S&YE231 - Snail Works Design & Fabrication

[00:00:10] Hey, this is Alex, aka Escargo. You can find me on Instagram at snailworks.us. You're listening to episode 231 of the Subie & You podcast. If you're listening to this podcast and you're in Arizona, hit me up. Let's go do some fun trail stuff with the Subarus. My Instagram handle is escargo, that's spelled E-S-C-R-G-O. You can find me there. You can also find me at snailworks.us.

[00:00:34] Hello and welcome to this new episode of the Subie & You podcast. As you heard, I have Alex on and I'm really excited to have him on and it was a great conversation. He has a cross-trek and you will hear why I'm excited that he has a cross-trek because we have some similarities. And also, of course, he's here to talk about snailworks, but he is another guest that I met in person. I met him last year at over a few years ago.

[00:01:04] Neverland Expo East in Virginia. So that was super cool that I was able to meet him in person and just to add to the list of guests that I've met in person that I've had on the podcast. So we have a really great conversation talking about his cross-trek and snailworks. And so I'm excited for y'all to check it out and listen to his story because it's really, it's actually really cool. He's done a lot of really cool things with snailworks and, of course, his cross-trek. But anyway, we'll get into that conversation here in just a bit.

[00:01:34] The Subi and You podcast is brought to you by Eccentric Designs. For those of you who don't know, Eccentric Designs is a small, community-driven business that offers custom-fit vinyl overlays for most Subaru models. This includes various designs for the rear reflectors, taillights, and side taillights. I also offer fun decal designs like the popular fender stripes and stickers.

[00:01:55] To find designs for your Subi, head on over to eccentricdesigns.com. There's always more projects in the works, so be sure to follow at eccentric.designs on Instagram. As always, thank you so much, Eccentric Designs, for sponsoring the Subi and You podcast. And again, a reminder to the past guests, if you're listening to this, if you would like to get a Subi and You podcast decal with your specific episode on it,

[00:02:21] you can go to eccentricdesigns.com, just type in podcast or episode, and that decal will come up, and you can designate which episode it is. Just put your number in there, and you can order it from Jen. So it helps support her little business, and I really, you know, I appreciate that because I like helping small businesses. So yeah, if you want to, go order one, and you can slap it on your car so that you can show off your episode of the podcast.

[00:02:51] All right, so if you are listening to this on Monday, June 22nd, I want to let you know that I am headed to Overland Expo P&W this Wednesday, the 24th, and I will be there through the 29th on the following Monday. Thursday will be the day that we're going to have a trail ride with all of the people that were invited by Subaru of America for Subaru Base Camp at Overland Expo P&W.

[00:03:18] So we'll be doing that on Thursday, and then of course the event will be Friday, Saturday, and Sunday where we'll be at the expo and being able to explore. So again, my goal is going to be to get some good like social media videos, you know, vertical format for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts. And then I'm also going to be recording long form videos, and I'm excited to go to Overland Expo P&W.

[00:03:46] So if you're going to be there, be sure to come by and say hello. I'll be at the Subaru booth. Anyway, I'm excited to see who's going to be in the booth this year, like what booth cars are going to be there. And I'm just excited to go. It's going to be a fun time. So anyway, I'll get on with some other things. One of those other things is to check out the Dirt Subies podcast with my buddy Ben, who is actually going to be in the same hotel as I am for Overland Expo P&W.

[00:04:13] So we're going to get to hang out and really spend some good time together. So I'm looking forward to that. But go check out the Dirt Subies podcast. He's got a lot of great episodes and a lot of great guests. Also, be sure to check out the Wave podcast with Dave and Patrick. They are both Subaru technicians, so their episodes get pretty technical, but they have a lot of really great information in theirs as well. So be sure to check that out. Also, this podcast was brought to you by Subaru Gear. Be sure to go check out SubaruGear.com.

[00:04:42] Use the code SUBINU2026 at checkout to get 20% off a single item or your entire purchase. It's better if you fill up your cart because if your total is over $50 after the 20% discount, you'll automatically get free shipping, which definitely helps out. The other thing that you can find at SubaruGear.com is the badge of ownership. So if you go to the badge of ownership, you can get your loyalty number, which tells how many, what number Subaru you were on. First, second, third, fourth, ninth.

[00:05:11] Second, some people have a lot of Subarus or have owned a lot of Subarus. You can also get the lifestyle icons as well. So all of that can be found at SubaruGear.com. If you're listening to this and you're on your first Subaru, you just bought a Subaru, you're not sure what that is, go check it out. Badge of ownership that's right there at the top banner. But it displays, you know, like just the pride that we have in owning a Subaru. The other sponsor for this podcast, of course, is MeleeDesignFirm.com.

[00:05:39] You can use the code SUBIE and you at checkout to get 10% off pretty much anything site-wide. One of the best things that you can get for your engine, because your engine isn't necessarily that pretty, are the engine bay caps. Those really help to enhance the look of your engine bay. Plus they're just really cool and they're billeted aluminum. So they're a nice addition to your engine bay. But I want to say thank you to all my sponsors. Thank you to everybody for listening.

[00:06:08] We're going to go ahead and get into this conversation now with Alex to hear about his awesome Crosstrek and hear all about Snailworks. So let's go ahead and do this. Welcome, Alex. Thank you for having me. You're welcome. I'm glad you said in the intro, I'm glad you said what your car account was,

[00:06:36] because I was totally drawing a blank. I'm like, I know he has one, but I couldn't remember it. And that was like, I actually added that question in after I sent you all the questions, because I'm like, what is this car account? Like for some reason, I just couldn't remember it. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just like, I don't know. I've got so much on my mind. But yeah, the other thing that's cool is like you're another guest that I've actually met in person.

[00:07:03] So now I get to have you on the podcast and add you to the list of people I've had in person. But you've been on the podcast before because I recorded with you at Overland Expo in Virginia back in 2025. So that was really cool. And it's cool to meet you. Yeah. It was a very sunny day that we were out. Yeah. Yeah. Those events are interesting. It gets pretty hot. So that's Subaru booth though. That was, they did a pretty good job with that. Yeah.

[00:07:30] It's nice because they've got the owner lounge there that you can go and get out of the sun and just relax and get some snacks and a drink. So they did a really good job. Yeah. Well, I'm glad I got to sit down with you there and chat a little bit. Yeah. That was fun. So I'll start off and ask you the most important question, whether you prefer waffles or pancakes. And I may have asked you then, cause I think I was asking people, but I've had so many people on, I don't remember everybody's answers. Yeah.

[00:07:59] I wonder if my answers changed. I'm going to say pancakes just because I love McGriddle. Yeah. So I'm going to, I'm going to say pancakes today. All right. Today. Yeah. Could change later. My question is what's your favorite, Rob? Mine is pancakes. I mean, I like waffles too, but I mean, I've said this many times, but there's this restaurant in, in Fort Worth and it's a vegan restaurant called spiral diner.

[00:08:28] And the way that they make their pancakes, they have like, you know, they're not super thick, but they're not thin. They're like, they're like just perfect. And they have a nice crispy edge to them. And that's like one of my favorite parts. So this is like the most perfect pancake I think I've ever had. And yeah. It's interesting. Yeah. So. You like like the thin pizzas, don't you? You're like a thin pizza guy. Yeah. I mean. Do you eat the crust on the pizza? Yeah. Do you? Yeah. Actually, it depends. Okay.

[00:08:58] Yeah. Yeah. Maybe that should be another question. Crust or no crust? Pineapple or no pineapple? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I draw the line there. Come on, man. Pineapple is so good. Do not ask me that. What? No, never. Yes. You'll never catch me eating a pineapple pizza. Oh, it's so good. A Hawaiian pizza, never. Oh, you're missing out. Tried it once. It once was enough for me, I think. Yeah. Hey. People can come at me in the comments, but I stand by it. Yeah.

[00:09:28] No, it's cool. So like, you know, we'll talk about your cross-track first. I mean, I know the main thing to talk about is Snailworks, but like as far as your cross-track, like go back and tell me about where your interest in Subaru came from in the first place. Yeah. So that's a pretty interesting one. I mean, my history with Subaru, I'd say goes pretty far back.

[00:09:56] I think my first impression of a Subaru was my dad. He had a really good friend back in the day that he had a GF wagon Impreza, like the first generation WRX with the Minai. That's what they call them, I think. Okay. And he like converted it and everything into like sort of an STI model. And that thing was just like really cool. And it was in the World Rally Blue. It was just like a really cool car. And that was back when I was, I grew up in Taiwan.

[00:10:26] Oh, nice. That's when I was still back there. And I think he had like a, he was like a really good friend of my dad's and he influenced my dad to get a Blah-Bi WRX, also in World Rally Blue. And I was in, I was in like elementary school at the time. I was like second grade, I think. And I remember just like rolling up to school in that thing. And it was just like the coolest thing ever. Yeah. I was just like, I'm, I'm literally the coolest kid on the block. Yeah.

[00:10:55] So that I think cemented it. And I remember like my, my dad ended up selling that car after just a few years, I think it was a 06 model, 05, 06, something like that. And my mom was like devastated that he sold it because she was like, wow, now you're an old person. It's like, that's like a young person car. Now you're old person. So, so I have fond memories of that. Nice. Yeah. Too bad you weren't able to drive it, you know? I know.

[00:11:23] That's why, that's why I ended up getting a manual Subaru, but not quite the same horsepower. No, quite a bit different. Yeah. So yeah, your Crosstrek's a manual, which is super cool. So when I found that out, I was like, yeah, that's awesome. Cause mine is too. But is the Crosstrek your first Subaru? It's my first Subaru. It's not the first car I drove back in Taiwan. I learned how to drive manual in my mom's car. She also had a manual car. She had a, oh, people are going to love this one.

[00:11:53] It was a Raynaud Scenic RX4. It's like the European equivalent of the Pontiac Aztec. Oh man. You got to look it up. It's like the, one of the weirdest looking cars. It was on like Top Gear for episode and they just like tore that car apart. But that's, that's the car that I've learned how to drive it. How do you spell that? Uh, Scenic, like a, like a, like a, you know, something, the Scenic view. But is it Raynaud you said?

[00:12:22] Yeah, Raynaud, like the French brand. R-E-N-A-U-L-T. Oh, gotcha. Yeah, yeah, gotcha. Okay, yeah. Yeah. They actually imported those cars into Taiwan for a bit. They were like really, really unpopular. But, uh, you know, if you wanted to be like different, you'd go and get Raynaud, I guess. Yeah, it was the Scenic what? What was the other part of it? Yeah, RX4. Yeah, it was a gray one too. Oh man, that's, that's beautiful. It was called.

[00:12:54] I know your base, man, I know it. Um, no, I actually really loved that car. That car was, um, a lot of my good, good memories back home were in that car. It was a five speed. The, all the trim, because it was like really cheap French plastic, all the trim would just start like coming apart at a certain point. Like, like all the door trim would just start popping off. And, uh, but it was fun. It was a fun car. Sounds like the, I remember like the old Hyundai Excels that we had here were just like pieces of crap.

[00:13:23] I mean, they were just like, they would fall apart. They, they always had engine problems. Cause I have an aunt that she had one and she was always having problems. And then I had a buddy that had one and he was always having problems. Like they were just such crap cars, but they were, but they were kind of cool. You know, this tiny little hatchback that, you know, it was a manual and yeah. So I guess, I guess your dad having the, uh, the Subaru being manual and then your mom having that car being a manual.

[00:13:51] Was it just like, uh, whatever I get is going to have to be a manual. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I had to, yeah, I was like, I gotta get a manual car. It doesn't need to be like fast or, or like if anything, I was trying to find the cheapest car in America at the time I just started. Actually I was, was it sophomore, sophomore in college. And, uh, I'd gone into like a pretty, um, prestigious school here.

