SPEAKER_02 0:00

Here we are. We're back for another episode 14 now. And uh it's been exciting so far, Dave. Lots of interesting stories so far. Lots of interesting stories, and today we've got one that's probably one of the more interesting ones. We've got Mr. Cameron Davis from DC Motorworks. How's it going?

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Doing well, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Glad to have you. We got connected years ago through our good friend Ed Boleon. Um, I had another AMG at the time, and I'm like, where can I service this thing and it's not gonna cost me an on the leg? I know you know somebody with all your Cannonball Mercedes cars, and I think you've worked on a couple of those. And he said, Yeah, go to Cameron DC Motorworks in Al Florida. So I did, and uh it was a pleasant surprise. You know, you you pull up, you've got every possible generation, every model chassis of Mercedes Benz there, and more. And uh so it was really awesome, Sean, you know, awesome team there. Um, I guess for anybody that's meeting you through this show, how would you describe yourself?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yeah, that's a that's a tall question just through and through car guy, yeah. Why I do everything is just for my love of cars and sharing my love of cars with everyone. That's just what is me.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Yeah. And uh, you know, like I said, we've had an AMG uh in your shop, and what strikes me the most about DC Botows is it's not just Mercedes now. Every time I come in there, there's something else. You've got a row of exotics, a lot of the V12 Lamborghini stuff. I've seen it for already. 360, you're not really scared of much.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

You know, what what what scares you? What's interesting is like I don't know, which one is there?

SPEAKER_00 1:34

You're like, oh crap. There's there's not much at this point. I mean, it it all has its own level of of fear or anxiety, whichever you want to call it. But uh it's not some bolts at the end of the day, yeah, you know, and taking your time and just trying to do things right. No, especially the Italian stuff. Like, really, it's not, you know, doesn't have those R and D budgets that a Mercedes does, so things are a little more simple. It just has some extra zeros on it. Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right. So it's uh it's a little dauntling sometimes, but it's just it's all about taking your time and just learning it.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Yeah, the extra zeros tend to make things a little spicy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I will say I was just like, hey, my wife's got a five series with a B58, it's like, oh, one of those. Yeah that, yeah, one of those things, yeah. Um and so for people that don't know like what you do as an independent Mercedes specialist, you know, kind of describe your business and really how did that all happen for you?

SPEAKER_00 2:31

So I've kind of gone into this niche of it's the enthusiast shop, is what uh we've kind of coined the name on it, because we're all car guys there and we do this for our love of cars. You know, I'm not some one of the shop owners that it's like, well, they're profit margins at the shop, so I'm gonna start one. I was like, I want to play with cars, and I love fixing them. It is it is therapeutic, even when you're you know swearing and throwing wrenches and stuff. There is a therapy level to it. It's just you and the car, and I just had to have it since day one when I was a kid. You can always my mom always tells the story. My first tooth went on a car, and I've just been at it ever since.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

That's awesome. So let's go all the way back. Where did you grow up and what was that environment like? And you know, was there a car culture in your house household at that time? Where did it come from?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

So I grew up right here in Georgia. We came here when I was like a little over two years old, been here ever since. Grew up right in uh in Marietta and then in town in Brookhaven, and uh there was a lot of car stuff in in my upbringing. The uh my dad was a CFO at a Hoopa car dealers forever. And then uh later in life when I was in high school, my mom actually went to work at Mercedes-Menge webhead, and so there's always follows. And like even my dad's dad was kind of more like me. So my dad is a sports guy, even though he's in the car business. But uh, my dad's dad was big into cars, and uh, he kind of did what I get into. He loved like just having a couple cars and flipping them, fixing them up and that sort of thing. So yeah, kind of been around it the whole life. I got to run around all the dealerships as a kid because my dad worked there, and oh yeah. So I'd just run, it was up there on a hill, and I would just run up and down the hill with my brother, and you know, we'd just go through all the showrooms.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Oh, yeah, yeah, we we had a blast. That's awesome. So I guess did Mercedes enter the picture when your mother went to go work for them or before that?

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Actually, so uh growing up when we were in Marietta, there was a family that lived back right down the road that had a kid the same age as us, and uh the dad was from Germany, and he only drove Mercedes, and he drove a uh bought a W-220 S-Glass when those first came out as I two, and that was it for me. Oh, yeah. Being eight years old was always like that's the call. Yeah, so that sunk in the Mercedes uh kind of bug. And then when I was in uh high school, I had a buddy that uh my mom knew that had an old 129, which is what's actually on my shirt. It's the logo of our business that had been sitting in his garage for like nine years, and I hounded him and hounded him. Yeah at the time, said just bring it out, just bring it out, just bring it out. Finally I got him to, and uh, we got it running together and drove it together. Like he'd let me drive it for before I had my lights. And then, like, you know, that was kind of our uh mutual understanding for fixing the car on its call. And uh unfortunately he passed like uh then a year or two later, and uh bought the car from his family and uh kept it for a few more years that's been at the bins ever since.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

Was that was that the first one you really walked on?

