5 Minutes With Bryan Fuller

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When fabricator, shop owner, and TV host Bryan Fuller was on a layover at LAX, he naturally decided to swing by our nearby office for a visit. Fuller has been in the business most of his life—working for guys like Chip Foose and on shows like Overhaulin' and Two Guys Garage—and is now on his own, displaying his talents at Fuller Hot Rods (FullerHotRods.com). Remember the Impaler '61 Chevy featured in Apr. '11? That was the shop's first complete build, and there are many more coming.

Fuller and friend Mark Prosser have also produced a fabrication how-to book, Full-Bore Sheet Metal (FullerHotRods.com). It will teach anyone how to work with metal and shows some of Fuller's familiar builds, like caf racer bikes and a Model A sedan with a Coyote V8 featured on Two Guys Garage.

Fuller sat down with the boss, David Freiburger, and talked about TV networks, hot rods, fabrication (of the metal kind), current projects, and his new book.

HRM: What are some of the most frequently asked questions you get?

BF: Mostly, "How did I make it to a steady stream of work in my own shop?" The thing I try to get across to people is not to be afraid of acquiring skills. Don't be afraid of putting a motor in a car. Don't be afraid of trying to weld. Welding is not hard. Like TIG welding is a big step. Prices have come way down on TIG welding kits, most manufacturers have starter kits for 1,500 bucks, and every city in the country has a community college that has classes at night. Today, welding skills are a huge advantage over anybody. Anybody that aspires to get into this industry: Learn to TIG!

HRM: But that's step one, what about shaping panels? Was that harder to learn? It seems like a natural progression, and companies like Harbor Freight have English wheels for $299.

BF: This day and age, there are a lot of videos and books. We just came out with our book, and it's also all about starting small. English wheel? Well people ask that a lot. "Oh you're a fabricator, that must mean you use the English wheel a lot, right?" In my world, the English wheel is the show-tool of the industry. Most of my work is with a bead roller, planishing hammer, and handtools.

HRM: Is that what your book is geared toward? The guy in his small garage beside his house working with the handtools on a small level?

BF: Absolutely, most patch panels are done with a bead roller and handtools. It's snipping by hand, patterning, beveling, shearing, and welding it together. On a hot rod, there aren't really that many curves. A motorcycle gas tank, a '33 Ford fender—there's a lot of shape, but how many people shape the center of the fender?

HRM: Would you be running a shop right now if you had not done any of the TV shows?

BF: Yeah, but it would be smaller, I'd have fewer tools, and there would be less coverage. But what's lost in today's world is learning a skill. Chip [Foose] can draw; no matter what happens, he falls back to that. I learned to shape panels; no matter what happens, I fall back to that. Find a skill, and if you are going to do a trade, be an expert at it.

BF: I was there for four and a half years, and now I'm leaving. I am looking for a new show, a new deal. I don't want to move from Atlanta, though. Two Guys Garage will have a new host soon. I left on good terms. I'm looking to move toward a new show that will highlight more of the craftsman side and hope that I can find something that can offset the lack of respect that a lot of TV shows have for the industry. There are a lot of shows out there, that we all know, that do not make the car and motorcycle industry look good. Fake drama, crappy builds, put junk on top of your car or motorcycle, that type of stuff. You have build shows that happen so fast—not including Overhaulin'. It was fast, but those were real cars, not perfect, but real cars. There are other shows that do it in less time and produce a throwaway car, so they basically make us look like we will build something that will not sustain history, which to me is a total disservice to everything that I've done to try to build craftsmanship in this industry. So I hope to move onto something that will help elevate our status and highlight the craftsman and highlight the American art.

HRM: What's the baddest-ass car you've built?

BF: My two favorites: the Impaler and the Impression. The Impaler was the first complete, bumper-to-bumper, finished car from our shop. It's a good, driveable, bad machine. Foose's Impression always had a soft spot with me. I pretty much did two years on that whole car. I did nothing but that car and Overhaulin' for two years, that was my life. That car means a lot to Chip, too. I have a really cool current project, a hearse, called the ThunderTaker. You can't imagine the length until you see it in person. The owner just wants to drive it. He has four kids and wants to take couples to dinner in it. There is not much stock metal left, it is all handbuilt. It is the wildest, freaky thing.

HRM: Would a network buy into that when all they want to do is control the drama, the stakes, the fakeness?

BF: I think there are some good shows out there like Chip's. The Wayne Carini deal, Chasing Classic Cars, that's cool. There is a great auction show out there. It has to get better 'cause it can't seem to get any worse.

HRM: Do you think car TV is a fad?

BF: It evolves and changes. It can't go anywhere. Look at Two Guys Garage, 19 seasons! That doesn't happen, 19 seasons is crazy. There's an industry to back it, and there is knowledge there. Learning is fun, and that's why the magazines are around. You see the eye candy—people want to see that and to learn.

HRM: Do you think that is why the networks want the drama and fake stuff, to appeal to a broader audience? In our experience, it seems that the car people are really the ones watching, but networks don't get that.

BF: Yeah, I can see that. I like it all—boats, cars, motorcycles, whatever—so to me it's all in one category. Get them all in one category. That is a huge number of people, and the [networks] just don't account for that. They are trying to get people they won't get anyway. They [the non-car people] have their own stuff. I would really love for a show like what I was talking about to work, but, hey, if it doesn't? I love my shop. I really think there is nothing I love more than cutting the phone off, no emails, no people, and I just get in there and work. It's still my favorite day.

HRM: Do non-car people recognize you?

BF: Not really.

HRM: What does business look like for you these days? People walk in with blank checks? Or are people saying, "I have three grand, build me something?"

BF: There are still a lot of people with money, despite the economy. The middle class has it the toughest, though. At our shop we do a little of everything. We help somebody on a project that makes sense, a small job, but most of ours are long-term, two- or three-year builds. The thing that has kept our customers coming is that we really try to make it fun. These big builds, it frees you from restrictions. Instead of thinking about the money, we think, What fun can we do? or What crazy can we do? It keeps you from asking, Can I do it? or Can I afford it? You get to go forward and just say, We're doing it, it's gonna happen!'

HRM: So you said everybody asks you, "How did I make it to a steady stream of work in my own shop?" So, how did you?

BF: Started at WyoTech, then jobs at So-Cal Speed Shop, GMT Metal, Chip Foose/Overhaulin,' Two Guys Garage, and now Fuller Hot Rods. The best was to be able to work with Chip at such a young age. That's f***ing crazy, I never thought that would happen. I was the youngest, and Chip was the next youngest. I knew who Chip was when he was working for Boyd Coddington. Like the CadZZilla? Loved that car, dreamed of that thing.

HRM: Wait, when is your next flight?

BF: Um, soon actually. But I will see you next year at Power Tour with the Impaler.