[00:14:20] And so my parents were like, all right, we'll buy a car, but like choose like the, like the cheapest car you could find. And, uh, and so one of the cheaper cars at the time that offered a manual and was practical and was incredibly safe was the Crosstrek. Yeah. And I remember like going to, uh, Patriot Subaru. It was called, it was still called Patriot Subaru at the time, uh, up in, um, Attleboro, Massachusetts. And, uh, I still remember the guy who sold me the Crosstrek. Pat Kelly.

[00:14:49] What a legend. Oh, nice. So, uh, what year is it? It's a 21. Oh yeah. I bought a brand new. Yeah. That's the same year as mine. And what, uh, trim level. Base. Yeah. That's okay. Yeah. I know we talked about that. So I'm, I'm sure we did. Cause mine's a base too. So both manuals, both 21, both base. Hey, that's all you need. Oh, I love it, man. It's like, it doesn't have anything fancy, you know,

[00:15:18] a lot of analog stuff still, uh, no big giant screen. I love it. Yeah. And, uh, yeah. Even though they're both 21s or both manuals or both base, yours looks way different than mine. Very different. A lot higher too. I bet tries very different too. Probably feels like two different cars. Yeah. So when you bought it, like, did you like have any plans or did you even like know about modding the Crosstrek?

[00:15:45] Like, did you know that you could mod, you know, I guess like off-road ish Subarus? Because I've, I've had a lot of people on that say like when they bought their car, like they had no idea you could even do that with them. Um, and then they just like started finding other accounts online and like, oh, you can do that. And then some people were like, yeah, I already knew about it. And I had like a list and you know, this is what I was going to do. So kind of like, what's your story with it? Yeah, I'd say that's a good question.

[00:16:11] I mean, um, I always, I knew I wanted to do car design at some point, like, like starting at the age of like five or four. I just like frantically draw cars everywhere. That's cool. And, um, and my mom was like, oh, you got to go into industrial design at like the age of five. And then somehow like she spoke that into existence. And I got into an industrial design program at, uh, RISD Rhode Island School of Design.

[00:16:39] And so, and, and I remember like, oh, like the first year is just like you do like a ton of like art school stuff, but then second year you get into your department. And I remember the first day of going into the department, they were like, if you're here for like car design, you can get out now. I'm going to, I'm going to prove you guys wrong. And I spent the rest of my time there. Like, excuse me.

[00:17:07] I spent the rest of my time there just sort of trying to prove them wrong and doing everything in my power to like do projects on cars. That's funny. So yeah. Yeah. Did you prove them wrong? Yeah. So I think, uh, starting junior year, I had a really good friend. He had a Ford F one 50. It was like the eco boost, like the base trim as well.

[00:17:33] And he was doing like a bunch of stuff, like, like pre runner stuff to his truck out in new England, which is like, nobody does that out in new England, but he was doing it. And I was like, this is really weird, but like kind of cool. And it's like really different than anything I know. Yeah. And we started working on a lot of projects together, uh, just like developing interesting little car parts and stuff. We had a, like a, a CNC shop down in the basement of our department.

[00:18:01] And we ended up like using the machines and developing new parts. And, and, uh, one of, one of the last projects we worked on together there was a, was called the FAV. We called it FAV, which is a future apocalyptic vehicle. And it was based on the, like the bug out movement. Yeah. Uh, that's cool. In, yeah. In, uh, or the, um, uh, yeah, I think that's what it's called, right?

[00:18:28] Where it's the, um, like the whole bunker scene where people would like create like these really, um, armored vehicles to like survive anything. Yeah. And sort of like sounding kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So we were like really inspired by that or rather he was really inspired by that. And then that sort of like dripped onto me. And then I had the cross track at the time already. And I was like, I'm not going to mod it. And then over time he just sort of like chipped away at me and he was like, you gotta, you gotta do this. You gotta do that.

[00:18:55] And, uh, and eventually I think he got to me and pure pressure with me to like doing really stupid stuff to it. So what was the first thing you did? Uh, I think the first thing that I like, I think there were a few things that I did that I don't really remember now, or they weren't like really significant. I'd say the most first significant thing would be the exhaust that I put on, which was a nameless five inch exhaust. Yeah.

[00:19:24] And I still have that thing on the, the track right now. I think like the gas is like rotting out already, but it was like the first thing that I put on. Nice. Uh, and how long did you have it before you did anything to it? I don't know. Like maybe two months. Oh, I was like, I was expecting a longer period of time. Yeah. Two months. And he completely chipped away at me and I was like, all right, let's do this. All right. All right. All right. Exactly.

[00:19:54] Yeah. So we, we, we put on the exhaust and then right after that, we ended up getting a relation brace wheels. I saved enough money to get a relation race wheels bumper front bumper. And we put that on. And then right after that, we, I also ended up getting a Prince Rack at like a pretty steep discount, if I remember correctly. And, and we also put that on and, and he was like, yeah, I know how to put this on and it's going to be fine. And we dropped the whole headline and everything, how you usually do it with those refracts.

[00:20:23] And he didn't do the sealant correctly on it. And so like the car would just continuously leak for like, I don't know, for a year. Every time there was a downpour, it would just like, we'd have to hold the air, a pillar trim up so that the water wouldn't get into the cabin. It was really funny. Dude, I had something similar. Cause whenever, cause I got the spider roof rack and I put mine on and the guys that I was talking to, they said, make sure you put plenty of sealant.

[00:20:50] And I thought I put a lot and I drove from Houston all the way up to Madison, Wisconsin for Subaru Flatfest. This was in 2022. And then on my way home, I was driving and it started raining and it was raining pretty hard. And I think maybe I pulled over in a gas station or I was driving somewhere. I can't remember exactly how it happened. I felt something dripping on my legs. I guess I was wearing shorts and I look over and I'm like, and, and it was like dripping from the A pillar. Cause you know, it's like plastic up to a certain point.

[00:21:20] And then it's kind of like some kind of a fabric. So it was just like pooling in that fabric and then just dripping onto my leg. And I'm like, what the heck is going on? And I look over to the passenger side and it was wet over there. So I pulled into a gas station and then I ended up like looking at the, oh, I went to the back to get paper towels. Cause I had like shop, shop paper, like the blue shop paper towels. Cause I was going to like, just try to soak up as much of the water that was just standing there.

[00:21:49] And when I went to the back, I saw that the back was wet too on those back where the back holes are. Yeah. I was like, what is going on? This is crazy. So I soaked up as much of the water, uh, you know, like on that fabric headliner as much as I could. And then I started driving and then it started getting wet again. And I'm like, so what was supposed to be like a nine hour drive home turned into a 16 hour drive home because. Cause you had to stop and then stuff paper towels into your A pillar.

[00:22:19] Well, because part of it was that the, um, the, there, there's, there was this huge, huge storm. And I was going Southwest from Arkansas. And I don't remember like what highway I was on or whatever, but I was looking at the radar. And there was this gigantic storm that was over the path that I needed to go. And like, I was sitting there waiting for it to just like start moving off. And it's like, it just kept recirculating in the same spot over and over again.

[00:22:48] And I'm like, it's not moving. It's like just staying still. And I have to go that way. So I'm like, I'm just going to go straight South and then like cut over West. But then the storm eventually started following me. And what I found out is kind of like with you, when it was raining really hard, that's when it was leaking because at one point I was like, I can't do this anymore. Like I have to go home because I had to go to work the next day and I was driving and it

[00:23:14] was raining, but it wasn't raining hard and it wasn't leaking when it was raining hard. So thankfully the drive home was better at that point. And then I went to my cousin's house the next day. I was like, dude, after, after work, I had to come over and reseal this. And so I resealed it. And then the driver's side was still leaking occasionally. So I resealed that again. And ever since it, it hasn't, but it's scary, man. Like, come on. Did you, did you also have like the nightmares, like the subsequent nightmares where you just

[00:23:43] like wake up in the, like a cold sweat and then like, you'd be like thinking back on the dream. And then the whole dream was just like soggy, like headliner, you know? Thankfully I never had any dreams. And I think it's because I got it fixed so quickly, you know, because like, is, like I said, as soon as the next day hit on Tuesday, I, cause my cousin has like a covered driveway and it wasn't raining that, you know, the next day, but I went over there and I'm like, we got to redo this. So we redid the whole thing.

[00:24:11] And then I put like, I put sealant like inside on the screw threads. I put it, you know, cause I hadn't done that before. So I just, I put a lot more underneath inside, put more outside. And yeah, it was. I was going to ask you if you like, if you put the sealant on the threads the first time, cause that's what I did wrong. I don't think so. I didn't put, I didn't put sealant on the threads. Yeah. I put it on the spacer and I put a lot on the spacer. I was like, okay, this is going to be enough. And then it wasn't enough. And then I did it again.

[00:24:40] I took the whole headliner down, put the roof rack on again and, and it was still leaking. And I was like, okay, something's not right. So then I like drove around with the headliner down for a bit just to see what was going on whenever like water was leaking in. And I saw that it was literally like channeling through the threads of the screw. And I was like, oh, okay. Okay. So yeah, we just like put a bunch of that, um, Excel, whatever it was called sealant in the threads. And then I think it stopped after that.

[00:25:10] Yeah. Yep. That's what I did. The, uh, the second time I put it on the threads and, and then just put way more on the outside. But yeah. So if you're listening to this and you're, you're about to put on a roof rack, put it on the damn threads. Yes. Or you will leak. Yeah. And put plenty on the outside too. Just, just to, just to make sure. Cause like I put it, I put a lot more around the spacers and like kind of pushed it down and made sure it was kind of smooth and making contact with everything around it so that

[00:25:38] hopefully the, the water wouldn't penetrate through that either. But yeah, it's, uh, yeah, it was a little scary. So, um, Hey, we survived. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so like after, Oh, with your bumper, when you first put that, when you put that first bumper on there, I'm guessing you had to cut your front bumper. Yeah. And it was, um, and was that scary?

[00:26:05] Cause they're like, nah, I, like if I'm, once I cut this, that's it, I'm committing. Yeah. Yeah. I remember it being kind of daunting and actually it was my friend, the guy with the, um, keep calling it Raptor. It's not a Raptor. It's just a F one 50. He cut the bumper. Cause I was, I was too much of a scaredy cat to do it on my own car. And I was like, you do, you do bro. And so he did it with like a really like crappy.

[00:26:31] Oh, it's funny thinking back now because, um, you know, like at this point I can, I feel like I can cut these bumpers with my eyes closed with a treble in like 10 minutes. I've had so many customers come in and to, you know, just ask me to, to cut the bumper for them. I'm like, all right. So I'm a pro now. Yeah, exactly. Um, no, but that, that first experience was like, wow. Like the first foray into like, you know, cutting up your car.

[00:26:58] But then after that, you sort of, you know, everything else sort of just feels a lot less daunting. So was it pretty jagged the way that he cut it up? No, I mean, we're, we're both in art school, you know, we're both in art school. So I think we, we both knew we were, what we were doing. We were both, you know, nifty with our hands and whatever the saying is. But yeah, I remember speaking of that though, I bought that bumper with like full intention

[00:27:25] of buying the rear bumper from relation race wheels. And by the time I had enough money to buy the rear bumper, it wasn't on their side anymore. So I like sent them an email and, and they were like, yeah, we're just, we're not making this anymore. And like now that I've ran my own business for a while, like I fully understand why they discontinued that product. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:52] So like, I mean, can you like go through some of the, I guess the extreme stuff that you've done to your cross track? Cause you know, it might be a while to go through all the mods, but if somebody, I mean, seeing these cars in person is like a totally different game than seeing them online. Cause you see them online, it's like, oh, they look cool. And then you see them in person. It's like, whoa. All right. That thing is like super cool.

