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My name is Jeff, and I'd like to welcome you on a journey of reflection and insight into the tolls and triumphs of a career in automotive repair.
After more than 20 years of skinned knuckles and tool debt, I want to share my perspective and hear other people's thoughts about our industry.
So pour yourself a strong coffee or grab a cold Canadian beer and get ready for some great conversation.
Sunny Massera [00:00:07]:
Self taught. I didn't. Never went to school for automotive.
Jeff Compton [00:00:09]:
Right.
Sunny Massera [00:00:10]:
I just gravitated towards people that were better than me all the time. And when I found myself to be the smartest person in the room, it was time to do something else.
Jeff Compton [00:00:17]:
Amen. I said all the time, go and find yourself a. A bigger room.
Sunny Massera [00:00:25]:
So. Yeah. Morning.
Jeff Compton [00:00:26]:
How you doing? Morning. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another exciting episode of the Jade Mechanic podcast. Sitting here at SEMA Apex 2025. And I'm sitting with a good friend of mine, Sonny Masera Macera.
Sunny Massera [00:00:40]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:00:41]:
Yeah. Good morning, Sonny. How's it going, bro?
Sunny Massera [00:00:43]:
It's good. I had to make my way here pretty quickly. I woke up a little bit late. You know, nice fun night and booked over here and I'm excited to be here. This is great. You know, first time at sema, so it's overwhelming.
Jeff Compton [00:00:56]:
Yeah. For, for everybody listening. Sunny was our initial pick for the giveaway. And then by the time we let Sonny know that hey you, congratulations. He had already went and booked his own stuff to get here. So that was like, okay, crap, you know, what do we do? Go to plan B. And plan B fell through. So, you know, you're here.
Sunny Massera [00:01:17]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:01:18]:
And this is your first time?
Sunny Massera [00:01:19]:
First time. I was determined to get here one way or another. My boss said he was going to bring the whole crew, but he kind of changed his mind, which is understandable. You know, it's kind of expensive to bring 10 guys to SEMA, to Vegas. So my wife and I came and I've got some buddies showing up today and just, and taking it all in. It's, it's a lot. I mean there's so much to see.
Jeff Compton [00:01:42]:
It's.
Sunny Massera [00:01:43]:
It's amazing.
Jeff Compton [00:01:44]:
Now tell us where you work.
Sunny Massera [00:01:46]:
I work at Heritage Broncos in Tigard, Oregon. We build custom ground up new builds. I'm actually the service manager, restoration department guy. I take old Broncos and put new parts on them, basically.
Jeff Compton [00:01:59]:
Oh, that is amazing.
Sunny Massera [00:02:01]:
It's fun. I get to build some really cool cars. We do some side projects. Like I just finished a 68 Mustang Fastback.
Jeff Compton [00:02:07]:
Okay.
Sunny Massera [00:02:07]:
With a Gen 4 Coyote and brand new parts all across the board.
Jeff Compton [00:02:11]:
Wow.
Sunny Massera [00:02:12]:
And yeah, it's fun.
Jeff Compton [00:02:14]:
Well, when you say the Broncos, like all the older vintage or like, so the big stuff like the OJ Bronco. Will you touch that?
Sunny Massera [00:02:21]:
That.
Sunny Massera [00:02:23]:
Not so much those. It's, it's the first gen Broncos 66-77s. You know, the one everybody's, everybody wants.
Jeff Compton [00:02:29]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:02:30]:
And there's, there's a big demand for Them, I mean, we've got. We're producing maybe one a week at this point, like out the door. The last, the last couple days of it are like quality control. And I have a lot to do with that. Just making sure it's assembled correctly and it drives correctly and, you know, and shake them out. So every day I get to go drive around for a couple hours sometimes in a brand new bronco.
Jeff Compton [00:02:54]:
That's not a bad gig.
Sunny Massera [00:02:55]:
It's not a bad gig. I mean, you don't get to hop in a brand new, fully leather coyote swapped bronco and just go driving around.
Jeff Compton [00:03:01]:
So the. For the, like. Is there repo tubs and bodies?
Sunny Massera [00:03:05]:
Oh, yeah. You can buy every part brand new for those things. I mean, from the, you know, axles all the way. You know, we use kinser chassis right now, and they're a great product. We get them fully built. All the suspension's already in it. Depending on, you know, if they want a 4 link or they want, you know, standard springs or there's different combinations. It's building.
Sunny Massera [00:03:25]:
This is like they used to back in the day where you could order the vehicle exactly how you want. You want this color, this color interior, this color stitching, this steering wheel.
Jeff Compton [00:03:33]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:03:34]:
You know, this many speakers. So each one's a little unique.
Jeff Compton [00:03:37]:
Now these customers, like, I want to think that if you're going to go. And again, we don't have to talk pricing, but if you buy one of them. I don't think they're using as a trail rig, per se.
Sunny Massera [00:03:46]:
No, no, no.
Jeff Compton [00:03:47]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:03:47]:
I have built a few trail rig trucks, but. And they're they're basically built the same, you know, maybe put some rock guards on them and stuff like that too. But for the most part, they're street trucks. Yeah. But I mean, they're, you know, you can't lift them too much. They get a little unstable. So, yeah, it's. It's a combination of having to lift the body enough just to, like, stuff a, you know, 73 Godzilla motor in them.
Sunny Massera [00:04:12]:
And we've done a few of those. And those are just absolutely a ball to drive.
Jeff Compton [00:04:15]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:04:17]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:04:18]:
Wow.
Sunny Massera [00:04:19]:
And I got to this point, like, I worked at another bronco place about five, six years ago and kind of got into it. And ironically, I'm a chevy guy. I like to build chevy, but I build everything. You know, you throw it, throw anything at me and I'll fix it. But I made the choice to build customs and hot rods because it's just a different mindset. It's a Different customer.
Jeff Compton [00:04:36]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:04:36]:
Different time frame.
Jeff Compton [00:04:38]:
Now I think you probably were a lot like me, where that was what we grew up on, that stuff that was on tv and we thought that's what we wanted to do, right. Was do that customization stuff.
Sunny Massera [00:04:46]:
I didn't really have a TV when I was a kid. I, I grew up out in the middle of nowhere and, you know, we had a little, a little 7 inch black and white TV up until I was about 10 or 11 years old. My dad is a breaker. He breaks every car ever. So by time I was like 12, I had 100 cars sitting around my property.
Jeff Compton [00:05:02]:
Wow.
Sunny Massera [00:05:03]:
And I just go outside and start tinkering them with them. You know, I started messing with cars when I was 9 or 10. Rebuilt a motorcycle when I was 11. Right. And just kind of worked into it. You know, my first car somebody gave me when I was 14, I was gonna go buy this little Mazda for 200 and the lady was like, oh, it's your first car? And I was like, yeah, she's just like, you can have it. So she gave it to me. So I went, took it home, did a head gasket on it, drove it for a couple years, and just started fixing more and more cars.
Jeff Compton [00:05:29]:
At 14, you were driving the car?
Sunny Massera [00:05:31]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I live way in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico. So it's like, you know, it's like.
Jeff Compton [00:05:37]:
Yeah, we were talking Albuquerque.
Sunny Massera [00:05:38]:
Well, my wife's from Albuquerque. I lived there for a little bit. I grew up in northern New Mexico, up in, in Taos, Little ski artist town. You know, real, real beautiful, real poor economy.
Jeff Compton [00:05:48]:
Okay.
Sunny Massera [00:05:48]:
You know, unless there's the haves and have nots, of course, everywhere. But yeah, I was, I was kind of blessed. And I was in an isolated place to where I could just, you know, hop in my little, junk your car and drive for 5, 10 miles and there's nobody around.
Jeff Compton [00:06:01]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:06:01]:
So I just learned how to fix stuff myself. And I, I got a job for a Porsche mechanic when I was 17, just doing repairs and, you know, spark plugs and brakes and stuff and.
Jeff Compton [00:06:10]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:06:10]:
Just kind of started from there. And then I got another job when I was 20 for a hot rod guy builder. And because I was good with like, you know, metric, you could say, compared to what he was doing, they had me fixing all the, just any new car they, they came in and it was an old speed shop. And those guys had some really bad habits that it took me a long time as a technician, as a person to shed those bad habits of how to just interact with people, how to even clean my tools. You know, it's.
Sunny Massera [00:06:41]:
Was good and bad at the same time and it's taken me a long time to overcome those bad habits.
Jeff Compton [00:06:47]:
Now you like in work performance then, like the way processes and practices and.
Sunny Massera [00:06:52]:
Stuff like that, or lack thereof.
Jeff Compton [00:06:54]:
Okay.
Sunny Massera [00:06:54]:
You know, and it was an under the table job for year. I spent about six years there and I realized that it was just, I was getting nowhere.
Jeff Compton [00:07:01]:
So is it kind of like they were trying to be the cheaper alternative or. Trying to.
Sunny Massera [00:07:06]:
Yeah, it's, it's a weird. Cause in the town I live in, nobody really wants to pay for anything.
Jeff Compton [00:07:10]:
Right.
Sunny Massera [00:07:10]:
So he did hot rods because his dad did hot rods. So he got to do the expensive stuff while me and the other guys got to do the whatever else. The stuff that kept the lights turned on. Really? Yeah, yeah. I mean, he literally owns the shop, so it was like he had an electric bill to pay, so he was paying us pennies. But I, I, I. The way I see it is, is years in the trenches learning.
Jeff Compton [00:07:30]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:07:30]:
Learning my own processes and how to, you know, fix, just fix machines, you know, like with minimal anything. Yeah. In the last 10 years, I've made it a point to learn electrical and you know how, how. Because the modern cars are so like, you got to understand what a sensor, how a sensor works, what's the, you know, what data comes out of it.