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Yeah, it was actually because I I kind of had to and get into it to get it going. Yeah, you know, as a young teenager, I couldn't have gotten it paid to fix it anywhere. I did once. I paid for a radiator replacement and it was like $900. And it was all just trained up in my bank account, and so I kind of knew then that I was like, if I'm gonna have stuff like this, I need to do it myself. And even a little bit earlier, about the same time, my uh my mom bought my brother's first car because he's a year older than me, so he got to do all the fun stuff before me. But uh, she said I can buy the car, but I can't afford to fix it, so y'all gotta figure it out. So that's kind of how it started.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Well, that's cool. Now I know you personally, but uh I will say your LinkedIn actually actually described you as a Mercedes-Benz and Mopar specialist, which is one of the more unexpected combinations that I've seen. Uh, how does that pairing even exist in one person?

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Mopar, Mopar. Uh again, running around at the dealerships, the Chrysler store is just the one I tend to gravitate to. I don't really know why. It is kind of, and that's actually what the DC is is Daimler Chrysler. Yeah. So uh yeah, my business partner started in 05 at the Mercedes Dealer in Savannah. And that's when my love for Mercedes started was the W-220, which is Daimler Chrysler. So that was just where I focused. And the Chrysler Shore was as close as I could get uh where my dad was working. So I ran all through there and just because they're so similar from that time period, that it really makes sense that if you're a Mercedes guy of that time, that you can gravitate towards those. Yeah, they're a little bit of a cheat code because they're less expensive to fix and they take regular gas. Yeah, and that they don't have some of the big expensive repairs of the Mercedes, but like some of them they have Mercedes-Benz part number that shares the exact same parts, and so a little bit of a cheat deal.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now you recently had just an absolutely exquisite uh Chrysler example of one of these shows here. Tell us a little bit about that. Something unexpected.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

So the minivan, yeah. Yeah, I got that from uh on auction. I saw it pop up, and I was like, I gotta have this. How many miles are on it? 103 now. I got it with 101. Looks like it's got 10,000 miles on it. Oh, it's a time capsule. It is a true time capsule. So the the original owner passed away, I think it was the end of 24, and I guess the kids gave it up to whichever I've got in the whole story. But uh, she bought it new, found all the original paperwork in it, and uh found her obituary, and it looks like she retired in 96. So I theorized that it was her uh retirement gift herself, that she bought this van. I mean, it even has like the original transport uh transcript from the factory of when it got transported from the factory to the dealer. She bought the ex the 7100 extended woman.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

It has all the goodies, all the sets of keys.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

And you guys took this down to Amelia Island? Is that right?

SPEAKER_00 8:34

It's a bit like anything, but that was it, you know. Everyone's got one that's around my age.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

I mean, I'm I'm seeing you and Charlie in this photo as a show. I mean, it might as well be a supercar sitting there, but it's just drives our kind of country like an example.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

All wheel drive. It was as good as you can see LX, all wheel drive.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

So I think it was like all the documentation in the front desk. No, yeah, it's so serious. I've got an excellent layout.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

That was a long time.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

That was a luxury vehicle. Vans are amazing. They're an underappreciated, amazing class of vehicles.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Yes, they are. I will be on the minivan train for as long as uh I just saw like a little Astro van commercial.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. And they show people like towed big boats with the Astro Van.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

The Astros are cool, they have a very cool look to them. Especially if you can find like the conversion vans or the highlights and stuff. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_03 9:42

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Yeah, that's that's where it's at.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

So I'll let Dave get into a little bit about kind of your business. And I know it wasn't, it hasn't always been easy and booming, right? All of us in entrepreneurship.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

So yeah, start a business is painful. Yes. People ask me if I'm doing that.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

That's a lot of work. They expected you to be like, absolutely, yes. And you're like, ah, maybe the strong maybe. So, what made you want to be like, okay, I'm gonna start this out of I'm doing it. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

It was a combination of a lot of things. Like, I'd always kind of known being an employee, like, I was a good employee, I think. But uh once I kind of learned everything and you get stagnant, that's where I kind of like got stuck. I'm like, I want to keep going, I want to see what's next. What's the next thing that I can get to? Yeah, and a lot of times they just they wouldn't do it. I have multiple jobs where they're like, Well, you're doing so well here, I don't want like this store to suffer if I move you. I'm like, well, I'm kind of stagnant, and so that's new in the back of my head that I was like, I just need to work for myself, and you know, I'm not very good at being told what to do. We we all we all it is so I I kind of always had that in the back of my head, and uh you know it was really my wife and then uh my business partners that really you know pushed it into being what it was like that's ending. Yes, yeah. When did you start? So I started so kind during COVID, during like my full-time job, I got laid off because of COVID, and uh I started doing stuff at the house. That was September of 2020 and filed the LLC or then did stuff in the garage at home and just kind of diddled. I always had a bunch of contacts on my previous jobs that everyone kept in touch with me, and so that kind of grew. And then my wife kind of started so I talked to her about it, like no, I really just like that from all the people. She's like, You should do it, you should do it. I was kind of surprised that yeah, that's that's because we that's uh yeah, that's great. Young marriage, young family, young daughter. She's like, You should do it. And I'm like, we're putting a full thumbs up and going to do this, and then she was all for it. You know, like started looking like I always had in the back of my head, I remember sitting in this till Andy's kitchen table one day, and his wife said, You know, Andy's always talked about having his own shotgun doing. And I just kind of kept that from the memory bank. And uh when I found this place, uh it was behind a used car dealer, you know, like helping him out and paid like a small rent so that you know you would help like refund his cars and we could work on our own stuff. And I found this post. Are you in or not? I've already quit my job. So he followed two weeks later. That's cool.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

That's awesome. What was it what was the first like paying customer over that car?

