Behind the Build Ep. 5 | HOT ROD Shop Tour with Lucky’s Garage

You all know Lucky Costa from Hot Rod Garage and his YouTube channel, Lucky's Garage Show. But have you ever had a behind-the-scenes look at his shop? On this episode, let's go behind the build to tour Lucky's shop, see some of his current project vehicles, and look at some customer cars. Hang in there for a special guest appearance by Hot Rod's Project X 57 Chevy. So, 63 Ford Galaxy Country Sedan, not a Country Squire. Country Squire is way nicer. This is just a sedan. The gig is, I told the story many years ago about the car that scarred me first. Not the most, but first, and it was a lowered wagon, just carving around a corner. I was just like, whoa, grandma's car really hooked up there. And I was just like, I want to get one of those, and never did. And Alex found this in North Carolina that explains a lot of the holes, the Patina. And they gave it to me on the show. We ride-teched it, bagged it, it goes all the way down. Just shy of throwing sparks. And that was one episode. And then the next episode, oh, we did some modifications under the hood. This thing came with what, an FE engine? No, 390. 390, okay. Came with a little 390 in it. And now it's got almost the same. Almost. So yeah, it's got a 2018 Coyote 5 liter, low mileage, got it from a wrecking yard. It has the 6-speed Gearstar transmission in, automatic. This thing came with a 6R70, 6R80, I think. Obviously, the Patina exterior, you're kind of a Patina guy lately, last few years. It's just nice to have something you can hose off, right? Exactly. Well, we drove it through a car wash just not too long ago. Did we? There's water coming down from the roof. We actually were able to clean the inside and the outside at the same time at the car wash. It was good. And the gas mileage, we just drove all the way to Fresno, that was 300 miles? And three quarters of a tank each direction. Can't beat that. And I was driving not very conservative. If it doesn't look great, it needs to sound cool. And if you drop a gear in this thing, it sounds pretty cool. It does sound cool. Well, I'm a big fan of this, very comfortable road trip car. It's my current favorite. Yeah. Yeah, I can tell. I know you've been driving it a lot. I think next up, people have seen this truck many times, it was in Hot Rod. I'm like, Lucky, can I do a photo shoot with your truck? I thought you'd be driving it. And he's like, here, take the keys. He's around the desk. Bring it back when you're done. I saw the picture, I was like, where did you take my truck? You were like out under some freeway. I wasn't. It was in Terminal Island. I took it down to the ports. Yeah, wait, you've been with this since the beginning. The absolute beginning. That's right. So you could tell that story. So down at Ruby's Car Show in beautiful Redondo Beach, California, and a guy that I sold a couple of cars to years and years ago, my RN70 Chevelle convertible with the wide five and the quick change. Yeah. And a Ford Fairlane 500, I'll show you pictures of those later. Yes. I sold to him years and years ago, and with the money I moved to Europe. I just went on holiday for a while. And we bumped into him walking around the Ruby's Car Show, and he's like, hey, Lucky, I heard you were looking for a C10 truck. I told him I wasn't. But he's like, I got one, I want 35 Ford, I'm very firm on the price. And I was just like, $35,000 C10, that's ridiculous. So that's what I told you. I was like, hey, this guy says he has a $35,000 C10 in his house, let's just go have a laugh. No intentions on buying it at all. So we get there, and correct me if I'm wrong, the cab has doors on it, no front clips, sideways sitting in the bed. And then doors were on the car, and the interior was like, that cab was just turned sideways sitting in the bed on a roll around dolly. And then fenders and doors were hanging everywhere, and the frame was sideways covered in cat dander because it had been there for so long, it became a cat trail. And the guy goes, I got all the parts, I put it together. And I was just like, wow, this guy means $3,500. So I go, well, let's get the money out of the way, remember? I go, here's your $3,500. And then I took my phone, I put it on time lapse, I stuck it to the side of his trailer, and me and you, and he was there also. Supervised. Supervised, yeah, from a chair. We cleaned out his whole storage spot, brought the frame out on jack stands, and just started throwing parts at it. He had everything to make it a roller, less motor and transmission, and then it's turned into this. I found out after scrubbing through the door that it was a retired Los Angeles County fire truck. They used it to service fire hydrants in the 70s and 80s. So that's