Jeff Compton [00:07:50]:
That's right.
Sunny Massera [00:07:50]:
What to do with the data. Yeah. I mean, I couldn't wire a car six years ago. Now I can build a full harness, you know, and terminate everything and understand what it does and troubleshoot it out. Troubleshoot it out. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:08:02]:
That's cool, man. Yeah, it's so I think sometimes we forget like the, the going back to like, because the, the, the passion for a lot of us. Like I was talking yesterday, right. Was what we kind of grew up on. Like, I was a hot rod magazine kind of kid.
Sunny Massera [00:08:16]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:08:17]:
Like, I always was reading Hot Rod.
Sunny Massera [00:08:18]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:08:18]:
And I always wanted to be at Semen. I always wanted to, you know, know how Boyd Coddington did this or Chip foosted that or something like that. And it was like. And then Jesse James and that shop dynamic. I'm not a motorcycle guy, but I'm like, well, he's got some pretty cool stuff going on.
Sunny Massera [00:08:33]:
Well, I appreciate the craftsmanship and the art of it and the ingenuity that comes with building machines from ground up.
Jeff Compton [00:08:40]:
But you see some of those guys and they go down that road of that. That's where the passion Takes them.
Sunny Massera [00:08:44]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:08:45]:
And then again, having to fix like a lot of the, the grocery getter kind of day to day, mundane cars.
Sunny Massera [00:08:50]:
Sure.
Jeff Compton [00:08:50]:
And it puts that fire out for a lot of them. Right. They get beat down by, by the, Exactly. The industry, what it is.
Sunny Massera [00:08:57]:
Yeah, yeah. No, I've been there. I've been at jobs where like I really wanted to do, do do it, but circumstances, the customer base, the boss, I mean, I just switched jobs about not even six months ago. Guy I worked for is a good guy, but he just, he didn't, he didn't have the, didn't have a good culture. He, he didn't, he wasn't really looking out for any of his guys. He's more of a user. But, you know, I don't really have anything against him except for the fact that he's just, well, some of his, he didn't see it, you know.
Jeff Compton [00:09:26]:
Yeah. So was some of his business decisions kind of, you think, impacting the culture in the way that it had to be?
Sunny Massera [00:09:33]:
Yeah, it, you know, it's a complicated bag, you know, working for somebody, but he would, he would do right by the customers at his own expense and then he wouldn't, he wouldn't charge properly for his own or, or my work. You know, I tell him, hey, I spent 10 hours doing this one thing on a 37 Plymouth and he would, you know, charge two or three hours. And that's just an insult to him. It's an insult to me. And I just, you know, it wasn't worth doing. No, it wasn't worth doing. I mean, and then it's a culture thing too. Like, you know, I'd rather work for somebody who appreciates me and leans on me to get things done that he needs done and, and then reciprocates too, you know, and so it's, you know, you've worked for a lot of people.
Sunny Massera [00:10:14]:
I've worked for a lot of people and sometimes it fits. Most of the time it doesn't fit.
Jeff Compton [00:10:17]:
You know, and, and I learned a long time ago, like a lot of what the culture that I found was, was I was responsible for a big part of it.
Sunny Massera [00:10:24]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:10:24]:
In the sense of I was. And it wasn't in any kind of leadership role. But it always goes back to that, you know, that I, that word of perspective.
Sunny Massera [00:10:31]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:10:32]:
I can wake up today and think, I got to go to this job again, or I can go, right on, man, I'm employed.
Sunny Massera [00:10:39]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:10:40]:
You know, like we're not in the middle of a pandemic or something like that and I can go to work, and I can. I can, you know, have some fun, learn some stuff, collect some money and go home safe, sound, you know.
Sunny Massera [00:10:52]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:10:52]:
And. And do it again tomorrow.
Sunny Massera [00:10:54]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:10:54]:
And. And that was a lot. It took me a long time, a lot of maturity to realize that. It's like, yeah, there's just some people you shouldn't work for 100%. But there's also a lot of us that are not understanding why maybe the business does what it does. And then we think that it's like I'm being not treated correctly. And the reality is.
Jeff Compton [00:11:17]:
Yeah, there's some truth to both sides.
Sunny Massera [00:11:18]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:11:19]:
But in order to get together, we have to get together to improve it. One person going by himself is not going to improve it.
Sunny Massera [00:11:27]:
Yeah. It takes a team. So I've actually had a few of my own shops. About 10 years ago, I opened a shop in Albuquerque. It was customs. I ended up doing a lot of just repair stuff because that's, you know, it was a big glutted market. There's shops everywhere with a really low shop rate, and they did really poor work. But then there's other guys who had, you know, they're super busy, they charge a lot, they put out good work.
Sunny Massera [00:11:49]:
So I was stuck somewhere kind of in the middle, and I made a couple bad decisions with partners and people I wanted to work with. And coming to the realization I'm not a businessman. I never went to school for that. You know, I went right from high school into working on cars straight. So I've. And then I opened a shop a couple years ago with the. The pressure of a friend that I was building a truck for. And it.
Sunny Massera [00:12:11]:
And it turned into us not being friends because he pushed me into a situation I wasn't ready for, and I did okay, but it was just me by myself, doing the whole thing.
Jeff Compton [00:12:20]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:12:20]:
And, you know, it's really hard to do the work, sell the work, do the paperwork, you know, just.
Jeff Compton [00:12:25]:
I.
Sunny Massera [00:12:26]:
And it's not for me.
Jeff Compton [00:12:26]:
I've never understood that when people get into that partnership. Right. Where. And. And I've seen it where it's like, we're partners, but they're absentee. And then it's like, well, and I. Again, just going back to being. I'm a technician.
Jeff Compton [00:12:40]:
It's simple math.
Sunny Massera [00:12:41]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:12:41]:
You're absentee, but I'm doing all of this.
Sunny Massera [00:12:43]:
Oh, yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:12:44]:
How's the pay breakdown for. For the business? Right. How does. And then you look at it. You're like, I don't see the value of You. Even though whatever you mean, you might be 50. 50 in.
Sunny Massera [00:12:52]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:12:53]:
Investment wise. We're not doing 50. 50 workload.
Sunny Massera [00:12:56]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:12:56]:
And then it's like, what. What should be your take? And that's always something that, when I would talk to guys and like, yeah, I had a partner, I. I hear the heed, the warnings from a lot of people now, and they say if you can't do it on your own, don't do it.
Sunny Massera [00:13:09]:
Yeah. Without, you know, if you don't have the. It's not necessarily the financials behind you, but there's. There's so many pieces in place that have to have to work and yeah, you got to have a little bit of cash stacked up to start your own shop. There's just so many hidden things that I wasn't even aware of. I mean, just. Just listening to your podcast and Lucas and David's podcast, I just opened my mind. I'm like, it.
Sunny Massera [00:13:35]:
I. I'm glad I closed my business because it was. It was just too much and I was stressed about it. I didn't want to be there. Even though I've got, you know, a blown big block camaro and a 57 Chevy sitting there waiting for me to work on it, you know, or, or like, you know, put an engine in OJ Bronco or whatever. Yeah. Kind of saps your soul for it, you know, you don't want to do it even though it's yours, you know, and that makes it worse too, because, you know, I own it, but I can't.
Jeff Compton [00:14:00]:
And so tell me, the customer, the. How do I call it? The custom customer. Like, I want to feel that there's a lot of, like, we talk all the time about the Google reviews and liability of all this and, you know, your reputation and all that kind of stuff. You have to think when those people, like, are taking that much money and giving it to you to build them something that they have envisioned in their mind.
Sunny Massera [00:14:22]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:14:23]:
Like, the pressure becomes even worse than just doing one break job for Mrs. Smith.
Sunny Massera [00:14:27]:
It is.
Jeff Compton [00:14:27]:
The pressure becomes like paying me, what, $100,000 for, for this turnkey on the.
Sunny Massera [00:14:33]:
On the low end. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:14:34]:
You know what I mean?
Sunny Massera [00:14:34]:
But, yeah, there's a higher expectation, which, you know, pushes. Pushes me to do better myself, you know, because I know there's a higher expectation and, And I want to bring that value of my skill set and, and my passion and to give them what they want also while being respected for the way I do it, you know, and it, It's. It's a different thing. You know, I, I, I, I didn't like the stress of just working on people's regular cars because then it's, it's a tool and I, I appreciate that and I understand that. But when it's somebody's toy, it's like it's a piece of art. They don't want to, you know, they'd rather hang it on the wall and drive it once a year. Then, you know, it's, it's, and it's a status symbol and, and that's fine. That's what they want out of their car.
Sunny Massera [00:15:17]:
I'm just happy that I'm able to get my skill set to the point where I can deliver that for them. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:15:22]:
The thing that always made me shy away was those people that are paying that kind of money, they have, like, even though they're one person.
Sunny Massera [00:15:28]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:15:28]:
Sometimes the influence that they wield is equivalent to 10 people or 100 people. Right. So you could do, you can drop up that one job, mess it up, whatever. They're not happy with the color or whatever, whatever. You know what I mean?
Sunny Massera [00:15:39]:
It happens, right? Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:15:40]:
They're not happy about the budget at the end or the time frame.
Sunny Massera [00:15:43]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:15:43]:
And they can really let a lot of more people know than, than Mrs. Smith's brake job that had to come back because, you know, we pad slapped it at her request and then they came back with a squeak. We had to go in and do rotors or something like that, right?
Sunny Massera [00:15:55]:
Yeah, yeah. Well, that's, that's the power of influence. Right.
Jeff Compton [00:16:00]:
So the status symbol thing, what, like when they come to you and say, I want, I want this?
Sunny Massera [00:16:08]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:16:08]:
Do they have like, do a lot of them come in and be like, I had one as a kid and I want one.