[00:28:18] So, but, uh, but yeah, so like go over some, like, I guess the, the major things that really make it stand out. Yeah. Yeah. I'd say the 31 inch tires are definitely, uh, a statement. I believe if I, if I remember this correctly, it's well, uh, Joe OC turbo Joe, he was the first one to put 30 ones on a cross track and he did a lot of documentation for that.

[00:28:47] And, and I, you know, had a lot of, a lot of conversations with him, uh, before I did mine, but he was really the one who inspired it. And I think even to this day, I don't, I don't really know of that many other people who have 30 ones on a second gen. Um, but yeah, they're true 31 LT tires, 31 by 10 and a half, uh, are 15. And the way that, that they could fit was, uh, I had fit.

[00:29:15] So I have B six suspension from Bill Stein, which, uh, if anyone's considering suspension for their cross track, I only recommend those. I don't recommend anything else. Uh, I have one inch lift springs from rally tech. And then I also have the two and a half inch spacers from rally tech. And that was enough to sort of fit the 30 ones without, if I, if I'd never had to turn the steering wheel, then I'd be okay. But unfortunately, if you've tripped them before, you know, you have to turn the steering wheel

[00:29:44] at some point to drive at some point. Yes. Unless you're like in the salt planes or, you know, whatnot. Um, yeah. So then you have to go into the wheel well, and then you just cut like, I don't know, two inch and a half off of the pinch weld. And then just sort of reweld the seam. Yeah. That's, that's one of your pin posts. Yeah. Yeah. Cause, uh, people were like asking, they're like, oh, you know, did you just like take off the fender liner and then you're good.

[00:30:14] Right. And I'm like, oh honey, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Dude. I mean, your, your car looks like, so, I mean, it just looks like a beast with, uh, with those big tires. Yeah. It's, I'm looking at the, the first picture from that post where you show cutting, you know, the, the wheel wells out, but I mean, it's just, and again, like seeing it in person, it was just like, what is this thing, man? This is so cool. Yeah. It's.

[00:30:41] People like don't know that it's a Subaru, especially when a while back when I had the grill off and then also the for your section was covered. So you couldn't see a single Subaru badge on the exterior of the car. And so people had no idea what it was at a first glance. Yeah. And then you tell them it's a cross trick and they'd be like, you sure? I'm pretty sure I know my car is. Yeah. Hold on. Let me double check. Yeah. I think so is. And it, um, you know, when you, once you drive it, you're like, Oh yeah, this is definitely a cross trick. Yeah.

[00:31:11] And it is slow. Yeah. Uh, it's okay, man. I mean, that's, you know, the, uh, the aesthetic look of it is makes up for everything else. Yeah. Sorry. I got a little, little segue there. No. Um, what else, what else do I have on it? Um, I got, uh, a ton of diodynamic lights, diodynamic or one of the brands I brought on with the business. Uh, they had like a program where, uh, you know, we, you could become a distributor of

[00:31:41] their products. And I applied early on. I was going to SEMA starting, uh, this is like two years ago, like the first year, the first year after, uh, starting the business, I applied to get into SEMA because SEMA, if anyone knows, it's like only you're, you can only get into SEMA if you're in the industry.

[00:32:06] So I was lucky enough to actually apply and get in and a lot of connections that I ended up, uh, you know, end up having today or is because of SEMA. Yeah. So I'm sure that was like an incredible opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. I just went there to like treat it as a networking event and talked to a bunch of people and diodynamics. They were one of the guys there and they're like, Oh, you're the guy with the crazy cross track. And I was like, yes, that's me.

[00:32:35] Um, can I sell your lights and also get some discounts? And they're like, hell yeah. So, so that's how it happened. And, uh, I didn't, I didn't really end up like fully committing to that program, but yeah, we definitely ran some dynamic dynamic lights on quite a few vehicles on my vehicle. I think they're like, I don't know, seven, seven lights from them. Okay. Nice. Um, yeah, that's too many. It's too many.

[00:33:05] Uh, I have, what else I've recently put on a torque master torque locker. Oh, very nice. Yeah. It works like 50% of the time. I think I did one of the tolerances wrong. So I need to get it redone. Oh, if there, if, if any of you listening know a good shop in Phoenix to get work done on a cross strike, let me know. Cause I no longer have my own shop. Oh yeah. That's right. Yeah. Which we will talk about. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

[00:33:30] I'm, I'm jumping all over the place here, but let me, let me finish listing off everything I have on here. I have a Prince who refract. I have asked for a skip plates for, uh, the oil pan. And then I have a, I believe it's a primitive racing transmission and rear diff skip plates. Nice. Uh, and then Oxbeam switch panel, ton of rally tech suspension parts, adjustable trailing

[00:33:59] arms, adjustable LCAs, uh, obviously the nameless axle back. And I got Nomad 503 Saharas. Uh, one of my favorite looking wheels out there. Yeah. Those are nice. They're very unique looking. I don't know that I've seen them anywhere else. They're really popular with the Cayenne crowd, like the Cayenne Porsche. The Porsche Cayenne over landing scene. They love putting those on or like, uh, land cruiser guys. They, they love putting those on.

[00:34:27] It's, it's a really stylish sort of classic rally inspired looking wheel. And I've always liked the sort of marketing style of Nomad. It's really sort of hipster clean, very California. And, uh, yeah. Yeah. So early on I, I messaged them and they're like, yeah, we'll, uh, we can give you a little discount and send you some wheels. And I was like, all right, sick. That works. I promise I'll take tons of great photos for you guys. And I did.

[00:34:54] But so, uh, so it worked out and yeah, I have five of those spare on the rear as well. And then obviously I have all the snail works, the front, uh, hybrid winch bumper snail works and then the rear snail works, uh, off road bumper. And then also the snail works tire swing out and also our carbon steering wheel as well. Oh, nice. Very nice. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:35:21] It's a nice looking, you got some boxes up there too, still up on the roof. Oh yeah. I think I took them off recently, but yeah, when I shipped the car over here to Phoenix, I took them off cause they wouldn't fit on the vehicle. The guy got really freaked out that the moving guy, he was like, cause I told him it was just a cross trick and he showed up and he was like, that's not a cross trick. And I was like, no, it's a cross trick. And, uh, heavily modified. Sorry. Yeah.

[00:35:49] It's also like, uh, I guess at this point, like five inches taller than a standard one. So he was rightfully upset, but we got that sorted out, but I had to take the roof boxes off. So not running those at the moment. Yeah. So, I mean, you obviously have some of your own parts on your car, but like, what would you say is your favorite mod and then which mod would you say has been, has proved the most useful unless it's the same thing?

[00:36:19] Well, my favorite mod would probably be the snare works for your bumper. That bumper that's on my vehicle is the original prototype that I made with my buddy, Zach in his garage, like all those years ago, uh, back when I started the business. So that we can get more into it, but that, that bumper is, um, it's still, it's not D-O-M tube.

[00:36:43] It's made out of pipe and, and there's a pretty, uh, interesting story that goes with that, but I'd have to like tell, do you want me to just tell like the, the, how the business started? Yeah. Might as well. Okay. I mean, that's kind of what we're here for, but you know, I mean, you obviously own a Subaru and it's a cross track. So that's, you know, interesting and fun story, but I mean, if we jump around, we jump around. That's, you know, there it's, it's very much, you know, they go hand in hand together. If I didn't have the cross track, I wouldn't have started the business.

[00:37:13] Yeah. Yeah. Cause I'm, I'm definitely very curious to find out like how it started. I also want to like find out what it's like, you know, what it was like to, to, to start a business and then run a business, you know? And so, yeah, let's go, let's go. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So going back to the relation race wheels front bumper, I bought that, put it on at first.

[00:37:40] I thought it made the car look kind of like a boat, but then it kind of grew on me over time. And I was like, I got to get the rear bumper. Right. And so I tried to get the rear bumper, as I mentioned, didn't sell it. And then that point I was sort of out of options. I was a senior in school, right about to graduate. And I was just like, all right, maybe we just leave the car as is and we don't do anything more to it. It's like, okay. And then I graduated. And then I was, you know, my restless mind, ADHD and everything.

[00:38:09] I was like, ah, we can't leave it alone. So I just went into, um, I think I was using Rhino at the time, Rhino 3D. I was trained to use SolidWorks in school, but we also did a lot of, uh, Rhino, uh, in terms of doing, uh, sub D design work, which is more like fluid organic style design method. Uh, it's more popular for like prototyping, but I was using the program a lot, making my, uh, portfolio at the time.

[00:38:36] And I was just like, uh, you know, what if I just designed a rear bumper and to see what it would look like on the car. And so I drew up a rear tube style pre runner looking bumper with a hitch integrated into it because I was like the original one, I don't think they had a hitch integrated into it. And I was like, I really need one if I want to put a rack on there and I wanted to add a bit of functionality and, you know, be, it'd be a better sell that way.

[00:39:05] And so I made the design. I was like, oh, this looks pretty cool. I put it out online. I already had the S cargo account live at the time. And, uh, I was just getting like a ton of great feedback from people. They're like, yeah, you know, like, you know, I also bought a relational race wheels front bumper and they also discontinued right when I was going to buy the rear. Uh, are you going to make this? And I was like, I'm really good with design. I have no idea. You know, the first thing that comes to like fabrication.

[00:39:35] So, uh, I did. Yeah. So you had this, did you, you, did you, ah, did you just have the design out there or did you already have it on your cross trick? No, I just had the design. I just had a render of it. And I made the render look kind of nice with like a faux powder coat finish on it. Yeah. And people are like, oh, is this real? I'm like, unfortunately, no. Yes and no, but not yet. Yes and no. It could be. It could be. Um, so I was really just gauging interest at the time.

[00:40:05] And the interest was overwhelming to the point where I, I was just sort of like, okay, we got to just sort of figure out how to make this thing now. And, and sorry, real quick, were you, when you designed that, were you thinking like, I want to create a or start a business with this? Or were you just like, oh, I'm going to design this and maybe I can just kind of sell it on the side or something like, were you already thinking, let's start a business? Not necessarily.

[00:40:33] I think being in design school, we would just make a lot of things without thinking of the business end so much. Yeah. Like even till this day, I'm still very much focused on the design engineering of things. And the business side has always been, I mean, I enjoy it, but it's not something that I'm best at. I'm decent at it, but I much prefer putting my time into designing things and coming up with creative solutions. And that's usually where I think my time is best spent.

[00:41:02] So whenever I see myself like leaning too much into something else, like, you know, shipping and customer service and all that, it's like, you know, important to do when you're running a business. But it also makes you realize like you're sort of straying a little bit farther away from what you originally wanted to do. Kind of like adulting, you know, like I have to do these things. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know. It's all part of the business. They hire other people to do that, people who are more qualified.

[00:41:31] And, you know, I just don't think I'm the most qualified person a lot of time to do, you know, tax stuff or, or, you know, like, you know, creating marketing material or stuff like that. It's just, it's just not what I'm best at. And, you know, designing stuff for cars. I'm getting ahead of myself again, but it's just going to be like this. Um, designing stuff for cars, it's, it's not the most lucrative business in the world.

[00:41:59] It's, it's a lot of passion and not a ton of payback. And so, yeah, it's like you kind of have to operate at a very lean level for a lot of it. And so, yeah, I mean, even to, even to this day, I still, it's still a one man team. All of the Snateworks is just me running everything. Okay. Yeah. And that was going to be my next question is, is it just you? And, and is Snateworks like the only business you have?

[00:42:25] Like, is that your main source of income is running Snateworks or do you? No. Okay. So I started Snateworks, uh, about six months after college. Uh, and that, so back to the bumper, the original bumper design, I put that out there and people are like, you got to make it. And I was like, well, in order for this to be legitimate and for me to actually get to

[00:42:52] the point where we produce this bumper, I need a certain amount of money, a certain amount of capital to like push this forward. And the way for me to legitimately do that first is to start an LLC. So I went ahead and started LLC in Rhode Island, which looking back, you know, was a questionable decision, but I started it there. And, you know, starting, starting a business is probably the easiest part of the business. It's, it's incredibly simple.

