July 15, 2025 • 38 mins
Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!
How do you shield your ride from relentless rust, road salt, and UV damage? Tom Wolfe—Mopar enthusiast and President & CEO of Ziebart International—explains how a small 1959 Detroit startup became a worldwide leader in vehicle protection. Hear why Wolfe compares corrosion to “termites that never stop,” how Diamond Gloss® and Ceramic Z Gloss™ coatings outclass traditional wax, and why paint‑protection film and window tint matter even on brand‑new cars.
Tom’s automotive journey spans a $500 Dodge Coronet road‑trip, a 1978 Little Red Express converted to run on E85, and a family legacy deep in Chrysler’s history. He also shares Ziebart’s veteran‑focused franchise program and partnership with Mission 22 supporting mental‑health services. Whether you drive coastal highways or snowy streets, learn the science—and passion—behind modern rust proofing and ceramic coatings that keep cars looking showroom‑fresh for decades. Dive in now, then explore services at ziebart.com and give your vehicle the long‑term protection it deserves.
Curious about protecting your vehicles from environmental damage? Visit https://ziebart.com to explore their services and find a location near you. Your car's long-term health might depend on it.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Christian (00:10):
Welcome back to All the Cars I've Loved Before, your
authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia, where our
guests are unique, each auto hasan era and every car tells a
story.
So you know that's right.
You know what time it is, it'stime to plug in, get a little
grease under the fingernails ortoenails, depending on how you
(00:31):
fix your car and slip on thatfavorite car theme t-shirt, hat
or jacket.
Speaking of my co-host, goodafternoon from the mid-Atlantic,
the East Coast.
What is the shirt du jour?
Doug (00:51):
The shirt du jour, and somewhat in honor of our
Chrysler fan guest, that we willintroduce is can you see it?
Dodge Viper.
Christian (00:56):
Oh, I see Fantastic.
Look at that.
Doug (00:59):
Yeah, yeah, Really really awesome car, and wasn't?
Christian (01:03):
now, bob Lutz wasn't that kind of his, either his
brainchild or one of theprojects that he really
championed from the get-go, butyeah, you know.
By the way, I tried to get himon the show For repeat listeners
.
If you like what you hear,please give us a review on
(01:24):
carslovecom.
Carslovecom, and let's see.
We have reviews there.
We have all kinds of.
I think we have some exclusivecontent you can't get anywhere
else.
Of course, on your podcaststreaming platform of choice,
you'll find everything in theshow notes, but there's so much
more on carslovecom you want togive them the link tree.
Doug, are you in a space to dothat?
Doug (01:45):
I am L-I-N-K-T-R dot E-E slash carsloved.
Christian (01:51):
Yeah, that's our digital switchboard and between
the website and there, that'sour social media presence, as
you can see everything we're upto.
Also on carslovecom I believeit's carslovecom slash photos
you can see the carousel wherepeople send us in pictures of
their cars, their folks' cars,their kids' cars, car spotting
(02:13):
cars you see around town.
It's really a lot of fun and Icalled it up here and I just got
to tell you, partner, you did agreat job.
This looks really good.
It's a lot of fun.
I see Aiden's Beetle, john'sMazda and just great work.
This is a lot of fun.
So our viewers are reallygetting into it.
Speedy Cop, we've got somephotos from him really getting
(02:35):
into it.
So send us what you have and wewill get it up there.
All you have to do is email usChristian at CarsLovecom, doug
at CarsLovecom, or Inf.
Carslovecom, or info theinfamous info at carslovecom.
So send them in.
And the last item I have herebefore we move to today's guest
is last night we had such aninteresting show, a lot of food
(03:00):
for thought, and it was agentleman who's a very
interesting fellow in his ownright, but his father is the
fellow who invented theintermittent windshield wiper
switch and that was just reallya lot of fun.
And that's what this show does.
We hear it time and time again.
We bring people together, wemake new friends, teach others.
(03:22):
We're always learning.
So again, reach out Christianat CarsLovecom, doug at
CarsLovecom.
Always more to learn, morewonderful people to meet.
But be that as it may, it'stime to pivot and ask the
world-famous Segway, thePrompteer, doug, how did today's
guest land in your virtualgarage, yeah.
Doug (03:44):
So as the show has gained some matured and gotten interest
, we've found wonderful peoplethrough public relations really
looking to get their stories out, share information about
themselves, their background,their companies.
(04:04):
And, you know, one of thethings I'm excited about is the
gentleman tonight who I'll lethim introduce himself in a
moment.
He also grew up in Detroit,just like Tim Kearns and the
Kearns family, when they, DrKearns, invented the
intermittent windshield wiper.
So we're really starting to getthat Detroit connection on the
(04:25):
show.
So I'd love to call that out.
Christian (04:27):
We are a show about cars, so there is that, it seems
fitting.
Tom, welcome to the show.
How are you this afternoon?
Tom Wolfe (04:35):
I'm doing good, christian, and thank you for
having me on the show tonight.
Christian (04:40):
Well, thank you.
Thank you, it's a pleasure.
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat you do and it could be
professionally, personally anyprojects you have going on.
If you've got grease on yourfingernails, just tell us what
you've been up to in the garage.
Where do we start?
I know you're busy.
Tom Wolfe (05:05):
First off, I'm president and CEO of Zubart
International Corporation, anoriginal Detroit company started
in 1959, so 65 plus years inthe metro Detroit area,
protecting vehicles, taking careof vehicles, making them look
good A lot of stuff that we dowindow tint, paint protection
film, ceramic coatings and, ofcourse, you know from back in
the day that everybody our ageknows, of course, rust proofing,
(05:26):
and that's where we got ourstart in the 50s, from a
gentleman named Kurt Zbart, andthat's you know.
That's where we're at today.
We still rust proof cars, westill protect them, but we've
expanded our portfolio to a lotof other services that we do for
vehicles Fantastic and I readsomewhere that, oh, go ahead,
you weren't.
Oh, I was just going to say, youknow, personally I'm working on
(05:48):
building a house but I'm always, you know, kind of tinkering
out in the garage.
I've got a 78 Dodge little redexpress truck, so I'm always out
there, out there doingsomething or thinking about
something that I want to change,you know, on the vehicle.
Christian (06:02):
So so, right on Love it.
Yeah, thank you for sharingthat.
I read somewhere that, uh, inthe fifties, when Mr Z Bart was
starting, they first thought itwas a hoax, because, at rest,
proofing, how does it?
Uh, what, what is this?
What are you talking about?
But then they saw, uh, theybecame convinced of its
(06:23):
integrity and saw word of mouththat allowed the product to
spread.
Very important, because thenwhat happened?
Well, you got to learn that yougot to.
Everybody thought you got tosalt roads in the winter and
that just destroys destroys theundercarriage of a car.
Now where I live in Florida notthat big of a deal, but where
Doug lives Mid-Atlantic Indiana,obviously the Northeast more
(06:45):
and more of a problem.
So talk for a bit of how rustis so insidious.
Why must that be kept at bay?
Tom Wolfe (06:53):
Well, I mean, it basically destroys the asset
that you purchased Back in theday when Mr Zbar was working on
vehicles.
He came from Germany so he'sgot kind of a Germany, has kind
of a chemist background and hewas also.
He came from German so he's gotkind of a German, he has kind
of a chemist background and hewas also a master mechanic.
So as he's repairing cars inDetroit he's seeing all of this
rust damage as he's repairingbody panels and going through
(07:16):
the vehicles.
So that got him thinking andgot him into developing a
product and patented tools toprotect vehicles from rust.
That enemy like a termite, itnever stops, it's always there
and eating.
And granted, manufacturerstoday have come a long way, have
done a lot better job inprotecting those vehicles than
(07:39):
they did in the 1950s with theire-coatings and their paint
technologies and things likethat.
But if you're observant enoughand you look out on the road,
you will still see vehicles outthere rusting.
And I know, christian, you saidyou're in Florida and it's not
very prevalent in Florida.
But you know there's a lot ofcountries where we deal in the
Middle East and you know thoseoceanside communities have that
(08:03):
that salt air that can affectvehicles as well.
So we're, we're still out there, you know, protecting, like I
said, in the middle Middle Eastand some of those you know, you
know smaller countries maybe inthe Caribbean or you know, out
in the Pacific.
So we're, we're still, we'restill relevant, we're still
protecting vehicles and, as Isaid before, we've expanded that
portfolio quite a bit fromthose early days.
Christian (08:26):
Yeah, and you mentioned you're worldwide, and
that's something that I didn'trealize until I started looking
into this.
Is that a recent expansion orhas that been going on for
decades.