Sunny Massera [00:16:13]:
That's a lot of it.
Jeff Compton [00:16:14]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:16:14]:
Or my buddy had one. Or I've always wanted this, I read it in a magazine. And my current job now is I don't have to deal with that. I'm in the shop, I get to do my thing. I don't have to sell the trucks, I don't have to talk to the customers unless the, you know, boss wants me to talk to them for a specific reason because, you know, I can explain things to him that Right. He, he doesn't want to talk about. But, you know, my boss ran a car dealerships for a long time and he just, he made the decision, he didn't want to sell cars, he wanted to build cars. So he built a Bronco in his garage by himself.
Sunny Massera [00:16:46]:
And five years ago now we're selling, you know, I don't know, Bronco every two weeks or you know, it's, we're building four door Broncos. There's not very many people doing that.
Jeff Compton [00:16:57]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:16:57]:
And so it's, it's a, it was a choice he made and, and that was the type of person I wanted to see. Like, you know, I don't want just a job, I want a career path. And there's not many guys that I can do what I can do. You know, any good technician could do what I can do. Like we all can. Right. But there's a certain amount of tenacity.
Jeff Compton [00:17:18]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:17:19]:
Involved.
Jeff Compton [00:17:20]:
And again it's the, like you said, it's going back to the bad habits thing.
Sunny Massera [00:17:23]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:17:24]:
It's like when I see a lot of technicians that like get into the, the trim body side of having to do a repair. Maybe you have to take a door off to do something. Right?
Sunny Massera [00:17:32]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:17:33]:
That's when I see the, the flat rate. Like I just got to get it friggin done this door on kind of thing. Right. Smash the latch, all the crap, dude, you know, whatever. Whereas then you see the guy at the body shop, which body shop guys are flat rate too.
Sunny Massera [00:17:45]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:17:46]:
But it's like they come over and just dink, dink, dink with that door off, put it back on. It looks exactly like it never was removed.
Sunny Massera [00:17:51]:
Like. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:17:52]:
There's an art to that. And that's where I've seen that when we say anybody could do it, it takes a different of being able to click. Okay. Now I got to think differently. Right. Like I'm not trying to get these spark plugs out as fast as possible.
Sunny Massera [00:18:02]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:18:03]:
I'm trying to make this look a certain way. And that's a different type of technician. Right. Shut the hood on. A lot of what we do. Nobody if they never have to live the hood again, we don't know what it's like.
Sunny Massera [00:18:13]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:18:13]:
Right. But when you do the, the kind of custom fab stuff, people are looking at it all the time. Time.
Sunny Massera [00:18:20]:
Oh yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:18:20]:
A door gap that doesn't align. Right.
Sunny Massera [00:18:22]:
Or like.
Sunny Massera [00:18:24]:
High level of scrutiny is involved. You know, they look at it, they're like, how come there's a little bubble there? Your trim's a little off there. And you know, and like I found that I, my, I can only do my job as, as good as the quality of the parts I'm buying and installing. So like I, I just did a 68 Mustang. Most of the parts are Chinese. Yeah. And they just don't fit right it takes hours to make this little thing work or massage it into place, and nothing ever fits. You could take three Broncos that are exactly the same truck, the same exact parts.
Sunny Massera [00:18:55]:
None of the parts fit the same. Yeah. And it's just. So it's that. And part of it's. I. I slowed myself down, too. Like, I.
Sunny Massera [00:19:02]:
I can't do flat rate. I don't want to hurt myself, like, just trying to push to get these cars out where. Whereas custom is. I'm allowed to take the time to make sure it's exactly right before I can say, okay, it's done. You know, I'm happy with it. And when I'm. When I'm done with the car or a vehicle that I'm, you know, I say, hey, I'm done. I sign off on it.
Sunny Massera [00:19:21]:
They don't even question it. They're like, cool, cool. But I always have. We. We have, you know, multiple guys doing quality control just. Just because you can't see everything. There's some guys out there that really do have that eye, but most people don't. You know, it's better to have two people, three people look at it, drive it, you know?
Jeff Compton [00:19:39]:
So how many miles gets on a new unit before you turn over to the customer?
Sunny Massera [00:19:43]:
3 to 500.
Jeff Compton [00:19:44]:
3 to 500.
Sunny Massera [00:19:45]:
Yes, absolutely. I mean, we've had. We've turned out cars at 50, and they just come back immediately.
Jeff Compton [00:19:50]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:19:50]:
You know, like, I have transmission Solenoids fail at 180 miles.
Jeff Compton [00:19:54]:
Right.
Sunny Massera [00:19:54]:
Differential start leaking at 300 miles.
Jeff Compton [00:19:56]:
Right.
Sunny Massera [00:19:57]:
So we. We have to really put some miles and. And just work everything out and shake them down and.
Jeff Compton [00:20:02]:
And just go back and re. Torque everything that you touch, because it's gonna.
Sunny Massera [00:20:05]:
Yeah, we have a bunch of young guys in the shop that we're having. I'm. I have to go and make sure they're doing everything right. But I'm. I'm. You know, I. I only have to usually show them once or twice before they get it, and then they're getting them the habit. I'm like, you know, hand them a torque wrench.
Sunny Massera [00:20:17]:
This is your friend. This is what this is torqued.
Jeff Compton [00:20:19]:
Or.
Sunny Massera [00:20:19]:
And when they make small mistakes, I explain. You know, we go through the learning process of being like, this is how this is done. Or, you know, or what was your thought process to. To lead to this decision for you to do it this way? You know, so what could we have done better?
Jeff Compton [00:20:33]:
What. What's the young people's like? Do they get tripped out on the idea that they're working on something that is older than them. Like the design of it.
Sunny Massera [00:20:42]:
The.
Jeff Compton [00:20:42]:
Yeah, the, the throwback, whatever you want to call it, the vintage vibe. Like, do they get it? Like they think they're cool or they're.
Sunny Massera [00:20:49]:
Just like, oh, they do. They appreciate the uniqueness of it. You know, I've, ironically, I segued in a. I, I answered in an ad. I think it was Craigslist.
Jeff Compton [00:21:00]:
Okay.
Sunny Massera [00:21:01]:
For hot rod mechanics. So I go and check it out. It's. It's an airplane hangar and they're building vintage DC3s.
Jeff Compton [00:21:07]:
Wow.
Sunny Massera [00:21:08]:
And I was like, oh, I build cars. And they're like, yeah, well, guys like you tend to carry over. You know, you have the skill set and the, the ability to work with the tools and stuff. So. So they give me this aptitude test and I passed the aptitude test.
Sunny Massera [00:21:23]:
Which is just, you know, reading instructions, torquing this, doing a process. Right. Do the process. So I got the job. But then they had me doing like sandblasting for 10 hours a day and just doing really low level stuff where all the other amp mechanics are like younger than me, laughing at me because I'm, you know, in my 40s and they're in their late 20s, they're making three times as much as me. And I'm just like. And then they're looking down on me and I was like, you don't, you don't get to do that. Like, you know, like, can you fix your own car? No, I don't think so.
Sunny Massera [00:21:54]:
Yeah. And so that I didn't last very long at that. Just because it wasn't a good fit for me. Ironically, I got my nephew a job there and he lasted a year and that got him, him into a school.
Sunny Massera [00:22:05]:
Program in Oklahoma. Now he's fully certified to work on airplanes.
Jeff Compton [00:22:08]:
Very cool.
Sunny Massera [00:22:09]:
So it's like, you know, everything happens for a reason. You know, I never, never was happy to be fired, but there's always a reason for that, whether it's whether I fit or they don't fit. It's. It's what it is.
Jeff Compton [00:22:19]:
I've told it many times. Most of the time when, when they pulled me in and fired me, I wasn't surprised. Like we'd already kind of made an impasse and come to a decision that like, you were getting everything you were going to get out of me.
Sunny Massera [00:22:32]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:22:33]:
And it was going to be compressed. It was going to go lower and lower, you know, week by week. Because we had come to a place where I had like either felt I was needing more financial or tooling or opportunity wise.
Sunny Massera [00:22:46]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:22:47]:
And you were not interested in giving it.
Sunny Massera [00:22:48]:
Sometimes it's just respect. Yeah. Like, the respect drops off. My motivation drops off, productivity drops off.
Jeff Compton [00:22:53]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:22:54]:
It's like, why am I here? If you're not appreciating what I'm doing or putting me to my best skill, you know, ability.
Jeff Compton [00:22:59]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:23:00]:
Then what are we doing here?
Jeff Compton [00:23:01]:
And the legacy we leave sometimes is the same thing. Like I said, I, you know, way back when I left a dealership job and they. I had five of my friends leave within the next two years.
Sunny Massera [00:23:10]:
Oh, wow.
Jeff Compton [00:23:11]:
So, I mean, it is like in this industry right now, people are not, you know, there's so many opportunities out there for young people that want to move that, like, they don't have to stay at some place that they're not valued. There's so many opportunities. And then, like, if you're one of these leaders in one of these places. We had a great conversation yesterday about leadership. If you're one of these leaders and yet you're seeing your people go, walk out the door.
Sunny Massera [00:23:34]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:23:35]:
And there's two things. If you're like, the owner that maybe is not there all the time, you know, you're trying to manage three stores and you don't know why the technician left. Okay, cool. When you see another one leave, you better be talking to your people as to why those two techs left.
Sunny Massera [00:23:49]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:23:49]:
Because either two things are happening. Somebody is paying them more to leave, but you got to go and nip that in the bud.
Sunny Massera [00:23:54]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:23:54]:
Or somebody's driving them out the door. That probably works for you as well. And then you got to really look at that, because what if you have a manager that cost you five technicians?