[00:43:18] You go online, there's like, you know, uh, companies that, you know, host all the different procedures and they'll do it all for you. And, uh, yeah, I have the, uh, the podcast is an LLC. I did that a long time ago. So, and that was like, I remember kind of being intimidated, but then I, like, I just did all the research on how to do it. And I was like, Oh, this is like actually pretty easy. Yeah. It's, um, as you know, it's, it's really, you just have a certain company.

[00:43:46] What are they called to get the, um, uh, the company that you reach out for the LLC to get it? Um, I'm drawing a blank right now. Yeah. I don't remember. Cause I did it so long ago. Uh, yeah. I'm going to remember in like 30 minutes and I'm just going to randomly say it. I'm going to burst it out. And people are like, what? Yeah. Um, yeah. But I had one of those services and they started the LLC for me and I think it was like all in maybe $350 to start it. Yeah. It's not very much. Yeah.

[00:44:15] For all the filings and then you're a legitimate business and then now you got to figure out how to make money. Then you have an EIN and everything. That's right. Yep. Yep. You got to file for, you know, sales permits and all that fun jazz. But, uh, I made it through all of that and I was like, well, I don't know really how to produce these. Maybe I can find some other way to get some money in the meantime.

[00:44:42] And I had a sort of family friend at the time back in Taiwan and he was selling a lot of high end car parts that he was importing from China, a lot of carbon fiber parts. And he had a huge catalog for pretty much any vehicle under the sun that people were willing to modify. And, um, so I, I went back home to Taiwan and I, you know, sat down for lunch with him and went through his catalog.

[00:45:09] And a lot of it was just sort of things that I wasn't willing to put on the store. Like I didn't feel like it was at the level that I was trying to promote my stuff to be. But eventually we, we got to like, I don't know, page 37. And there was like this, like really, really nice, um, assortment of, of carbon steering wheels that had, you know, standard weave. It had a forged, you know, pretty much any style you wanted.

[00:45:35] You could, uh, direct the, the, uh, the actual manufacturer to do any type of colored stitching. They had Alcantara perforated leather, standard leather, um, you know, the full gamut. Yeah. So I was like, maybe we can, maybe I can carry this. And he was like, okay, let me know what you need. And so I started out by just, um, selling a really high end carbon fiber product on my website

[00:46:05] and using that to generate a bit of revenue so that I could go ahead and, and start getting, uh, money from that, but also money from other places so that I could put it into manufacturing the bumper. And then, so I took the design to a bunch of different, uh, manufacturing houses, fabricators in the new England area at the time. And I was just sort of shopping around. And I remember the first time going into a fab shop and showing them the drawing and they

[00:46:35] were like, well, you know, is this, are you planning on using Piper tube for this? And I was like, what's the difference? And then them like laughing me out of their shop. Like, um, you should know. I didn't even know. Yeah. Well, I, I didn't know that, you know, two were pipe, like the, you know, the difference in terms of measurements, you know, pipe being measured from the ID and, and two from the, from the OD.

[00:47:00] But yeah, you learn quickly in those settings and, and, uh, you know, within a very short amount of time I was, I was back on business back on top of business. And, uh, but the main problem at the end was still like pricing. It was just a little bit too high from all the shops. It's, it's incredibly expensive to get any type of prototype made here, especially one offs in the, in the States.

[00:47:24] So I eventually threw a friend of a friend found this guy in, uh, new Bedford, Massachusetts, and he said he would do it. And his name was Zach. And he was a friend of, uh, my friend, Joe, Joe XV adventure, who I think he's been on the podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Good guy. So Joe recommended him to me and he was like, oh, you should, you should text Zach. And I texted Zach and I didn't hear back from Zach for about six months. Oh my gosh.

[00:47:53] Six months later, Zach randomly said, Hey, you still want to do that bumper thing? I was like, sure. Yeah. And I was like it. And I told him all the specifications. We met, you know, coffee and I was like, if this has to be DUM tube, has to be, you know, mandrel bent, it can't be pipe bent. He's like, okay, okay. And so we agreed on a time and he was like, come meet me in my shop. And he gave me an address and I showed up at the location and it was his stepdad's garage.

[00:48:22] And I got in a, yeah, that was the shop quote unquote. And I was like, huh, is this going to work out? And I went in and I was like, so where's your mandrel bender? And he brings out a pipe bender from Harbor Freight. And I'm like, oh buddy, that's, that's not going to work. But, um, I had all this DUM like bought up ready, ready to be bent. And, uh, he, he was just like, no, we're not going to bend that. So we ended up using pipe for it.

[00:48:50] And so the first prototype bumper that is still on my car today is used pipe that he bent in his stepdad's backyard. Now is the pipe, is that, that's just solid pipe, right? Um, what do you mean by that? I mean, there's no, it's not used to cause like there's, there's no in like, it's not hollow or is it hollow? No, no, um, pipe, pipe is hollow.

[00:49:17] So pipe, the main difference between pipe and tube is that pipe is used as a conduit mostly for, you know, different types of fluids. And then tube is mostly a structural material that's used to, you know, for, for structural purpose. If you're building, you know, roll cages and whatnot. Yeah. So I'm going to cut that part out. Cause I sound like an idiot. No, you shouldn't leave it in. This is very educational. This is very educational.

[00:49:42] Because there was a point in, you know, even after I graduated college that I still didn't know the difference between the two. And, and I had the humilded to go to all these shops and, and it fully embarrassed myself in front of them. So, um, but Hey, you know, we all got to start somewhere. And, and that's also where I guess Zach started. And, and we had a, had a really long partnership together where, um, you know, we made that first bumper. And then somehow after that, uh, I made that first bumper.

[00:50:11] I, I took photos of it. I posted, posted online and I started getting pre-orders and they were just flooding in. And I was like, Hey, you know, do you want to be my like sort of. Now I have to make these. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, can you, can you, can you weld, can you weld these for me? You know, can you weld like 10 of these for me? And he was like, sure. But I need like an actual workspace. And I'm like, yeah, I absolutely agree with you.

[00:50:38] So we ended up finding like this shop in this old Russian guy's basement in Fall River, Massachusetts. And I think the rent was like $400 a month. And it sounds like something out of a movie. Yeah. It was like, let me show you basement. He really did talk like that. He was a really sketchy guy.

[00:50:58] And I don't, I don't know how we managed to make that work, but you know, for the first year and a half of all my sales, all my major sales were done in that shop. We produced all those bumpers, all those swing outs in that tiny little, I don't know, eight by 20 foot shop in his basement. Wow. Yeah. And that's why I learned to a world. Rent is due on first, no later. It was interesting because we would always like try to barter like different services with him. So we didn't have to like pay rent.

[00:51:28] Like be like, oh, you know, we weld this railing for you. And he'd be like, ah, okay, okay. Or we like sit down and then listen to like him talk about like his, his granddaughter troubles. And then it'd be like, oh, okay. You know, maybe, maybe no rent this month. And he'd be like, no, you still have to pay rent. So. Dude, that's funny. But it was, yeah, I mean, it was, it was really good memories, even though it was like really tough times just trying to, you know, make all the numbers work.

[00:51:53] But we produced, we produced the first 10 sets of bumpers of rear bumpers in that shop. And I went on, uh, Zach sort of was nice enough to pass on all his fabricator knowledge onto me. And within a very short amount of time, I was producing pretty much all the rest of the stuff in the shop, like the, the tire swing outs. Um, the, the rest of the bumpers, the front bumpers, everything was pretty much just me welding in the shop.

[00:52:23] So, but for a while. Yeah. And was that you doing that? And then like another job or were you doing, was that full time at the time? No, that was me like bumming it full time. Like, like just like saving on as much, as many things as I could, uh, making that work, just sort of hustling to make as many Subaru cross trick bumper sales as I could.

[00:52:48] And, you know, there, there were a few months that was a little bit tight, but, um, you know, my, my parents ended up, they were nice enough to help me out a little bit throughout that time. And they saw that, you know, I was working towards my dream and building, you know, actually car stuff. And they're like, Hey, this is cool. And so they helped me out a little bit during that time. So, so thank you, mom and dad as always. Yeah. I mean, and that's good that they were supportive, you know, cause people don't always get that,

[00:53:15] you know, a lot of times it's like, no, you have to go to school and you have to do this. And this is the career that you're going to take on and doing that. That's just crazy. What are you thinking? Uh, so that's really cool. Were you living with them at the time and then just going and working at the shop or were you living somewhere else? No, no. My mom was in Jersey, still is in Jersey. And my dad's still back in Taiwan, even at the time. So I was just living in an apartment in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

[00:53:44] And I was driving about 40 minutes every morning to my shop in Fall River, just because those were like the two cheapest places I could find at the time. Yeah. And yeah. And so, but the, the, the perspective I think throughout was like me trying to build value in myself. Like all of these things were experiences that I needed to have to add value to me as a

[00:54:13] designer and fabricator and someone who was, you know, of worth in the car industry. Yeah. So that's how I always looked at it. And that's how I sort of framed it to everyone around me as well was like, you know, I'm learning a ton of things, even if I'm not making bank here, it's like, I'm still every single day I'm learning something new on the site. I'm learning something new from, you know, my powder coating guy. I'm learning something new from Zach. I'm learning something new online about what I should not be doing when it comes to, you

[00:54:43] know, cutting DOM tube, you know, it's, it's a lot of learning on your own. And I think, you know, I was, I was homeschooled starting grade three elementary school all the way till college. So that's like, that was like the way I knew how to learn stuff. Like most of my education was through YouTube and I picked things up really easily that way. I'm not really good with someone else standing there and teaching me to do something.

[00:55:10] But if it's like a YouTube video online, I pick it up really quickly somehow. So how did you make it through college? Honestly, it's funny that you say that because my college ended up being very much YouTube university because it was doing COVID. So a lot of the classes were off and the way that our school worked RISD, it's very sort

[00:55:34] of DIY kind of setting where professors sort of inspire you and you go and figure it out on your own. And so that worked very well with my style of learning things. And so, yeah, I had a very good education there and I became a really good artist there. And, but afterwards I wanted to become a really good engineer and designer. And so that's why I committed a hundred percent to doing the Snailworks thing.

[00:56:04] Yeah. So I want to go back to the business part from when you started the LLC. Did you, I mean, did you start it off as Snailworks or did you have something else and then like a DBA Snailworks? And then the third question is, or the next question is, where did you come up with Snailworks? Okay. I'll start with how I came up with Snailworks. And it's actually not I, I had a girlfriend at the time. It's now my ex.

[00:56:32] And she, I think jokingly said, because my car was already called Escargot. And she was like, oh, you know, you should just call it Snailworks. And we were in a coffee shop at the time. And I was like, that's the, that's the dumbest name I've ever heard. And she was like, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's great. You should use it. And, and somehow, you know, uh, we broke up and then I started the business and I was like, Hey, you know, actually that idea that she had, it's, you know, it's, it's kind

[00:57:00] of a tongue in cheek sort of doesn't take yourself too seriously kind of name. And that's how I always viewed the business where it was like, let's, let's have fun. Let's not take things too seriously. Yeah. I don't want to have like racing in the name. I don't, I don't want the font to be like really angled and stuff. And like, you know, that's not what we're doing here. We're doing like creative solutions to really niche situations. So yeah, that's how the name came about.

[00:57:28] And I think since day one, since the day that I registered the business, it, it was snail works. Okay. And then, um, like, I guess with, um, like, did you just like look up different fonts and try to find one that seemed to like that you felt like look the best? Um, I did a lot of graphic design when I was in school and, and I would like use a lot of different fonts.

