June 18, 2024 • 27 mins
This edition of the NSRA Rodcast features The President of Vintage Air and all around great guy Rick Love...We're talking cars and more with Rick!
Please take a listen.....Thanks, Nick
Please take a listen.....Thanks, Nick
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Well, thank you for checking outanother edition of the Vintage Air Roadcast.
And here comes our special guest withme today, I have Rick Love,
President of Vintage Air. Rick,how you doing today? I'm doing great,
Nick. Thanks for the opportunity tovisit. Absolutely absolutely so. Were
you always a car guy? Howdid all that come about in the early
days? You know? I think, like so many of us, I
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always was a car guy. Igrew up with hot wheels and model cars,
and I actually grew up a goodbuddy of my dad's was a dirt
track racer, and so I grewup around the Modified's up in the northeast
of New York, and a coupleof the guys on the crew there were
hot rod guys, and they kindof got me into the hot rod aspect
of it. So I kind ofalways have been. And then you know,
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there's always with guys of our era, there's always that good old American
graffiti movie. We can harken backto that that tends to light that hot
rod fire. Absolutely, that Californiakid, there was a couple of them
in there that just like wow,major major blood pump a little bit there.
But so you just mentioned that youwere from like upstate New York.
How the heck did you end upin San Antonio? I I right after
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college, I got a job thattransferred me down here. I used to
work on simulators for many years,and I was an opportunity I was looking
for. I had the twenty plusyears I lived up there. I had
all of that cold weather and snowand stuff I wanted, and I was
I was wanting to go somewhere alot warmer where they had no idea even
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what a snow shovel was. SoTexas was a great opportunity for that.
So you got the Uh, yougot the river Walk, you got the
Alamo, you got the Spurs,and you got Joe Pegs down there in
San Antonio. Yeah, clean sweepon all of those. And I enjoy
all of those Pegs for sure.He's a character, that guy. But
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you gotta love him. You gottalove it. So the simulators, was
it like Nasau type simulators or whatwas the deal there? We actually,
the company I worked for, weactually made several different ones. In fact,
one of the most common ones theydid was driver simulators. You know,
the taught kids how to drive thatthat in high school? Sure,
and Yeah, those simulators. Isold and serviced those and installed them,
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and we also made probably be thefirst amusement ride simulator in the world.
It was you know, kind oflooked like a Chevy van that type of
size, and you would get insideit. It was hydraulically controlled and you
would watch like a film or latera video of a roller coaster or something
like that, and the simulator wouldmove to simulate the you know, the
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g forces and everything and all ofthat. It was kind of pretty cool
technology in its day, back inthe back in the early eighties. It
was kind of like some of thoserides at Disney, disney World or whatever.
Yeah, correct precursor of those.It was pretty crude and rudimentary compared
to what Disney did through their imagineeringteam as they went forward. But yeah,
it was all part of that thatthat company was in the forefront,
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and I actually sold it in thosemachines all over the world. I did
a ton of work in Japan andKorea and Asia and the Middle East and
everything for a long time. Wow. Yeah, that was seventeen years I
did that, and consequently when Iwas home, I would have a lot
of those overseas trip that took,you know, two or three weeks,
and when I came home, Ihad time off, so I actually started
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a little shop at my house whereI was doing wiring and air conditioning hot
rods. I did. I didquite a bit of that, and that's
what brought me together with Jack Chisenhallat Vintage Air. Met Jack Gosh the
first couple of weeks I was inSan Antonio and we developed a friendship.
And you know, I had Igot a thirty nine to four that I
have that I've had for over fortyyears now. For a while was my
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daily driver transportation. But when Ifirst moved to San Antonio, I had
a forty Pontiac Sedan and from fromupstate New York. And when I moved
down here, I didn't have airconditioning, and that was It didn't take
me long to realize that that wasa that that was a necessity here,
not a luxury. Oh I'll bet, yeah, I'll bet. So that
was that was that sedan? Wasthat your first car really or well it
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was my first actually my first reallyI want to say running running hot rod.
I actually had a forty Chevy whenI still lived when I was in
college in New York. I hada forty Chevy coup that was my driver
up there. And then uh,I helped a friend of mine put this
forty Pontiac together. And it wasactually a pretty cool car. It was
chopped pretty heavily. You couldn't standa dollar bill up on the windshields.
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That was a pretty heavily chopped car. Conditioning. Yeah, yeah, down
here, I mean real small windowsand everything. And I drove it.
I drove it a lot. Andand when I first met Jack, he
took pity on a kid that hadabsolutely no money at all and went in
the back. You know, I'dseen vintage Air in the magazines. I've
seen it all over and I wentthere trying to buy some parts. And
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Jack went went in the back andfound a returned unit and some scratching dent
stuff and set me on my wayand and I was I was blown cold,
air in the car and everything,And it kind of was the beginning
of a friendship. And I becamea dealer and installer for Vintage Air and
started doing more work for him overthe years. We did some R and
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D projects together because I you know, and back in the eighties, some
friends of mine and I. Weused to go all over the country to
hot rod events and everything, soI was on the road a lot with
my hot rod as well. Sowe tried some some R and D projects
on my car and got to bebetter friends. And then when I got
married and had a son, Igot to where I didn't want to be
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gone two three weeks at a timeand right so Jack and I kind of
talked and figured maybe it was timefor me to come to work full time
for Vintage Air. And that wasnineteen ninety eight and I've been here ever
since. I was going to sayhow cool, but I'm afraid you'd think
that was a pun, so Ididn't want to do that. But it's
funny how things like that work out. Show there's so many stories in our
industry of guys that are in ourindustry that are very similar like that.
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Well, it seems like a lotof guys in the industry they got some
of that from their dad, youknow, kind of a common theme,
it seems like, which is reallycool, especially the way things are now.