Sunny Massera [00:24:05]:
Oh, yeah, that's like.
Jeff Compton [00:24:06]:
That's. That's.
Sunny Massera [00:24:07]:
You really evaluate what's happening there. Is it like, what are you not seeing? You know, is it yourself or is it, you know, the culture in the shop? Is it one of the other employees?
Jeff Compton [00:24:15]:
And we could take the hard line and go, you know what? All five of them were, whatever. They had this wrong and they did that wrong.
Sunny Massera [00:24:21]:
Well, that's not taking accountability.
Jeff Compton [00:24:23]:
It's not. And look at the shortage that you're in. Yeah. Like, if you want to replace those five, start running interviews and replace one at a time. Nobody wants to see five leave, you know, in a short period of time without even being able to find a replacement for the first one that walked out the door. Nobody in business can tell me that's how they intend to do it. This idea that, like, I'm gonna walk in and fire all my staff. We have heard it.
Jeff Compton [00:24:45]:
Sure. But it isn't like I'm walking in and firing five.
Sunny Massera [00:24:48]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:24:49]:
I walked in and fired two.
Sunny Massera [00:24:50]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:24:51]:
One maybe at the most. Right. I've. Maybe I fired an advisor and a technician and I went back out to the bench and I put the earbud in my ear and I went to work and I turned my, my own business around.
Sunny Massera [00:25:00]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:25:00]:
When you lose five.
Jeff Compton [00:25:03]:
That'S like think about the production that comes down. Think about the revenue stream that's not coming in. Think about the money you'll spend now with a company like Promotive or something like that to try and replace five.
Sunny Massera [00:25:16]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:25:16]:
You're looking at a three year minimum of trying to replace five techs unless.
Sunny Massera [00:25:21]:
You find a unicorn. And they're, most of them are already, they're already doing their thing somewhere. Some of them, you know, some of them.
Jeff Compton [00:25:27]:
Well, the young man I talked to yesterday, Tony Martin, you know.
Sunny Massera [00:25:30]:
Oh yeah, yeah, yes. That's a sharp guy.
Jeff Compton [00:25:32]:
That's a unicorn man. Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:25:34]:
Oh yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:25:34]:
He ain't going anywhere.
Sunny Massera [00:25:35]:
I wish I was that good when I was his age, man. Wow. I'd be somewhere else right now. I'd probably be right here. But.
Jeff Compton [00:25:41]:
Yeah, no, we'd be here but you.
Sunny Massera [00:25:43]:
Know, in a different capacity.
Jeff Compton [00:25:44]:
Yeah, different capacity. And I look back and I don't. Do you have any regrets?
Sunny Massera [00:25:48]:
Oh yeah, but they don't do me any good. I mean I, yeah, I regret, I regret maybe not going to school or learning some of the skill sets I had. I mean I'm fully self taught. I didn't never went to school for automotive.
Jeff Compton [00:25:58]:
Right.
Sunny Massera [00:25:59]:
I just gravitated towards people that were better than me all the time. And when I found myself to be the smartest person in the room, it was time to do something else.
Jeff Compton [00:26:06]:
Amen. I say it all the time. Go and find yourself a, a bigger room.
Sunny Massera [00:26:09]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:26:10]:
Get into another room. Because like it's the thing. I come down around here and I talk to these people and they're like one guy that I have a lot of respect for, he's like. And I go like I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, I sit in these chats and I listen. I barely say anything because like other than to say good job or I'm a supporter, I'm a cheerleader because like they're all so smarter than me. And I go. And he goes, man, you've been doing this 30 years. If you weren't all that good, good.
Jeff Compton [00:26:34]:
You still wouldn't be here. That's, that's true to some extent. Like it's valid, but it's like when I think about where I'm at and where I see some of these other people's processes.
Sunny Massera [00:26:44]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:26:47]:
I don't use, I don't have processes like them.
Sunny Massera [00:26:49]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:26:49]:
But he said to me, he said, instinct is a, is a, is a superpower and instinct is a power and a tool and it's part of your process.
Sunny Massera [00:26:57]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:26:57]:
Don't ever push away from it, you know, Let it guide you.
Sunny Massera [00:27:00]:
So I think instinct is built over recognizing, just think, being aware of what's happening and understanding cars and people, machines in general, you know, so self, so self taught. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:27:17]:
Do you have like, who did you kind of like? Are you kind of a guy like me that was like, spent a lot of time and he got some Internet access and was like, started to learn that way or a little bit just.
Sunny Massera [00:27:28]:
Being in shops for, you know, 28 years now. Just when I started, like I said, I got my first job when I was 17 in a shop and just learned that way. About eight years ago, I decided to start using the Internet to teach myself, you know, how to, how to do wiring, how to do sensors, you know, and just. I'm a sponge. I just want to learn everything. Yeah. There's certain things I'm not good at that I recognize that I'm not good at, but I still work on those skill sets so I can be more proficient in my job, whatever it is, you know. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:27:58]:
Are you like me? I find the things that really interest me, I become good at. And then it's like if somebody's like, I tell all the time I suck at air conditioning, it wouldn't matter because it's just boring to me.
Sunny Massera [00:28:08]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:28:08]:
Right. I understand the principles of it.
Sunny Massera [00:28:10]:
Sure.
Jeff Compton [00:28:10]:
It seems very repetitive. Hook the machine up, like, do this like this. It seems like the same three steps. Right. And then it's like you hook the machine and then you get to the repair. It seems like, oh my God. Like, you know, it's, it's that process. Even though that process really is how we should apply to more things and how we fix cars.
Jeff Compton [00:28:27]:
Right. A similar process all the time, but it just bores me. It bores me. There's no thrill there. Yeah. I know what I'm not. What I'm weak at is the stuff that just doesn't interest me. And then the stuff that I genuinely really gets under my skin, I'm not necessarily great at.
Sunny Massera [00:28:44]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:28:44]:
But I, I enjoy the challenge of that versus the. Any mentors in your career that were impactful or did you kind of not have that either?
Sunny Massera [00:28:55]:
No. Well, just. Just dogged persistence to learn. To learn and figure things out, you know, like, I just like to fix things, whether it's cars or a blender or, you know, like friendships.
Jeff Compton [00:29:07]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:29:08]:
Which those are. Seem to be harder to fix than vehicle. At least the machine does what I tell it to, you know. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:29:14]:
So, yeah, people are. People are a riddle. Right. Like, they're, you know, and again, like, I've learned more and more. Like you got to meet them where they are. You can't grab them and drag them up to where we are.
Sunny Massera [00:29:26]:
It's perspective.
Jeff Compton [00:29:26]:
Yes.
Sunny Massera [00:29:27]:
You have to have perspective of where somebody else is coming from. You know, what's their thought process? What's their emotional process on dealing with things and, and not being judgmental over that, you know, like, just because somebody's coming at me with whatever, it doesn't mean I have to fight with them about it or become. Have a conflict, take a. Take a step back and understand where they're coming from. And it's a lot easier to communicate, not be offended at somebody's perspective.
Jeff Compton [00:29:55]:
Would you say that you're in a mentorship role at this point?
Sunny Massera [00:29:59]:
That's. That's where I kind of found myself. They realized that I was good with the younger guys, and I can just kind of. I'm good at explaining things, and I like to teach. I want there to be more good technicians and people who have just good, solid, solid thought process.
Jeff Compton [00:30:11]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:30:12]:
You know, how. How to, you know, figure out what's wrong, Make a fix or do the fix and then verify your fix.
Jeff Compton [00:30:20]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:30:21]:
And then rinse, wash, repeat, do it again. You know, like. And we all have our different processes and, and different things have different processes.
Jeff Compton [00:30:30]:
So what's, what's some of the challenges you see with the young people?
Sunny Massera [00:30:35]:
Distraction. Yeah. They get distracted real easy. You know, short attention spans. They can't. They can't just stay on a thing for two hours straight without, you know, or.
Jeff Compton [00:30:44]:
Where do you think that comes from?
Sunny Massera [00:30:47]:
Media, tv, television, Phones.
Jeff Compton [00:30:49]:
Phones.
Sunny Massera [00:30:49]:
I mean, phones.
Jeff Compton [00:30:51]:
I. I've conditioned my brain now that after about like six minutes.
Sunny Massera [00:30:54]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:30:55]:
It. I can turn on a YouTube video and probably the five minute mark. I'm looking at my phone at the same time.
Sunny Massera [00:31:00]:
Yeah. I'm working on that myself. Like, try to be more engaged in the. In what's in front of me, not just what I'm holding in, you know.
Jeff Compton [00:31:06]:
And some of it is good because I think like sometimes we, we absorb a lot from just osmosis. Like, I hear it and I'm not necessarily watching what Paul's doing on the screen, but I heard him and it goes, still goes in the bank. And then other times I'm like, did I ever even watch that video? And I know I have because YouTube tells me that I've watched it. I can't remember what was the fix for the car, what was it about?
Sunny Massera [00:31:28]:
Delivery is a lot of it too. Like, if it's a solid delivery that I can get, concept of what's. What, what is being relayed immediately, then I'm like, okay, I understand that. That. Yeah. But like, if it's delivered in a weird way, then I'm like, wait a minute, do I go back and look at it over and over again to try to understand what they're trying to tell me? Like, I, I get what they're doing, but I don't understand the way they're saying it.
Jeff Compton [00:31:48]:
And a lot of time I find myself now, like in two minutes, I'm like, oh, it's going to be that. And then I zone out.
Sunny Massera [00:31:54]:
Yeah, right.
Jeff Compton [00:31:55]:
And then sometimes 14 minutes later it was what I thought.
Sunny Massera [00:31:58]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:31:58]:
Or 14 minutes later it was something completely different. I'm like, yeah, shoot, what did I miss? Right? But it's David Roman. It talks all that time with that TikTok brain.