[00:57:55] And I think the whole thought process in design school is like, how much can we simplify things? How much can we minimize things to the core of what it is? And I think I found myself over time just using less and less different fonts. And at one point, I think everything I did was just some form of modified Helvetica in the end, Helvetica new or, or, um, Montreal new, which is another font based off a different

[00:58:24] foundry in, in Montreal. So those are two very similar styles. I believe it's, um, that font that I use for snare works is Montreal new, which is very similar to Helvetica. Okay. So, um, you know, you mentioned earlier that, you know, you're like working on all these bumpers and everything and you're like, I'm not making bank. And was when you started it and when you started getting into it, like, were you looking at

[00:58:53] it as like, I want to try to really make money? Or was it like, I want to be able to just do this and enjoy it and bring joy to people with these bumpers and be able to just make it. Wow. Well, going back to like the, the first day of being in my department and them saying like, if you're here for car stuff, you should get out. I made it like, like my MO to do car stuff in school. But even then it wasn't enough.

[00:59:20] Like when I graduated, it wasn't enough things to show in my portfolio to get a job in the car industry at the time. I was a really great designer, but I just didn't have enough pieces to show. So I was a good car designer. Gotcha. So I was like, okay, well, what do we do in this situation so that I can get to that place? And starting a business on my own, doing exactly car stuff, exactly the way I want to do it, I thought was the sort of shortest path to success.

[00:59:51] And I think looking back in many ways, it was, and it's something that I'd highly recommend to anyone who wants to do it. Fusion 360, the design software, they approached me last year to do a piece on how I started my business and a huge point. Oh man, that's cool. Yeah. That was a big moment for me. I was like, all right, we made it. Yeah. Yeah. How did they find you? I think they were spying, they were probably spying on my design files because it's all

[01:00:20] cloud-based now, right? Gotcha. You were using it, so here's a customer kind of thing. Yeah. No, I'm mostly just joking. I think they just found me through my social media stuff and I must have tagged them somewhere. Yeah. But you know, now with the lack of privacy and all, who knows? But anyway, they reached out and we did this piece. And the whole point of the piece is that, you know, in this point where, you know, I

[01:00:47] know there's a lot of hate for AI out there, especially by young people, surprisingly. But the truth is that because of AI, I could go ahead and focus most of my time still on the things that I wanted to focus my time on and sort of outsource a lot of other things to AI. If it wasn't for AI, I wouldn't have been able to code my first, you know, web custom website with Shopify and set up that whole e-commerce situation on my own. Yeah.

[01:01:15] I wouldn't have been able to figure out a lot of the tax intricacies out there. And yeah, it was, you know, there was a lot of help from my mom who knows a lot of, you know, more about tax stuff than me, but also a lot of like AI sort of coming in and be like, oh, actually you're doing this wrong. And I was like, okay, so we got to do it some other way. And so all this is to say, like, we live in a time where I feel like anyone, if you really

[01:01:40] wanted to, you could start a business and be successful in a relatively short amount of time because we have so many of these, you know, really advanced pieces of tech at our disposal. Yeah. So, uh, so Snailworks is like, how many products are you offering now? So I have two questions first. How many products do you offer now? And then how many of the, like, cause you started off with the rear bumper.

[01:02:08] Like, do you know how many rear cross-strek bumpers you've sold to date? I, so for the rear bumpers, I stopped selling them about, uh, it's been about a year since I sold the last one. And the reason for that was, uh, it was a lot and a lot of time spent just to produce one bumper. Like the level of intricate intricacy that I was putting into every single one of these bumpers.

[01:02:35] Uh, it was more than any other company was offering that, you know, any other company that, that creates bumpers currently there, they weren't putting nearly as much time into every single individual bumper. Uh, and so like every single, if you look at the original bumpers that I shipped, the rear bumpers, every single one of those end caps was welded together. Most of these companies today, they just slap a plastic, uh, and plug on there and then call it day.

[01:03:05] And honestly, that's what I offer with my new bumpers now as well. Uh, in some ways that's, you know, better for certain situations, but you could really tell the level of detail in those original bumpers. And that was a huge focus for me and I wouldn't have it any other way. But at a certain point, I realized that it was too, it was sucking away too much time from other things. And I wasn't really making that much money from them. They were great halo product.

[01:03:33] Uh, but I had to stop doing that at a certain point. So if I were to estimate, I don't know, I made maybe total of 30, 35 of them on my own. Yeah. Yeah. Not a huge amount. Okay. Uh, what else was I going to ask? Something else. Total products that I have. Yeah. That was another question. Yeah, that was, but there was something else I was going to ask about the rear bumpers. Okay. But, uh, yeah, no, go ahead with the, uh, the total number of products.

[01:04:00] I think I have like 15 or so on the site now, maybe 10, 10 or 15. Uh, I ended up, ended up sort of shortening the list a little bit. There were certain products that weren't, the profit margins were just not quite there. And so how to, uh, sort of chop those for the list. Oh, okay. Yeah. I know what I was going to ask now.

[01:04:27] So you went to go buy a bumper from somebody else and you're like, oh, they're not making it anymore. Did you have anybody who was like wanting to buy a bumper from you? And you're like, sorry, I'm not making it anymore. Do the same thing to somebody else. That's what I'm saying. Like, I get it now. Like relation race wheels. If you're listening to this, I'm sorry, guys. If I was a little bit hostile on that email, I'm sorry. I didn't know how it would come across, but now I get it because I get a lot of those emails now.

[01:04:55] And honestly, a lot of times today, I don't even necessarily have the, the, I won't even respond anymore just because I get a ton of those emails. Just, it's always the same question. When are the rear bumpers coming back? And yeah, it's, um, with my current work situation, I, I don't, I don't foresee them coming back for a while. So at the moment, I'm just selling the front bumpers. We have a bit of a stockpile here in Arizona that I brought with me.

[01:05:25] And then I have another stockpile back in Rhode Island with my buddy, Zach. So those are the existing ones that we're selling. Uh, and yeah, the, I, I, I totally get, get it when it comes to, you know, when someone wants to buy a rear bumper from me now, like, um, it really is a awesome product. It costs a lot of money to produce.

[01:05:51] And, uh, so it's not really economic for me to do them anymore. I would love to keep making them for people, especially now that they have had all their sort of iterations, uh, with, you know, additional, uh, channel supports through the frame rails. And, and, uh, you know, I started offering them with actual tie down spots. And so they got to a point where they're really like, it was a really well done product.

[01:06:18] Uh, it just, you know, I, I couldn't sell them anymore. And it's sad cause you know, I would love to see more of these bumpers on more people's vehicles. Like it's, it's really cool whenever I'm driving around and I see another modded cross track out on the road. I'm like, that's sick, you know? But yeah. Yeah. At some point I just, I had to keep my sanity. Yeah. So you mentioned something a little while ago, cause you said, uh, now you brought those, the front bumpers with you to Arizona or some of them.

[01:06:47] So, uh, why the move to Arizona? That's a pretty big move. Yeah, it was really big. Um, it really, I think it started, there were some personal issues that were going on in my life at the time that I don't know if I can discuss on this podcast, but that's totally fine. Um, yeah, they weren't business related necessarily, but I was getting a little bit stuck in terms of where I was with the business as well.

[01:07:17] And I needed sort of a change in scenery. And, um, and at the same, around that time, I also had, had got a Toyota 4Runner, uh, to a brand new Toyota 4Runner, the new six gens and started developing parts for that. And I had a rear swing out, double swing out design for that. And I started working on a front bumper. They never made it to production before they even got to production.

[01:07:45] Um, I had made friends with this guy, Jeff, Jeff Westcott over at Westcott designs. And he, his manufacturing facility is here in Phoenix, Arizona. And he sort of, um, offered, he, he had this big event going on at the time. It was a rigs and roast in March of this year. And he was like, Hey, you should come over and hang out. And I was like, okay.

[01:08:11] And so I just happened, I was in Arizona and I showed up and he was like, Oh wow, he actually showed up. And so we got to talking drive or fly. I flew over. Yeah. I know it'd be a long drive, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was too far for that situation. I have made this trip over a few times in the car, but, uh, yeah, in this situation, I just flew over. I rented a Tesla for a weekend and I was just hanging around and I stopped by and he

[01:08:39] was like, Oh wow, you, you showed up. And he gave me a full tour of the shop and, you know, they had really advanced. CNC manufacturing capacity in the shop. And they're doing a lot of interesting stuff for Toyota trucks, Ford trucks. And he was like, Hey, I've seen your stuff. You know, if you ever want to come out here, you know, we got a job for you as a, you know, to, to head our CNC department. Nice. And I was like, all right.

[01:09:09] So, uh, I made it back to Rhode Island and I bundled up a few things back home and I was like, okay, maybe it's time to make the move. I called him up. I was like, Jeff, you know what? I think I'm going to take you up on that offer. And he was like, all right, we, we have a place for you here whenever you want to, you know, head over. And I was like, all right, see you May 1st. And so nice packed up all my things and headed over here with my mom.

[01:09:37] And, um, she helped me move in to my new spot here. And I've just been, uh, running the CNC department for Westcott designs for the past month and a half now. How's that been going? It's, uh, it's very interesting. The whole point really was to see like manufacturing at a different scale that I was doing. And, you know, in a way I sort of achieved my goal.

[01:10:01] I got a really good job in the car industry, designing car parts and, you know, and stuff for cars and doing really creative things. And so, yeah, it's, it's been great. Uh, it's really eyeopening to get to manage a whole CNC shop floor, getting to use the Haas lathes and mills hands-on, getting to reprogram things, learning a lot. It's, uh, it's very rewarding. That's good.

[01:10:31] And so what about your manufacturing for, cause you said you have some front bumpers, but what about like other parts? I mean, are you still doing that on the side right now or is that kind of on hold? What's going on with Snailworks? So Snailworks is still active. I'm selling the current inventory that I have for bumpers and probably not going to restock

[01:10:54] those for a bit, but in terms of all the other smaller items like platform mounts, uh, other mounts for the printer racks that I offer in spider racks, like the high lift and the awnings, those are all, uh, those are all going to continue to be on the site for the foreseeable future. Okay. And going forward, it's all going to be smaller items that I'm going to be making because also just like shipping the bumpers just got to a point where it was just like too much liability. Yeah. It was kind of crazy.

[01:11:24] And it was, it was, I don't know, it ended up being like $650 to ship through freight each bumper. And I was just like, this isn't happening. So I ended up redesigning the bumper. Yeah. I had to redesign the whole bumper just so it could fit within like a box that was about four inches smaller in length so that it would fit UPS's requirements. And so there was a lot of creative thinking in terms of like orienting the parts and then creating a crate that could house parts and make sure that they wouldn't get damaged during shipping.

[01:11:54] And even then I still, you know, through all the first batch of bumpers that I ended up sending out there, I think still there was one, I think that got damaged in shipping and I ended up, I don't, I don't know if I sent her another arm. I think she ended up not opting for it, but yeah, it's just, you know, it's when you're shipping something that large, it's bound to happen. It happens at all these companies as well.

[01:12:20] It's like when you're shipping something that large, they're, they're people are tired, you know, they don't, they're not going to, you know, take really good care of your product. They don't know what's in there or they don't really care at all. So yeah, yeah. They're just going to drop it and stuff and things just going to get effed up. Yeah. So now you're in Arizona, you're working this job. So what is like the future look like for snail works?

[01:12:49] Ideally we would sort of bring manufacturing into one of the, one of the main reasons why I joined Westcott's team was we had sort of a spoken agreement of, uh, at a certain point, bringing my manufacturing into their facility because they are very much a manufacturing, locally manufactured focused company. Nice. They don't really like to outsource things. They like to keep it made in the USA, which I really appreciate.