But you know, the thing Ialways thought was really cool about Vintage
Error is when I saw it,because I always thought, well, hot
rod's not going to have air conditioningin it, you know. But when
I saw the thing where the Studebakerwent two hundred miles an hour at Bonneville,
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I thought, well, it can'tbe robbing too much horsepower or anything
like that, you know, Andthat was part of the reason that Jack
did that. And he actually wenttwo forty one plus wow with the air
conditioning on, and it was kindof a revelation out there, and you'll
see it in other cars out therenow, and it was that was part
of his demonstration. The reason fordoing that was demonstrating that, you know,
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air conditioning has a place on ahigh performance vehicle that it doesn't take
away from that. And some ofthe studies that have been done through the
years. When you start, especiallynow, the compressors that are available now,
I think, you know, it'sfour to six horsepower and full load
on a compressor. And with thehorsepower that's available now, when you drive
a car down the road with thewind windows open, the difference in the
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wind resistance and everything with all thatwind going through there probably takes more horsepower
to push that car than it doeswith the windows closed and the air conditioning
on. Never thought about that butthat certainly makes sense. So with vintage
Air, you're not just a guythat's like a figurehead there. Now you
know how the vintage air works fromday one. It sounds like, yeah,
I said, I used to installthem and all of that and did
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that for quite a few years.I have a technical background. I was
an engineering student and that's what Iwas. I had a technical background,
so when I came when I camehere, I mean, that's one of
the things that really excited me aboutbeing a part of Vintage Air was I've
been part of that process already.My thirty nine to Ford that I have,
I know was the first street ridein the country to have one thirty
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four A refrigerant. I mean,we use that for vintage air testing.
It was in the wind tunnel atsand In. We tried different condensers,
tried different compressors, tried a lotof different parts when that one thirty four
A. That was in nineteen ninety, when that was going on, when
that changeover was first coming into placefor the refrigerants and everything. So right,
I was always a part of thedevelopment process and still am today.
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That's part of what I most enthusedabout here because you know, we have
a bunch of us here. We'rehot rodders as well. I mean,
this is what we do, thisis what we live, right. So
things since that first unit that Jackhelped you with and that things have really
changed because technology has changed so much. I imagine, oh it's it's night
and day. You know, thevacuum operated units that were available then in
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the underdash units compared to the technologytoday. Our latest Gen five system that
we've released is it's OEM quality unit. I mean it's injection molded case,
it's injection molded doors with rubber overmolded seals, and I mean it's very
similar to the system that we designed, developed and manufactured for the Ford GT
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and the most recent for GT.And we also did the system for the
two thousand to two thousand and sixfor GT as well, So I mean
we we have OEM experience as well. And you know, electronically controlled systems
and the functionality and the flexibility thatare in these units today they are modern
climate control systems. And yeah,it's a huge step from where it was
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years ago. So what was theyou know, years ago to adapt something
from some other vehicle to make themwork and just make them hot rod air
conditioners or how did all that begin? Yeah, some of the original Vintage
Air units were kind of units thatJack could get, you know, kind
of off the shelf type of units, and he modified him but very quickly,
you know. He started Vintage Airin nineteen seventy six and lived in
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San Antonio and realized, you know, in this hot climate, there were
so many street riders, hot roddersin the area here that wanted to have
cool cars. Thought it was agreat business opportunity. And Jack was an
engineer, that's that was his design. Engineering was his what he majored in
in college and what he was alwaysreally good at. He built cars,
and so he recognized that there wouldbe the more people were driving their cars,
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the more they would want to becomfortable in their cars. So he
first adapted some units that were available, but it didn't take him long to
start developing, designing and developing unitsthat were designed specifically for the packaging constraints
that you have in an early hotride, you know, very shallow dashes,
very small package space behind the dash. So the units that he designed
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then were designed for those early typeof vehicles, and then later on when
bigger cars started being acceptable at roadrun events and stuff. I know,
its systems got bigger, and surefitsand things like that. Pretty awesome stuff.
Yep, yep. Our surefit kidactually was in the mid eighties.
Our first surefit was for the fiftyseven Chevrolet. A friend of Jack's had
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one and we brought and he broughtit in and I was actually a little
part of that going on. Butit was, yeah, developed specifically for
that car, and you know,cable operated doors that made it to the
original fifty seven Chevrolet Control And that'sthe first first sure fit kit basically on
the market, was for the fiftyseven, and then it expanded from there,
you know, to first to tryfives and then into the Camaros and
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Mustangs and several of the other vehiclesthat became more popular or ups through the
nineties. And I don't know ifI should say became more popular, just
more people were driving them longer distances. And that's again, that's where you
really want that comfort. Absolutely whatI'm gonna put you on the spot a
little bit here, what's your alltime favorite car or vehicle? I should
say, Man, I'll tell you, you know, I my thirty nine
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that I have. I've got athirty nine Deluxe Coop that I first built
in nineteen eighty four, and Iredid it a few years ago after that,
almost two hundred thousand miles ago.That's probably my favorite car. I
still I still enjoy driving that car. When we rebuilt it, a lot
of the things that I wasn't ableto do as a young kid. I
made the suspension better and the insulationbetter, and the paints a whole lot
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better. Even though the car looksbasically the same as it did when I
first brought it out in nineteen eightyfive, it's a whole lot better car
now. And that's man. Istill enjoy that car. It's got a
nice little small block with a fivespeed, and it's just a fun car
to drive. It sounds fun.And then you see it all over the
country too, you know. Ohyeah, for a while, I sat
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for a while. It is myonly car. I drove it every day.
I went to high school service andsimulators using that car at times.
So hot Rider. Yeah, itwas just it was just a car,
so that that would be my favorite. And it's cool that, you know.
And I almost sold it a coupleof times with some things, And
now I'm really glad I'm not becauseyou know, it's something that my son
will be able to keep right andso it'll stay in our family. So
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yeah, that one that one wouldwould I'd never get rid of. That's
is your son into it? No, he's it's funny. He's kind of
a car guy. And he's twentyeight and just got married this year and
or last year. I guess latelast year. But when he was in
high school he kind of started gettingthe car bug a little more. It's
not like he was out in thegarage all the time, but he's very
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emblematic of a lot of our customerbase anymore in a lot of what the
industry sees is he likes the oldcars, but he's not that mechanical.
But he wanted an old car.So we found a pretty clean fifty six
Ford Tudor Sedan Victoria and we boughtit. Did some minor things to it,
but dis breaks on it, putsseatbelts in it, you know,
lowered it a little bit, andthe car had pretty good pain on it.
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And that was his car through highschool. He drove that through high
school every day. Put air conditioningin it, obviously, and so that
was in So he still has thatcar. They used it in their wedding
and he loves it. But whenit comes to the mechanics, that's that's
just not his gig. I makehim change the oil, but other than
that, it's kind of a youknow, and he'll clean it up and
wash it and wax it and everything. He's not a car builder, but
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he enjoys the cars. And youknow, again, I think back thirty
forty years ago, you know,going to NSRA events and all of that.