Sunny Massera [00:32:06]:
Right.
Jeff Compton [00:32:06]:
You're listening for three minutes. And he's not wrong. It's. I see the kids now when it's like attention span of 30 seconds at best, a 1 minute to 2 minute. Right. We were talking about.
Sunny Massera [00:32:16]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:32:16]:
The gentleman, Jamie, he watches his daughter on YouTube and she's literally like this scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll. When she stops and he starts counting, how many seconds did you watch that? And then he'll ask her, it doesn't matter what the topic was of the video.
Sunny Massera [00:32:28]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:32:28]:
What made you watch that video longer than those other 10? You. Yeah, you just flipped by. That's how, like, we have to unlock this going forward with the young people on how we get them to learn. Yeah, I think it's, I don't know how we do it. Like, I don't know if we give them more 10 minute breaks throughout the day and, you know, or that's a.
Sunny Massera [00:32:48]:
Hard one, you know, like, because like the media companies, all of them, they're, they're designed to captivate you and then hold your attention by flipping it and you get that, you get, get that little dopamine heat every time you change. And it's, it's just like they're programming us to, to, to not think really. It's, it's interesting.
Jeff Compton [00:33:09]:
And I, I, I, I think back to some of the techs I knew that were smokers. Right. So they, they kind of maybe do a task.
Sunny Massera [00:33:16]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:33:17]:
Like I, I'll do the, the rear shoes on this back of this van. Yeah. And once the rear shoes them, I'm going out for a cigarette and I say outside because, like, when, where I would work, it was a designated smoking site. You couldn't shop, so I would find it, they would, and then come back and then. Whereas now I think it's like they can be in the middle of something and then a phone beep or a thought comes into their head or about, I have to do this or I have to do that. And then they pick this thing up.
Sunny Massera [00:33:42]:
Yep.
Jeff Compton [00:33:42]:
And, and before long, 10 minutes is gone. And then they're completely brains going in a different direction. Whereas the cigarette thing is like they kind of came out, had the cigarette at the same time, looked at the phone, went back in, went back to work.
Sunny Massera [00:33:54]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:33:55]:
So I, I think going forward, when you see something, they talk about the bathroom break.
Sunny Massera [00:33:59]:
Right? Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:34:01]:
Like, yeah. They're sitting there on their phone. Sure. But if I'd rather, if they spent 20 minutes in the bathroom and then every time they were out in the bay, they're actually tool on a car, I'd be cool with that. Not like every time I turn over, it's two minutes on the, on the phone.
Sunny Massera [00:34:16]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:34:17]:
Seven minutes on a tool. Two minutes on the phone, seven minutes on the tool. I know how that's. That way of doing things leads to little things that get missed. The bolt didn't go the final torque.
Sunny Massera [00:34:26]:
Yep.
Jeff Compton [00:34:26]:
You know, the connector didn't get pushed in all the way. Connector didn't get pushed in at all. Like.
Sunny Massera [00:34:31]:
Well, it's breaking up the process. You know, they just have to, you need to be able to think it all the way through before you change the subject in your brain.
Jeff Compton [00:34:40]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:34:41]:
And some of the, some of the younger guys I work with are pretty good about not looking at their phone. And, and I try to encourage that, you know, by not doing it myself, you know, of course, you know, I turn around, I'm trying to figure out what part I'm looking for or like, you know, or a process to fix this or that.
Jeff Compton [00:34:56]:
But then we're going to the DVI thing in a lot of shops where it's like, and they're on their phone Non stop. Like, that would. What would trip me up? Because I'd be in the middle of the DVI and I'd be, oh, use your own phone for the dvi. Okay, cool. Go. Ready to go over to techmetric to do the dbi. Oh, there's a message from Lucas. Stop the dvi.
Sunny Massera [00:35:12]:
Ding.
Jeff Compton [00:35:13]:
You know, and it's. Before long, it's just like.
Sunny Massera [00:35:15]:
Yep.
Jeff Compton [00:35:15]:
I said to him, I said, I don't want a phone. Give me a tablet.
Sunny Massera [00:35:18]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:35:18]:
Because otherwise if I pick up my phone when I'm trying to do di. Well, I don't really care. You could. No, listen, man, like, I'm, I'm taking too long because this little thing that I carry in my pocket all day is distracting me when I'm supposed to be working.
Sunny Massera [00:35:28]:
Sure.
Jeff Compton [00:35:29]:
And they go, well, that's on you. I get it. But can I just have the tablet, please?
Sunny Massera [00:35:32]:
Like, well, it's. I mean, we're trying to use technology to make things more efficient while battling the inefficiency that's kind of built into the technology. So, like having a phone while you're trying to do your dvi, which I've never had to do on myself, but. Yeah, you know, we don't do that on old cars.
Jeff Compton [00:35:49]:
No.
Sunny Massera [00:35:50]:
But I should, like, I do take videos of, of the trucks when they're done. You know, like, I've torqued all this and like the door gaps right here, so I can take it, show, you know, send it to the customer so they know progress reports and whatnot. But it's, it's interesting just moving forward, learning how to take this technology and make it so we're actually getting better and we're more efficient and we can have these processes set up that don't just distract us. And so that's, That's a tough one. I don't see a clear path for that moving forward.
Jeff Compton [00:36:22]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:36:22]:
But, you know, if we all work on a little bit here and there, I think, you know, and teach the young guys to not be distracted and that their lives will be better if they have. If they get that, you know, I'm sure you like me that dogged persistence, like, when I get into a problem, I have to figure that out before I let it go.
Jeff Compton [00:36:37]:
When I. When I'm into something that's kicking my tail, I have to turn my phone off, you know?
Sunny Massera [00:36:41]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:36:42]:
Like, just walk over to the laptop and look at the service data again, like, I have to turn my phone off because otherwise it's like I'm gonna tell myself, you Deserve a break. You need a break, Go look at your phone for 10 minutes. And when I come back after 10 minutes, I don't feel like more refreshed, more invigorated. I feel I'm 10 minutes behind.
Sunny Massera [00:36:58]:
Yeah, exactly. I just wasted 10 minutes, you know. So these tracking myself, these units that.
Jeff Compton [00:37:02]:
You'Re building out, kind of going a different way. Tell me how, like, they're not born with a VIN number. So how do you make that work? So that it's.
Sunny Massera [00:37:10]:
We take. We'll take old chassis that have VIN numbers. I mean, we'll buy literally a rolled, squished truck that's part of a frame with the VIN tag with a title and title it to a new truck.
Jeff Compton [00:37:22]:
Wow.
Sunny Massera [00:37:23]:
That's mainly. That's a lot of it. Because, I mean, what makes a truck usually is of the VIN numbers, you know, So, I mean, there's. There's a little gray area there, but for the most part, they're already previously titled vehicles.
Jeff Compton [00:37:36]:
Okay.
Sunny Massera [00:37:36]:
That already existed.
Jeff Compton [00:37:38]:
So. But you're putting it on an aftermarket chassis to an aftermarket body tub to.
Sunny Massera [00:37:43]:
Brand new bodies, brand new tubs or, you know, frames. And then. Yeah. Applying those VIN numbers and. And it's in. In Oregon. It's. We're at.
Sunny Massera [00:37:52]:
It's. There's some kind of loophole there that we can take. As long as it's got a piece of the original vehicle, it's technically a restoration. You know, Even though, like, maybe we're only using 4 inches of the frame that actually has the VIN number on it.
Jeff Compton [00:38:04]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:38:04]:
The rest of it's just rotten. We cut it out. Yeah. You know, put it on the truck. Yeah, it's. It's pretty crazy.
Jeff Compton [00:38:11]:
Let's see. Pull the dash out of an. Always put an OE dash in a brand new body, and if it's got the tag on it, you're. They're on the.
Sunny Massera [00:38:17]:
They're on the glove box door. It's just a little tag. It was riveted in. I mean, it's. Yeah, it's crazy. Done. Done that a lot. So we got.
Sunny Massera [00:38:24]:
We have people looking all over the country for broncos in any condition. I mean, we'll take one that's completely rotten.
Jeff Compton [00:38:31]:
Right.
Sunny Massera [00:38:31]:
And just use the VIN and. And part of the frame into the new truck.
Jeff Compton [00:38:36]:
Yeah. So I see Dennis Collins. I don't know if you know that name. Dennis Collins used to hang out with the guy from gas monkey garage a lot. And Dennis Collins does.
Sunny Massera [00:38:44]:
Oh, Aaron Kaufman.
Jeff Compton [00:38:46]:
So Aaron Kaufman was the mechanic for.
Sunny Massera [00:38:48]:
Richard Rawlings Richard Rawlings.
Jeff Compton [00:38:50]:
But Dennis Collins, the one he saw with, like, it's. He used to run a Jeep thing. He's a Jeep.
Sunny Massera [00:38:58]:
Oh, yeah. Okay.
Jeff Compton [00:38:58]:
You know, the guy, he's at totally cough. Like, everything is coffee talk.
Sunny Massera [00:39:02]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:39:02]:
Well, he's now buying up a bunch of the old bronco stuff, too, because, again, because, like, Jeep guy.
Sunny Massera [00:39:07]:
Yeah, right.
Jeff Compton [00:39:08]:
He sees the trend of, like. Well, you know, like, he had, I don't know, at some point, like, 300 different cjs. Sure. In his collection, you know, going back.
Sunny Massera [00:39:16]:
Just don't get the money Broncos get.
Jeff Compton [00:39:18]:
And that's crazy to me.
Sunny Massera [00:39:19]:
Yeah, me, too.
Jeff Compton [00:39:20]:
That's crazy to me.