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Um it's kind of tough to track because I've had like the side work all along. But um I want to say it was uh my good buddy Lewis. Yeah, he was I think the first like retail customer at shop that we were at. It's an old little two-based shop. But yeah, he was the first one. And he's still in us today. Yeah, thankfully, I I feel like I had it pretty together. Uh I had QuickBooks, and you know, we've kind of changed since then. But I set up QuickBooks and we kind of had the stuff in order and all that learn as you go with being a business owner. But uh wasn't too many for that.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

And then um, how did Dead Bullying come to the picture with DC Motorworks? Because that's not a random referral, that's gonna be specific, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:29

It's actually a pretty good story. I like telling us. Okay, let's see. No, well no, the headlights can tell the story. I don't know. It uh so my uh which is uh he was my I guess shop foreman at the time. I was still working uh full time, and he had a CL65. And he was like, Cameron, I'm done with this car, like I just it keeps breaking. He's like, Will you help me like recon it and sell it? Because I never drive it, and when I do drive it, it tweaks. So he handed it over to me, and uh, I actually took it to Amy. This was before the business and had some stuff done with him and between me and uh got it all dolled up and everything, and put it on Facebook. And uh it been I think a quiet couple weeks, but I was driving along and got a messing one. Said Ed Bonnie on the except like me or Bonnie, and uh because I've watched his channel for a couple years at that point, and uh yeah, sure enough, it was uh it was Ed. And we talked about the car for a while. He tried being really shrewd on that deal, and uh my uh buddy did not go through with it, so he actually didn't buy the car because even after that, it's like his Paul on it. Paul, sell him this car, this is what they're gonna do with it, they're taking it on a car track, it's gonna be this really cool thing. And uh he wouldn't do it. I said, No, I can't, I can't go to that price. And so he had found another one. But uh since I knew he had this S55 that he was gonna do the uh clip jump on in Alaska, I said, Hey, I work on Mercedes for a living. If we'd lost like me to give it a once over for you before you drive it all the way to Alaska, I'd be happy to and he said, Yeah, let's do it. And uh I found like the upper idler pulley was about to like break in half, so he would have been on the side of the road with a belt jumped off the engine. So and uh yeah, just kind of blossomed from there and had uh what was the next one? Let's say it was the uh the Tina at 996 that uh that sat and look at the chicken farm or all the pieces on the sickness that I think it was that one, and then I bought a crayon. It just kind of went from there, and now it is what it is to go to all its cars through the shaman.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Yeah, and I'm sure as a result of that, your business in the exotic realm has probably picked up a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

It has huge, yeah. That's really great in the exotic stuff that uh came from. We have this buddy in Preston that bought a Mercy that was uh listed here. He lives in Oklahoma, but he brought it from here and brought that in. So between those two, it's where the uh the exotic stuff started and then just took off from there. And it's almost like there's someone I can trust to to look at my lamber engine or whichever.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

What was it like Victoria's Secret on that?

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Daunting. Daunting. It's like it was the only one for us, and it came in pieces. Yeah, so like we got like we rolled the car out of this trailer, and then he's like, There's more, and I'm like, well, dude, we got the car out. Well, there's boxes. Oh, okay. So we unloaded, I think it was like four or six boxes out of the trailer, and uh, hadn't run, I think in like 15 mirrors or later on the car. And uh I would say yeah, the uh left root rape caliper was sitting in the battery tray, like it wasn't on the randomly taken apart. It wasn't even like it was more or less complete with all the boxes and we just had to start square on just knowing it was it's the only one.

SPEAKER_03 16:59

It's pretty pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

It is, it's cool, but also too nice.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

And so there was a 2023 US Express Month guest that worked on this Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. What was what was actually involved in that job for to get cart right now?

SPEAKER_00 17:18

The everything. As with uh old Rolls Royces, even if they've had all the work in a recent time frame, they still need a lot of work. Yeah, and uh that one I think it's been in the same family forever and it was well traveled, like they shipped it to Rolls Owners events and like the Middle East and all that stuff. Really cool story. But um of course, the typical you know, the mineral-based brake fluid with the rear suspension thing. Yeah, that was all kind of uh we we kind of got that together. I think some of the brake colours were seized up and just normal tune-up and that sort of thing, and adding the rally life, you know, so they could actually see that night, which is you know, kind of an important thing. Yeah, that's yeah, just guessing, just blindfully guessing. It needed a law. I can't I've kind of blocked that one while you're just because of the bringing up bad memories.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

You're gonna say, I don't I don't remember. I have to know because I mean that's just just to say, yeah, I'll do that. I mean, that's crazy. Don't tell anyone to know anything about those cars.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yeah, yeah, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 18:20