kind of neat. I tell people I got a hot rod fire truck, they're like, where did you park it? It's a little truck. This car doesn't need any introduction, Lucky. It does not. X marks the spot. That's right. The longest running company owned magazine project car probably in the world. It started out just as a test vehicle, just like, hey, they got a new thing called a 396. Hey, let's put it in that old 57 and see how much it holds up. Yeah. Hey, it's a test vehicle. General Motors has a 632 cubic inch big block, and I remember the first time they're like, no, no, no, stop talking about that, it's never going to happen. I did not stop talking about that. And I don't think anybody did. And eventually it happened. They sent us a 632 and a gear start transmission. We needed something that could handle 1025 horsepower with a warranty from General Motors. And me and Alex whipped up some motor mounts. We found headers, did some minor modifications to those, put it all together. And this is 1025 horsepower, ground pounding, fire breathing, tire smoking, cruiser. Yeah, definitely is. I was there taking pictures while you guys were building it. I love this engine. It's crazy. And just a little bit of driving around that we've done since this has been in here. I'm always surprised at how drivable it actually is. Yeah, it's super comfortable. I mean, it's no 63 Galaxy wagon, but it is cool. And I like pulling up to like signals and it's just ground pounding, the whole car just moves like that. And people in their Priuses are just like, what is that noise? They just don't, it couldn't be that cool old car over there. And yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's sort of in here temporarily while, uh, yeah, you know what we can, we put that there. I didn't buy the car. I, I've been seeing every time I take a picture in my shop, this is in the background and a bunch of people. Oh, lucky. I'm so happy you got the car. I would be happy to take the car, but no, I could not afford this car. And honestly, I have no business with a car this nice. I'm noticing a theme, Lucky, for your transmission choices that tends to be Gearstar transmissions. There is a pattern, a wagon Gearstar, a Project X Gearstar, Crownhick Gearstar. Let's talk about the benefits of shopping at Gearstar. Well, I will say this. I am not the most conservative driver out there. I tend to flog on stuff all the time. So when I met Zach at Gearstar, he told me what he had, he sent me the first transmission I think is in my truck. I've been flogging on that thing for a long time. No issues whatsoever. And the cool things are, he told me that one guy builds you a transmission. I was just like, how busy is that guy, right? It's a big company, right? He actually has like a crew of people. But the cool thing is that one person builds a transmission from start to finish and then signs it and then dynos it and sends you the dyno video of how your transmission works and all the gauges. I don't know what half the gauges mean, but it shows you that everything works. So I've never pulled one out of the box and had any issues with it at all. And you get a warranty, three year, 36,000 miles warranty on the transmission and a custom built Yank Performance Torque Converter. They're always quick with helping you out when you need it. Absolutely, yeah. I can just call them. So Ryan over there and Zach, super helpful. Awesome. This is my favorite car of all of the things that I've known you to have. And this is kind of how we met and got to be friends too. Totally is, yeah. We did a photo shoot with this thing for Car Craft when I was an editor at Car Craft. Which is funny because it was on Car Craft magazine. It's primer. It's not even primer. It's like oxide brown paint. Some of it's put on with a roller, it's terrible. But the gig is, my buddy Kalen Head sold me this thing, very cheap, let me do payments and I've been throwing parts and money at it ever since. Did you find a handwritten receipt? I did, out of a ring binder and it's like written in whatever was laying around, highlight, pencil, saw Lucky on this date. He gave me $200 all the way to the end and I gave him like another $200 and he tears it out and I'm like, what was that? Because I'm keeping track of the money. Thanks a lot. It's been over a year. It's like I gave you the car for free. You know, you let someone do payments and it's just like, and I was like, ah, let me save that. So I still have it somewhere. And the thing is, it's just awesome to drive. I love it. I've had the pleasure of driving it around a little bit over the years and I love this car. So that kind of leads you to the two-door wagon here, which is sort of a bucket list car for you. Right, Lucky? Yeah. Well, the gig, I've