Most of the guys there, youknow, were the guys that built
their own cars and from the groundup or did all all that. And
you know, now as we've grownas an industry and as a hobby,
that's not quite as commonplace as itused to be. But even the people
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that pay a shop or pay someoneto do their work, they enjoy their
car just as much as the guysthat have built it. And I think
that's a key to the growth andto keeping our hobby sustained, is you
know, it's that's important. Sometimesthey may enjoy them more because they're not
so mad at him. Yeah,I've had people, you know, it's
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always funny people will ask if yourcar has a name, you know,
And I've never really had a singlename for my car, although it's been
called names a time or two,a lot of four letter names. Yeah.
Yeah, see we got a littlebit in common here. My son,
he's twenty four, and when hegot to be getting close to sixteen,
I said, because me and mybrother grew up around cars. We
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were car nuts since day one.You know, we took everything apart put
it together. But I asked myson, I said, what kind of
vehicle do you want? He says, well, with air conditioning. That's
all he cares. Was one withair conditioning, got respect it. I
like a kid that's got his priorities. Well, he's got his priorities in
the right order, and he'll savea lot of money that I've never saved.
It's always like, oh, youknow, if I buy that,
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I could do this with it.Yeah. It's kind of a sickness sometimes,
but yeah, I know. Someof the stuff you're involved in is
HRIA. That's like hot Rod IndustryAlliance. Is that correct? That's correct?
What exactly is the council and beeninvolved with that for many, many
years, and they do a lotof good for the industry. And I
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think one of the best things thatHRIA does that was kind of instituted back
when I was a little more activeas we got going to the Education Days
and Education Days is at the StreetRod Nationals again this year. It's been
there the last several years, andman, I think that's one of the
best things that HRIA is involved with. It gives our customers an opportunity to
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go to seminars put on by themanufacturers. And these seminars are not oriented
is sales seminars. These seminars areoriented is knowledge gaining seminars. You know,
you can learn about the basics ofa transmission from Mark Bowler, you
know, and right what needs tobe done to adapt adapt that to your
hot ride or Willwood breaks or classicinstruments. You know, the guys that
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actually do the manufacturing. It's hardto go to someone's booth and get a
lesson like that. But even inour seminars that we do, we talk
about the basics of performance air conditioningand you know, the dos and don'ts
when you're picking out a system,and the proper way to do an installation
and things to things to do toget optimal performance out of your system.
That's that's an opportunity that more peopleare taking advantage of at the Street Rod
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Nationals, and I think it's Ithink it's a great program. I do
too. Again, as you mentioned, you're not trying to sell anything,
and people that come to this attendthis, they can ask questions too,
right, Oh yeah, exactly.Yeah. We always leave. Every one
of us leaves time for questions.And man I do quite a few seminars
through the year and everything, andthe questions. The questions are always good
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because they you know, you cando ten seminars and no two are going
to be completely the same, becausepeople lead you in different directions with their
questions, and you know, whenyou're too close to a subject, sometimes
you tend to gloss over the simplerthings. And when someone asks a question,
usually it's the same question ten ortwelve other people may have, they
just don't want to ask it,and so it takes you in a different
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direction. And I enjoy doing theseminars and interacting and all of that,
and everyone that does them they're thesame way. We really enjoy doing them.
That's cool, that's going and itdoesn't cost anything. I know,
you're doing it at a variety ofevents around the country. But NSRA Street
Rod Nationals in August, I've beenfamiliar with that one, and it's a
it's cool to see people come outof there and say, you know,
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I didn't know this or I didn'tknow that. Yeah, no, that's
true. And I attended a coupleof them last year and just just to
make sure, and I learned somestuff. I said, I, man,
you know, to me, myfirst one, I did my thirty
nine. We had a Turbo threefifty in it, you know, and
then finally I got to where Iput a five speed in it. And
but man, you know, Turbothree fifties Turbo four hundreds are what everybody
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used. But now it's electronically controlledtransmissions and everything. And I went to
Mark Boehler's seminar, and man,it was a terrific seminar. I learned
a lot about electronically controlled transmissions andhow important it is to have the right
again, like anything else, theright parts and install them properly. And
that was that was great. Ienjoyed the seminar and I learned a lot,
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and that's what's cool. You know. One other thing that's cool is
seeing guys in the business, andnot so much anymore as there was back
in the seventies, but the guysthat built the parts, you'd see him
driving their cars all over the country, you know, and that, yes,
just what we were talking about,like with the Studa baker at Bonneville.
But yeah, you know, you'dbe somewhere back east and you'd see
Pete Shaporis there with that thirty fourwith the California kids, like you drove
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that here. You know, ifyou listen to some of the stories that
Brian Brennan has about those guys goingeast from California, Chaporis and Jake and
Brennan and Jim Ewing, that wholegroup of those guys, I think they
call themselves the wild Bunch at thattime, rightfully too, yes, yes,
rightfully. So some of their storiesare going cross country and everything.
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It's it was a different time then, but yeah, it was. It
was true. There's some some reallyinteresting stuff. And a group I used
to run around with back in theeighties we did the same thing. I
mean, we'd go coast to coastand I still we do. Here at
Vintage Air we do a road tourevery year, and this year we're going
to Des Moines for our road tourand we'll have you know, seventy to
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eighty vehicles registered. And you know, we set up a tour for a
week, we go to a bunchof different places and you know, we're
going to go to Kickerstereo, We'regoing to go to the Speedway Museum,
We're going to go to an airmuseum and some other We've got a lot
of different stops planned. And it'sthat same thing, you know. And
part of the thing I always thoughtwas great was on it about NSRA was
they pushed the fact that dry tothe event, doing things, driving to
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the event was as much fun asthe event itself. Right, that's still
true. That's true. I alwaysI always admired Jerry Dixie for driving across
the country and some of those carsthat were put together that wow, bless
Jerry's hard on some of that stuff. Some of those roasters he drove coast
to coast multiple times. Yeah,and some of them were not sometimes the
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most comfortable cars for Jerry. Andyeah, you know, I think Jerry
would have driven him anure Spreader ifthey gave it to him, you know,
never complained about it and just goneup and down the road. He
did that for it and still doingit, you know, still doing the
road tour. He's got a fiftyseven Chevy Wagon now. And I actually
think that we were talking the otherday. This is his last year.
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He's doing several road tours this yearand it's going to be his last year
or so he says. Yeah,yeah, I know. Wings was telling
me about they used to do Sacramentoto Tampa back to back. Yes,
and he would drive that thirty eighthChivy truck, pull in that big trailer
that I now have. But theydid it year after year after year.