Don't tell anyone else about that one.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Just so if you're familiar, it's not metric or imperial bolts or anything. One, it's its own, its own like bespoke thing, so nothing fits. You just have to figure out everything. And uh added on top, it was it was yeah, second week of October or something like that when the uh US Express was supposed to be. And I guess Ed had brought a uh different time in his mind. So like when he dropped it off, I think we had like two weeks to get it ready to drive across the country. And uh because he had thought it more. That's but it all worked out, and they had a great time. But the car made it. Yeah, the car is making it uh it used some fluids along the way and some leaks, but uh sure y'all prepped and ready for that. Oh, yeah, we had all the fluids in the trunk and everything. They made it so even though I drove a separate car, you know, the other screw and they made it work. I think they did like 322 hours and all these little things.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Oh wow, each floating that's like clear that's all right. It's uh the big buzz that I'm hearing right now are these manual swapped uh Mercedes, which you've you've brought one here, we'll get into that a little bit later. But uh, I mean, even I myself, I'm going, I think I need to find one of these and have camera done swap on it. I mean, tell us how that all started and kind of what the feedback has been like since you guys have taken all some of these projects. I've seen a CLK63 that you've done. You did a 507 C63, uh, hopefully there's a Black Series in the works, uh W204 in the works for you guys. Yeah, talk to us a little bit about that because this is I'm highly interested in the stuff, even personally. I'm sure the audience is too.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Yeah, so the manuals actually started uh really with my 6.9 for the US Express. So that car, you know, three-speed automatic back in the 70s, no overdrive, you know, when you're driving 120 with a 5,000 RPM, which is all the RP for the white and red line. So I ran a smaller event called the uh the Southern Classic and uh did that one with the automatic, and we knew that the US Express was coming up, and we're like, we need to do something about uh having an overdrive, which is my buddy Aaron Tony and I he's my co-driver. We're like, we were gonna think about doing an automatic first. The automatic that was actually in this originally, but uh after a while I found this company out in Europe that custom makes things like get trag six-speed transmissions, and it like welds the bell housing and a Mercedes on it was expensive, but we're like, I think it's a double overdrive, so good and fixer overdrive gears. Right, that is exactly what's speed. So we'd calculated it and everything. We're like at this speed, we're gonna be at this RPM, it's gonna be awesome because with the automatic, like we had uh a very high level of oil consumption. Yeah, so we were like, and people come in and make up eight now, so we got you know so we're like this will solve all our problems. So uh him and I did that one again on a timeline, like it just seems to be a thing, like as long as the you know, procrastination timeline. So him and I put that one together, drove it across the country, it did breaks at a new competitive event records. So I kind of took that one to a few things, and like my clients came around the shop and saw it and thought it was really cool. And Lewis going back to him customer number one, yeah. Customer number one, yeah, yeah, uh had this CLK 60 or sorry, CLK 55, still has it. And uh he was like, Man, I'm seeing these uh Mercedes manual things kind of parting up and on forums or whichever. He's like, What do you want? Do you want to do my own work on Mercine is you know these things inside and out? And uh she's like, just make my own like a guinea pig and and we'll figure it out together. And so we did on Team I. We we uh just put it together, had a few contacts in the industry. We all work closely with, we're all friends, and just you know, what are you doing for this and what are you doing for that, and where do you find this part? And we all kind of collaborate and make it work together. And uh put that one together, put it out on YouTube, it did great, you know. And we got uh calls from the first you know K63 Black series and the 507, they were like right at the same time, yeah. So those came in and we did those, and and that turned into what it is now, it just exploded from there.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Yeah, you're saying you get like several calls a week, like guys that are looking for cars, prepping and ready to try to get all the swaps done. So let's say me, for example, like my dream would be to do a W204 C63 Black series with a man, like walk us through maybe not in all the detail, but just in simple terms, start to finish. I bring in my car, what happens next? We handle everyone, start to finish.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

You know, you drop off an automatic and you get back a manual. You just come back in two weeks and that's it. That's it. Yeah, well, you drop the car off and you go back two weeks later, and everything looks OEM is OEM. So, like I say, like 90% of it is OEM. So, like transmission, pedal bracket, pedal box, all that stuff is all OEM. The only thing we really change is the clutch to hold the extra power because the only factory Mercedes clutch is from like a C300, you know. Okay. So you really need something that can hold the power of the bigger engines. But actually, uh, one of the guys at that uh manual swap community, uh, he put a uh factory clutch in his C63. He's one of the early adopters, his name's Anderson. And uh he said it was great, but uh for us we go, you know, really clutches, just chillin'.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

How many of the uh manual swaps have you done at this point? So I'm gonna say I've kind of lost count now.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Yeah, exactly. 69, the CLK, and then the 507 in the Black series, and then we got the CLK 430, the guy bought new. His his wife had told him that uh she wanted to drive the car he was searching for, but she would he wanted a manual car. But she was like, No, I want to be able to drive it, so get an automatic. So he bought the CLK 430. It's a Desenno car, beautiful. But uh, she's driven it like twice in 20 years. So his son actually saw us on YouTube and called us, and he was like, My dad has this car, and he's always wanted, he always talks about it. Uh so we did that one. We got another CLK Black series, we've got Rick Brashawn's car behind me. Is this the only wagon you have other wagons? No, this is this is wagon number one. Wagon number one right here. And uh we've got another C63 and another C63.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

You did one with like a supercharge on it or something.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Oh yeah, we just sent that one back. I haven't counted that one yet, but we have to do it.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

Did you run into any computer issues? Any nothing, nothing brakes on that front.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

No, no, yeah, that's uh well the nice thing is about Mercedes, most of it is just uh software coding, and uh because like factory manuals exist in some form, that uh all the stuff's kind of there. So it's really that part of it's not too too hateful.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Yeah, that's pretty great. You said that the shifter and clutch feel is almost partial.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

It's darn good.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Really?

