKER_02Looking at um different systems that will build, you know, it used to be enclosures, now it's going to be, I guess, wiring diagrams, harnesses, things like that.
SPEAKER_00It can really optimize some things for you, it sounds like it's a lot of moving parts in these vehicles. They don't realize that there's a full computer brain that runs all the lighting in the vehicle. You have to know how to program this stuff. Some of these vehicles, when you do the lighthead programs, it can take two to three hours to put programs in the wheel and systems and stuff and such. So you've got to really still have a lot of hands-on. There's a lot of technology behind it. It's not just as easy as bolting a light to the side of the vehicle. It there's a lot more strategic planning behind it. And each um agency, you know, specs their vehicles out differently, whether it be a fire or police agency. Um, they're all spec'd out differently, and you have to know how to take the vehicles apart and work within the electronics of that vehicle without hurting any of the computer systems in that vehicle. It there's a lot to it. And I'm sure you have like a final QC check process to make sure everything's three. Okay. Three times. So you do one when it pulls in to make sure it's good from the factory. There's nothing we found factory defects that we've notated. Then during the middle of the build, oh yeah, they're in the middle of the build, and then at the final end of it, we check all lights, make sure there's nothing wrong, where there's check engine lights, anything that could be wrong, and then it goes in to get detailed so that the vehicle is delivered, mint condition, showroom ready as it was purchased. Now, thinking about government vehicles, they're mainly domestic products, right?
SPEAKER_02Yes. You know, Dodge, Ford, Chevy. Is there one specific make that you like, you know, if you get a bunch of those in, you're like, yes, and then you have another one that comes in, you're like, oh, we got five of these Dodges to do. Is there anything like that?
SPEAKER_00No, they're all out there as workhorses. The easiest ones to work on are ones like your Dodge Durangos and Chevy Tahoe's. You know, you got the Ford Explorers and stuff like that. They all have a specific purpose out there, and they're all pretty rugged for the most part. They take a beating. So we've become so well-versed at seeing these vehicles and how the wiring's set up that we really know all of them really well. So we can get in there and knock them out pretty efficiently because of our knowledge on working on so many of them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's amazing. Yep. So after everything you've built, what does success look like for you personally at this point?
SPEAKER_00Like, what does the next chapter look like for Jim Florick? You know, I feel like there's still so much to grow and do. I want to keep expanding our business. I want to, you know, maybe have our company in other states. We have talk of maybe uh expanding into other states as well for upfitting. Um, I want to do that. Um, I love cars, you know. I buy and sell a bunch of cars. I'm a big Rolex guy. I've sold a ton of Rolexes. People call me up for Rolex, you know, and high-end timepieces all the time. So for me, I can't sit still. I want to keep growing. I want to grow the business in all aspects, whether it be, you know, with Monster, that's gonna definitely keep growing. Um, with the watch business, um, the car business, it all fuels me. It's I'm passionate about all of it. And um, I just want to get to the next level, man. I'm just I'm always hungry. Yeah, that's a good way to stay hungry, man. Yeah, man. You have to be.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I stay hungry. And uh, you brought something really cool today. I grew up in one of these cars. I remember when I was three years old, my dad had a C4 Corvette. Yeah, and then my mother had a 86 Z28 Camaro. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00What do we have right here behind? This is a 1987 iRock Z. Love it. Yep. Um, tune port injection. This has got the 5.0 engine in it, not the 5-7, but still a cool car. Found this one a few months ago, got lucky, got 26,000 original miles on it, so it's a fun one. I've always wanted one of these. I didn't grow up with a ton of money. And so when my buddies had these things in in high school, I was always envious. I'm like, man, one day I'd love to have that car. And so it's like now at this point in my life, I finally got the car, and I've had exotics, you know what I mean? The Ferrari and all this stuff, and now I finally got this car. It was the one car that you just obsessed over in in the 90s, and now I've got it, and it's cool. The looks that you get cruising this thing around. Oh, yeah, it's so much fun.
SPEAKER_02Not only do they barely exist, even when you do see one, they're not in this condition. Right. You said 26,000 miles.
SPEAKER_0026,000 original miles, it's almost showroom new.
SPEAKER_02Just put a picture to my mother right now. I'd be like, hey, here's your car from back in the day. I used to ride in the backseat.
SPEAKER_00I got lucky finding this one, and it's just fun. It gets all the looks. The thumbs up, I've gotten like 30 people on the way here giving me thumbs up, waving at me. It's cool. It's not a fast car. Right, yeah. It's one of those cars that you cruise. Um, I've got an old school stereo system I'm gonna put in this one. Oh, cool. Um Emron, who you just had on some cartoons, my buddy, he just got me hooked up with focal speakers. Oh, yeah. I'm gonna put the focal speakers in. Alpine. Old school. Alpine, old school with the green lights. Yeah, I got the half-din equalizer. Terry found me a brand new equalizer, still in the package from the 90s that he found. So we'll put the little half din alpine EQ in there and have all the cool stuff. So this one will be full retro. It'll be a cruiser. I'm sure at some point I'll have a resto mob, like a 70 Chevelle with an LS in it. Yeah. And then I'm looking forward to the ZR1 adding that to the collection. So there's a lot of stuff that I've just got to get my my garage together so I have room for all this stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So it's time for rapid fire here. I'm just gonna ask you some really short questions. Just give me kind of a bullet answer here. Best car you've ever personally driven, not built but driven.
SPEAKER_00The 458.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Uh, the upgrade every car owner should do, but most people sleep on.
SPEAKER_00Uh, not everybody has it, but I would say window tint. Okay. Not everybody has it.
SPEAKER_02I like that answer. Uh Dream Build, unlimited budget, any vehicle, anything goes.
SPEAKER_00Man, I would build a wicked 70 Chevelle convertible, like Roadster Shop chassis, full-on, done up to the nines. Like that would be the ultimate because modern technology meets old school. Biggest misconception people have about custom shops that they're always going to be out to just take your money and never um get the job done. I know there's people out there that have been through bad stuff with custom shops, but if you get with the right one, you'll get your car done the right way, the way you want it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Uh dream three-car personal garage right now.
SPEAKER_00Man, so uh probably the GT3RS, another 458, and probably gonna be this this ZR. ZR1, baby, yeah. I think I think that covers a lot of bases. I love it. I love it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02All right, last one. Monster Customs has been going on for fifty over 15 years now. What do you want people to know about what you've actually built here?
SPEAKER_00You know that it's more of a legacy and a reputation. I want people that when they talk about Terry and myself in business, that we were well respected businessmen, that we gave people everything that they paid for. And that, you know, that trust is there. I don't care if I'm selling a watch or a candy bar or whatever it may be. I want people to say, hey, Jim's solid. If you do business with him or Terry, you're always going to get what you pay for. And they're proof that good people in business still exist. Absolutely. And I can attest to that.
SPEAKER_02So well, Jim, thanks so much for coming on, brother. Thank you for having me, brother. I greatly appreciate you having me on, man. It's been a blast. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00We'll catch you guys on the next one.