I would have thought they'd have gotsome common sense after the first year,
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but evidently not. And those guys, yeah, they hauled. I mean
they would leave Sacramento on Sunday eveningor Monday morning and they had to be
setting up in Tampa on Wednesday.Yes, I mean yeah that. And
man, you know Wings as wellas you know him and everything, he
wore out a couple of trailers bouncinghim down though absolutely well for years,
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I mean literally pulling them with thatSedan delivery. I just found out that
the trailer I have now he toldme that it has a million miles on
it. Of course he didn't tellme that one I bought it, but
that was just a clean, oneowner trailer. Yeah, well it was
a one owner trailer and it's stillin great shape. But yeah, he
told me a while, you know, not too long ago. Yeah,
you know that trailer has a millionmiles on it, don't you. Well
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no, I didn't. Don't tellmy insurance company either. You know though,
that just the cruising with and nowyour show. Now, what a
tradition that is through all the eventsand everything through all those years. That's
kind of so many things have changedthrough the years at the events, but
that's one of the things that's beena constant in just that consistent background music
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and background entertainment that you all providehas always been such a big part of
those events. Well, and whenI first when I first got involved a
little bit with NSRA, started goingto NSRA events, I just thought,
how cool would that be? BeforeI was even on the radio, and
then being on the radio all theseyears, that was always in the back
of my mind, how much funthat would be, and it is it
still is. Of course, I'mdriving a late model diesel truck with air
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conditioning on, you know, versusthat thirty eh Hivy said and delivery or
that truck that Wings used to pullit with. But it is, it's
fun and what I like about it, and I know you're probably the same
way when you get there. It'sthe people you meet. The people I
don't even know what cars they drivemost of the time. They come up
to the booth and we talk andwe laugh and we have a good time.
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That's what it's all about. Yeah, that's that way for everyone that
comes, you know, with theylong before I worked for Vintage Air.
I mean, that was my vacationevery year, me and somebodies we went
to the street ride Nationals with familiesevery year. That was what you did,
and we put together a bunch ofthings to do along the way and
that was our vacation for the year. And so many people still do that.
And you were talking earlier about youknow, your years on the radio.
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The great thing about the events thatyou do is you get that instant
feedback. You know, on theradio, you're talking into a microphone.
You never see anybody's face that you'retalking to. Exactly Now you're at your
booth. The people come up andyou get instant feedback and they become friends,
and yeah, that's that's a bigthat's a big deal. People always
tell me they thought I was younger. I don't know you were, Yeah,
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well, I guess I was atone time. Yeah, I thought
I was younger and better looking,I think. But that's that you know,
made for radio face or whatever.They always say, yes, yeah,
you know the old face for radiothings. Yeah, but you're so
right about that. And that's oneof the reasons, you know that we
sponsor the twenty nine below program withNSRA. When when I first started going
to the NSRA events with my buddies, I was the youngest guy in the
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group by you know, ten twelveyears or at least in some cases.
I mean I was, you know, early twenties. And you know,
you'd walk around an event and you'dsee a few kids and things, but
not many. And that's the greatthing about the twenty nine below program that
we sponsor that NSRA puts together forus, is it gives younger people at
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these events a place to get together. You know, see that it's not
just all the gray haired guys righthere. There are some younger people there
enjoying the events and just get achance to meet them and see. I
mean, that's one of my favoritethings at the Street Rod Nationals every year
is the twenty nine below gathering thatwe have there because we'll get sixty to
seventy cars usually at that or seventysixty to seventy participants, and there's a
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whole lot of those guys that havebeen coming for years and they reconnect every
year. They I've made friendships thatyou know, it's hey, what have
you been doing for a year.Let me show you what I've done to
my car since last year, orthey got a new car, or they're
doing that. And several of theguys that began in that twenty nine below
program now are in the business.One guy, Ben Smithson has a shop
in Murphysboro. There's a couple otherguys that have become you know, full
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that's become their full time vocation,and some others have gone to work in
the industry. And man, that'sreally cool to see. You said.
I love that absolutely absolutely, Likeyou say, it kind of keeps it
alive and that's the whole key here. Where do you see Rick Love in
five years, you know, hopefullystill here. I don't know, you
know, I'm still enjoying what Ido every day. We've got a great
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group here, a team that Ienjoyed being a part of. I still
get excited about the things, thenew things were developing, the new parts,
the new systems were developing. Ireally enjoy that. I enjoyed doing
the road tour a lot and gettingout and going to some of the events
and everything. So, you know, maybe slow down a little bit,
go to a more events for andplay hot rod like I like to tell
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my wife sometimes I'll always go toa couple events a year and just go
and enjoy it like I always usedto. So I want to want to
do more of that. So,you know, it's it's I'm certainly not
ready to take up the rocking chair, as Gus McCrae said on Loan Loads
of Dove, Right, yeah,exactly exactly. Well, I'm sure we're
going to see you down the roadsomewhere here. I know i'll see you
at Louisville at Street Rode Nationals,but I'll probably see you down the road
(26:26):
here somewhere, and you go toa lot of local shows around that area.
Yeah, we do. I tryto, you know, and I
feel like that's part of vintage air, is part of the hot rod community,
and especially here. We had ourannual open house and unfortunately the weather
wasn't the best this year, butwe had two hundred and twenty something vehicles
show up, and we know wehave shop tours and food trucks and all
(26:48):
of that and everything when you havea good time. But yeah, I
try to go to some local eventsand keep involved with the local hot rod
community for sure, and try todo some This year. I'm going to
go to gathering at the Rock.I've heard some great things about that in
Bartlesville. Yep, yep, upin Bartlesville. I'm looking forward to that.
So I'm my wife and I aregoing to go and play hot rod
for a weekend at that. They'vegot a reliability run and it's about a
(27:12):
nine hour drive up, so that'llbe that should be a fun So that'll
be a fun time. I'm lookingforward to that. So yeah, definitely
in Louisville. Looking forward to Louisville, and man, Louisville is going to
be here before we know it.Yeah, all good stuff. Well,
Rick, thank you so much fortaking the time to chat with me a
little bit, letting me get toknow you a little bit better too.
I appreciate that, and I appreciatewhat you do with Vintage Air and beyond
(27:33):
Vintage Air because you've got a lotof things going on giving back. So
thanks for what you do well.I appreciate it, Nick, and thanks
again for the opportunity and look forwardto seeing you all the summer. There
you go, Rick Love, Presidentof Vintage Air, on the NSRA broadcast
Well, thank you for checking outanother edition of the Vintage Air Roadcast.
