Blood, Sweat & Vintage Steel - Meet Spook of Airkooled Kustoms

What happens when you do a mash-up of artist, engineer, entrepreneur, and genius... and REMOVE the filter?

You get Spook. The one from Airkooled Kustoms.

OK, so I'm biased. I'm @steemitpatina, and I'm in love with the guy. That's why I'm helping with his "introduce yourself" post. Well, that, and a couple of other reasons.

#1. Notice anything... odd about these hands?
Spook sustained severe frostbite as a toddler and pretty nearly lost the use of his right hand. Several surgeries later - complete with plastic replacement parts - he doesn't have much feeling in that hand, and it's noticeably smaller and "interestingly" shaped.

To see the drop-dead gorgeous classic Volkswagen and Porsche restorations he builds, you'd never guess.

#2. The written word... not his forte.
Here's a pretty good representation of what he sees as he reads OR writes. It makes for some rather creative spelling :)

So, yeah.

Most of his posts are probably going to be in video format.

Dub Fever Struck Early

Legend has it that at about 18 months, Spook told his mom he wanted to play with his, "VW's, cars, and trucks" - and the fascination grew from there. That's a sweet Squareback behind him.

Like most kids, taking stuff apart was a favorite pastime... but he could also put it back together, usually better than it was to start.

He STILL Plays with His VW's and Porsches

But first there was a little detour. Growing up in Vallejo, California, he soon found himself drawn to the lowrider scene. This explains why his favorite restoration projects tend to be slammed, soaring mere fractions of an inch above the pavement.

Now you'll find him in bustling Hazel Green, Alabama, (total population 3,630) in a shop known as Darkside Central. The shop does complete restorations - pan off, every piece and part disassembled, blasted, repaired (the old-fashioned way - not with a bunch of Bondo), straightened, painted and polished to look like glass, modernized a bit for safety (brakes, wiring, bigger engines, stronger suspensions), and either back to stock or something far more sinister. This shop is one of just a few in the nation that do this level of restoration work.

OCD Much?

"OK, they're expensive. They're grumpy. They're going to do it right, or they're not going to do it at all. They WILL fire you if you need it."

That's what one recent client at the shop said he was told by the guy who referred him. He's not wrong.

Spook and the other krew members at the shop are obsessively committed to their work. It's commonplace for him to spend hundreds of hours on a project's paint and polish... often on his own dime.

The results feed the obsession. He does stuff with paint that cameras can't even pick up. Here's some raw footage from when the Channel 19 local news team came out to the shop to cover the Mabel project. (You can read about her here - she won People's Choice in Vegas last year.)

You can watch the final cut here.

If you're REALLY into classic car restorations, you can get your fill at the Airkooled Kustoms site or Facebook page. Drool all you want!

If you've got questions about restorations, custom paint, or aircooled VWs and Porsches, put them in the comments and we'll get them answered in upcoming posts.

Written with StackEdit.