[01:13:18] So, uh, Jeff and I talked about, you know, potentially if there's high demand for any of the, uh, you know, bumpers or swing outs, whatever I'm producing, uh, that those will get manufactured by Westcott designs, but also a lot of the, my personal designs that I'm going to be making are also going to get sold through a Westcott's channel. So, you know, there is a potential that we end up through Westcott working on a lot of

[01:13:45] more Subaru things as well, or hosting snail works products on the Westcott website. So partnership. There are a lot of possibilities. Yeah. Yeah. So I was looking on your website and I was looking at the steering wheels cause you had mentioned that earlier and it says that they're sold out. Are you just haven't, don't have any manufactured right now? Are you still going to be doing those? Ah, maybe, maybe I, um, I actually have another car right now that I ended up trading in the

[01:14:14] 4Runner, uh, cause I really didn't like that car that much. Surprisingly, everyone gets the new six gen 4Runner and they're like, oh, this is the best 4Runner they've ever made. And I don't know, I got that car and I just, I bought it for business reasons because it's a new platform from Toyota. Yeah. Uh, there's a huge potential for me to design tons of parts for it. And so that was the main reason I, my God, it wasn't like a, you know, out of passion or anything.

[01:14:40] So, uh, I think that I have a pretty objective look towards that car. And I think objectively speaking, it's, it's quite an inferior vehicle to the last generation. Um, the leg room in the backseat is significantly less than the last generation. The way the seats fold down, you can't, you know, car camp in it anymore. Oh, that sucks. They reduce the gas tank size. It used to be like a 20 or like an 18 gallon tank.

[01:15:09] And now it's like, I don't know, something crazy, like 14 or 15. Like you only get like 230 miles. Oh geez. Yeah. It was just really bad. And, and the gas mileage, they went to that four sill and, you know, they said, oh, we get all this better gas mileage. And it's still, you know, I saw maybe like 15 or 16 MPGs on a good day. So yeah, it was, it was cool while I had it, you know, it's cool to, to be able to put

[01:15:34] 35s on a car with very little modding, but, um, I just, I wasn't a huge fan of it. And so I got here, I got this job and I didn't, you know, really have any more time to develop new parts on my own. And I was like, you know, maybe it's time for something different. So I actually went over to Pinnacle Nissan here in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I did a key to key swap for a 25 Nissan Z. Oh, oh man.

[01:16:04] That's a much better, that's a much better trade. Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. My God, this car is fun. Oh dude. Six speed manual. It's the performance, the Nissan Z performance. So it has upgraded brakes and everything. And man, when you, you know, it pulls in sixth gear. Oh my gosh. All right. I'm booking a flight. Come out there. Cause I want to check that out, dude. Yeah. Yeah. We'll do a ride. We'll do a ride through the canyons. It'll be great. Oh dude.

[01:16:34] That is so awesome. And those, I love the new design too. The first time I saw one, I was like, okay, thank you, Nissan. You did it justice. Dude. I think that's so cool. When it first came out, like everyone that was sort of on the fence about the car, they're like, it looks okay. It's on the same platform as the three 70, you know, it's not that great, but you know, that has the new VR 30 in there, the twin turbo VR 30. It is actually 400 horsepower.

[01:17:02] It's like a vastly superior car to the, to the three 70. So I got in one, uh, originally I was just going to test drive it. And then the sales guy made me a key to key deal. And I was like, all right, you know what, this is what we're doing. Yeah. So I remember on the, the, I think on the sheet for, you know, the purchase price was like one penny or something to go over to the Z. Yeah. So now, um, now you have your high performance manual car. There you go.

[01:17:32] Here's the thing though. Now, you know, now when I get back in the, the cross track, it's just like, man, it is, it shows a lot of the weaknesses of this car. I mean, it never was intended to be like a performance vehicle, but yeah, even just the way the, the, the manual gearbox is set up, it's, it's an economy gearbox. So it's, it's what you expect, but it almost feels like I have to relearn how to drive the car now whenever I get back into it. Yeah. What are you driving the, uh, the Nissan a lot more than, than the cross track?

[01:18:02] Yeah, I have just because the locker still has some issues that I need to get sorted out. And there are not a whole lot of shops out here in Arizona that are willing to work on Subarus. Um, it's, it's truck County out here. So, you know, you, it's really not that common to see Subarus in general in Arizona. So yeah, a lot of Fords, a lot of, uh, a lot of Toyota pickups, but, uh, not a lot of Subarus, which is a little sad.

[01:18:31] Hey, but you have a very unique one out there now. So that's good. I do. I still love it whenever I do drive it, whenever I'm going like 40 miles per hour on the highway, like people still, you know, pop the window and like, give me the thumbs up. And I'm like, all right, you know, this car is so cool. I know. It's a good feeling. You know, I mean, like my car isn't as heavily modified as a lot of other ones out there, but I like the way it looks. And I do have people that will like give me a thumbs up or give me a nod or something like that. And like, that's such a good feeling.

[01:18:59] You know, when you, whatever it is that you, whatever amount of work you put into your car, whatever modifications that make it different than stock, when you get recognition, that's a really good feeling. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, um, yeah, that's kind of why I got the Z too. It felt like a pretty special car. And it's also one of those cars where you drive out and people roll down the window and give you a wave or thumbs up on the highway. Yeah. Cause it's unique looking too.

[01:19:27] And, uh, yeah, now you've got two awesome cars. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna, you know, this is, this is hard to say, but some, some days while I'm here, I, you know, I think whether or not I'm going to keep the cross check or not. Oh man. Don't say that. Well, so if you're out there listening to this and you want a really modified six speed manual cross check, send me a message. Yeah. Make me an offer. Make me an offer.

[01:19:56] Do you think though, that you will like always own a Subaru at some point, you know, throughout your life? I don't think that it will be ever present. Well, uh, how should I put it? Like I could foresee certain points in my life where I don't see a Subaru, but I could also see myself at, you know, any given point wanting to get another Subaru again. Like I still, at the end of the day, I was choosing between the Z and the WRX, the new

[01:20:26] one, the VB one. Yeah. And, and the 400 horsepower was just too good to say no, but I still have a very, very special place in my heart for the WRX as we've, you know, spoken about already. So, you know, there's a chance that I go back to that. Uh, or, um, you know, I, well, I still have the cross track. I'm obviously going to enjoy the cross track, but you know, there's a chance that I trade in the Z at some point for a WRX or something and do it like a rally build or something crazy. Yeah.

[01:20:55] So one of the questions I always ask is like, how has owning a Subaru changed your life? And I think you kind of, this whole episode is about just that, you know, you said earlier, if you didn't have the cross track, you wouldn't have snail works and, and so on and so forth. Yeah. It's like the biggest thing for me not to sell this car because I see how much this car changed my life. I mean, some of them, my fondest memories, uh, during college after college, you know,

[01:21:26] uh, were in this car, you know, going on crazy skiing trips with my friends or, you know, doing crazy road trips across the States and then into Canada. And then, you know, there was, there was a point where I road tripped through Northern Quebec for about, I don't know, 60 days, Northern Quebec, New Brunswick, uh, PEI, uh, all these places in Canada in the cross track. And I was sleeping in the back of it for the majority. Wow. That's cool.

[01:21:55] How many miles do you have on it? Oh, I don't know. Like 98,000. At this point, 98,000. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. It's not that much. Yeah. Yeah. I've got one 46 on mine. Okay. Hey, you live in, you live in Texas though. That's different. Yeah. I just, I also, I mean, it's the only car I have, uh, everything, like everything is far away. Um, and I drive it a lot, you know, I love driving it.

[01:22:22] Like I was just thinking yesterday when I was driving it that, you know, there are people that have had a manual before that no longer have a manual that would love to have a manual. There are people that have a manual because like, that's what they definitely wanted. Um, but like, I don't ever for a single moment that I drive my car, I don't ever take it for granted that I have a manual. And, you know, it's, it's like, it's like, uh, it's automatic in the sense that when you

[01:22:52] drive it, you just drive it because you know how to drive a manual. But like, but I still like enjoy the shifting, you know, I enjoy. And every once in a while it'll like really hit me where I'm like, man, this is so cool that I have a manual. Like, I just, I just, I love it so much. And, you know, and it wasn't because like, well, you know, you said your, your dad had the Subaru and it was a manual.

[01:23:19] And so like for me, when I was a kid, my uncle had a, uh, like a 1985 Toyota pickup and it was a manual. And I remember just watching him shifting gears and then my grandpa had like a 75 Bronco that had the, uh, the shifter on the steering column. And I just like, I remember just watching, you know, being in people's cars and them shifting gears. And I'm like, it was just so fascinating. And that's, that's where my passion and desire for having a manual came from. Yeah.

[01:23:48] No, I think it's like, it's really special thing. If you can like get to own any manual car, really, I think slow on a fast one. It doesn't really matter. I think, well, actually that reminds me, um, like I'd say about last year, about a year and a half ago, uh, I had a friend, a good friend of mine who got a new job where he had to commute to work and he wanted to buy a car. And he was, um, he's like us in a sense where he likes, you know, a certain quirky car and

[01:24:18] really loves it to death. And, you know, instead of a Crosstrek, he really loves the Honda element. And I think in many ways, the Honda element sort of has sort of a similar cult following like the Crosstrek or other, you know, super vehicles. I think so too. And yeah. And I was like, yeah, go for it. And we were looking online on, on Facebook for, for deals. And, and I saw a, it was a front wheel drive element, but it had the five speed manual.

[01:24:47] And I was like, listen, if you're getting an older car, you're better off getting the manual. And he was like, dude, I don't know how to drive a manual. He was like, don't worry about it. I'll, I'll, I'll teach you. So I literally took this man in my Crosstrek to like a mall parking lot and taught this man for two days straight on how to drive a manual. And he got it. Yeah. And we went and picked it up. And, you know, to this day, it's been a year and a half of him driving it around to

[01:25:17] work and everywhere. And I'm sure he's a master, you know, gear rower now. And he calls me and he's like, man, you know, I, this, this car is like really special to me. And, and, you know, to have that experience with my, one of my really, really great friends to, to now, you know, have this really special vehicle to him in his life and we could bond over it. I thought, you know, it was really cool. Yeah.

[01:25:42] And I also remember, I also remember like the desire to want to learn how to drive a manual and like my first girlfriend had a VW rabbit and it was a manual. Nice. Yeah. And I remember like her, she didn't really try to, she kind of, I guess, tried to teach me how to drive one. But yeah, I mean, we were both like 16. You don't really know how to teach somebody how to drive a manual then.

[01:26:07] And she hadn't had it for super long because she had gotten it for her 16th birthday. So it's not like she had it for years. And I remember getting in the driver's seat and trying to like, you know, just drive off in first gear, but I'd never adjusted my seat. So my legs were kind of squished up, you know, and I kept stalling it and I didn't know why, but like looking back, I'm like, I wasn't comfortable. My legs were too squished up.

[01:26:35] Of course I was going to stall it because I couldn't, you know, I couldn't let it out of gear or let out the clutch properly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had so many friends who were like comfortable driving autos and they'd get in my car and then push the seat all the way back as you would in an auto car, you know, and just like do the Honda lean, you know, in the, in the civics where you just like lean all the way back and you're driving like that. And, uh, and then they would try to reach the clutch and they'd be like, how do you reach this thing? And I'm like, yeah, you can have your seat like that, buddy. Yeah.

[01:27:05] You got to scoot up some, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's fun driving them. Uh, we can get into the, the last segment here, um, where we get to know you a little bit better, but, um, like, you know, you can, uh, like just describe yourself. Like who is Alex? Who is Alex? Um, man, that's a tough one.

[01:27:34] I don't know. I'm just, uh, I see myself as a guy who has a bit of OCD, a bit of ADHD. And I just, I think what really makes me feel good about the world is when I can find ways to solve problems in people's lives. I think that's why I kept running snail works was, you know, at the end of the day, people

[01:28:01] would bring me issues in their life. And I would have the privilege of coming up with a solution and then, you know, presenting it to them. And then for them to see the finished product on their car, in their car, you know, the way they're like start beaming. They were like, whoa, that's, that's like part of my car now. And that was just an idea. And now it's a real thing. And it's actually something that's useful in my life. And it's, uh, you know, it's a really great feeling.