Tom Wolfe (08:37):
No, actually we sold our first master franchise to
our friends up north in Canadain the early 60s.
Oh, if I remember correctly,the Philippines in the early 60s
.
If I remember correctly, thePhilippines in the early 70s,
Saudi Arabia in the mid-70s.
So we still have a lot ofinternational partners out there
that are master franchisees,flying the ZBART flag.
Christian (09:00):
Yeah, that's great, and I will tell you, it's so
true.
A good point you make about thesalt there.
You know, anytime you go to thebeach anytime and I don't live
far from the water here.
There is just this gunk in theair that gets over.
You know, paint chips, all thatstuff is undefeated.
Okay, because once that startsto eat at your car I love the
(09:30):
way you put that it's termites,because it never stops.
It never stops.
It's.
You know it's.
Everything tends towardsentropy and chaos.
Everything breaks down.
You got to protect it, you gotto protect it.
You got to protect it.
So talk a little bit about thecoatings, which I thought was
really interesting in doing theresearch for your company.
You have proprietary coatings,you have films that you can put
(09:53):
over top things.
I mean it's really impressive.
It's a full portfolio of how toprotect.
Tom Wolfe (09:58):
Yeah, absolutely.
We've got our original paintcoating, which we call Diamond
Gloss, which is like apredecessor to the ceramic
coatings that are out there now.
It's a resin-based formula, soit's leaps and bounds above the
old waxes that we used to apply.
That's good for a year.
We offer a warranty on it and anumber of years ago we came out
(10:20):
with our Ceramic Z Gloss, whichis a ceramic paint coating.
It's actually three, threelayers.
You know that's the processthat we've have and developed.
So it's got three layers on itjust from the the start.
So if people are kind ofshopping z-bart against the
competition, just know thatyou're getting three layers from
us.
And then, if you move into thefilms aspect which you had
(10:40):
mentioned, we've got paintprotection film which you know
you talked about.
You know the stone chips andthe rocks and things like that.
It's a six mil film.
It protects the front end ofthe vehicle, those abrasion
areas.
Some people actually wrap theirentire vehicles in it.
There's a story from the middleeast where there was an
individual driving across thethe desert and you know they
(11:02):
wrapped their vehicle just forthe so it wouldn't be
sandblasted for for the trip.
So that's, you know, some ofthe protection that we've got
there.
Then, of course, we've got youknow, you know, on the film side
.
We've got all of our windowtint, we've got our, our
metalized films, we've got ourceramic films.
You know, they protect, youknow, not only do they look cool
, but there's a protectionfeature to those as well, where
(11:24):
it's protecting the contents.
And what are we as drivers?
We're contents of the vehicle,so it's protecting us from those
UV rays and the harmful sunrays that all come in and fade
interiors, burn us and do allthose kinds of things.
So we've got the film toprotect people and the contents
of the vehicles.
Christian (11:44):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
And one thing that I readsomewhere is that all right,
well, it would make sense if youhave something old that you
want to stop the decay on Allright Z-Bar.
It makes a lot of sense there.
But from the word, as soon asyou get your car, it needs to be
protected, because the momentyou drive it off the lot it
(12:05):
starts to deteriorate.
So this is not only a solutionfor cars that have been out in
the world and starting to looktheir age.
How much of your business ispreventative, would you say, on
either a fleet vehicle or apersonal vehicle.
Is it sort of half and half newand old, or mostly new?
Do people understand that theyhave to protect this asset from
(12:26):
the word go?
Tom Wolfe (12:27):
The majority of the business is new and that's the
best time to bring that vehiclein because we have warranties
for a lot of our products.
But we do see classic vehiclescoming into our stores and you
know we'll hear about it.
My daughter actually works atone of our stores as a
salesperson and you know we'llhear about it.
My daughter actually works atone of our stores as a
salesperson and she'll always,you know, text me a picture of a
classic vehicle that comes in,because she knows I like seeing
(12:51):
them.
So there's still that elementof classic vehicles coming in,
where people are purchasing themand getting them protected, you
know from you know, the rustproofing side or maybe some film
to protect, you know the paintchips and things of that nature.
So yeah, it's majority newvehicles, but we're seeing, like
, as you mentioned, fleetvehicles.
You know municipalities areprotecting their vehicles to
(13:15):
keep them on the road as long aspossible.
So it's really cool when I seea little bit of everything
coming through the stores.
Christian (13:19):
Yeah, that's great.
That's great Good stuff, Goodinformation, and we had a
gentleman on the show, Doug.
I think it was a few monthsback this fellow Matt.
Now is he in Delaware.
Doug (13:32):
He owns a paint shop.
Well, he owns a body shop.
Right, he's in Maryland, butclose to Pennsylvania.
Okay, okay, Top coat garage.
Sorry to interrupt.
Christian (13:40):
Top coat, that's it.
No, you nailed it.
Yeah, that's it.
Thank you for the prompt.
You're welcome.
Top coat, that's it.
No, you nailed it.
Yeah, that's it.
Thank you for the prompt.
So he talked about we reallygot into talking about paint,
the sophistication of the paint,chemistry, what goes into a
good paint job and it really weall know that painting a car
these days is a very expensivething, so you really have to
(14:00):
look at it as an investment.
Well, once you paint the car,you have to immediately protect
it Right.
And so Matt was really, reallyeducated us on that process of
what did he call it Prismaticpaint jobs and then the the flex
of either ceramic or metal orwhatever.
Yeah, you pay 10, 15, 20thousand dollars on a paint job.
(14:25):
You're going to want to protectthat.
Tom Wolfe (14:28):
Right, even even paint jobs from the OEMs are
quite dynamic, because there'scertain vehicles that have very
soft paints and othermanufacturers have harder paints
and we see a lot of differencesin those paints when we're
doing paint restoration, whereyou're polishing the paints and
things of that nature.
So you know some of the importsthat come in.
You know the higher ends.
(14:48):
They tend to have a little bitharder paint.
But there's a broad spectrum ofwhat's out there and you have
to understand what you'reworking with.
Christian (14:56):
Yeah, that's a really good point.
I visited the.
My sons and I toured theHyundai plant.
Hyundai plant, yeah, inMontgomery, alabama, to make all
the Santa Fe's, tucson's andElantra's, I believe.
17 hours to make a car, orsomething like that.
(15:23):
Soup to nuts, and about nine ofit is the car sitting in the
paint shop.
So just to give you an idea ofall these complicated moving
parts, guess what First thingpeople are going to see is that
paint job.
So, yeah, interesting stuff.
I know Doug wants to hop inthere and bring us in the way
back, but just one more mention.
Tom Wolfe (15:39):
when you think of Z-Bar, I was going to say I got
a quick story on paint jobs.
I owned a 71 Dodge at one pointin time and it was an original
paint survivor car.
Doug (15:51):
And I was talking to somebody.
Tom Wolfe (15:52):
I was talking about the paint job on it and I
pointed out a couple of runs,and that's when they used to
have painters on the line andthe guy thought he's like.
He says man, I would be, I wouldbe mad, I'd take that car back
to whoever painted your car.
I'm like, well, that would be alittle bit difficult because
there's big runs on the sillsand the rockers and it was just
(16:12):
factory paint from the 70s.
That's the way they came out ofthe factory and that's the way
it was.
It'd be a little bit difficultto get that one back to the, to
the factory so interesting.
Christian (16:23):
so, yeah, he was a guy that just had a bad day, had
a bad day.
Maybe it was the new guy, maybehe had a bad day, but it
happens.
Okay, variability in anymanufacturing process will bring
you defects, right?
So, wow, great story, greattale.
Now, before I hand it over todoug here and we hop in the way
back, z ZBART does all kind ofstuff.
So we've talked here aboutcoatings, but Tom alluded to it.
(16:45):
All kinds of accessories Got togo to the website ZBARTcom,
z-i-e-b-a-r-t dot com.
We've talked about coatings.
We've talked about rustprotection, but interior fabric
protection.
We talk about rust protection,but interior fabric protection
that's important too.
Okay, window tint importantstuff, as well as the paint
protection films.
(17:06):
So I mean, it's really a fullportfolio of stuff.
Make your car look good,completed.
Yeah, you were going to saysomething.
Tom Wolfe (17:14):
Tom, yeah, we've got everything One-stop shop.
We've got accessories for thetruck guys we can get those.
The soccer mom that comes inthat's been hauling around four,
six, eight kids.
We can detail that vehicleinside and out.
We've got proprietary productsthat we can clean vehicles, make
them look good, and themajority of our products and all
(17:36):
of the proprietary products aremade in the.
United States, our products andall of the proprietary products
are made in the United States.
Christian (17:47):
Oh, I love that.
I love that.
Okay, so again, America in theworld.