And here comes our special guest withme today, I have Rick Love,
President of Vintage Air. Rick,how you doing today? I'm doing great,
Nick. Thanks for the opportunity tovisit. Absolutely absolutely so. Were
you always a car guy? Howdid all that come about in the early
days? You know? I think, like so many of us, I
(00:21):
always was a car guy. Igrew up with hot wheels and model cars,
and I actually grew up a goodbuddy of my dad's was a dirt
track racer, and so I grewup around the Modified's up in the northeast
of New York, and a coupleof the guys on the crew there were
hot rod guys, and they kindof got me into the hot rod aspect
of it. So I kind ofalways have been. And then you know,
(00:44):
there's always with guys of our era, there's always that good old American
graffiti movie. We can harken backto that that tends to light that hot
rod fire. Absolutely, that Californiakid, there was a couple of them
in there that just like wow,major major blood pump a little bit there.
But so you just mentioned that youwere from like upstate New York.
How the heck did you end upin San Antonio? I I right after
(01:07):
college, I got a job thattransferred me down here. I used to
work on simulators for many years,and I was an opportunity I was looking
for. I had the twenty plusyears I lived up there. I had
all of that cold weather and snowand stuff I wanted, and I was
I was wanting to go somewhere alot warmer where they had no idea even
(01:30):
what a snow shovel was. SoTexas was a great opportunity for that.
So you got the Uh, yougot the river Walk, you got the
Alamo, you got the Spurs,and you got Joe Pegs down there in
San Antonio. Yeah, clean sweepon all of those. And I enjoy
all of those Pegs for sure.He's a character, that guy. But
(01:52):
you gotta love him. You gottalove it. So the simulators, was
it like Nasau type simulators or whatwas the deal there? We actually,
the company I worked for, weactually made several different ones. In fact,
one of the most common ones theydid was driver simulators. You know,
the taught kids how to drive thatthat in high school? Sure,
and Yeah, those simulators. Isold and serviced those and installed them,
(02:14):
and we also made probably be thefirst amusement ride simulator in the world.
It was you know, kind oflooked like a Chevy van that type of
size, and you would get insideit. It was hydraulically controlled and you
would watch like a film or latera video of a roller coaster or something
like that, and the simulator wouldmove to simulate the you know, the
(02:35):
g forces and everything and all ofthat. It was kind of pretty cool
technology in its day, back inthe back in the early eighties. It
was kind of like some of thoserides at Disney, disney World or whatever.
Yeah, correct precursor of those.It was pretty crude and rudimentary compared
to what Disney did through their imagineeringteam as they went forward. But yeah,
it was all part of that thatthat company was in the forefront,
(02:57):
and I actually sold it in thosemachines all over the world. I did
a ton of work in Japan andKorea and Asia and the Middle East and
everything for a long time. Wow. Yeah, that was seventeen years I
did that, and consequently when Iwas home, I would have a lot
of those overseas trip that took,you know, two or three weeks,
and when I came home, Ihad time off, so I actually started
(03:21):
a little shop at my house whereI was doing wiring and air conditioning hot
rods. I did. I didquite a bit of that, and that's
what brought me together with Jack Chisenhallat Vintage Air. Met Jack Gosh the
first couple of weeks I was inSan Antonio and we developed a friendship.
And you know, I had Igot a thirty nine to four that I
have that I've had for over fortyyears now. For a while was my
(03:43):
daily driver transportation. But when Ifirst moved to San Antonio, I had
a forty Pontiac Sedan and from fromupstate New York. And when I moved
down here, I didn't have airconditioning, and that was It didn't take
me long to realize that that wasa that that was a necessity here,
not a luxury. Oh I'll bet, yeah, I'll bet. So that
was that was that sedan? Wasthat your first car really or well it
(04:06):
was my first actually my first reallyI want to say running running hot rod.
I actually had a forty Chevy whenI still lived when I was in
college in New York. I hada forty Chevy coup that was my driver
up there. And then uh,I helped a friend of mine put this
forty Pontiac together. And it wasactually a pretty cool car. It was
chopped pretty heavily. You couldn't standa dollar bill up on the windshields.
(04:29):
That was a pretty heavily chopped car. Conditioning. Yeah, yeah, down
here, I mean real small windowsand everything. And I drove it.
I drove it a lot. Andand when I first met Jack, he
took pity on a kid that hadabsolutely no money at all and went in
the back. You know, I'dseen vintage Air in the magazines. I've
seen it all over and I wentthere trying to buy some parts. And
(04:49):
Jack went went in the back andfound a returned unit and some scratching dent
stuff and set me on my wayand and I was I was blown cold,
air in the car and everything,And it kind of was the beginning
of a friendship. And I becamea dealer and installer for Vintage Air and
started doing more work for him overthe years. We did some R and
(05:10):
D projects together because I you know, and back in the eighties, some
friends of mine and I. Weused to go all over the country to
hot rod events and everything, soI was on the road a lot with
my hot rod as well. Sowe tried some some R and D projects
on my car and got to bebetter friends. And then when I got
married and had a son, Igot to where I didn't want to be
(05:30):
gone two three weeks at a timeand right so Jack and I kind of
talked and figured maybe it was timefor me to come to work full time
for Vintage Air. And that wasnineteen ninety eight and I've been here ever
since. I was going to sayhow cool, but I'm afraid you'd think
that was a pun, so Ididn't want to do that. But it's
funny how things like that work out. Show there's so many stories in our
industry of guys that are in ourindustry that are very similar like that.
(05:54):
Well, it seems like a lotof guys in the industry they got some
of that from their dad, youknow, kind of a common theme,
it seems like, which is reallycool, especially the way things are now.
But you know, the thing Ialways thought was really cool about Vintage
Error is when I saw it,because I always thought, well, hot
rod's not going to have air conditioningin it, you know. But when
I saw the thing where the Studebakerwent two hundred miles an hour at Bonneville,
(06:16):
I thought, well, it can'tbe robbing too much horsepower or anything
like that, you know, Andthat was part of the reason that Jack
did that. And he actually wenttwo forty one plus wow with the air
conditioning on, and it was kindof a revelation out there, and you'll
see it in other cars out therenow, and it was that was part
of his demonstration. The reason fordoing that was demonstrating that, you know,
(06:39):
air conditioning has a place on ahigh performance vehicle that it doesn't take
away from that. And some ofthe studies that have been done through the
years. When you start, especiallynow, the compressors that are available now,
I think, you know, it'sfour to six horsepower and full load
on a compressor. And with thehorsepower that's available now, when you drive
a car down the road with thewind windows open, the difference in the
(07:01):
wind resistance and everything with all thatwind going through there probably takes more horsepower
to push that car than it doeswith the windows closed and the air conditioning
on. Never thought about that butthat certainly makes sense. So with vintage
Air, you're not just a guythat's like a figurehead there. Now you
know how the vintage air works fromday one. It sounds like, yeah,
I said, I used to installthem and all of that and did
(07:25):
that for quite a few years.I have a technical background. I was
an engineering student and that's what Iwas. I had a technical background,
so when I came when I camehere, I mean, that's one of
the things that really excited me aboutbeing a part of Vintage Air was I've
been part of that process already.My thirty nine to Ford that I have,
I know was the first street ridein the country to have one thirty
(07:46):
four A refrigerant. I mean,we use that for vintage air testing.