[01:28:31] And I, you know, that's why I design for everything. I, I, I ran snail works. I started running snail works in 23 and then about a year and a half into that, I started a furniture design studio on the side as well. That was actually what ended up making most of the money for me, uh, was that because, well, the problem with, with car parts is, you know, it's all very proprietary. You know, something is only made for one specific car.

[01:28:59] It's not a huge market with furniture, you know, as long as you like it, you know, you can put it in your home. There's no, everybody needs furniture for sure. Exactly. So, oh, it was a lot easier to push for sales on those. And, and it also came from a similar place where I moved into a new apartment and you know, everything I saw out there just wasn't cutting it. And I was like, well, how do I solve this problem? And the problem was that I wanted a type of furniture that didn't exist out there.

[01:29:26] And so I started designing it and I had, you know, manufacturing partners at the time that were willing to make it. And yeah, it, it was, it's just really satisfying to like have an idea three in the morning and then, you know, by, you know, the next day noon, you, you could potentially have a fully finished product sitting in your house or on your car. It's really cool. Yeah. How long did you do that? The furniture business? The furniture, I'm still, actually, I'm still doing the furniture right now. Okay.

[01:29:54] If anything, it's sort of become a little bit more leaning towards that just because they're smaller items. It's easier for me to produce them in my current, you know, situation. And, uh, it's easier to ship there like less likelihood of, you know, damages through shipping and it's, uh, it's sales are a lot easier to generate through that. Yeah. So like what kind of pieces of furniture?

[01:30:21] I was doing my early prototypes were mild steel. Uh, cause that's what I was used to. Most of the bumpers that I designed for made out of sheet metal, uh, mild steel, HRPO. And, uh, you know, I had a lot of laser cutting, uh, facilities that I was working with. I had a local facility that could cut stuff very quickly for me.

[01:30:44] I knew him through college, a really sort of cranky Armenian guy, but really a sweet man, a sweet, sweet man. And he, he was a lot of tough love and he taught me a lot of hard lessons, but necessary lessons. And he was one of my manufacturing partners. And then also second send was a huge one. Uh, they even do CNC now. So yeah, a lot of the stuff that I was producing or prototyping, I would just send to them and

[01:31:14] they would get it produced for me. But, uh, really all I had at a certain point was just my computer and a, and a, you know, Autodesk fusion subscription. And I figured out how to use the sheet metal, uh, design features in there and also the tube design features and just utilize those two to their utmost and, uh, coordinated really

[01:31:39] well my manufacturers so that I could just focus on the design most of the time and really have to really step in only for, uh, welding and fitment and stuff like that. So are you making like chairs and tables or what kind of stuff? A lot of tables. We had a few stools out there, some custom ones and, but mostly tables are really popular. I had a design where it was a fully flat pack, uh, self-assembleable design where you needed zero tools.

[01:32:08] It was all slotted and notched together. Yeah. And people are really loving that. And so, oh, to back to the materials, I started with mild steel, ended up doing a lot of aluminum, the interesting thing with aluminum is, you know, it doesn't rust, which is great, but it's actually too light as furniture. It's too easy to tip over in certain situations. There's no, you know, substantial weight to it. And so people are like, you know, what is this? Even though the material itself costs more than mild steel.

[01:32:34] So in the end, I sort of, you know, split in between and went with stainless, which is a bit more expensive, but you know, no rust situations. And I could keep the sort of bare metal look. And, uh, it also had this really hefty feel to it. And it actually, the, um, the spring, you could create like different structures through laser cutting into your material to create natural spring mechanisms. Mm-hmm. And with stainless, it ended up working the best out of all the materials. Oh, that's good.

[01:33:04] So it ended up working out well with that. So most of the furniture that I was selling was stainless. Okay. So do you have like a website for that? Interestingly, I had one. I discontinued that service because I wasn't generating any sales through the website. Interestingly, it was all through Etsy. So it was all being sold through Etsy and still is to this day. Okay. Do you want to share what the Etsy site is or? Yes.

[01:33:31] It's, um, currently because I'm working full-time at Westcott Designs, uh, I haven't relisted my listings, but I hopefully next month will. It's, you can find it at Pintu Studio on Etsy. If you just search up P-I-N-T-U Studio on Etsy, you can find my store. Okay. Hopefully by next month, I'll have all the listings back up. Nice. What is a favorite memory from your childhood?

[01:33:57] I'd say bikepacking with my parents. My parents were like the adventurous type and they were into like traveling on a budget. And so we'd go to a lot of countries and have very little money on hand. And we just, you know, bikepack. We'd have a bicycle and then pack like, um, ort leaves on the side and just, you know, ride from the, you know, from the North most of Korea to, you know, the South point.

[01:34:27] And I think some of my fondest memories were in the towns, in the smaller towns and, you know, in Korea or in rural China. And just like, just like on my own, just cycling through the road to the, through the really, really long stretches of road and just like in my own space, but also in this really crazy, large, sometimes liminal almost landscape. That is really cool. Not a lot of people have those kinds of experiences, you know?

[01:34:56] No, it's a, it's great, uh, character development, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So usually I ask, you know, like, uh, what do you do for a living? But we know that. And then, you know, do you have, is that your dream job or do you have a dream job? But it kind of seems like everything came around full circle and you might be doing your dream job right now, or is there something else still?

[01:35:20] No, honestly, I, I feel really grateful that I am, you know, there are days when work's really hard. And even, you know, back in Snateworks, uh, in the shop in Rhode Island, like there were days where I was just like, Oh my God, this is too much. And can I do all of this? But I would still think, you know, this is, this is really cool what I'm doing and not a lot of people get to do what I'm doing now. And yeah.

[01:35:50] So I feel really grateful every day and I, and I feel the same way at, at Westcott, you know, really long hours, really long days. Yeah. But I'm doing something that I always wanted to do. So. That's good. Yeah. You're, you're doing design and stuff with cars. That's what you, you prove them wrong for sure. It's like, look where I'm at now. Yeah. I still think about that. I still think about, uh, cause my original employer back in school, I had an internship

[01:36:16] and he was just like, yeah, you're, you're not going to make it as a designer, which looking back was like a really like, like a shitty thing to say to a intern that you hired. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, uh, you know, even to this day, I sometimes think, you know, like sending them an email and be like, yeah, look at me. I made it. Yep. Uh, what is something that makes you want to get out of bed every day? Uh, my alarm clock. No, I'm joking.

[01:36:44] Um, getting to drive, getting to drive. I love driving. I think everything sort of comes back to that. I could, um, you know, I could be doing anything in the car industry. I could be taking photos, which I also love doing of cars and, or, you know, doing reviews on stuff, which I might do at some point, but ultimately it's all to serve a purpose of driving. I love driving. Yeah, I do too.

[01:37:14] That's why I have 146,000 miles on my cross track. Hell yeah. That's what's up. But on the original clutch too, which I'm, I'm very impressed. Just shows how good of a manual driver you are. And I don't even take it that easy on it. You know, it's not like I'm just driving casually every day, you know, just shifting gears nice and smooth. Uh, I, I get on it sometimes and, you know, I've done a lot of, um, I've done a lot of

[01:37:40] like, uh, spinning the tires in mud aggressively, which is how I blew out my viscous coupling. But yeah. Okay. It's, uh, I just. Those clutches are tough in our, in our cross tracks. Apparently so. I mean, I'm, I'm impressed, but it kind of scares me because like it's because it has so many miles, it could potentially like just, all right, buddy, this is it.

[01:38:04] Uh, cause I, I really wanted, I was thinking about driving to Flagstaff for Overland Expo cause I would have loved to have had my own car out there to go on the excursion and just to, cause nobody gets to see my car. And so, but I was like, I know my car would make it in every other sense, except for the fact that I was worried my clutch might go out on the way there on the way home. And so that's why.

[01:38:32] Well, you weren't, you weren't feeling any signs of it slipping though. At least not yet. Right. No, but you know, and I don't know what it feels like when a clutch goes out. Cause I've never had one go out on any of, cause I've, I've owned two other manual cars and neither one of the clutches went out on those. So I don't know what it feels like, you know, I don't know how that happens. So, uh, I mean, I'm sure I will know, but I don't know what that feels like. I don't know what I'm going to hear. I don't know what I'm going to feel. I don't know what it's going to do.

[01:39:03] So, uh, yeah, I, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure I will. But that's like, I just didn't want to risk that. So, uh, you know, I, I think it would be cool, like maybe next year, cause it'd be nice to have a newer car and still keep this one of course, and, uh, have like another one. That's kind of like my trip car, you know. Are you thinking of that one's also going to be a manual as well? Uh, I don't know.

[01:39:30] I mean, cause I, I love the Crosstrek so much. Like I could see getting a newer Crosstrek that's an automatic, but like just not getting rid of mine because I would still have to be able to drive a manual, but I love a Crosstrek. What about, what about the Outback? You know, those new Outbacks have really grown on me. Yeah. I mean, I like them too. The only thing, like the thing I like the most about the Crosstrek is I like that it's small.

[01:39:56] The Outback just, it's so big, you know, and I. It's, it's so big. It is, but I. Dude, you live in Texas. The inside, the interior is just like immaculous, dude. It's so nice. It's great. Yeah. Have you seen those touchscreens though? Oh yeah. So much better. Yeah. So much better. Very responsive and they actually have tactile buttons down below for AC and stuff. So. Yeah. Yeah. Very nice. I was thinking for a long time, like maybe, you know, I had either the Forerunner, the

[01:40:26] new Forerunner or the new Outback to choose for a new platform to design parts. And I went the Forerunner, but still when I had the Forerunner, I was like, oh, maybe I should have gotten the Outback because. Yeah. You know, I saw, you know, Rob's, Rob's, um, new Outback that he did with, um, with Rally Tech. And that thing is seriously cool. Yeah. Do you, like, were you going off road a lot with your Crosstrek? I mean, is that something that you really enjoy doing? Yeah. I could talk a little bit about that.

[01:40:57] Yeah. Because that's why, that was one of the reasons I asked, like, would you see yourself always owning a Subaru? Because if that's something that you enjoy doing, not that you need a Subaru to do that, there's plenty of other cars to do that. But I just was thinking, like, from the standpoint of so much of your early memories with cars started with Subaru. You know, you have a Subaru, you started a business with a Subaru, which, by the way, I

[01:41:21] was going to ask too, like, if you ever were crazy enough to sell your Crosstrek and would you pull off the, the OG bumper? What do you mean? OG bumper? Cause that's the original. Like to put it back on or? Well, I mean, that's the original prototype, right? Oh. On your Crosstrek. So like, if you were to sell your Crosstrek, would you take the bumper off and be like, I have to keep this because this is where it all started. This is how it all started.

[01:41:51] And then just figure something else out for it, you know? Cause I mean, I just, I was just thinking about it. Like if, if it was me and you sold the car and you're like, oh my gosh, my prototype is gone. Like everything that started this whole thing is somebody else has it now. I just, I wanted to throw that out there to give you a think about it because. Man. Even though it kind of goes, I mean, it does go with the car.

[01:42:19] It doesn't have to go with the car. Yeah. I see what you're just saying. And it's definitely like the biggest reason why I haven't sold the car yet. And most likely will wait quite a bit to sell it if I were going to. Just pull it off and like put it up above your couch as artwork or something, you know? Yeah. That'd be cool. I don't know. Maybe I'm just not that much of a sentimental person. I can be in certain aspects, but yeah.