Z-i-e-b-a-r-tcom Got to checkit out.
It's a really nicely laid outwebsite.
You get to a ton of informationvery quickly.
They have a find my ZBARTwidget here off to the side.
You plop in your zip code.
You see where the closest onein is.
Go visit, See what they can dofor you.
Doug, I'm going to hand it over.
Partner.
What do you think?
Are we ready to go back in timeto see what Tom owned and what
(18:11):
do you think?
Doug (18:13):
We are.
But I know in our pre-show wetalked about Tom being a
Chrysler guy and that reallygoes back to your roots, Tom,
because you actually worked atChrysler as well and I was
hoping you could share a littlebit about that.
And, if you don't mind, ifwe're good with time, I'd love
(18:33):
to hear a little bit about your.
Father was CEO of ZBART before.
Zbart has been a family owned,employee owned business for
quite some time as well, as Idon't know if a majority of
ZBART stores or all of them arefranchises, as you alluded to.
Tom Wolfe (18:55):
Yeah, so, wow, there's just so much to unpack
there.
So if we go way back, mygrandfather worked for Chrysler
from like the early 40s to theearly 70s and that's kind of
where I got my, my ChryslerMopar roots, if you, if you will
, and then you know my, my uncle, was a plant manager.
And then we mentioned Bob Lutzearlier.
Actually, my, my stepmom, wasBob Lutz's admin for a number of
(19:19):
years no way Yep, so neat Yep,both in Highland Park and then
when they moved to Auburn Hills.
So it was kind of my herocompany where I wanted to work
for them.
And you know, I got my chancein the mid-90s I started at
Chrysler Financial and thenmoved over to Motors.
I was always on the financeside for my stint at Chrysler
(19:40):
Financial and then moved over toMotors.
I was always on the financeside for my stint at Chrysler.
So I started in IT finance so Isupported their IT department
with their finance.
But then the back half of mycareer at Chrysler was in
product development finance.
I was an area finance manager.
So for me that was really cool,kind of I call myself, you know
(20:01):
, a closet engineer with financetendencies.
So engineers didn't really likeme when I'd call them out on
some of their costs and thingslike that, because being a car
guy I kind of knew how muchstuff would cost.
Yes, but the cool part aboutthat was is, you know, I got to,
you know, work with theengineers.
I made friends in the, in thedyno room, and I get to take
(20:22):
home cars once in a while and Igive evals to the, to the
engineers, so they kind of seewhat maybe a regular person
might be thinking about.
You know, on a product, becausesometimes, as you know, if
you're too close to the productyou can overlook some things and
things of that nature.
So they give it to a lot ofdifferent people to try those
vehicles out so they could getdifferent perspectives.
(20:44):
So that's kind of my high level.
You know Chrysler story, if youwill.
I know, doug or Christian,you'd mentioned talking about
Z-Bart a little bit.
So I've had actually a coupleof stints at ZBART.
I had worked there, worked here, you know, when I was finished
up high school and I was goingto a community school working on
(21:05):
my degrees.
You know we had a manufacturingplant at that time and I'd run
the mail back and forth betweenthe two facilities and took a
break off to finish up my degreeand then came back and worked
at ZBART for another few yearsbefore I left for Chrysler.
But you had mentioned my dadhad worked here as well.
So my dad had worked here sincethe late 70s and then in the
(21:30):
early 90s he facilitated what'scalled an ESOP program, an
employee stock ownership program, and that's been in place just
over 30 years now.
So he's taken a step back thelast couple of years.
He just celebrated a birthdayand he keeps telling me he's
like when you don't want me tocome in, just let me know.
(21:52):
But he's always a part of ZBART, he's always welcome to come in
.
And I told him hey, if you'reone day and you want to come in
and balance your checkbook andtake a nap in your office, you
know come on in and do that.
You know I just want him to getout of the house and stay as
active as possible.
But for the last couple ofyears, you know I've been in
charge.
I've got a great team thatsupports me and the decision
(22:15):
making and the direction of thecompany.
So you know it's not just me,it's the entire team that is
growing the company at thispoint in time.
Christian (22:29):
Good job.
Thank you for sharing that.
Doug (22:31):
Good stuff.
That's a nice legacy.
I love the family connections.
Like you can't beat it.
Tom Wolfe (22:38):
Yeah, and he's around , he's like kind of a, you know
he's a resource if we need it.
Yeah, and he's.
You know he's around, he's likekind of a, you know he's a
resource if we, if we need it.
You know he's a historian, sohe's got a lot of knowledge that
that we'll use from time totime, you know, and I'll bounce
ideas off of them, you know,kind of behind the scenes and
things of that nature.
But, yeah, great resource andand of course, he's very proud
of you, of course, and yourdaughter's involved and I love
(23:04):
him as well.
Doug (23:05):
Yes, Yep, yep, absolutely Love those stories.
Yeah, so we detoured, butChristian wanted me to pop you
in my DeLorean and take you backto your first car.
And no surprise to ourlisteners, it was a Chrysler
product.
Can you tell us about it?
Tom Wolfe (23:24):
Yeah, it was a 1970 Dodge Monaco station wagon, nine
passenger station wagon and asfar as station wagons go it was
probably top of the line interms of options that it had on
it.
It had the auto temp airconditioning options that it had
on it.
It had, you know, the auto tempair conditioning, cruise
control, rim blow, am, fm, youknow with the thumb, you know
(23:49):
the thumb wheel dials, powerwindows had power, six-way seat.
It had what's called the dualpackage on it, so it had dual
snorkel air cleaner, had dualexhaust from the factory.
So it was a pretty loaded car,had a sure grip, you name it, it
had it on it, you know.
So the only bummer part was ithad about 140,000 miles on it.
When I got it and you know itwas a great car, I loved it, you
(24:12):
know my friend.
Christian (24:13):
Wait, it had 140 on it when you got it.
Tom Wolfe (24:15):
Yeah.
Christian (24:16):
Wow Battle, wagon Right on Okay.
Tom Wolfe (24:20):
Yeah for sure.
So that's kind of what you know.
It was like kind of like I said, you know, chrysler is my hero
company.
I wanted to work for them, youknow.
And that was kind of the startwhere I started reading
everything that I could find.
You know, car craft, hot rod,everything about you know
hopping up cars and engines andcamshafts and and all that stuff
.
And then it's just progressedover the years and camshafts and
and all that stuff, and thenit's just progressed over the
(24:42):
years.
Doug (24:42):
Yeah, and your, your grandfather, helped you buy it.
Um, where did you find it, ifyou, if you recall?
Actually, actually it was itwas.
Tom Wolfe (24:51):
It was his car and I bought it.
I bought it from from him andhe had you know being that he
worked from chrysler.
He got it off the executive lotat the time and that's probably
why it was so loaded with everyoption that you could get on it
, because it was probably someexecutive car at some point in
time, right, right.
Doug (25:08):
And so that was your high school car.
You could fit.
I know you said it's a nineseater, but you probably put a
few more than that in there, Tom.
Yeah, a couple more in therethan that.
And uh, we, we like to askabout, um, a favorite song that
might come to mind, and uh, youknow, a car with 140,000 miles,
(25:30):
especially with all thoseoptions.
I don't did the radio work inthat car.
Tom Wolfe (25:35):
It.
It did, but not not too welland I know we had talked a
little bit before we came on anda lot of the vehicles that I
had, if the radio did work, itwas AM and in the Detroit area
here it was like honey radio.
But then a lot of the cars theradio didn't work and one of my
other cars actually from thefactory was a radio delete car
and I had driven that daily fora number of years.
(25:57):
So I can't say that there's onesong that sticks with me
because I was more into that,the hot rodding scene than the
music scene.
Yeah, so you know that's what Iwas about.
Doug (26:07):
Just you know, cars, engine and smelling gasoline yep
, you had the windows down andyour, your soundtrack was your
engine, the engine pretty notes.
Christian (26:18):
Yeah yeah, my favorite band is the exhaust
notes.
I thought it was.
Doug (26:22):
Drive Shaft.
Christian (26:23):
There you go.
Doug (26:24):
Yeah, so, and you're what happened to that car.
Tom Wolfe (26:32):
I was convinced to sell it, unfortunately.
So I had sold it to some guysthat I know and ended up, you
know, taking it apart for theengine and junked the body.
And then you know the partswent wherever they they went at
that point in time they, theylived on, and that car lent
itself to your next car, whichwas also.
Doug (26:54):
It was also a.
Tom Wolfe (26:54):
Dodge yes, tell us about it.
Yep, um, the one that I think I, the one that we're talking
about it was a 67 Dodge Coronet,yes, white.
We actually found it in Floridaand it was about 1986.