always been sort of a very fond of the Chevy and the Chevrolet bodystyle. This thing, when I put it all together, it started making a lot of horsepower. It's fun to drive, six speed, had a sequential shifter. I put the full cage in, I'm trying to be like a responsible grown ass man. Cage as well, the two, the A pillar and the B pillar and then the frame and it just really affects the ride. It does. The vibration. It's like you're driving a race car. So that worked out right, but it's not comfortable to drive anymore. So I always wanted a two-door station where I can hunt it high and low. My buddy, Greg LeGros called me. He had this thing, bone stock primer sitting, he found it in a field, like a yard in Golden Valley, Arizona. Wow. Sold it to me with just full of parts and I started throwing parts at it. And now it is a all aluminum six liter. It's a little dirty now because I just drove it not too long ago. Ride tech, of course, all the way around, Wilwood brakes all the way around, Holley mid mount, AFR heads. Guess what kind of transmission it has? Gear Star. No, this one has a turbo. No, of course it's got Gear Star in it. So yeah, it's got a Gear Star 4L60, which is my first 4L60 I ever owned. I had it in another car, ended up in this car. And then we got the last, this is a carry over from HRG days, right? This is. So this is the Crown Hick. That's what we called it on the show. Me and Tony wanted to build a Crown Vic body swap vehicle. The guy that we had gotten a bunch of parts from just gave us a high mileage Crown Vic and just said, here, take it. And then me and one of the production assistants, Mish, we went and found this guy, Augie. We saw him just recently at that quarantine cruise. He had this there. Him and his son, Max, sold it to us for, it's a funny story. We talked him down to like 2,500 bucks. He's going to get this truck, stock long bed with a big block Ford in it, lifted bone stock. 2,500 bucks or 2,000 something. Something was cheap. And he goes, okay, all right, let's just get it going. And then the production people get in the boat, we need you to sign a W of this and do this paperwork and do this tax stuff. The guys all, nope, 4,900 went right back to full retail. And the best part of that whole deal is the company was just like 4,900. I was just like, I just wasted an hour of my time trying to talk to this guy down. They didn't care. They just wanted the truck. So either way, we got it for 4,900 bucks and me and Tony, in a couple of weeks, body swapped the whole thing and nice driver. So this belonged to my good friend, Morgan. Funny story about me and Morgan. We worked next to each other in two different shops. I have my shop. He worked at Hot Rod Performance. And we would constantly battle with each other, like friendly battle. I showed up one day after wiring his brake pedal to his windshield wipers and his horn while he was at lunch. And he hops in and steps on the brake and the wipers go like this and it sprays water and then the horn honks. The next day I get there and I open the top desk drawer and it's full of ants. My whole desk is moving because he put sugar in there and all the ants just came out of the wall. So that went on for many years. So me and Morgan were buddies. But Morgan passed away a few years ago and he left this to his son and along with a budget specifically to finish it, including paint and everything, we're sending it out to a paint shop. But I'm going to wire and fire it, finish the chassis, suspension, brakes, basically make it a fun driver. Just completely safe. That's super cool. You're saying it looks super radical with a huge supercharger and a big block, but it's kind of a team. So Hot Rod Performance built the motor, put it all together. But here's the deal. It's going to be a 16-year-old kid with this kind of craziness under the hood. It's a really nice, strong, mildly ground-pounding motor. It's probably going to sound insane. Super drivable. Two fuel injection systems on it. Like I said, two four barrels, it has two fuel injection systems on it, a nice comfortable automatic transmission. Very drivable. So the cool thing about that, you'll be able to put a tune in there to keep that kid out of trouble until he's ready for trouble, which will just be a few years after he's been driving. That's true. Then we'll put the trouble right back into it. I'm a big fan of Lucky's approach of building cars that are functional and fun drivers. And he proves that you don't need to spend a ton of money in the process. What was your favorite car in his shop today? Let us know in the comments. Want to see more of what he's working on? Be sure to follow him on social media at MobileTechLucky and subscribe to his YouTube channel, Lucky's Garage Show.