[01:42:49] I don't know if that would maybe, you know, if, if you asked me like two years ago, it would be a big thing, but you know, I guess, I guess people move on with certain things as well. And, and you know, it wouldn't be the worst thing for someone else to enjoy this car. It's, you know, it's really a remarkable, getting the tongue twisters as well. It's, it's also like a really remarkable car. Yeah. When you drive it, it's not like anything you've driven before in a good and a bad way.

[01:43:18] I mean, it has no sway bars at all at this point. Yeah. So, you know, the body roll is insane, but you know, to, to drive a, one of these cars, uh, you know, off road and just be flooring and constantly, I mean, you know, if I were to keep it, I would probably want to do a dual range swap at some point to the car. Uh, that's like the only thing I have left that I want to do to it. But yeah, that's, that's, I thought about, you know, I was talking with, with Steven at,

[01:43:48] uh, VB hatch for a while and everyone's seen his post now, but we were talking quite a bit before he made that public. And it was funny cause he would always like, you know, keep a hush hush, you know, you can't tell nobody about what I'm working on right now. And I'm like, okay, okay. I won't tell. And, uh, yeah, but to hear like his process of, of putting a VB in his cross track was like something that I thought about for a really long time.

[01:44:15] It might, you know, if I, if I, that's something that I would, at some point I might still go through with it. Yeah. I would love to do that. Cause when somebody mentioned that I was like, I think it may have been Milton, uh, you know, silver bullet XV. I think he may have mentioned that. And I'm like, that is something that I would, I think like if I were to get another car and I could just have, you know, like I didn't have only one source of transportation. I would probably seriously look at doing that.

[01:44:44] Cause I think that would make it like just so much more fun to drive. I mean, to be like, I have a cross track, but it's not slow anymore. I mean, that would be so cool. Well, have you, have you spent like, have you like driven a VB? No, I want you so bad. I don't know. I haven't. I want you so bad. It's really good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It gets, people hate on the, the gearbox and that thing. And you know, I, I honestly love it. I think it's one of the best.

[01:45:15] I've heard that from other people too. Yeah. Yeah. I, they're all like Toyota fanboys though. Oh, okay. I mean, cause I, for me, like I wouldn't have anything else to compare it to like performance wise, because the only thing I've, I mean, I've driven some other manual cars. Like I drove, uh, I don't know if you follow audio file, but he has a black STI and it's boosted and stuff. And I drove that, but I wasn't really able to get on it. Cause we were like, there's a lot of cars and stuff, but it was fun to drive that.

[01:45:45] And then, uh, my buddy Ryan, who lives here in the Houston area, he used to go buy an anonymous T, anonymous TWRX. And now he's got, he has a, um, a crossstruck wilderness, but his, uh, his WRX was like, that thing was like really fast and it was fun to drive. And then. Was it a VB or a VA chassis? Uh, I don't know. It was like a 2017. And so, okay. So VA, yeah. Still the last one.

[01:46:12] But it was, uh, or maybe it was no, may have been, yeah, I think it was 2017, but how car was awesome. It was fun to drive that. And then I drove somebody else's like out in California. So, but you know, only one time, it's not like I have a big comparison. So I think if I were to go drive the new WRX, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't really have anything to say about it isn't in comparison to anything else. I'd probably get in it and be like, oh my gosh, this is awesome.

[01:46:39] But yeah, that's been a consideration too, to have some, to have a WRX that is because it's, you know, it'd be nice to have four doors and, you know, still all wheel drive and, but something that's faster and fun to drive. That's definitely been a consideration. Yeah. Yeah. But I have to keep the crosscheck no matter what else I do. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta, you gotta hold on to it. Yeah. All right.

[01:47:06] So moving on, uh, I asked you, what is something that makes you get out of bed every day? What is something that makes you want to stay in bed? Uh, doom scrolling. That happens. I don't know. It's, it's, it's tough these days, you know, it's like, I want to be motivated 24 seven, but you know, there are just so many distractions in life that, you know, they kind of drag you down.

[01:47:33] And, uh, you know, I just catch myself a lot, just sort of scrolling on my phone endlessly. And I'm like, oh, I should be doing something productive. And I feel that's kind of a universal issue at this point. So, yeah, last night I was going to bed really, really late, but like what happens to me is I'll be really, really sleepy. And then I'm like, okay, I'm going to take a shower and then go to bed. And for whatever reason, taking a shower wakes me up. And so I went and got in bed. That's a good one. Yeah.

[01:48:01] I went and got in bed and I was looking on my phone and I saw like, uh, I keep seeing all of these family feud, you know, funny moments and stuff. And then I scrolled and then it was like something else from another show and then something. And I was just like scrolling and I was seeing all these things and I'm like, just, I'm like, you know what? I'm staying up late. I don't need to be staying up late, but I'm really enjoying this moment. Seeing all these like old shows with these really funny moments.

[01:48:29] I'm laying here laughing in bed. I don't, you know what? So what? Like one of these days, I'm not going to be able to do this. I'm going to enjoy, I'm going to try to enjoy as many moments in my life as I can, you know, simple, big, whatever it may be. Uh, cause why not? Totally fair. Especially when you have a good feed day, when your feed is blessed. Yeah. Uh, what is something that really scares you?

[01:48:59] Ooh. Uh, honestly, not a lot of things scare me in life. Uh, maybe elevators. Yeah. Yeah. Elevators are scary. Cause like they will like sometimes fail and they like drop. And I, I don't know, like as a kid, I would have a lot of dreams of like a drop in an elevator. Dude. Yeah. Okay. I have had, I can't tell you how many elevator nightmares I've had.

[01:49:28] And yeah, it's scary. And it's not in my, in my dreams, they don't drop or anything in my dreams. I can't ever get to the floor that I'm going to, that I'm trying to get to. It'll be like, let's say I want to get to like the 30th floor of a building. I'll press the 30th floor and then it goes past the 30th floor and goes like all the way up to the top. And then there's like no roof or something. And so it's like all open and really weird. And then I try to come back down to the floor that I need to get off on. And it goes past that floor.

[01:49:58] And so I've had so many dreams like that. And then like, I'll get off on a different floor and I'm like, okay, I'm just going to take the stairs. And then like the stairs will be all jacked up or something. Like they'll go down for a little bit and then they'll, stairs will just be missing or something. It's really weird. It's like, it's like you can't get to this particular place that you need and want to get to. Um, I don't know what that means, but I've had countless dreams like that. Jeez.

[01:50:26] Well, Hey, thanks for adding another scenario to my elevator. You're welcome. Uh, so, uh, besides, you know, your awesome Subaru and now your awesome Nissan Z, uh, you know, and then in running a business and, and doing this new job, like what is something else that really excites you? Ooh. I really love cycling.

[01:50:53] Unfortunately, when I moved out here, I had one of those like, um, uh, pods moving units and I stupidly put my road bike in there and I didn't secure properly or I didn't secure some other stuff properly in there and it got damaged during shipping. And now I don't have a road bike, but now I'm just like, ah, I really miss riding right now. It's really hot here. So it's probably not a good time to be riding, but yeah. Cause you're in Phoenix, right? Yeah. Yeah. Dude, it's like 118 degrees.

[01:51:24] Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. I remember. But I hopefully. No, go ahead. No, you go. No, you go. No, no, no. You, you, you go. Okay. No, you first. No, I took my kids out to Arizona like 10 years ago and we visited some friends in Flagstaff. And then when we were leaving and went into Phoenix, it was like 118 degrees. And I was filling up the car at the gas station before we dropped it off. Cause you know, you got to fill it back up. And I was, it was like under a canopy.

[01:51:52] And I was like, you know, and of course it's low humidity, but I'm like, I feel like I'm standing in an oven. Like this is so hot. That was the hottest temperature I'd ever been in, in my life. It's crazy. Yeah. People, people don't fully realize how hot it is until they're here. And then we still somehow endure here. So no, no. Yeah. It's a beautiful state. It's really, really beautiful. It's really cool. I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of all the things you can see here, but I'm excited for that. Yeah.

[01:52:21] You got to go to Flagstaff, man. It's, it's beautiful. If you haven't been before. Yeah. I stopped by when I was driving in here, uh, when I was moving and I was like, oh, this is sick. So yeah, maybe, uh, in the winter I can do a few ski days up there. Yeah. I love the drive from the drive from Phoenix to Flagstaff is really nice, but the drive from Flagstaff back to Phoenix is really beautiful because you're going down in elevation.

[01:52:46] So you have this amazing view, like almost the entire drive and like, gosh, I forgot, I forgot how beautiful it was until I was back up there. So yeah, it's really cool. I think the first thing I did when I got the Z was I, I took like a Canyon drive up to, um, Jerome just to like really feel the car. And yeah, yeah, it was really spectacular. Is it just a rear wheel drive? Yes. Yeah. Cause these are only real drive. Okay.

[01:53:14] Uh, what would be your best bit of advice to give to someone about anything? Uh, don't think too much about stuff. Even if you know, it's going to be shit. Excuse my French. Just do it anyway. You can cut this part. You can, you can believe me or something. Yeah. Even if you know, it's going to be shit, do it anyway.

[01:53:44] But also like, like also think about things, like think about things a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. That was a really roundabout thing. Now what's your bit? Well, I think it makes sense though. Yeah. What would be your best bit of advice to give to somebody about anything? If somebody tells you you're never going to make it in, you know, designing stuff for cars and blah, blah, blah. Don't believe them. You're going to make it. Yeah. Or do. I don't know.

[01:54:11] Well, like one thing I figured out is like, you know, there's a way that the universe sort of just makes things clear to you over time. Yeah. And I think, you know, there, there could have been a time where, where I took my old employer's advice and stopped designing and did something else. And I probably would have been fine doing that too, but I'm glad I chose this path. So. Yeah. So anything else you want to add before we wrap it up? Yeah.

[01:54:37] If you have any product ideas or anything you want to see, shoot me a text on there and maybe we can make it happen in the future. Sweet. Well, it was, uh, it was great having you on Alex, man. I had a lot of fun. And again, it was great meeting you in person last year at Overland Expo that always makes it like, uh, just a different experience for me when I've already met somebody. And, uh, yeah, it was great having you on. Thank you, Raph. Yeah. You're welcome. I had a great time. Good.

[01:55:06] And we hope you have a good night and a good weekend. Thanks. You too. You're welcome. Hello. And thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Sue B and you podcast. If you're not doing so already, go give Alex a follow again. His account is S cargo. It's E S C R G O. That is for his cross track. And then for his business, of course, it's snail works. Dot us. And thank you, Alex, so much for taking the time to record with me.

[01:55:36] It was really great talking to you and, um, you know, glad to have met you in person and then now have you on the podcast. Also, like he mentioned at the very beginning of the episode, if you were in Arizona, hit him up, you know, if you're on a cross track and, uh, get together with him, you know, let him know where you are and, uh, let him know if there are any Subaru activities going on or any trail rides or anything, because he's new out there and I'm sure he would appreciate people reaching

[01:56:03] out to him to let him know what's going on and where to meet up and what places to go to. Again, thank you for tuning in. If you're going to be at Overland Expo PNW, I hope to see you there. Please come by and say hello. Check out the Subaru booth. It's going to be awesome. And we're going to have a great time. So have a great week. Much Subie love. Raph. The Subie and You podcast is hosted by Raphael in a closet in Houston, produced by Raphael

[01:56:31] in a room next to the closet in Houston and edited by Raphael on a computer in the room next to the closet in Houston with music by Luke Ruiz in another room in Houston. You can find the Subie and You podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, including Apple podcast, Spotify, and many more. To support the podcast, please head over to patreon.com slash subieandyoupodcast. Once you join, you will have access to the discord channel and discord chats with other patrons.

[01:56:59] If you'd like to get in contact with the show, you can find them on Instagram at subieandyoupodcast, online at subieandyoupodcast.com or by email subieandyoupodcast at gmail.com. That's all for this week.