And we left a note on thewindshield of the vehicle asking
if they were interested inselling it.
(27:16):
So my dad, my brother andmyself were down there on
vacation visiting ourgrandparents and we got a call
that they wanted to sell it.
So my dad, my brother andmyself were down there on
vacation visiting ourgrandparents and we got a call
that they wanted to sell it.
So we traded in our airlinetickets and paid 500 bucks for
the car and drove it home Wow.
Doug (27:33):
Wow, that had to be a fun road trip and the car made it,
it made it, it was no problem.
Tom Wolfe (27:36):
I don't remember how many miles were on it, but it
made it.
It was a 318 and no problem.
I don't remember how many mileswere on it, but it made it.
You know it was a 318, andthose engines seemed to live on
forever and I think we got 20,21 miles to the gallon with it.
You know, coming back Back thenthe speeds were 55, so you'd
push it to 62 or something likethat.
You know, coming north.
Doug (27:57):
Yeah, no, family road trip .
And for the listeners right,that evolved into the.
Tom Wolfe (28:02):
You know the Coronet RTs and the Super Bs, they're
(28:25):
all based off that same B body.
So you know, in a Coronet Bbody you could get you know,
depending upon the model,anything from a slant six all
the way up to the mighty 426Hemi.
Doug (28:36):
Wow, yeah, and so I have to ask do you still own that car
?
Wow, yeah, and so I have to askdo you still own that car?
Tom Wolfe (28:49):
I do not own that car .
Unfortunately.
I cut it up for for parts and Istill have parts, you know, not
not any big parts, but you knowI got bolt buckets with.
You know bolts in there fromthat car and I run across them
from time to time.
Doug (28:55):
Nice, nice.
Well, there, you mentioned itearlier, you have a 1978 dodge
little red express truck andmaybe some of those parts
actually work and maybe thebolts the right size.
Have you had any crossovers?
Tom Wolfe (29:09):
no crossover on on that one.
That one is, uh, it's a fairlylow mileage vehicle 80 000 miles
.
But you know, I pulled the theengine out of it and rebuilt an
engine.
I did an E85 engine, so it runscompletely off of, you know,
e85 these days.
Doug (29:25):
Wow, that's awesome, and you did a lot of the work
yourself.
It sounds like.
Tom Wolfe (29:29):
I did all of the engine work myself.
You know I didn't machine it,took it to a machine shop, but I
gave them all thespecifications that were.
I wanted the bores.
Doug (29:38):
Oh, wow.
Tom Wolfe (29:39):
Yeah, and all of that good stuff.
Doug (29:40):
So wow, I mean, I'm in awe and I don't know if you've
heard of McPherson College inMcPherson, kansas.
I have not.
Some people call it McPherson,so they are the only, and I
mentioned it because weinterviewed a instructor and
student from there.
But they are the onlyautomotive restoration college
four-year program in the unitedstates and they got a lot of um
(30:06):
acclaim in the news because acouple years ago they read, they
came in second place in pebblebeach with a what was it?
Christian (30:13):
a 1955 mercedes I think it was a 53 benz.
Doug (30:18):
Yeah, gorgeous gorgeous and I, I, so I mentioned that
for our listeners, but also, uh,my interest.
So I want to learn to rebuildengines, and so they have for 25
and over crowd.
They have summer camp,effectively, and they offer
different things including, um,wood, um, I guess I'll say wood
(30:41):
repair for those classical cars.
Christian (30:46):
The body was wood on cars the 100 years of that.
He sort of invented these veryold cars in the store.
Doug (30:51):
Yeah, for frames.
Yep, absolutely, and I'm goingto take an engine rebuilding
class, hopefully next summer,for a week, that's pretty cool.
Tom Wolfe (31:00):
A lot of details you got to look at.
Doug (31:02):
Yep, yep, I want to be like you, so we'll.
We'll get there, just need it.
I need a beater to start with.
I actually have a couple ofthem, but they're too
complicated for me to mess with.
So, yeah, so we, we talkedabout the, we talked about the
little red express, but you'retell us about your daily driver,
which I think is also aChrysler product.
Tom Wolfe (31:26):
It is.
My daily driver is just a RamCummins 2500.
Just a nice truck.
I do a little bit of towinghere and there, so it gets the
job done and it gets uh, it getsgreat mileage, so I'm a big
proponent for diesels.
Doug (31:44):
Yeah and uh.
I read something interesting inthe news I think it was on a
Jalopnik, which is a popularonline car magazine, that people
are buying old diesel trucksbecause they feel they're
apocalyptic proof.
They're not subject toemissions especially I, I
(32:05):
learned in christian state offlorida there are no emissions
on any car, no emissions testingat all.
This is florida, man, we don'tdo rules, yeah.
But uh, yeah, the diesels arejust so sought after.
They, they're so well built,they're so well engineered.
I mean, they're just amazingengines.
Tom Wolfe (32:25):
Yeah, especially the old ones, because they're not
saddled with all of thoseemission controls, they're not
out rolling coal, which a lot ofguys like to do.
You know, they get the job done, they make a lot of power,
they're great for towing, theirlongevity is great.
They get great mileage.
You know, I I'm curious to whatmy truck would get if I didn't
have all those emissions on it,because right now running around
(32:47):
town, I'm getting 20 miles tothe gallon with my, my truck,
and then as soon as I see thedpf comes, come on, I lose about
two miles per gallon.
So I've always questioned yougot to burn more fuel to make it
run cleaner.
But I am getting worse gasmileage or worse fuel mileage.
Doug (33:07):
Right and go into the pump more.
Yeah, exactly.
Christian (33:10):
Everything in life is a trade-off.
Gentlemen, everything in lifeis a trade-off.
So, as we guide the podcastgently to the off ramp here, tom
um you, you wanted to sharesomething, a cause that's
important to you, somethingcalled mission 22.
Can you take just a minute ortwo to talk to us about what it
(33:32):
is, what it does and why thatmeans so much to you?
Tom Wolfe (33:35):
well, I think it's actually bigger than the the
mission 22 cause.
We as a franchisor, have madethe decision for veterans and
people who serve, whether it's,you know, firemen, you know, you
know, police officers, etc.
You know, we we value whatthey've done for us as
(33:56):
individuals.
We value what they've done forcountries.
So we don't charge a franchisefee for those individuals when
they come to ZBART and ifthey're interested in starting a
ZBART.
So that's one of the thingsthat we do for veterans.
The other thing that we do inthe last couple of years is we
partnered with Mission 22 tohelp them with their cause.
(34:16):
They're a nonprofit and Mission22 focuses, you know, focuses
on, you know, veterans' mentalhealth, their wellness,
community support and helping,you know, veteran families deal
with everything that thoseveterans have had to deal with,
you know, whether they servedoverseas or not to help them
(34:38):
with just some of those you knowlife activities that might be
challenging or whateverchallenges that they might have
on a daily basis.
So we've partnered with themthe last couple of years to help
them out with their cause.
Christian (34:52):
Wonderful, thank you.
That is beautiful.
Thank you for supporting thatmission.
And yeah, one footnote, doug,we're going to do something I'm
inventing on the fly called adigital footnote, a digital
footnote On the way out here.
Tom mentioned something in thepre-show and I looked it up
(35:14):
while we were doing the program.
In the program there is a oldcommercial.
Tom said early mid-70s I thinkthat's right.
There's a YouTube video, aZ-Bart commercial with Rod
(35:34):
Serling.
The Twilight Zone fella, tom'sright.
They cut a car in half and thenRod Serling starts talking
about look at all the nooks andcrannies.
You need a product like ZBARTto get way up in there.
So do yourself a favor andmaybe we can throw this in the
show notes.
We can link to it directly RodSerling, rod S-E-R-L-I-N-G and
then ZBART, z-i-e-b-a-r-t.
(35:56):
Just type in Rod Serling, zbartand it will put a smile on your
face because it's so outrageous.
And on that note I got to sayTom, it was wonderful having you
.
Thank you for making some spacefor us in your schedule and it
was a delight to have you on.
Tom Wolfe (36:13):
Christian and Doug, thank you for having me and
making this so easy to getthrough this.
I appreciate it and I lovetalking about cars.
You know my cars and justhearing everybody's stories
about you know what invokes.
You know their, their, theirpassion and votes.
You know that those feelingsthat cars bring.
Christian (36:31):
You got it Well.
Thank you again.
It was a pleasure and you arewelcome here anytime.
Tom Wolfe (36:37):
You had just heard.
Christian (36:38):
you bet You've just heard the high revving, low
mileage, late.
Thank you guys.
You had just heard.
You bet you've just heard thehigh-revving, low-mileage,
late-modeled herd around theworld.
Authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia.
He's Doug.
Reach him at Doug atCarsLovecom.
I'm Christian.
Reach me at Christian atCarsLovecom.
He was Tom at ZBART.
If you like what you heard,please follow and tell a friend.
It helps us grow and meetwonderful people like tom.
Doug (37:04):
try out cars lovecom, especially the car ocell in our
link tree at l-i-n-k-t-re-eslash cars loved our digital
switchboard I'm sure we'll seeyou at the next local car show
show.
Christian (37:17):
We appreciate you taking a lap with us.
We will see you next time.
Welcome back to All the Cars I've Loved Before, your
authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia, where our
guests are unique, each auto hasan era and every car tells a
story.
So you know that's right.
You know what time it is, it'stime to plug in, get a little
grease under the fingernails ortoenails, depending on how you
(00:31):
fix your car and slip on thatfavorite car theme t-shirt, hat
or jacket.
Speaking of my co-host, goodafternoon from the mid-Atlantic,
the East Coast.
What is the shirt du jour?
Doug (00:51):
The shirt du jour, and somewhat in honor of our
Chrysler fan guest, that we willintroduce is can you see it?
Dodge Viper.
Christian (00:56):
Oh, I see Fantastic.
Look at that.
Doug (00:59):
Yeah, yeah, Really really awesome car, and wasn't?
Christian (01:03):
now, bob Lutz wasn't that kind of his, either his
brainchild or one of theprojects that he really
championed from the get-go, butyeah, you know.
By the way, I tried to get himon the show For repeat listeners
.
If you like what you hear,please give us a review on
(01:24):
carslovecom.
Carslovecom, and let's see.
We have reviews there.
We have all kinds of.
I think we have some exclusivecontent you can't get anywhere
else.
Of course, on your podcaststreaming platform of choice,
you'll find everything in theshow notes, but there's so much
more on carslovecom you want togive them the link tree.
Doug, are you in a space to dothat?
Doug (01:45):
I am L-I-N-K-T-R dot E-E slash carsloved.
Christian (01:51):
Yeah, that's our digital switchboard and between
the website and there, that'sour social media presence, as
you can see everything we're upto.
Also on carslovecom I believeit's carslovecom slash photos
you can see the carousel wherepeople send us in pictures of
their cars, their folks' cars,their kids' cars, car spotting
(02:13):
cars you see around town.
It's really a lot of fun and Icalled it up here and I just got
to tell you, partner, you did agreat job.
This looks really good.
It's a lot of fun.
I see Aiden's Beetle, john'sMazda and just great work.
This is a lot of fun.
So our viewers are reallygetting into it.
Speedy Cop, we've got somephotos from him really getting
(02:35):
into it.
So send us what you have and wewill get it up there.
All you have to do is email usChristian at CarsLovecom, doug
at CarsLovecom, or Inf.
Carslovecom, or info theinfamous info at carslovecom.
So send them in.
And the last item I have herebefore we move to today's guest
is last night we had such aninteresting show, a lot of food
(03:00):
for thought, and it was agentleman who's a very
interesting fellow in his ownright, but his father is the
fellow who invented theintermittent windshield wiper
switch and that was just reallya lot of fun.
And that's what this show does.
We hear it time and time again.
We bring people together, wemake new friends, teach others.
(03:22):
We're always learning.
So again, reach out Christianat CarsLovecom, doug at
CarsLovecom.
Always more to learn, morewonderful people to meet.
But be that as it may, it'stime to pivot and ask the
world-famous Segway, thePrompteer, doug, how did today's
guest land in your virtualgarage, yeah.
Doug (03:44):
So as the show has gained some matured and gotten interest
, we've found wonderful peoplethrough public relations really
looking to get their stories out, share information about
themselves, their background,their companies.
(04:04):
And, you know, one of thethings I'm excited about is the
gentleman tonight who I'll lethim introduce himself in a
moment.
He also grew up in Detroit,just like Tim Kearns and the
Kearns family, when they, DrKearns, invented the
intermittent windshield wiper.
So we're really starting to getthat Detroit connection on the
(04:25):
show.
So I'd love to call that out.
Christian (04:27):
We are a show about cars, so there is that, it seems
fitting.
Tom, welcome to the show.
How are you this afternoon?
Tom Wolfe (04:35):
I'm doing good, christian, and thank you for
having me on the show tonight.
Christian (04:40):
Well, thank you.
Thank you, it's a pleasure.
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat you do and it could be
professionally, personally anyprojects you have going on.
If you've got grease on yourfingernails, just tell us what
you've been up to in the garage.
Where do we start?
I know you're busy.
Tom Wolfe (05:05):
First off, I'm president and CEO of Zubart
International Corporation, anoriginal Detroit company started
in 1959, so 65 plus years inthe metro Detroit area,
protecting vehicles, taking careof vehicles, making them look
good A lot of stuff that we dowindow tint, paint protection
film, ceramic coatings and, ofcourse, you know from back in
the day that everybody our ageknows, of course, rust proofing,
(05:26):
and that's where we got ourstart in the 50s, from a
gentleman named Kurt Zbart, andthat's you know.
That's where we're at today.
We still rust proof cars, westill protect them, but we've
expanded our portfolio to a lotof other services that we do for
vehicles Fantastic and I readsomewhere that, oh, go ahead,
you weren't.
Oh, I was just going to say, youknow, personally I'm working on
(05:48):
building a house but I'm always, you know, kind of tinkering
out in the garage.
I've got a 78 Dodge little redexpress truck, so I'm always out
there, out there doingsomething or thinking about
something that I want to change,you know, on the vehicle.
Christian (06:02):
So so, right on Love it.
Yeah, thank you for sharingthat.
I read somewhere that, uh, inthe fifties, when Mr Z Bart was
starting, they first thought itwas a hoax, because, at rest,
proofing, how does it?
Uh, what, what is this?
What are you talking about?
But then they saw, uh, theybecame convinced of its
(06:23):
integrity and saw word of mouththat allowed the product to
spread.
Very important, because thenwhat happened?
Well, you got to learn that yougot to.
Everybody thought you got tosalt roads in the winter and
that just destroys destroys theundercarriage of a car.
Now where I live in Florida notthat big of a deal, but where
Doug lives Mid-Atlantic Indiana,obviously the Northeast more
(06:45):
and more of a problem.
So talk for a bit of how rustis so insidious.
Why must that be kept at bay?
Tom Wolfe (06:53):
Well, I mean, it basically destroys the asset
that you purchased Back in theday when Mr Zbar was working on
vehicles.
He came from Germany so he'sgot kind of a Germany, has kind
of a chemist background and hewas also.
He came from German so he's gotkind of a German, he has kind
of a chemist background and hewas also a master mechanic.
So as he's repairing cars inDetroit he's seeing all of this
rust damage as he's repairingbody panels and going through
(07:16):
the vehicles.
So that got him thinking andgot him into developing a
product and patented tools toprotect vehicles from rust.
That enemy like a termite, itnever stops, it's always there
and eating.
And granted, manufacturerstoday have come a long way, have
done a lot better job inprotecting those vehicles than
(07:39):
they did in the 1950s with theire-coatings and their paint
technologies and things likethat.
But if you're observant enoughand you look out on the road,
you will still see vehicles outthere rusting.
And I know, christian, you saidyou're in Florida and it's not
very prevalent in Florida.
But you know there's a lot ofcountries where we deal in the
Middle East and you know thoseoceanside communities have that
(08:03):
that salt air that can affectvehicles as well.
So we're, we're still out there, you know, protecting, like I
said, in the middle Middle Eastand some of those you know, you
know smaller countries maybe inthe Caribbean or you know, out
in the Pacific.
So we're, we're still, we'restill relevant, we're still
protecting vehicles and, as Isaid before, we've expanded that
portfolio quite a bit fromthose early days.
Christian (08:26):
Yeah, and you mentioned you're worldwide, and
that's something that I didn'trealize until I started looking
into this.
Is that a recent expansion orhas that been going on for
decades.
Tom Wolfe (08:37):
No, actually we sold our first master franchise to
our friends up north in Canadain the early 60s.
Oh, if I remember correctly,the Philippines in the early 60s
.
If I remember correctly, thePhilippines in the early 70s,
Saudi Arabia in the mid-70s.
So we still have a lot ofinternational partners out there
that are master franchisees,flying the ZBART flag.
Christian (09:00):
Yeah, that's great, and I will tell you, it's so
true.
A good point you make about thesalt there.
You know, anytime you go to thebeach anytime and I don't live
far from the water here.
There is just this gunk in theair that gets over.
You know, paint chips, all thatstuff is undefeated.