Sunny Massera [00:39:22]:
Broncos are just Ford Jeeps. Really.
Jeff Compton [00:39:24]:
In my.
Sunny Massera [00:39:24]:
In my brain, I just see a CJ that says Ford on it.
Jeff Compton [00:39:26]:
You know, when I think of that, like. And again, I'm going to date myself like Daisy Duke from the Dukes of Hazard drove a cj. You know, there's so many, like, oh.
Sunny Massera [00:39:34]:
I built lots of jeeps. Tons of jeeps.
Jeff Compton [00:39:36]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:39:37]:
And I mean, to me, once you build enough cars, they're all just kind of the same. It's like, this one's purple. That one's got this engine. That one's got those springs.
Jeff Compton [00:39:46]:
Is the four lane.
Sunny Massera [00:39:47]:
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Jeff Compton [00:39:48]:
That one's got the old original leaky piece of crap under the hood, and this one's got a brand new, like.
Sunny Massera [00:39:53]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:39:53]:
You know, Hemi under it or something like that. That's. That's the cool stuff for me, like. But Dennis was known for, like, taking the old cjs and putting on that Holley sniper EFI system.
Sunny Massera [00:40:03]:
Tons of those.
Jeff Compton [00:40:04]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:40:04]:
Tons of those. I. I'm.
Jeff Compton [00:40:05]:
That's the fix for that. That old happy carburetor and.
Sunny Massera [00:40:08]:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the. I mean, applying modern technology to all these old vehicles is. I mean, part of a lot of my job, actually. You know, like, just making them drive, like, a new car, which is hard to do when the thing's 60 years old. Yeah. You know, I put Holley fuel injection on 50s Cadillacs and just run way better. Better fuel.
Sunny Massera [00:40:26]:
Fuel economy. Start right up, you know, things like that. And that's fun. I learned how to do that, you know, just out of necessity, you know.
Jeff Compton [00:40:36]:
Now when I think about, like, how when I was coming up, I wanted to be like, I still want to have a car that has a carburetor on it and take over that. And now I look at it, I'm like, I want no part of having to go out of there and mess with A choke, and like, hell no. I want to be able to hit the key, walk back into the house. It can sit there and idle and not have to worry about, like, if I come out of here and it shuts off, sure. To flood the piece of crap out, and what am I going to be doing to get it rolling down the road?
Sunny Massera [00:40:59]:
Yeah. I mean, having a bowl of gas sitting on top of your engines, just like, it's a little outdated. But, I mean, like, I'm the only guy in the shop that knows how to work on a carburetor. So I'm the carburetor guy. Walk up with my little screwdriver and a timing light, and the thing runs way better, you know?
Jeff Compton [00:41:11]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:41:12]:
But, yeah, I mean, I'd like. I have a 72 Skylark Sun Coupe. Super, super rare car. It's got retractable roof. It's got a carburetor on it. Yeah. Don't drive it because it's got a carburetor on it. I'm like, I've been meaning to put a sniper on it.
Sunny Massera [00:41:24]:
I just haven't got around to doing it.
Jeff Compton [00:41:26]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:41:26]:
But, you know, I build other people's dreams, and I'm not. I'm not. So, like, there's a lot of car guys that are just obsessed with their cars, and I'm like, there's another car.
Jeff Compton [00:41:35]:
To me, like, how did you come into that car?
Sunny Massera [00:41:36]:
Oh, a long series of trades.
Jeff Compton [00:41:38]:
Oh, okay.
Sunny Massera [00:41:39]:
It started with an S10 Blazer that I. That I paid for like, 200 for.
Jeff Compton [00:41:43]:
Right.
Sunny Massera [00:41:44]:
And then I traded it for. I took the motor out and traded it for a 69 GTO.
Jeff Compton [00:41:47]:
Oh.
Sunny Massera [00:41:48]:
Which I. I blew up a couple engines and that when I was young. And then I traded the GTO for the 72 Skylark Sun Coupe. You know, Sunny Sun Coupe. I had to have the car. Granted, the GTO is worth way more money now.
Sunny Massera [00:42:02]:
Ironic segue to that. That car ended up going from New Mexico to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then now it's in Portland.
Jeff Compton [00:42:09]:
Wow.
Sunny Massera [00:42:10]:
I'm trying to find it because I will buy that car back.
Jeff Compton [00:42:12]:
Right? Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:42:12]:
It's like that. That one unicorn car that we all wish we still had. Got dozens of those, but that's the one car.
Jeff Compton [00:42:18]:
There was a guy back home when I was kid, I can remember, I went to high school with his son, and at one point, I think he had, like, six GTOs in his garage at home.
Sunny Massera [00:42:25]:
Oh, wow. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:42:25]:
Like. And. And so he. You know, we're talking the early 90s, right. So they're a 30 year old car at that point. Right.
Sunny Massera [00:42:33]:
Like not nearly the same price tag as today. I mean an empty shell is ten grand now. It's crazy.
Jeff Compton [00:42:39]:
I don't know where those cars went. I, I couldn't even if you asked me to remember his name, I couldn't tell you but like just to think like your dad had seven GTOs in the garage. You know what that's worth now?
Sunny Massera [00:42:51]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:42:51]:
But I don't think he still has seven. Right.
Sunny Massera [00:42:53]:
So. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:42:54]:
And we're. These aren't like Tempests with a badge on it. These were real. Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:42:58]:
Two, four, two VINs, you know. Yeah. I've had five GTOs myself but. But they're all like, you know, basket cases. One's a judge clone that, you know, I had to put a cam in immediately and Yeah. I never, it's like people ask me if I have a Bronco. I'm like, why would I keep $150,000 truck? Like that's just ridiculous. I can, I can have a fifteen thousand dollar truck that will do the same thing for me.
Jeff Compton [00:43:21]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:43:21]:
And you know, I don't have that liability or the expense. When we were insurance, you know when.
Jeff Compton [00:43:26]:
We were ripping around the other night at out on the dunes.
Sunny Massera [00:43:29]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:43:29]:
Like Tuesday night I'm ripping around in this and it's like in this clapped out, beat up, you know, Kawasaki Predator UTV. I'm like.
Jeff Compton [00:43:40]:
Why are guys spending $60,000 for a Wrangler to try and make it do what this does?
Sunny Massera [00:43:46]:
Yeah. Like this for 12.
Jeff Compton [00:43:49]:
Yeah. This is a trashed out $5,000 machine on Marketplace and it'll do everything that a wrangler will do.
Sunny Massera [00:43:55]:
Oh yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:43:55]:
Better than the wrangler. Like if you just want to get it, run the trail and I get it. I'm a Jeep guy. I totally get it.
Sunny Massera [00:44:00]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:44:00]:
But now after riding them out, like it's like a jeep with nothing but what you need it to do.
Sunny Massera [00:44:06]:
Yeah, exactly. But just stripped down, bare bones. Like this is what it's supposed to do. Like. Yeah, yeah. We built a, we did a 6,0 swap jk a couple years ago. And the thing is just, it's gnarly truck. I mean it's just bad to the bone.
Sunny Massera [00:44:19]:
Yeah. But it, yeah. They don't take it off road. They're like, it'll beat the snot out of this thing. Doors will be falling off. You know, it's like we go get yourself a razor side by side. Yeah. And just, you know, go to town and you're not you know, it's not gonna affect how you go to work tomorrow.
Sunny Massera [00:44:34]:
You know.
Jeff Compton [00:44:34]:
Collins brothers did a hemi swap jk which is now a pretty popular common thing. Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:44:39]:
But I mean they were doing super easy actually. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:44:41]:
And I'm like I want. And then he was selling. Yeah, it's 100 grand.
Sunny Massera [00:44:46]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:44:46]:
And I'm like, I don't like guys.
Sunny Massera [00:44:49]:
Are hellcat swapping those things. And it's just like. Oh yeah, it's cool. We're changing gears. Transfer cases like flexing the frame. Like it's just too much like. And they're. And they're driving status symbol.
Sunny Massera [00:45:00]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:45:00]:
They're not in four wheel drive most.
Sunny Massera [00:45:01]:
Of the time, right? Oh God no.
Jeff Compton [00:45:02]:
Like you guys don't even get snow in New Mexico? I mean a little bit, but like.
Sunny Massera [00:45:07]:
Well, I grew up in northern New Mexico, so. Super high altitude 7,000ft. So it snowed. We have real winters there. It's like more like Colorado. You know, big mountains, high plateaus. But. But I live in Oregon, in Portland.
Sunny Massera [00:45:19]:
And it, it. We might get snow twice a year. We got ice storms that are crazy. I mean three inches of clear ice and everything. And you see all these little Kias and stuff in ditches because I can't really Bald tires. Can't stay on the road. I'm just like, you know, it's. It's pretty funny.
Jeff Compton [00:45:34]:
What. So what like does your boss have any kind of. When this fad goes away of the Bronco? I don't want to say fad, but you know what I mean, when they follow the style.
Sunny Massera [00:45:44]:
Sure.
Jeff Compton [00:45:44]:
Does he have a. Another idea what where the next thing they'll go towards.
Sunny Massera [00:45:49]:
I haven't really got into that with him. We have a bunch of alternate. We call alternate builds happening. We've got you know like a 78F250 with a Godzilla motor. We've got a. I'm about to a 66 Mustang convertible. We've got a couple cool scouts in the pipeline.
Jeff Compton [00:46:04]:
Nice.
Sunny Massera [00:46:04]:
Yeah. Like. Like early Scout 80s.
Jeff Compton [00:46:06]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:46:06]:
I think a Scout 2. We've got a couple Jeeps sitting there waiting to be built. Early cjs. Yeah. So he, he's definitely diversifying. And all the, all the trucks we have, I mean I think we're 25 Broncos in stock right now. Most of them, they're all sold already pre sold. I mean so like big four door ones and stuff like that.