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Uh so I've scoured and searched for like new shifter assemblies. We've got some used ones too, because you kind of have to take what you can get. But um something about in the black series, especially the the shifter feel is so good. And uh, we actually got a video that came out today of the uh the current black series that we're working on. The owner came in town and drove the car for the first time, and he's got like a GT4 and a couple other Porsches, and even he was like, he's like, No, this is a good shifter.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Oh, yeah, good feedback. So that's what that's what you want to hear. Yeah, so that I mean the CLK63 Black Series, the manual swap, I mean, that's got everybody talking, you know, right now. I mean, that car's already a unicorn. I mean, it's wide-body, M156, you know, you've got adjustable coilovers. What does putting a manual uh in it, what does it do to its significance of the car? I mean, I know it's kind of an early genre of conversion, but what do you predict is going to happen down the road as more of these get out on the streets?

SPEAKER_00 26:20

So it seems to follow the trend of like uh F1 or E-Gear conversions or something like that. It's like you get the price of the good F1 E-Gear examples plus the cost of your conversion, maybe a little bit on top. You won't really make money on it. Um we'll see with these, you know. Hopefully, of course, but uh you know, with this being such a dramatic transformation, whereas with those, you're taking an existing manual and just allowing yourself to shift it by hand instead of with the paddles. Like this, you're taking an old lazy torque converter automatic and and turning it into a true three-pedal manual, and then it's amazing how it transforms the portfolio.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

So a little bit more involved on something like this, as opposed to, like you said, a 430 or a Gaillardo.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Yeah, so those are using the same transmission on this, you're you're swapping everything. And getting the shifter to fit it in the pedals and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

But what made you want to do the station race?

SPEAKER_00 27:15

So uh what was they just looked at us with the uh Nick Rashawn from Cars and Bids? He uh I talked to him uh a few months earlier uh about some other stuff, and he just kind of was talking about manuals and the Mercedes, and and he was like, Man, I'm really kind of looking for a wagon. He said, I'd really just you know kind of push these cars off because I want a manual wagon. So he was looking at Audi's and stuff like that. But uh he's like, I saw y'all's stuff. He's like, Well, I can do this now is I can buy like a dream car for me and have it the way I wanted it, which is with a manual. So that's exactly how that happened. He went and sought that car out knowing that he was gonna never convert it.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

Okay, yeah, and you've had some you've had some updated toys here recently, right? You've got uh tell us a little bit about the uh the Ferrari 360, and then I guess there was a Viper, was that right? Viper's gone now. Okay, so he sold it.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Yep, and uh Tyler's actually buddy, mutual buddy, from me. Yeah, I think he's actually moved it on now, but uh yeah, it uh he tends to get me into some questionable decisions. Cannonball, which I think important, obviously. Sure. But uh he knew I liked these 360s and we've had a few people to shop, and I was like, Man, these things are really good. He's like, Yeah, I I love them too. And uh he always talked about that he missed this one he had from his superparole days, and uh as I kept in touch with it, I keep track of it every now and again, and uh it's like a couple weeks after I bought the Viper, I was cross-shopping to buy 360. I was like, Well, you know, let me get the the Viper is like 10 grand less than like a comparable 360 F1 car. And uh I'm like, you know, the Viper is just a root of the thing, and it's so simple, you know, no power top, no high strung V8 or anything like that. And I'm like, for the you know, occasional I'm gonna drive or whatever, let me get the the easy thing just to like worry every time I go drive it. Uh so you know two weeks after I had the Viper, Ed's like O Ferrari payment for sale. I'm like, that's really cool. And uh he's like, You want it? Yes, of course I do. You know, but you know, we put that much money out there in Florida's, but I was like, Yeah, I have to have it and uh so I mean that happened and flew out in Kansas to Resorts like you know, one of those flyers. Yeah, yeah. I flew out there and drove it back with one of my good buddies, Jordan. And we just hopped in it, it was freezing. How many miles are what it's 111,000 kilometers? So right around 70,000 miles. Okay, to be driving. That's amazing. Yeah, yeah, but it's actually like it just right along. Yeah, it just had uh $30,000 worth of stuff done to it. Oh, that's good. It has a new top, it had a belt service not too long ago. It's I guess technically due a year now. It's been about five years. Is that car gonna see a conversion? It is, it's gate of many.

SPEAKER_03 30:11

Oh, it is gate, it's natural.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

So now, all right. Now that's yeah, that's it's property for it. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, it's gotta be game. I like them both, but yeah, the game it is it is cool.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

Yes, and then I I remember last time I was there, I saw what looked like an S-class Pullman or just a conversion of a limousine in an S-class. What's the story behind that car? You don't see that every day, especially not in the stakes, you know.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Yes, I've got this uh usual Mercedes buddy. He runs a uh a truck dealership up in Jefferson, his name's Nakeless. But uh we're on the auctions together because we both are useful dealers on paper. And uh he's like, dude, look at this. It's like I don't know how to open this. He sends me the screenshot of an auction that's up there, it's just limo up in New Jersey, the Fox Limo, and I'm like, Yes.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Like, I don't care what any of the other questions are answers, yes.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

Factory convertible. Did you drop that back from New Jersey too?

SPEAKER_00 31:12

We did, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

It's not a thing in the back.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Yeah, tick tour sitting in the back is too yeah, it was uh so it's not a factory uh poolman. If it was that I would have kept it visiting the torpedo lot more. But it was I forget what it looks the part, of course. Yeah, it was it's like it was a little bit longer than a factory pool man, so it really looked the part. I forget the level of company they're defined now anymore. But uh yeah, Nick, myself, uh and then uh my brother-in-law Marco and uh one of uh uh Nick's buddies. We all flew up to Jersey together.