Okay, because once that startsto eat at your car I love the
(09:30):
way you put that it's termites,because it never stops.
It never stops.
It's.
You know it's.
Everything tends towardsentropy and chaos.
Everything breaks down.
You got to protect it, you gotto protect it.
You got to protect it.
So talk a little bit about thecoatings, which I thought was
really interesting in doing theresearch for your company.
You have proprietary coatings,you have films that you can put
(09:53):
over top things.
I mean it's really impressive.
It's a full portfolio of how toprotect.
Tom Wolfe (09:58):
Yeah, absolutely.
We've got our original paintcoating, which we call Diamond
Gloss, which is like apredecessor to the ceramic
coatings that are out there now.
It's a resin-based formula, soit's leaps and bounds above the
old waxes that we used to apply.
That's good for a year.
We offer a warranty on it and anumber of years ago we came out
(10:20):
with our Ceramic Z Gloss, whichis a ceramic paint coating.
It's actually three, threelayers.
You know that's the processthat we've have and developed.
So it's got three layers on itjust from the the start.
So if people are kind ofshopping z-bart against the
competition, just know thatyou're getting three layers from
us.
And then, if you move into thefilms aspect which you had
(10:40):
mentioned, we've got paintprotection film which you know
you talked about.
You know the stone chips andthe rocks and things like that.
It's a six mil film.
It protects the front end ofthe vehicle, those abrasion
areas.
Some people actually wrap theirentire vehicles in it.
There's a story from the middleeast where there was an
individual driving across thethe desert and you know they
(11:02):
wrapped their vehicle just forthe so it wouldn't be
sandblasted for for the trip.
So that's, you know, some ofthe protection that we've got
there.
Then, of course, we've got youknow, you know, on the film side
.
We've got all of our windowtint, we've got our, our
metalized films, we've got ourceramic films.
You know, they protect, youknow, not only do they look cool
, but there's a protectionfeature to those as well, where
(11:24):
it's protecting the contents.
And what are we as drivers?
We're contents of the vehicle,so it's protecting us from those
UV rays and the harmful sunrays that all come in and fade
interiors, burn us and do allthose kinds of things.
So we've got the film toprotect people and the contents
of the vehicles.
Christian (11:44):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
And one thing that I readsomewhere is that all right,
well, it would make sense if youhave something old that you
want to stop the decay on Allright Z-Bar.
It makes a lot of sense there.
But from the word, as soon asyou get your car, it needs to be
protected, because the momentyou drive it off the lot it
(12:05):
starts to deteriorate.
So this is not only a solutionfor cars that have been out in
the world and starting to looktheir age.
How much of your business ispreventative, would you say, on
either a fleet vehicle or apersonal vehicle.
Is it sort of half and half newand old, or mostly new?
Do people understand that theyhave to protect this asset from
(12:26):
the word go?
Tom Wolfe (12:27):
The majority of the business is new and that's the
best time to bring that vehiclein because we have warranties
for a lot of our products.
But we do see classic vehiclescoming into our stores and you
know we'll hear about it.
My daughter actually works atone of our stores as a
salesperson and you know we'llhear about it.
My daughter actually works atone of our stores as a
salesperson and she'll always,you know, text me a picture of a
classic vehicle that comes in,because she knows I like seeing
(12:51):
them.
So there's still that elementof classic vehicles coming in,
where people are purchasing themand getting them protected, you
know from you know, the rustproofing side or maybe some film
to protect, you know the paintchips and things of that nature.
So yeah, it's majority newvehicles, but we're seeing, like
, as you mentioned, fleetvehicles.
You know municipalities areprotecting their vehicles to
(13:15):
keep them on the road as long aspossible.
So it's really cool when I seea little bit of everything
coming through the stores.
Christian (13:19):
Yeah, that's great.
That's great Good stuff, Goodinformation, and we had a
gentleman on the show, Doug.
I think it was a few monthsback this fellow Matt.
Now is he in Delaware.
Doug (13:32):
He owns a paint shop.
Well, he owns a body shop.
Right, he's in Maryland, butclose to Pennsylvania.
Okay, okay, Top coat garage.
Sorry to interrupt.
Christian (13:40):
Top coat, that's it.
No, you nailed it.
Yeah, that's it.
Thank you for the prompt.
You're welcome.
Top coat, that's it.
No, you nailed it.
Yeah, that's it.
Thank you for the prompt.
So he talked about we reallygot into talking about paint,
the sophistication of the paint,chemistry, what goes into a
good paint job and it really weall know that painting a car
these days is a very expensivething, so you really have to
(14:00):
look at it as an investment.
Well, once you paint the car,you have to immediately protect
it Right.
And so Matt was really, reallyeducated us on that process of
what did he call it Prismaticpaint jobs and then the the flex
of either ceramic or metal orwhatever.
Yeah, you pay 10, 15, 20thousand dollars on a paint job.
(14:25):
You're going to want to protectthat.
Tom Wolfe (14:28):
Right, even even paint jobs from the OEMs are
quite dynamic, because there'scertain vehicles that have very
soft paints and othermanufacturers have harder paints
and we see a lot of differencesin those paints when we're
doing paint restoration, whereyou're polishing the paints and
things of that nature.
So you know some of the importsthat come in.
You know the higher ends.
(14:48):
They tend to have a little bitharder paint.
But there's a broad spectrum ofwhat's out there and you have
to understand what you'reworking with.
Christian (14:56):
Yeah, that's a really good point.
I visited the.
My sons and I toured theHyundai plant.
Hyundai plant, yeah, inMontgomery, alabama, to make all
the Santa Fe's, tucson's andElantra's, I believe.
17 hours to make a car, orsomething like that.
(15:23):
Soup to nuts, and about nine ofit is the car sitting in the
paint shop.
So just to give you an idea ofall these complicated moving
parts, guess what First thingpeople are going to see is that
paint job.
So, yeah, interesting stuff.
I know Doug wants to hop inthere and bring us in the way
back, but just one more mention.
Tom Wolfe (15:39):
when you think of Z-Bar, I was going to say I got
a quick story on paint jobs.
I owned a 71 Dodge at one pointin time and it was an original
paint survivor car.
Doug (15:51):
And I was talking to somebody.
Tom Wolfe (15:52):
I was talking about the paint job on it and I
pointed out a couple of runs,and that's when they used to
have painters on the line andthe guy thought he's like.
He says man, I would be, I wouldbe mad, I'd take that car back
to whoever painted your car.
I'm like, well, that would be alittle bit difficult because
there's big runs on the sillsand the rockers and it was just
(16:12):
factory paint from the 70s.
That's the way they came out ofthe factory and that's the way
it was.
It'd be a little bit difficultto get that one back to the, to
the factory so interesting.
Christian (16:23):
so, yeah, he was a guy that just had a bad day, had
a bad day.
Maybe it was the new guy, maybehe had a bad day, but it
happens.
Okay, variability in anymanufacturing process will bring
you defects, right?
So, wow, great story, greattale.
Now, before I hand it over todoug here and we hop in the way
back, z ZBART does all kind ofstuff.
So we've talked here aboutcoatings, but Tom alluded to it.
(16:45):
All kinds of accessories Got togo to the website ZBARTcom,
z-i-e-b-a-r-t dot com.
We've talked about coatings.
We've talked about rustprotection, but interior fabric
protection.
We talk about rust protection,but interior fabric protection
that's important too.
Okay, window tint importantstuff, as well as the paint
protection films.
(17:06):
So I mean, it's really a fullportfolio of stuff.
Make your car look good,completed.
Yeah, you were going to saysomething.
Tom Wolfe (17:14):
Tom, yeah, we've got everything One-stop shop.
We've got accessories for thetruck guys we can get those.
The soccer mom that comes inthat's been hauling around four,
six, eight kids.
We can detail that vehicleinside and out.
We've got proprietary productsthat we can clean vehicles, make
them look good, and themajority of our products and all
(17:36):
of the proprietary products aremade in the.
United States, our products andall of the proprietary products
are made in the United States.
Christian (17:47):
Oh, I love that.
I love that.
Okay, so again, America in theworld.
Z-i-e-b-a-r-tcom Got to checkit out.
It's a really nicely laid outwebsite.
You get to a ton of informationvery quickly.
They have a find my ZBARTwidget here off to the side.
You plop in your zip code.
You see where the closest onein is.
Go visit, See what they can dofor you.
Doug, I'm going to hand it over.
Partner.
What do you think?
Are we ready to go back in timeto see what Tom owned and what
(18:11):
do you think?
Doug (18:13):
We are.
But I know in our pre-show wetalked about Tom being a
Chrysler guy and that reallygoes back to your roots, Tom,
because you actually worked atChrysler as well and I was
hoping you could share a littlebit about that.