Sunny Massera [00:46:25]:
I know we've got four going to SEMA this year. I'm not sema. Barrett Jackson.
Jeff Compton [00:46:29]:
Okay.
Sunny Massera [00:46:29]:
I'm like they're not here. I tried to get him to bring one, but.
Jeff Compton [00:46:31]:
Have you ever been to Barrett?
Sunny Massera [00:46:33]:
I haven't. I built many vehicles that have been sold at Barrett. Jackson Twin Turb C10s and.
Jeff Compton [00:46:37]:
Oh, cool. Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:46:38]:
Crazy weird. I did a 69 Pro Street Camaro that went through that got some good money. I did a really nice K5 Blazer. 72 K5 Blazer. I got some good money.
Jeff Compton [00:46:48]:
You're making me just jones out for all this rust free sheet metal that you can find.
Sunny Massera [00:46:53]:
So organ's got some rusty stuff and a lot of these older broncos that I'm not restoring. I mean, it costs more to, to restore a bronco than it does to just build one fresh. But yeah, I grew, I grew up in New Mexico. There's not a lot of rust there. So when I did see rust, I'm like, what is this? You know? Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:47:10]:
Must have come from Canada. Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:47:12]:
I mean, it could be from Illinois or something. Just somewhere. There's lots of salt. I've seen vehicles from parts of Colorado where they salt the roads a lot. And like, it'll sit on the side of the road for a bit. Half the truck is rust. The other half isn't just because the way it sat in the snow bank.
Jeff Compton [00:47:26]:
And just super weird, but because, I mean, that's what I have to think. Like when you do the customization thing, like, it's constantly. Things come in and out of favor. The tuner market. Right. Like all the fast and furious kind of stuff.
Sunny Massera [00:47:41]:
Oh, yeah, yeah. The more you customize a vehicle, the less people want it because it's already been done to somebody else taste. You know, like you take a truck built in 99 and they spent a hundred thousand dollars then, that's, you know, a quarter million now. And nobody wants the things it's got. You know, it's got 90s wheels on it. It's got the weird like, boat interior and like, you know, I remember the.
Jeff Compton [00:48:02]:
The, the, the, the early 90s, late 80s vibe on. On hot rod. And it was like everything was like a solid alloy weld racing wheel.
Sunny Massera [00:48:09]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:48:10]:
A big gaudy stripe down the side. Dark blobs of color. Like really weird graphics that would go across it look like they look like surfboards with wheels or something. The way they did them up and I'm like. And now they're coming back in style. Like, oh, that one's pink. Like.
Sunny Massera [00:48:25]:
Yeah, I want that with a twist though. There's, you know, different stances, different wheels. Now. The wheel thing is crazy nowadays. I Mean, people spend ten grand on wheels. It's nuts. Which is like crazy because you're driving along and you swerve to miss a dog and all of a sudden you bend a $2,000 wheel.
Sunny Massera [00:48:43]:
Oh yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:48:43]:
I don't, I don't know.
Sunny Massera [00:48:44]:
A lot of them aren't safe too. I mean, you're rolling around a one ton truck with these spacers and thin tires and I mean that's cool if that's what you like, but I don't see the practicality or the safety in it.
Jeff Compton [00:48:54]:
No, we. And again, going back to like what sometimes a weekend in like I, I had to safety a lifted F250, which, you know, it's a very gray area, but what you can sign as being safe.
Sunny Massera [00:49:08]:
Right, sure.
Jeff Compton [00:49:09]:
So, but immediately like we've had some guys bring some stuff in and it's like, it's got wheel spacers and aftermarket wheels on it. We're like, they're like, I got a buyer for this. I'm like, that's cool. We're selling it like that.
Sunny Massera [00:49:20]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:49:21]:
You know, we're like, we'll have to find a set of aftermarket or oe rims tires, put it on there.
Sunny Massera [00:49:26]:
Yep.
Jeff Compton [00:49:26]:
He can buy the spacers and the tires. You do it himself.
Sunny Massera [00:49:30]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:49:30]:
But when it rolls off my lot with my safety on it, it has to go with the way it is because like I've seen. You've seen it. You, we all seen it. How the spacers come apart. Like the lugs break.
Sunny Massera [00:49:41]:
Like a video the other day, one of those big copper, whatever, a crazy wrap on it. This guy had 12 inch spacers on it and it just pulled the whole bearing apart. Yeah. Just popped the bearing out.
Jeff Compton [00:49:52]:
There's a customer that came in next door to the parts store, Riaz, and it's like. So he's got a tie rod off of a, you know, it's be like a 2001 Chevy truck. Yeah. 250, right? Yeah. He's got the tie rod and it's bent like a swizzle stick. And I'm like, there's no snow out. Like, how'd you manage to do that? Like, because you can see that on a plow truck, like going hard into the bank.
Sunny Massera [00:50:13]:
Sure.
Jeff Compton [00:50:14]:
You'll see that, you know, there's no snow. What did you do? All. I got her stuck, eh? And Canadian. I'll bring my Canadian. I got her stuck and I gave her the beans, eh. And I'm like, that's funny. What the hell were you Stuck on. So anyway he gets, he's like, yeah, well he was next door and they don't want to warranty my parts.
Jeff Compton [00:50:31]:
Okay, cool. Never saw the truck. He's just asking me, what do you think might have caused this? I don't know. It's a modified truck, ain't it? Yeah, well, something wrong with the modification. So he comes back in the next week and he's got an axle and a bearing in his hand and the splines off the end of the axle are still in the bearing, but the bearings in his hand. And there's a spacer hanging off the end of that.
Sunny Massera [00:50:51]:
Oh my God.
Jeff Compton [00:50:52]:
Now I see like. Yeah, yeah, that put a little tie rod. Hasn't got a chance. No. You know, he's like, yeah, but I used to work over at the shop. Like I know what I'm doing. I'm like, I think you know what you're doing in terms of like righty tighty, lefty loosey. But I don't think you understand what you've got.
Jeff Compton [00:51:08]:
You've got a Frankenstein that is never going to be.
Sunny Massera [00:51:11]:
Yeah, it'll, it'll never be right. It'll never be safe. It'll. It'll never drive right. I mean there's, there's so many. I see all these modifications like the guys like put maybe one in four vehicles that are slammed to the ground with airbags actually drive good because they engineered the suspension correctly to articulate and not just be all slammed.
Jeff Compton [00:51:29]:
So that's what I was gonna ask you. So as a guy that kind of dabbles in that kind of stuff, what are the red flags or you see when, like when you immediately look at somebody's build, what do you look for? As a builder to another builder, what do you look for? And don't give me like the door gap answer, but like what's some of the stuff that we might not think about?
Sunny Massera [00:51:48]:
Some, maybe some of the way the suspension is, is built and you know like the welds on how they put the, put it together. Overall, I mean, I've just seen really weird things, you know, like, like one bolt holding an airbag on. And I know that's kind of. Some people do that. I'm like, I know it doesn't work for me. Like, just weird bracketry, you know, it I. Wiring. I see a lot of nightmare wiring.
Sunny Massera [00:52:12]:
You look into this, you know, one hundred fifty thousand dollar car and, and it just looks like spaghetti under there. Yeah. I'm like, how does this thing even run? You know, like I Don't get it. I have a buddy down in Texas. He's giving me a hard time. He's like. He's like, you do. You don't do paint and body, you know? I was like, yeah, who cares if it's shiny? If your wiring doesn't work, it doesn't go anywhere.
Jeff Compton [00:52:31]:
You know, I remember a guy brought me.
Sunny Massera [00:52:33]:
Or breaks too.
Jeff Compton [00:52:34]:
What was it?
Sunny Massera [00:52:35]:
Scary brakes. Oh, God. People are weird with that. I don't.
Jeff Compton [00:52:39]:
I'm so scared to buy an aftermarket kit now because it wouldn't even begin to know how to make it. Like, actually be sure that it was working the way it was supposed to.
Sunny Massera [00:52:46]:
Okay. Yeah. I mean, like, we do all aftermarket Wilwood brakes. We buy complete systems.
Jeff Compton [00:52:51]:
Well, I was just gonna ask you, right? You're gonna get your master, your pedal.
Sunny Massera [00:52:54]:
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and then I build a lot of the brake lines myself, but.
Jeff Compton [00:52:57]:
The caliper is made for that.
Sunny Massera [00:52:59]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:53:00]:
What is. I'm thinking that volume coming from that master and.
Sunny Massera [00:53:03]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:53:04]:
That proportioning.
Sunny Massera [00:53:04]:
It's an engineered system. We're not just throwing random parts together, you know. And you know, disc brakes have different than drum brakes. And we just take all drum brakes and toss them.
Jeff Compton [00:53:13]:
It would scare me when I would see guys and they're like, this is a Camaro and. Or it's a. Oh, it's a. It's a. It's a rat rod, you know, and it's got a. I don't know, camaro, like Ford 9 inch in the back end.
Sunny Massera [00:53:24]:
Sure.
Jeff Compton [00:53:25]:
With a. Somebody's brick conversion. We're running a Mustang 2 up front with some Mustang stuff. And I'm like, how are you ever getting the bias right with that? Like, that would just be.
Sunny Massera [00:53:35]:
They make adjustable proportioning valve is one thing. Those are super cheap. But like, I've seen. I've seen like 800 horse drag camaros that have drum brakes all the. I'm like, what do you sure you can stop the first time? Maybe like, that doesn't matter.
Jeff Compton [00:53:51]:
Are you relying on the shoot? Oh, you didn't pack the shoot today. How are you going to stop, man?
Sunny Massera [00:53:55]:
So you just throw a block of wood out the side, you know? Yeah. It's scary.
