We're into Building

Custom vehicle builders Randy and Sydney Weaver, in their own words.

“Randy and I have only been working together for about eight years. At the point where we got married, that’s when I decided to quit my day job and come be a full-time hot rodder,” said Sydney.

“Yeah. My wife, she’s my right-hand gal. She’s right here all the time,” said Randy

Perfect pairing

“I do everything for the shop that he can’t do well, and he does everything for the shop that he does extremely well,” said Sydney.

“Everything that I’m not good at, she’s awesome at. So it just makes a great, great team,” said Randy.

Horsepower

“I grew up originally on a farm or ranch, so I was basically a cowboy my whole life until I took up hot rodding,” said Randy. “And I kind of mixed hot rodding with the horses and the cowboy life and all that as well.”

“We actually met at a horse show,” said Sydney. “I got pretty heavily in the horse industry and started showing horses as a kid, and I hauled coast to coast showing. The horse industry and the car industry are very parallel.”

“Work ethic is the same,” said Randy. “It is a spitting image to have that work ethic to make this car, to work on that ranch and take care of those animals and all the stuff that comes with it. So, yes; very, very similar.”

Commitment comes standard

“This isn’t a hobby that you can pick up and put down,” said Sydney. “You truly have to live the life. We’re here at 4 o’clock in the morning. Where here at 6 o’clock in the morning. We’re here at any given time of the day, any day of the week that we’re back in town not on the road with shows. It pretty much comes down to whenever we’re done.”

Best of show

“Let me introduce you to ‘Vortex,'” said Sydney, “a 1953 super-radical custom Bel-Air. This will be our show car for this year. So far the car is undefeated. It’s had six Best of Shows. It’s won us a lot of money, and we had a lot of fun with it so far.

“This particular setup has never been done before. It’s a one of one. This car was five months under construction. That included the three weeks that it spent over in the interior shop. So, when we say that it was five months, that’s not your normal ‘9-to-5’ five months. That’s 18 to 20 hours a day, seven days a week we were pretty hot and heavy on this for that entire duration.”

18-hour days are nothing

“‘Man, you are nuts. Do you ever sleep?’ Well, I hear that a bunch,” said Randy. “And I say, ‘Yeah, we sleep.’ But it’s nothing to put in an 18-hour day.”

“We’ve never missed a deadline,” said Sydney. “You know, as you watch us walk around here, this place is pretty much a beehive. But we also know when we have to have certain parts of the project done, and we’ll always be where we say we’re going to be.”

“Twisted Mistress”

“What we’re looking at here is a 1931 Model A,” said Randy. “The name of this car is the ‘Twisted Mistress,’ which really fits this car well just because it’s wild and edgy at the same time, if you will. Basically, I wanted to do a traditional-style hot rod but with a modern flair. As you can see, it has 20-inch wheels; 18s up front, and this awesome turbo 351 Windsor stroked out to a 401. It makes probably 650 horsepower.

“Model A’s usually overlap on their door, so I flush-fit them. Filled the roof, did everything that you can do to a Model A, pretty much. But, yeah. Just a sweet little hot rod.”

Passion for perfection

“One of the things that sets Weaver Customs apart from the rest of the industry is the sheer passion that we have behind our builds,” said Sydney, “not only just the talent and the time, but the level of creative craftsmanship and dedication that we have behind each build really sets them apart.”

Meet “Eleanor”

“This is Eleanor. What we’re looking at here is a 1967 Fastback Mustang,” said Sydney. “Super, super cool. We’ve had this car for about a year. We originally sourced it in Florida, and when it came to us it was literally just a shell. From there we’ve custom-gapped everything to show specs. It showed at the Salt Lake Autorama, won its class over there. And we’re now continuing on with the car.”

Quitting isn’t an option

“These projects, they take a lot of dedication,” said Randy. “And that’s where I go back to my work ethic. Me growing up, the way I am, we just drive and drive and drive and don’t quit. You have to have a no-quit attitude to make this all happen to this caliber, you know, to the highest standards.”

“We don’t work too much because we absolutely love it,” said Sydney. “So, I mean, we’ll tell you we’ve never worked a day in our life. It’s our livelihood, yes. However, it’s what we absolutely loved to do.”

“People say you’d better slow down,” said Randy. “You’re going to get burned out. And at 41 years old I guess I’m still here and I’m not burned out. I still love my job.”