It was in the wind tunnel atsand In. We tried different condensers,
tried different compressors, tried a lotof different parts when that one thirty four
A. That was in nineteen ninety, when that was going on, when
that changeover was first coming into placefor the refrigerants and everything. So right,
I was always a part of thedevelopment process and still am today.
(08:09):
That's part of what I most enthusedabout here because you know, we have
a bunch of us here. We'rehot rodders as well. I mean,
this is what we do, thisis what we live, right. So
things since that first unit that Jackhelped you with and that things have really
changed because technology has changed so much. I imagine, oh it's it's night
and day. You know, thevacuum operated units that were available then in
(08:33):
the underdash units compared to the technologytoday. Our latest Gen five system that
we've released is it's OEM quality unit. I mean it's injection molded case,
it's injection molded doors with rubber overmolded seals, and I mean it's very
similar to the system that we designed, developed and manufactured for the Ford GT
(08:54):
and the most recent for GT.And we also did the system for the
two thousand to two thousand and sixfor GT as well, So I mean
we we have OEM experience as well. And you know, electronically controlled systems
and the functionality and the flexibility thatare in these units today they are modern
climate control systems. And yeah,it's a huge step from where it was
(09:18):
years ago. So what was theyou know, years ago to adapt something
from some other vehicle to make themwork and just make them hot rod air
conditioners or how did all that begin? Yeah, some of the original Vintage
Air units were kind of units thatJack could get, you know, kind
of off the shelf type of units, and he modified him but very quickly,
you know. He started Vintage Airin nineteen seventy six and lived in
(09:39):
San Antonio and realized, you know, in this hot climate, there were
so many street riders, hot roddersin the area here that wanted to have
cool cars. Thought it was agreat business opportunity. And Jack was an
engineer, that's that was his design. Engineering was his what he majored in
in college and what he was alwaysreally good at. He built cars,
and so he recognized that there wouldbe the more people were driving their cars,
(10:01):
the more they would want to becomfortable in their cars. So he
first adapted some units that were available, but it didn't take him long to
start developing, designing and developing unitsthat were designed specifically for the packaging constraints
that you have in an early hotride, you know, very shallow dashes,
very small package space behind the dash. So the units that he designed
(10:24):
then were designed for those early typeof vehicles, and then later on when
bigger cars started being acceptable at roadrun events and stuff. I know,
its systems got bigger, and surefitsand things like that. Pretty awesome stuff.
Yep, yep. Our surefit kidactually was in the mid eighties.
Our first surefit was for the fiftyseven Chevrolet. A friend of Jack's had
(10:45):
one and we brought and he broughtit in and I was actually a little
part of that going on. Butit was, yeah, developed specifically for
that car, and you know,cable operated doors that made it to the
original fifty seven Chevrolet Control And that'sthe first first sure fit kit basically on
the market, was for the fiftyseven, and then it expanded from there,
you know, to first to tryfives and then into the Camaros and
(11:07):
Mustangs and several of the other vehiclesthat became more popular or ups through the
nineties. And I don't know ifI should say became more popular, just
more people were driving them longer distances. And that's again, that's where you
really want that comfort. Absolutely whatI'm gonna put you on the spot a
little bit here, what's your alltime favorite car or vehicle? I should
say, Man, I'll tell you, you know, I my thirty nine
(11:31):
that I have. I've got athirty nine Deluxe Coop that I first built
in nineteen eighty four, and Iredid it a few years ago after that,
almost two hundred thousand miles ago.That's probably my favorite car. I
still I still enjoy driving that car. When we rebuilt it, a lot
of the things that I wasn't ableto do as a young kid. I
made the suspension better and the insulationbetter, and the paints a whole lot
(11:54):
better. Even though the car looksbasically the same as it did when I
first brought it out in nineteen eightyfive, it's a whole lot better car
now. And that's man. Istill enjoy that car. It's got a
nice little small block with a fivespeed, and it's just a fun car
to drive. It sounds fun.And then you see it all over the
country too, you know. Ohyeah, for a while, I sat
(12:16):
for a while. It is myonly car. I drove it every day.
I went to high school service andsimulators using that car at times.
So hot Rider. Yeah, itwas just it was just a car,
so that that would be my favorite. And it's cool that, you know.
And I almost sold it a coupleof times with some things, And
now I'm really glad I'm not becauseyou know, it's something that my son
will be able to keep right andso it'll stay in our family. So
(12:39):
yeah, that one that one wouldwould I'd never get rid of. That's
is your son into it? No, he's it's funny. He's kind of
a car guy. And he's twentyeight and just got married this year and
or last year. I guess latelast year. But when he was in
high school he kind of started gettingthe car bug a little more. It's
not like he was out in thegarage all the time, but he's very
(13:01):
emblematic of a lot of our customerbase anymore in a lot of what the
industry sees is he likes the oldcars, but he's not that mechanical.
But he wanted an old car.So we found a pretty clean fifty six
Ford Tudor Sedan Victoria and we boughtit. Did some minor things to it,
but dis breaks on it, putsseatbelts in it, you know,
lowered it a little bit, andthe car had pretty good pain on it.
(13:24):
And that was his car through highschool. He drove that through high
school every day. Put air conditioningin it, obviously, and so that
was in So he still has thatcar. They used it in their wedding
and he loves it. But whenit comes to the mechanics, that's that's
just not his gig. I makehim change the oil, but other than
that, it's kind of a youknow, and he'll clean it up and
wash it and wax it and everything. He's not a car builder, but
(13:46):
he enjoys the cars. And youknow, again, I think back thirty
forty years ago, you know,going to NSRA events and all of that.
Most of the guys there, youknow, were the guys that built
their own cars and from the groundup or did all all that. And
you know, now as we've grownas an industry and as a hobby,
that's not quite as commonplace as itused to be. But even the people
(14:09):
that pay a shop or pay someoneto do their work, they enjoy their
car just as much as the guysthat have built it. And I think
that's a key to the growth andto keeping our hobby sustained, is you
know, it's that's important. Sometimesthey may enjoy them more because they're not
so mad at him. Yeah,I've had people, you know, it's
(14:31):
always funny people will ask if yourcar has a name, you know,
And I've never really had a singlename for my car, although it's been
called names a time or two,a lot of four letter names. Yeah.