Jeff Compton [00:53:59]:
No airbag.
Sunny Massera [00:54:00]:
No airbags. Yeah, it has airbags. It's just like air shocks in the backs. So you don't so have good traction, but. Yeah, no, there's a lot. There's a lot of. There's a lot of good work and there's a lot of bad work and it's just kind of my job is to make the bad work better or start from scratch, too.
Jeff Compton [00:54:17]:
So when people bring you somebody else's build and you got to go into it, is that something you say yes to a lot or is it something that you're like.
Sunny Massera [00:54:24]:
Yeah, I'm not afraid of anything. I just. It's. It's. It's more of like, figuring out what it needs, you know, Course of action, you know, what. What are we going to do to make this thing correct? You know? And it's usually pulling a lot of parts off. Yeah. And just tossing stuff.
Sunny Massera [00:54:37]:
Like, we get a lot of broncos that are lifted.
Jeff Compton [00:54:39]:
Weird.
Sunny Massera [00:54:39]:
They do a lot of lift, but they don't correct the suspension or like the radius arm. And, you know, if you don't. If you lift a bronco and didn't correct your radius arm angle, then. Then it gets crazy. Bump, steer. They just don't drive right. Same with jeeps. Jeeps are the same way, you know, so it's just correcting a lot of uninformed work.
Jeff Compton [00:54:58]:
And I hated that because. Jeep. Oh, death wobble. The jeep thing. And it's like, you know, listen, any solid axle, you know, whatever is gonna suffer that. I've driven a ton of the. The lip not even lifted, but stock 250s with a solid axle on the front.
Sunny Massera [00:55:12]:
Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:55:13]:
Death wobble.
Sunny Massera [00:55:13]:
Oh, yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:55:14]:
Right. And it's like. Like, look at all the different stuff they tried to do and not to fix it. Oh, how many times it changed the steering, the tie rods and all that.
Sunny Massera [00:55:21]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:55:21]:
Like. But. Oh, you got a jeep. It's a death wall. Well, how'd you even make it to work today? Like, dude, shut up. Like, you know, I had a Cherokee that had it bad. And it was. It was not overly complicated fix.
Sunny Massera [00:55:31]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:55:32]:
Needed sway bar, swayer links and bushings. Right.
Sunny Massera [00:55:35]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:55:35]:
That's what fixed it. And a correction on the caster. That was it. It wasn't like. It was. I had to throw a bunch of parts at the stupid thing. It had worn out links and bushings for the sway bar.
Sunny Massera [00:55:44]:
Sure.
Jeff Compton [00:55:44]:
And casters out.
Sunny Massera [00:55:46]:
Yeah, I've seen that. Tie rods. Bad tie rods all day long. It's really a one bad ball joint.
Jeff Compton [00:55:52]:
I had a.
Sunny Massera [00:55:53]:
We had a. So I used to. I worked on a fleet of Ford vans for a hot air balloon company. Right. So they got all these hot air balloons and all these vans, and we put a set of moog ball joints. Not talking trash on moog, but this thing would not self correct. You dry, you Tip it to the left, it would go left and stay left. And then the auto track would start kicking in and start hitting the brakes.
Sunny Massera [00:56:12]:
And you're like, turns out that one ball joint we installed and they had Ford engineers flying from Detroit and that ball joint was just slightly too tight, so it just wouldn't pivot properly in there. They put four ball joints and it was fine. But they had master text looking at this thing and you know, I showed, here's the ball joint, but here's the part number, here's the box. And they're like, okay, that's not you, it's the part.
Jeff Compton [00:56:33]:
And it's so crazy how many of those vans and those trucks have driven.
Sunny Massera [00:56:36]:
Well, now I know what to look for.
Jeff Compton [00:56:37]:
Yeah. And, and they don't, they don't correct steer. You know what I mean? Like, and, and the, the person that's driving it is so used to it.
Sunny Massera [00:56:44]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:56:44]:
They just don't even complain about it anymore. They just think that that's the way it's supposed to be.
Sunny Massera [00:56:47]:
Yeah. Yeah. That's.
Jeff Compton [00:56:48]:
No, when you make a lane change, it's supposed to want to come back to the right when you're done. Right?
Sunny Massera [00:56:52]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:56:52]:
You shouldn't have to be like driving it out of the ditch for making a left hand.
Sunny Massera [00:56:56]:
Well, that's a, that's a drivability. Understanding how a car is supposed to operate. You know, I'll get in a vehicle and I'm like, just, wow. I was like, did you know how bad this is? And they're like, what are you talking about? They don't even know. Like it's not supposed, you know, it's supposed to stop forward when you get brakes, not supposed to take a left. Things like that.
Jeff Compton [00:57:12]:
What's your, what, what's your two year plan?
Sunny Massera [00:57:15]:
I, I'd like to, I'm really happy with this company I'm working with now is keep building cars. Build, keep building my skill set. Which is always, always a thing, you know, always be learning. But that's a good question. I've been thinking about that. You know, what's my two and five year plan?
Jeff Compton [00:57:31]:
Ever interested in business for yourself?
Sunny Massera [00:57:33]:
I, I've owned my, a couple of shops going back. Yeah. You know, I don't know if that's for me right now. I mean, I, the more I learn about it, the more I, I feel like I could do it. But like that's just a level of stress I'm not interested in. I'd rather be part of a team. Yeah. And work for somebody that's already got that part of it down.
Sunny Massera [00:57:50]:
And I'm invaluable to them.
Jeff Compton [00:57:52]:
Yep.
Sunny Massera [00:57:52]:
As they are invaluable to me in that situation. So that's fair. I feel like I've, I found a situation where I can grow with the company and, and make them exceed Sonny.
Jeff Compton [00:58:03]:
I think that's awesome because, I mean, it's like, you know, sometimes we, the, the narrative is always coming around to, like, every good technician out there should be going into business themselves. It's the only way you're going to make the money. And, you know, that's a. I think.
Sunny Massera [00:58:15]:
It'S a person to person, you know, situation. Like, you know, if, if you don't want to be in business, just because you're a good technician doesn't mean you should be a businessman.
Jeff Compton [00:58:23]:
That's right.
Sunny Massera [00:58:24]:
And just because you're a good businessman doesn't mean you should own an auto shop.
Jeff Compton [00:58:27]:
That's right.
Sunny Massera [00:58:27]:
You know, it's, it's, there's, there's so many factors and everybody's different. Yeah. So it's kind of just like that, you know, doing the personal work to know what's best for you, your family and the people around you. And those are, those are hard conversations to have.
Jeff Compton [00:58:42]:
It's a lot, it's a lot of mirror time too. Right. Like, you look at our own realities of, like, how really good are we?
Sunny Massera [00:58:48]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:58:49]:
You know what I mean? And then like, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm an okay tech. I started a business. Oh, crap. Now I need to get somebody that's better than me.
Sunny Massera [00:58:57]:
Yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:58:57]:
Shoot. How do I even know what one of those looks like?
Sunny Massera [00:59:00]:
Right. Right.
Jeff Compton [00:59:01]:
You know? Yeah, that's the, that's where I see this, this, this thing going. It's. That's tough for a lot of people to have that conversation. And, you know, this, this platform is just about having conversations, man. That's all it is.
Sunny Massera [00:59:11]:
It's great, man. As soon as I found it, I mean, I, I binge listened to you for, like, months, dude. It's great. Like every, every.
Jeff Compton [00:59:17]:
Thank you.
Sunny Massera [00:59:18]:
Every week, I'm, I'm absolutely stoked to listen to the conversation.
Jeff Compton [00:59:21]:
I just love, I love getting to connect with people that, like, I would have never got to connect with. And yet, you know, you see, you know, we talk about the time where it's like somebody has a conversation. It's like they felt all of a sudden like they had the confidence to, to make that change, that they've been thinking about.
Sunny Massera [00:59:36]:
Perspective.
Jeff Compton [00:59:37]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [00:59:38]:
And confidence, too. I mean, and, you know, hopefully all of us are heading in the right direction, even if it's 1% a day. Right? Like Josh, like Josh says. Was that Josh? Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Compton [00:59:50]:
But, yeah, I'll steal it from Josh.
Sunny Massera [00:59:52]:
Yeah, yeah, I use it now. I told the boss that, and he was like, oh, wow, that's great. You know, and he started using it. So, like.
Jeff Compton [00:59:59]:
Yeah. Well, I want to thank you for being on here this morning, man.
Sunny Massera [01:00:02]:
Thank you for having me.
Jeff Compton [01:00:03]:
Yeah, yeah. Thank you for the. For all the support you've shown my podcast.
Sunny Massera [01:00:08]:
And, like, oh, God, it's great.
Jeff Compton [01:00:09]:
Yeah.
Sunny Massera [01:00:10]:
Oh, I continue to. I will continue to, and I look forward to things that are going to happen, and I feel like I found a friend. My friend.
Jeff Compton [01:00:16]:
Thank you, man. Yeah, absolutely. So enjoy. Sema. Yeah, everybody, if you're walking around here and you're like, hey, I know that guy, come down and see me. So. All right, love you. We'll talk to you soon.
Sunny Massera [01:00:28]:
Yeah, man.
Jeff Compton [01:00:28]:
Bye. Later.
Jeff Compton [01:00:31]:
Hey, if you could do me a favor real quick and, like, comment on and share this episode, I'd really appreciate it. And please, most importantly, set the podcast to automatically download every Tuesday morning. As always, I'd like to thank our amazing guests for their perspectives and expertise, and I hope that you'll please join us again next week on this journey of change. Thank you to my partners in the ASA group and to the Change in the Industry podcast. Remember what I always say, in this industry, you get what you pay for. Here's hoping everyone finds their missing 10 millimeter, and we'll see you all again next time.