SPEAKER_03 31:45

That's a that's a proper road trip, right? Yeah, four people from the back of the circle.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Absolutely, and uh yeah, it was the worst Uber ride of my life from the airport to go get this thing. Like I had to crack the window, this thing was driving off super twitchy. And I'm not a good passenger to begin with, I get parsing, but worst Uber ride ever, and I had to like walk around for an hour before we could do anything. So I was just gonna but uh and we just hopped right in this thing and took off. We just had old dry rodted tires, and but uh it's kind of been you know, my uh I guess my mantra is on far side on someone driving on back always. It's just just kind of blind eye, and you know, just hope that it'll be a make it the whole way, yeah. And no issues, it did great. Uh we did some speeds along the way that I'm not gonna mention. Okay, it's more than the average limousine, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

More than the average limousine.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

Yeah, yeah, another great memory. I love that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

Yeah, that's good fun. It's good you can see three other people to go do it with you too.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Yeah, that's that's that's that's part of it too. And then it it had a life beyond that. Uh I sold it to the uh the the Barnvine team to Fabrizio. Okay. He bought it for a uh a birthday rally moving on last year. He's like, Yeah, and uh so we're all in the Sephora Valley together with this limo, you know. Yes, and uh we took it to a few different roast tracks, it went to an autocross, and they put like bull horns on it and stickers. He he took it to the next level. Like I took it around Road Atlanta once just you know to get some video. Oh, that's hilarious. And uh and this man, he takes it on these these tight tracks and stuff, these autocross tracks, and he's just whipping the slip.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

Oh yeah, it was with people in the oh yeah, of course it you have to sport champagne while you're going on this right.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

It was wild, so I forget where it is now.

SPEAKER_02 33:33

That's another restaurant. We'll have a lot of fun with it. Oh, that's good. So, what's what's next with DC Modemworks expansion? I mean, you've built something that's clearly outgrown what most people expected from an independent shop to offer it on.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Yes, uh Amy and I, we pinch ourselves a lot. We have to tell ourselves, like, yeah, you know, because you get so stuck in the the day-to-day, just running it, making it work, and you know, and sometimes we have to really step back and be like, man, this is this is really cool. And you know, I I try to you know send my appreciation out to everyone along the way. And just because it is it is an amazing thing that in the four or five years that it is what it is now, that uh I remember when we we got this shop. So we went from this little tiny two-day shop, and uh it wasn't working at the use car dealer thing because we were getting so busy on our own. And uh it was like, I mean my car's quicker, and so we just decided to part ways and we're like, Well, what do we where do we go now? You know. So we looked at a few places and you know, like neither Annie nor I are independently wealthy. These are all we've got is our hands to to make it work. You know, we pretty much started from just what was in our jump camp to a backing or anything like that. So we looked at a few places and we found this one where we're at now. And I remember we we had written it off because the shop was built out with offices, so like there was only like one spot you could put a car. We're like, this isn't gonna work. And uh it was it was tough to find anywhere else. No one wants you know car dealers or repair shops anyone. You know, getting the zoning thing is such a difficult thing, even if it's zoned for it. You saw them and you're like you're like, hey, they didn't grant, you know, I saw your listing, and oh yeah, what do you do? We do car hello. Yeah, clearly. But they just especially in Alpharetta, I'm sure. Yeah, because there's a you know, I guess they've had a lot of that experiences, and you know, they're like the mechanics are dirty, and so I tried like I've got this like word again. Um we're a Mercedes and we saw like female repair to try and get rid of that stigma of like dirty mechanics. But uh we found this place and it was way too much money. And uh we actually borrowed money from uh a close uh friend of my wife and I and it was uh at a credit card interest rate level just to have something like pay the the first three months of rent at the shop because neither of us could afford it. And uh we get in into the shop and we're like, man, this place is huge. What are we gonna do with this? We're gonna have to fill this up and like within a year or two. We're like, what are we gonna do now? Like cars everywhere. How many how many spots they have inside? So we've got four two post lifts, and we've got a four-post lift also that just ends up stilling cars while we're waiting on parts and that sort of thing, the higher end stuff. And uh yeah, I'd love to have about double that. Yeah, that's a big thing. It is. It's it's I know a real estate guy. Yeah?

SPEAKER_02 36:42

Uh I mean the manual swap program has created a at this point a national reputation. Are there platforms or built on your list that haven't been done done yet that you're actually actively working towards? All of them. Okay. Yeah. It's got a list in the back of his head. If you get a manual swap of anything, this is the guy.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

Yeah, I want to do a uh a V12 car next. Because we've done the 156, we've done the 113s, the 113K. So I'm just looking for that next engine C because I want to see how they react to it. And I hear the V12 Mangos are really good. Uh we've got an N120 SL. Yeah, for those not familiar with Jessica's, except it's like the 90s model that uh with the V12 that they put the downlies on there and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

So uh we've got one of those at the shop right now that uh we're gonna start converting.

SPEAKER_02 37:29

Yeah, those with the right exhaust sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

And the bi turbo v12 cars, the later stuff. So those are high on my list.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

No Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, conversions.

SPEAKER_03 37:40

He's like, don't bring it up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Uh what do you want the name DC Motorworks to mean with uh to the enthusiast community 10 years from now?