And, if you don't mind, ifwe're good with time, I'd love
(18:33):
to hear a little bit about your.
Father was CEO of ZBART before.
Zbart has been a family owned,employee owned business for
quite some time as well, as Idon't know if a majority of
ZBART stores or all of them arefranchises, as you alluded to.
Tom Wolfe (18:55):
Yeah, so, wow, there's just so much to unpack
there.
So if we go way back, mygrandfather worked for Chrysler
from like the early 40s to theearly 70s and that's kind of
where I got my, my ChryslerMopar roots, if you, if you will
, and then you know my, my uncle, was a plant manager.
And then we mentioned Bob Lutzearlier.
Actually, my, my stepmom, wasBob Lutz's admin for a number of
(19:19):
years no way Yep, so neat Yep,both in Highland Park and then
when they moved to Auburn Hills.
So it was kind of my herocompany where I wanted to work
for them.
And you know, I got my chancein the mid-90s I started at
Chrysler Financial and thenmoved over to Motors.
I was always on the financeside for my stint at Chrysler
(19:40):
Financial and then moved over toMotors.
I was always on the financeside for my stint at Chrysler.
So I started in IT finance so Isupported their IT department
with their finance.
But then the back half of mycareer at Chrysler was in
product development finance.
I was an area finance manager.
So for me that was really cool,kind of I call myself, you know
(20:01):
, a closet engineer with financetendencies.
So engineers didn't really likeme when I'd call them out on
some of their costs and thingslike that, because being a car
guy I kind of knew how muchstuff would cost.
Yes, but the cool part aboutthat was is, you know, I got to,
you know, work with theengineers.
I made friends in the, in thedyno room, and I get to take
(20:22):
home cars once in a while and Igive evals to the, to the
engineers, so they kind of seewhat maybe a regular person
might be thinking about.
You know, on a product, becausesometimes, as you know, if
you're too close to the productyou can overlook some things and
things of that nature.
So they give it to a lot ofdifferent people to try those
vehicles out so they could getdifferent perspectives.
(20:44):
So that's kind of my high level.
You know Chrysler story, if youwill.
I know, doug or Christian,you'd mentioned talking about
Z-Bart a little bit.
So I've had actually a coupleof stints at ZBART.
I had worked there, worked here, you know, when I was finished
up high school and I was goingto a community school working on
(21:05):
my degrees.
You know we had a manufacturingplant at that time and I'd run
the mail back and forth betweenthe two facilities and took a
break off to finish up my degreeand then came back and worked
at ZBART for another few yearsbefore I left for Chrysler.
But you had mentioned my dadhad worked here as well.
So my dad had worked here sincethe late 70s and then in the
(21:30):
early 90s he facilitated what'scalled an ESOP program, an
employee stock ownership program, and that's been in place just
over 30 years now.
So he's taken a step back thelast couple of years.
He just celebrated a birthdayand he keeps telling me he's
like when you don't want me tocome in, just let me know.
(21:52):
But he's always a part of ZBART, he's always welcome to come in
.
And I told him hey, if you'reone day and you want to come in
and balance your checkbook andtake a nap in your office, you
know come on in and do that.
You know I just want him to getout of the house and stay as
active as possible.
But for the last couple ofyears, you know I've been in
charge.
I've got a great team thatsupports me and the decision
(22:15):
making and the direction of thecompany.
So you know it's not just me,it's the entire team that is
growing the company at thispoint in time.
Christian (22:29):
Good job.
Thank you for sharing that.
Doug (22:31):
Good stuff.
That's a nice legacy.
I love the family connections.
Like you can't beat it.
Tom Wolfe (22:38):
Yeah, and he's around , he's like kind of a, you know
he's a resource if we need it.
Yeah, and he's.
You know he's around, he's likekind of a, you know he's a
resource if we, if we need it.
You know he's a historian, sohe's got a lot of knowledge that
that we'll use from time totime, you know, and I'll bounce
ideas off of them, you know,kind of behind the scenes and
things of that nature.
But, yeah, great resource andand of course, he's very proud
of you, of course, and yourdaughter's involved and I love
(23:04):
him as well.
Doug (23:05):
Yes, Yep, yep, absolutely Love those stories.
Yeah, so we detoured, butChristian wanted me to pop you
in my DeLorean and take you backto your first car.
And no surprise to ourlisteners, it was a Chrysler
product.
Can you tell us about it?
Tom Wolfe (23:24):
Yeah, it was a 1970 Dodge Monaco station wagon, nine
passenger station wagon and asfar as station wagons go it was
probably top of the line interms of options that it had on
it.
It had the auto temp airconditioning options that it had
on it.
It had, you know, the auto tempair conditioning, cruise
control, rim blow, am, fm, youknow with the thumb, you know
(23:49):
the thumb wheel dials, powerwindows had power, six-way seat.
It had what's called the dualpackage on it, so it had dual
snorkel air cleaner, had dualexhaust from the factory.
So it was a pretty loaded car,had a sure grip, you name it, it
had it on it, you know.
So the only bummer part was ithad about 140,000 miles on it.
When I got it and you know itwas a great car, I loved it, you
(24:12):
know my friend.
Christian (24:13):
Wait, it had 140 on it when you got it.
Tom Wolfe (24:15):
Yeah.
Christian (24:16):
Wow Battle, wagon Right on Okay.
Tom Wolfe (24:20):
Yeah for sure.
So that's kind of what you know.
It was like kind of like I said, you know, chrysler is my hero
company.
I wanted to work for them, youknow.
And that was kind of the startwhere I started reading
everything that I could find.
You know, car craft, hot rod,everything about you know
hopping up cars and engines andcamshafts and and all that stuff
.
And then it's just progressedover the years and camshafts and
and all that stuff, and thenit's just progressed over the
(24:42):
years.
Doug (24:42):
Yeah, and your, your grandfather, helped you buy it.
Um, where did you find it, ifyou, if you recall?
Actually, actually it was itwas.
Tom Wolfe (24:51):
It was his car and I bought it.
I bought it from from him andhe had you know being that he
worked from chrysler.
He got it off the executive lotat the time and that's probably
why it was so loaded with everyoption that you could get on it
, because it was probably someexecutive car at some point in
time, right, right.
Doug (25:08):
And so that was your high school car.
You could fit.
I know you said it's a nineseater, but you probably put a
few more than that in there, Tom.
Yeah, a couple more in therethan that.
And uh, we, we like to askabout, um, a favorite song that
might come to mind, and uh, youknow, a car with 140,000 miles,
(25:30):
especially with all thoseoptions.
I don't did the radio work inthat car.
Tom Wolfe (25:35):
It.
It did, but not not too welland I know we had talked a
little bit before we came on anda lot of the vehicles that I
had, if the radio did work, itwas AM and in the Detroit area
here it was like honey radio.
But then a lot of the cars theradio didn't work and one of my
other cars actually from thefactory was a radio delete car
and I had driven that daily fora number of years.
(25:57):
So I can't say that there's onesong that sticks with me
because I was more into that,the hot rodding scene than the
music scene.
Yeah, so you know that's what Iwas about.
Doug (26:07):
Just you know, cars, engine and smelling gasoline yep
, you had the windows down andyour, your soundtrack was your
engine, the engine pretty notes.
Christian (26:18):
Yeah yeah, my favorite band is the exhaust
notes.
I thought it was.
Doug (26:22):
Drive Shaft.
Christian (26:23):
There you go.
Doug (26:24):
Yeah, so, and you're what happened to that car.
Tom Wolfe (26:32):
I was convinced to sell it, unfortunately.
So I had sold it to some guysthat I know and ended up, you
know, taking it apart for theengine and junked the body.
And then you know the partswent wherever they they went at
that point in time they, theylived on, and that car lent
itself to your next car, whichwas also.
Doug (26:54):
It was also a.
Tom Wolfe (26:54):
Dodge yes, tell us about it.
Yep, um, the one that I think I, the one that we're talking
about it was a 67 Dodge Coronet,yes, white.
We actually found it in Floridaand it was about 1986.
And we left a note on thewindshield of the vehicle asking
if they were interested inselling it.
(27:16):
So my dad, my brother andmyself were down there on
vacation visiting ourgrandparents and we got a call
that they wanted to sell it.
So my dad, my brother andmyself were down there on
vacation visiting ourgrandparents and we got a call
that they wanted to sell it.
So we traded in our airlinetickets and paid 500 bucks for
the car and drove it home Wow.
Doug (27:33):
Wow, that had to be a fun road trip and the car made it,
it made it, it was no problem.
Tom Wolfe (27:36):
I don't remember how many miles were on it, but it
made it.