Yeah, see we got a littlebit in common here. My son,
he's twenty four, and when hegot to be getting close to sixteen,
I said, because me and mybrother grew up around cars. We
(14:52):
were car nuts since day one.You know, we took everything apart put
it together. But I asked myson, I said, what kind of
vehicle do you want? He says, well, with air conditioning. That's
all he cares. Was one withair conditioning, got respect it. I
like a kid that's got his priorities. Well, he's got his priorities in
the right order, and he'll savea lot of money that I've never saved.
It's always like, oh, youknow, if I buy that,
(15:13):
I could do this with it.Yeah. It's kind of a sickness sometimes,
but yeah, I know. Someof the stuff you're involved in is
HRIA. That's like hot Rod IndustryAlliance. Is that correct? That's correct?
What exactly is the council and beeninvolved with that for many, many
years, and they do a lotof good for the industry. And I
(15:33):
think one of the best things thatHRIA does that was kind of instituted back
when I was a little more activeas we got going to the Education Days
and Education Days is at the StreetRod Nationals again this year. It's been
there the last several years, andman, I think that's one of the
best things that HRIA is involved with. It gives our customers an opportunity to
(15:54):
go to seminars put on by themanufacturers. And these seminars are not oriented
is sales seminars. These seminars areoriented is knowledge gaining seminars. You know,
you can learn about the basics ofa transmission from Mark Bowler, you
know, and right what needs tobe done to adapt adapt that to your
hot ride or Willwood breaks or classicinstruments. You know, the guys that
(16:17):
actually do the manufacturing. It's hardto go to someone's booth and get a
lesson like that. But even inour seminars that we do, we talk
about the basics of performance air conditioningand you know, the dos and don'ts
when you're picking out a system,and the proper way to do an installation
and things to things to do toget optimal performance out of your system.
That's that's an opportunity that more peopleare taking advantage of at the Street Rod
(16:40):
Nationals, and I think it's Ithink it's a great program. I do
too. Again, as you mentioned, you're not trying to sell anything,
and people that come to this attendthis, they can ask questions too,
right, Oh yeah, exactly.Yeah. We always leave. Every one
of us leaves time for questions.And man I do quite a few seminars
through the year and everything, andthe questions. The questions are always good
(17:03):
because they you know, you cando ten seminars and no two are going
to be completely the same, becausepeople lead you in different directions with their
questions, and you know, whenyou're too close to a subject, sometimes
you tend to gloss over the simplerthings. And when someone asks a question,
usually it's the same question ten ortwelve other people may have, they
just don't want to ask it,and so it takes you in a different
(17:25):
direction. And I enjoy doing theseminars and interacting and all of that,
and everyone that does them they're thesame way. We really enjoy doing them.
That's cool, that's going and itdoesn't cost anything. I know,
you're doing it at a variety ofevents around the country. But NSRA Street
Rod Nationals in August, I've beenfamiliar with that one, and it's a
it's cool to see people come outof there and say, you know,
(17:45):
I didn't know this or I didn'tknow that. Yeah, no, that's
true. And I attended a coupleof them last year and just just to
make sure, and I learned somestuff. I said, I, man,
you know, to me, myfirst one, I did my thirty
nine. We had a Turbo threefifty in it, you know, and
then finally I got to where Iput a five speed in it. And
but man, you know, Turbothree fifties Turbo four hundreds are what everybody
(18:08):
used. But now it's electronically controlledtransmissions and everything. And I went to
Mark Boehler's seminar, and man,it was a terrific seminar. I learned
a lot about electronically controlled transmissions andhow important it is to have the right
again, like anything else, theright parts and install them properly. And
that was that was great. Ienjoyed the seminar and I learned a lot,
(18:30):
and that's what's cool. You know. One other thing that's cool is
seeing guys in the business, andnot so much anymore as there was back
in the seventies, but the guysthat built the parts, you'd see him
driving their cars all over the country, you know, and that, yes,
just what we were talking about,like with the Studa baker at Bonneville.
But yeah, you know, you'dbe somewhere back east and you'd see
Pete Shaporis there with that thirty fourwith the California kids, like you drove
(18:52):
that here. You know, ifyou listen to some of the stories that
Brian Brennan has about those guys goingeast from California, Chaporis and Jake and
Brennan and Jim Ewing, that wholegroup of those guys, I think they
call themselves the wild Bunch at thattime, rightfully too, yes, yes,
rightfully. So some of their storiesare going cross country and everything.
(19:15):
It's it was a different time then, but yeah, it was. It
was true. There's some some reallyinteresting stuff. And a group I used
to run around with back in theeighties we did the same thing. I
mean, we'd go coast to coastand I still we do. Here at
Vintage Air we do a road tourevery year, and this year we're going
to Des Moines for our road tourand we'll have you know, seventy to
(19:37):
eighty vehicles registered. And you know, we set up a tour for a
week, we go to a bunchof different places and you know, we're
going to go to Kickerstereo, We'regoing to go to the Speedway Museum,
We're going to go to an airmuseum and some other We've got a lot
of different stops planned. And it'sthat same thing, you know. And
part of the thing I always thoughtwas great was on it about NSRA was
they pushed the fact that dry tothe event, doing things, driving to
(20:00):
the event was as much fun asthe event itself. Right, that's still
true. That's true. I alwaysI always admired Jerry Dixie for driving across
the country and some of those carsthat were put together that wow, bless
Jerry's hard on some of that stuff. Some of those roasters he drove coast
to coast multiple times. Yeah,and some of them were not sometimes the
(20:22):
most comfortable cars for Jerry. Andyeah, you know, I think Jerry
would have driven him anure Spreader ifthey gave it to him, you know,
never complained about it and just goneup and down the road. He
did that for it and still doingit, you know, still doing the
road tour. He's got a fiftyseven Chevy Wagon now. And I actually
think that we were talking the otherday. This is his last year.
(20:44):
He's doing several road tours this yearand it's going to be his last year
or so he says. Yeah,yeah, I know. Wings was telling
me about they used to do Sacramentoto Tampa back to back. Yes,
and he would drive that thirty eighthChivy truck, pull in that big trailer
that I now have. But theydid it year after year after year.