SPEAKER_00 37:52

Kind of saying what it is now. Just car guys doing business, having a great time. And that's kind of what I banked our success on is because we are car guys, and you know the people that bring us our car their cars, we relate to them, and yeah, it it's not just you know the the stealership or whichever they call it. Yeah, sure. Or just some hedge fund guy that owns the shop because it's all the profit margins like we're car guys. Yeah, so that's what it it needs to stand for in the future as well. It's car guys sharing the hobby and helping us out.

SPEAKER_02 38:26

Yeah, walk us through uh what you brought here today. I mean, this is a beautiful uh E55 wagon that you have here.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Yeah, so uh this is Nico Shaw's car from cars and biz. And uh again, he he looked for this car just because he knew the manual swaps were happening. And uh it was the uh it's not, I guess not the first wagon be done. We kind of thought it was. It's kind of around the same time frame as some other ones being done, but it's uh I think the first one that's actually gotten like some real like publicity in driving and actually showing that it isn't working and in a thing. You know, we put like 400 miles on this car. And uh it's taken a lot, you know, kind of a development bar and seeing how it works and getting it tuned just right and giving it that feel that we want. I call it OEM plus yeah. So that's the the term we go forward because I don't I don't like aftermarket stuff a lot. Yeah, you know, and that's what I love about this so much and why we didn't do it as kind of some of the really early adoption of it to something like, well, let me just wait because I want to see kind of how this works out and like you know how the the parts and all work out, and I want it to be as nice as it can be. Like I don't want to get you know, like so many just random part to make and just make a pack it up or anything. Like when you look at that one, you know, you open the door, and my favorite thing is taking these things to car shows and or like caffeine and locked in or something, and you see people just casually walk by it and they look in it and then they they stop. The double take, yeah, they do the double take, and they turn around and they're like, wait a minute. I mean this this doesn't their brain is trying to figure out like it doesn't compute, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:03

Like wait, it doesn't know what's going on. The shifter looks like it came from the factory from back in 06. The pedals look perfectly appropriate. The gauge cluster doesn't have you know par-reverse drive neutral, any of that stuff on it. I mean, it looks, I mean, I I couldn't pick it apart. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 40:20

Well, thank you because that's what we strive to do. It is an OEM shifter, it's the OEM pedals, the OEM pedal pads. I've kind of hoarded a bunch of those, and there's a sport aluminum style of black rubber on them, uh, and I try to get as much as I can. So, really, other than the clutch, everything in that car is factory Mercedes stuff.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

So, how do you how are you sourcing this? Are you going to Europe and find it or you just see it online and try and buy it?

SPEAKER_00 40:45

Or I I scour, I spend mini an hour on eBay and whatever else, just or I spend a lot of time on the factory Mercedes uh parts computer, and it uh what I'll do is like defilter it from an E55 to like an E220 diesel or something like that, something only in Europe, and I can find all the park numbers for the Mercedes area the manual parts, and I just start searching everywhere, and uh it's not easy, you know. It's it takes a lot of work, and a lot of sellers in Europe are no longer sending stuff to the US. So I have to like get friends in Europe to receive it there and then send it to us, and it uh it's a challenge.

SPEAKER_02 41:21

Yeah, so this is all behind-the-scenes stuff. So, like, you know, it's not just hey, you got all the stuff there, and hey, you'll see your car in two weeks. Well, those two weeks go by. I mean, you're you're you're putting the labor into the communication to like get some of these hard to find parts, right?

SPEAKER_00 41:35

Yeah, I'm gonna add another line on invoices. Sorry, guys.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

Does Europe have like they gotta have like full part pull apart and those kind of places that like not just full scrapyards like nicer places you can actually get parts from?

SPEAKER_00 41:50

If you haven't tried that route, or no, like I've got some contacts that they do that part of it, and then I just get the parts from them. Um but I haven't gotten into that yet, so that's uh that's down the road.

SPEAKER_03 42:00

Going on a lunching trip as things a European lunching trip.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

Yeah, it's kind of on in the US, like salvage yards and stuff, like the those parts where you've either like raised the prices a bunch on them because they're like, oh sudden we're selling these weird resembling manual stuff. And like why is this happening when the southern prices have gone up or just the scarcity of them in the US to begin with?

SPEAKER_03 42:24

So you started in 2020, you basically convinced someone to be your partner, and it I feel like if you're gonna start a business, you're always like, who can I sucker in to do this thing with me first? Who can recognize? Like, you want to get a yes to you, hopefully. But it sounds like you didn't you kind of gave him like uh, hey, we're doing this right now.

SPEAKER_00 42:37

Yeah, yeah, I kind of gave him a uh I guess an ultimatum. It's like I already told him I already quit my job. So, you know, it's like I'm doing this. Are you gonna come with me or not? Are you gonna leave me hanging or not? What's the deal here? Yeah, exactly. Because we'd known each other for I guess it had been close to like seven years at that point. Him and I actually started, we were in orientation together at the uh Mercedes dealer.

SPEAKER_01 42:59

Oh no way.