It was a 318 and no problem.
I don't remember how many mileswere on it, but it made it.
You know it was a 318, andthose engines seemed to live on
forever and I think we got 20,21 miles to the gallon with it.
You know, coming back Back thenthe speeds were 55, so you'd
push it to 62 or something likethat.
You know, coming north.
Doug (27:57):
Yeah, no, family road trip .
And for the listeners right,that evolved into the.
Tom Wolfe (28:02):
You know the Coronet RTs and the Super Bs, they're
(28:25):
all based off that same B body.
So you know, in a Coronet Bbody you could get you know,
depending upon the model,anything from a slant six all
the way up to the mighty 426Hemi.
Doug (28:36):
Wow, yeah, and so I have to ask do you still own that car
?
Wow, yeah, and so I have to askdo you still own that car?
Tom Wolfe (28:49):
I do not own that car .
Unfortunately.
I cut it up for for parts and Istill have parts, you know, not
not any big parts, but you knowI got bolt buckets with.
You know bolts in there fromthat car and I run across them
from time to time.
Doug (28:55):
Nice, nice.
Well, there, you mentioned itearlier, you have a 1978 dodge
little red express truck andmaybe some of those parts
actually work and maybe thebolts the right size.
Have you had any crossovers?
Tom Wolfe (29:09):
no crossover on on that one.
That one is, uh, it's a fairlylow mileage vehicle 80 000 miles
.
But you know, I pulled the theengine out of it and rebuilt an
engine.
I did an E85 engine, so it runscompletely off of, you know,
e85 these days.
Doug (29:25):
Wow, that's awesome, and you did a lot of the work
yourself.
It sounds like.
Tom Wolfe (29:29):
I did all of the engine work myself.
You know I didn't machine it,took it to a machine shop, but I
gave them all thespecifications that were.
I wanted the bores.
Doug (29:38):
Oh, wow.
Tom Wolfe (29:39):
Yeah, and all of that good stuff.
Doug (29:40):
So wow, I mean, I'm in awe and I don't know if you've
heard of McPherson College inMcPherson, kansas.
I have not.
Some people call it McPherson,so they are the only, and I
mentioned it because weinterviewed a instructor and
student from there.
But they are the onlyautomotive restoration college
four-year program in the unitedstates and they got a lot of um
(30:06):
acclaim in the news because acouple years ago they read, they
came in second place in pebblebeach with a what was it?
Christian (30:13):
a 1955 mercedes I think it was a 53 benz.
Doug (30:18):
Yeah, gorgeous gorgeous and I, I, so I mentioned that
for our listeners, but also, uh,my interest.
So I want to learn to rebuildengines, and so they have for 25
and over crowd.
They have summer camp,effectively, and they offer
different things including, um,wood, um, I guess I'll say wood
(30:41):
repair for those classical cars.
Christian (30:46):
The body was wood on cars the 100 years of that.
He sort of invented these veryold cars in the store.
Doug (30:51):
Yeah, for frames.
Yep, absolutely, and I'm goingto take an engine rebuilding
class, hopefully next summer,for a week, that's pretty cool.
Tom Wolfe (31:00):
A lot of details you got to look at.
Doug (31:02):
Yep, yep, I want to be like you, so we'll.
We'll get there, just need it.
I need a beater to start with.
I actually have a couple ofthem, but they're too
complicated for me to mess with.
So, yeah, so we, we talkedabout the, we talked about the
little red express, but you'retell us about your daily driver,
which I think is also aChrysler product.
Tom Wolfe (31:26):
It is.
My daily driver is just a RamCummins 2500.
Just a nice truck.
I do a little bit of towinghere and there, so it gets the
job done and it gets uh, it getsgreat mileage, so I'm a big
proponent for diesels.
Doug (31:44):
Yeah and uh.
I read something interesting inthe news I think it was on a
Jalopnik, which is a popularonline car magazine, that people
are buying old diesel trucksbecause they feel they're
apocalyptic proof.
They're not subject toemissions especially I, I
(32:05):
learned in christian state offlorida there are no emissions
on any car, no emissions testingat all.
This is florida, man, we don'tdo rules, yeah.
But uh, yeah, the diesels arejust so sought after.
They, they're so well built,they're so well engineered.
I mean, they're just amazingengines.
Tom Wolfe (32:25):
Yeah, especially the old ones, because they're not
saddled with all of thoseemission controls, they're not
out rolling coal, which a lot ofguys like to do.
You know, they get the job done, they make a lot of power,
they're great for towing, theirlongevity is great.
They get great mileage.
You know, I I'm curious to whatmy truck would get if I didn't
have all those emissions on it,because right now running around
(32:47):
town, I'm getting 20 miles tothe gallon with my, my truck,
and then as soon as I see thedpf comes, come on, I lose about
two miles per gallon.
So I've always questioned yougot to burn more fuel to make it
run cleaner.
But I am getting worse gasmileage or worse fuel mileage.
Doug (33:07):
Right and go into the pump more.
Yeah, exactly.
Christian (33:10):
Everything in life is a trade-off.
Gentlemen, everything in lifeis a trade-off.
So, as we guide the podcastgently to the off ramp here, tom
um you, you wanted to sharesomething, a cause that's
important to you, somethingcalled mission 22.
Can you take just a minute ortwo to talk to us about what it
(33:32):
is, what it does and why thatmeans so much to you?
Tom Wolfe (33:35):
well, I think it's actually bigger than the the
mission 22 cause.
We as a franchisor, have madethe decision for veterans and
people who serve, whether it's,you know, firemen, you know, you
know, police officers, etc.
You know, we we value whatthey've done for us as
(33:56):
individuals.
We value what they've done forcountries.
So we don't charge a franchisefee for those individuals when
they come to ZBART and ifthey're interested in starting a
ZBART.
So that's one of the thingsthat we do for veterans.
The other thing that we do inthe last couple of years is we
partnered with Mission 22 tohelp them with their cause.
(34:16):
They're a nonprofit and Mission22 focuses, you know, focuses
on, you know, veterans' mentalhealth, their wellness,
community support and helping,you know, veteran families deal
with everything that thoseveterans have had to deal with,
you know, whether they servedoverseas or not to help them
(34:38):
with just some of those you knowlife activities that might be
challenging or whateverchallenges that they might have
on a daily basis.
So we've partnered with themthe last couple of years to help
them out with their cause.
Christian (34:52):
Wonderful, thank you.
That is beautiful.
Thank you for supporting thatmission.
And yeah, one footnote, doug,we're going to do something I'm
inventing on the fly called adigital footnote, a digital
footnote On the way out here.
Tom mentioned something in thepre-show and I looked it up
(35:14):
while we were doing the program.
In the program there is a oldcommercial.
Tom said early mid-70s I thinkthat's right.
There's a YouTube video, aZ-Bart commercial with Rod
(35:34):
Serling.
The Twilight Zone fella, tom'sright.
They cut a car in half and thenRod Serling starts talking
about look at all the nooks andcrannies.
You need a product like ZBARTto get way up in there.
So do yourself a favor andmaybe we can throw this in the
show notes.
We can link to it directly RodSerling, rod S-E-R-L-I-N-G and
then ZBART, z-i-e-b-a-r-t.
(35:56):
Just type in Rod Serling, zbartand it will put a smile on your
face because it's so outrageous.
And on that note I got to sayTom, it was wonderful having you
.
Thank you for making some spacefor us in your schedule and it
was a delight to have you on.
Tom Wolfe (36:13):
Christian and Doug, thank you for having me and
making this so easy to getthrough this.
I appreciate it and I lovetalking about cars.
You know my cars and justhearing everybody's stories
about you know what invokes.
You know their, their, theirpassion and votes.
You know that those feelingsthat cars bring.
Christian (36:31):
You got it Well.
Thank you again.
It was a pleasure and you arewelcome here anytime.
Tom Wolfe (36:37):
You had just heard.
Christian (36:38):
you bet You've just heard the high revving, low
mileage, late.
Thank you guys.
You had just heard.
You bet you've just heard thehigh-revving, low-mileage,
late-modeled herd around theworld.
Authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia.
He's Doug.
Reach him at Doug atCarsLovecom.
I'm Christian.
Reach me at Christian atCarsLovecom.
He was Tom at ZBART.
If you like what you heard,please follow and tell a friend.
It helps us grow and meetwonderful people like tom.
Doug (37:04):
try out cars lovecom, especially the car ocell in our
link tree at l-i-n-k-t-re-eslash cars loved our digital
switchboard I'm sure we'll seeyou at the next local car show
show.
Christian (37:17):
We appreciate you taking a lap with us.
We will see you next time.
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