I would have thought they'd have gotsome common sense after the first year,
(21:07):
but evidently not. And those guys, yeah, they hauled. I mean
they would leave Sacramento on Sunday eveningor Monday morning and they had to be
setting up in Tampa on Wednesday.Yes, I mean yeah that. And
man, you know Wings as wellas you know him and everything, he
wore out a couple of trailers bouncinghim down though absolutely well for years,
(21:27):
I mean literally pulling them with thatSedan delivery. I just found out that
the trailer I have now he toldme that it has a million miles on
it. Of course he didn't tellme that one I bought it, but
that was just a clean, oneowner trailer. Yeah, well it was
a one owner trailer and it's stillin great shape. But yeah, he
told me a while, you know, not too long ago. Yeah,
you know that trailer has a millionmiles on it, don't you. Well
(21:51):
no, I didn't. Don't tellmy insurance company either. You know though,
that just the cruising with and nowyour show. Now, what a
tradition that is through all the eventsand everything through all those years. That's
kind of so many things have changedthrough the years at the events, but
that's one of the things that's beena constant in just that consistent background music
(22:15):
and background entertainment that you all providehas always been such a big part of
those events. Well, and whenI first when I first got involved a
little bit with NSRA, started goingto NSRA events, I just thought,
how cool would that be? BeforeI was even on the radio, and
then being on the radio all theseyears, that was always in the back
of my mind, how much funthat would be, and it is it
still is. Of course, I'mdriving a late model diesel truck with air
(22:38):
conditioning on, you know, versusthat thirty eh Hivy said and delivery or
that truck that Wings used to pullit with. But it is, it's
fun and what I like about it, and I know you're probably the same
way when you get there. It'sthe people you meet. The people I
don't even know what cars they drivemost of the time. They come up
to the booth and we talk andwe laugh and we have a good time.
(22:59):
That's what it's all about. Yeah, that's that way for everyone that
comes, you know, with theylong before I worked for Vintage Air.
I mean, that was my vacationevery year, me and somebodies we went
to the street ride Nationals with familiesevery year. That was what you did,
and we put together a bunch ofthings to do along the way and
that was our vacation for the year. And so many people still do that.
And you were talking earlier about youknow, your years on the radio.
(23:22):
The great thing about the events thatyou do is you get that instant
feedback. You know, on theradio, you're talking into a microphone.
You never see anybody's face that you'retalking to. Exactly Now you're at your
booth. The people come up andyou get instant feedback and they become friends,
and yeah, that's that's a bigthat's a big deal. People always
tell me they thought I was younger. I don't know you were, Yeah,
(23:44):
well, I guess I was atone time. Yeah, I thought
I was younger and better looking,I think. But that's that you know,
made for radio face or whatever.They always say, yes, yeah,
you know the old face for radiothings. Yeah, but you're so
right about that. And that's oneof the reasons, you know that we
sponsor the twenty nine below program withNSRA. When when I first started going
to the NSRA events with my buddies, I was the youngest guy in the
(24:07):
group by you know, ten twelveyears or at least in some cases.
I mean I was, you know, early twenties. And you know,
you'd walk around an event and you'dsee a few kids and things, but
not many. And that's the greatthing about the twenty nine below program that
we sponsor that NSRA puts together forus, is it gives younger people at
(24:30):
these events a place to get together. You know, see that it's not
just all the gray haired guys righthere. There are some younger people there
enjoying the events and just get achance to meet them and see. I
mean, that's one of my favoritethings at the Street Rod Nationals every year
is the twenty nine below gathering thatwe have there because we'll get sixty to
seventy cars usually at that or seventysixty to seventy participants, and there's a
(24:55):
whole lot of those guys that havebeen coming for years and they reconnect every
year. They I've made friendships thatyou know, it's hey, what have
you been doing for a year.Let me show you what I've done to
my car since last year, orthey got a new car, or they're
doing that. And several of theguys that began in that twenty nine below
program now are in the business.One guy, Ben Smithson has a shop
in Murphysboro. There's a couple otherguys that have become you know, full
(25:19):
that's become their full time vocation,and some others have gone to work in
the industry. And man, that'sreally cool to see. You said.
I love that absolutely absolutely, Likeyou say, it kind of keeps it
alive and that's the whole key here. Where do you see Rick Love in
five years, you know, hopefullystill here. I don't know, you
know, I'm still enjoying what Ido every day. We've got a great
(25:41):
group here, a team that Ienjoyed being a part of. I still
get excited about the things, thenew things were developing, the new parts,
the new systems were developing. Ireally enjoy that. I enjoyed doing
the road tour a lot and gettingout and going to some of the events
and everything. So, you know, maybe slow down a little bit,
go to a more events for andplay hot rod like I like to tell
(26:03):
my wife sometimes I'll always go toa couple events a year and just go
and enjoy it like I always usedto. So I want to want to
do more of that. So,you know, it's it's I'm certainly not
ready to take up the rocking chair, as Gus McCrae said on Loan Loads
of Dove, Right, yeah,exactly exactly. Well, I'm sure we're
going to see you down the roadsomewhere here. I know i'll see you
at Louisville at Street Rode Nationals,but I'll probably see you down the road
(26:26):
here somewhere, and you go toa lot of local shows around that area.
Yeah, we do. I tryto, you know, and I
feel like that's part of vintage air, is part of the hot rod community,
and especially here. We had ourannual open house and unfortunately the weather
wasn't the best this year, butwe had two hundred and twenty something vehicles
show up, and we know wehave shop tours and food trucks and all
(26:48):
of that and everything when you havea good time. But yeah, I
try to go to some local eventsand keep involved with the local hot rod
community for sure, and try todo some This year. I'm going to
go to gathering at the Rock.I've heard some great things about that in
Bartlesville. Yep, yep, upin Bartlesville. I'm looking forward to that.
So I'm my wife and I aregoing to go and play hot rod
for a weekend at that. They'vegot a reliability run and it's about a
(27:12):
nine hour drive up, so that'llbe that should be a fun So that'll
be a fun time. I'm lookingforward to that. So yeah, definitely
in Louisville. Looking forward to Louisville, and man, Louisville is going to
be here before we know it.Yeah, all good stuff. Well,
Rick, thank you so much fortaking the time to chat with me a
little bit, letting me get toknow you a little bit better too.
I appreciate that, and I appreciatewhat you do with Vintage Air and beyond
(27:33):
Vintage Air because you've got a lotof things going on giving back. So
thanks for what you do well.I appreciate it, Nick, and thanks
again for the opportunity and look forwardto seeing you all the summer. There
you go, Rick Love, Presidentof Vintage Air, on the NSRA broadcast
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