SPEAKER_00 42:59

And uh so that's how we met. He had just moved from Savannah, and um I just of course started there, and uh he was like my favorite person at the dealership. So I was a service advisor and uh he was one of the technicians. And him and I just hit it off from the get-go, and I would spend way too much time hanging out in his bay, you know, because him and I would just be talking, hanging out, and just learning from him because he's just like a wealth of knowledge, you know. And he's a lot more patient than me. So uh he would sit there and like he could teach you and he'd go through it, and you know, he's from South Georgia, so that's he got the real southern draw, and it's you know, it's slow. And so, you know, him and I we stayed friends even after I left the dealership and went and you know, went through another few jobs as I continued to do and just buying the next thing and and uh yes, so I knew that uh he was he was the guy. And had you talked to him before about like, hey, we should do something together, or is it just always like a it's kind of like you're around the subject and then at one point you're like, Okay, hey, kind of casually, you know, and uh just one time we were sitting at uh uh like kitchen table and his I don't know even how it came up and I can't remember at this point but uh his wife was like yeah Andy's always kind of talked about having his own shop one day and and I was like and I just kind of stored that in the back of my mind and uh yeah when the time came like at that point he was I knew he was the guy. Yeah he was the one I was always gonna ask and you know I think maybe a couple times throughout those years following I was like you know what do you think about uh you know doing this and you know it just but it wasn't like ever a formal thing like we're gonna figure this out and do it it was like here's the option like you know we were both tired of our jobs and and that's it just came up out of nowhere and both wives agreed to it and so it was like heads first. Yeah yeah we're like we got to do this if they say yeah they said yes like all right can we go we've got to go do this now before they before they change the we're gonna do this yesterday actually yeah there's one thing that I've learned I mean you just cannot do it on your own you know no you can so you so you gotta yes you guys start it how are you dividing up like who does what at this point in the partnership so it's uh it was just survival in the in the early years like we all did everything you know there were a lot of days it was just him and I and uh I'd do a little bit up front and then go work on cars and you know he's always been you know kind of the backbone he's been a technician for so long and you know I did the uh service advice I never wanted to like be a technician full time because I knew the whole flat rate thing would ruin the hobby for me because you're just you're hustling you're just trying to get to the next dollar and so I never did uh technician work until I found somewhere that did an hourly pay on it. But uh yeah he's always just helped me with the back end he he's just I I've got many nicknames for him a lot that he doesn't like but one of them's Tink Tink. He he he doesn't mind that one too much because he just he loves tinkering with stuff and figuring out how stuff works and he's handy in just every way possible. You know the building needs something he can do it you know like hang a door you know or run all the airlines he does all that stuff and the stuff I don't have the patience nor the knowledge for yeah but uh but and it's become where I you know we've I run front end he runs back end you know I I kind of do all the admin stuff and you know handling customers more and and that sort of thing so it uh early days were were blended but uh we've kind of we've we've kind of fell into our lane and know which each one's strong points are yeah yeah it's great there's a good partnership so you need to make him successful. Yes because you know he was my friend and you know that's the best part about it is we're still great friends and we never get really tired of each other. You know we still like go to lunch together regularly and hang out and our families hang out together and so yeah I could I don't think I could ask for better. Yeah that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 46:41

Yeah or we'll get into uh a little rapid fire action what do you say let's do it so right at the end you're gonna hit me with that at the end that's right yeah the single greatest AMG ever built no debate your answer all of them oh yeah oh anything with V12 I guess V12 okay it's tough they're all great yeah uh chassis code you could recite in your sleep that most Mercedes people have never heard of one two one okay I'll have to look that up because I just know I know the W's and that's about it.

SPEAKER_00 47:10

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah well there the W's not everything you know yeah so W just means it's a sedan actually yeah a lot of people don't know that they think it's like the BMW thing not to get on a tangent but they think everything is E with the so but with W it actually means the the body style so it's a sedan so there's W, there's A, there's R, there's S. So that it all so this is a S to eleven because it is which is weird but it's because you'd think S means sedan or something but uh it doesn't that means it's a wagon.

SPEAKER_02 47:41

Just like we think 63 means 6.3 liters.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

Yeah you're on you're on to something there they say they round up in Germany you know oh yeah that's right 62.1 they still round up apparently there you go uh the car in your shop right now that you're most excited about the Black series are so good.

SPEAKER_00 48:01

Yeah aren't they Black Series manual swap yeah one Mercedes that you think is deeply undervalued that enthusiasts are sleeping on oh man there's so many of those uh SLK 55s is a good one those are those are pretty understated there's not a lot of them and it's just it's like a Mercedes Miato with a V8 yes a little pocket rocket so those are a lot of fun and R classes on the AMG version. There you go I can't afford one of the R63s so I've got a R350 and when the six cylinder decided to bite the dust I put a V8 in it. So I put the like the standard car V8 like a 550 V8 in it.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

But it's part of the way there.

SPEAKER_02 48:44

Yeah um Dream 3 car personal garage no restrictions I'd have a Mercy Lago uh the 360 and probably something with a 156 in it.

SPEAKER_01 48:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

Yeah so very fitting last one if someone's listening to this and they want to find DC Motorworks where do they go?

SPEAKER_00 49:07

Everywhere we do it all okay Instagram Facebook YouTube Google you know TikTok we started doing that recently started a TikTok channel? Yeah we started doing TikTok recently are you inventing your own dances?

SPEAKER_02 49:18

No you know what we do actually have a dance we do the ABC dance rodeo yeah we do that we did one recently with uh Ed's cannonball car we did the uh the ABC rodeo if you've never seen that there you go well very good cameron such a pleasure appreciate you coming by and um you know we'll look forward to uh seeing you out there in the in the car world I know you're everywhere these days so thank you for having me really let's check this thing out yeah let's do it yes all right that's a run guys cool