(Music playing). When I was about eight or nine years old I
lived in a spot that was a little ghetto, and there would be a lot of low-riders around.
I used to see them running around with the chrome rims and making them hop and stuff.
When I was kid that sh** (beep) was pretty interesting. That really kind of enticed me
on the whole low-rider theme. I actually started working on cars because
I couldn't afford to have anybody else do them. My first car was a 1967 Impala. I used
to drive by to school every day and I'd see this car, I didn't know what it was. All I
knew was that it was F***ing (beep) rad. I used to tell myself I'm going to own that
car one day, and sure as sh** (beep) I own that car, and it was a '67 Impala. It had
a bunch of stuff wrong with it but I just started fiddling with stuff trying to figure
it out and then that led into learning more about it. I didn't go to school for anything. I'm pretty
much all self-taught, and the whole basis behind it is because I couldn't afford the
sh* (beep), teach yourself how to do it and then you can have your f***ing low-rider. I was really heavy into the low-rider scene
so I always wanted a bomb, or like a custom, and around that time I was able to sell my
low-rider and I bought a '52 Chevy. I wanted to chop it and I didn't know how to weld,
I didn't know how to grind, I didn't know how to fabricate or anything. I had a friend
that welded. He left the welder at my house. I'm a go-getter, I have to get sh** (beep)
done. I'm the kind of person that doesn't like to rely on other people so I said f**k
(beep) it, I'm just going to pick this damn thing up and start welding, whatever. I got
it down to where I could stick two pieces together, and that kind of led into maybe
I'll do the chop myself. I actually called a couple people that have
chopped tops and kind of get measurements and ideas on how to do it. Voodoo Larry was
actually one of the first people that I talked to. He spent hours with me on the phone, and
then I just started doing it. I didn't know what the hell I was doing, but it was pretty
f****ing (beep) awesome to make something out of nothing. I knew then that's what I
really wanted to do. I built that car, took it to a bunch of shows
with the idea that I really liked welding and fabricating. I would try to get a little
more business and that led into people wanting me to do stuff to their cars, but I never
planned the shop. The shop kind of just happened. More people would come, I'd do more stuff,
then more people would come and it kind of turned into the shop, where it was never like,
"Hey, let's have a shop." The original idea behind my whole name was
being that I learned how to chop tops on my own, and that's really what I wanted to do.
I felt that chopping tops was something I really enjoyed and I wanted to figure out
how to express what I liked with my name and then I came up with Skoty Chops. The S-K-O-T-Y
goes back to when I was younger. I was kind of into graffiti. I don't like being like
everybody else. If there's a fad I'm probably not into it. I like being my own person, doing
my own thing. I never really followed anybody else, I kind of led my own way. The first hot rod I ever built it was a 1930
Model A 5 window coupe. Again, I was still in the learning process of everything. The
first frame I ever built, but I had this idea to have something that was super aggressive,
super slammed. I built that car actually in my grandmother's garage. That car actually
is what really put my name on the map. My abilities of fabrication at that point in
time were not all that they could be, but that's the great part about learning. You
have to suck to get good. That car actually surprisingly got a lot of
press and a lot of people love that thing. I ended up selling it to a guy in Germany,
and that thing is all over the place, it's crazy. If I was to build that car today it
would be a completely different car, but that's part of the process of learning and life.
With anything you start something now, ten years later it's going to be completely different.
Your whole outlook on cars, your whole outlook on everything, but you have to have a base
to start off on. With that thing I learned a lot of what to do and a lot of what not
to do, of styling, fabrication. That car really didn't make me who I am, it gave me the foundation. We specialize in metal fabrication, chassis,
air ride suspension. We mainly use AccuAir. We do a lot of Mustangs, too, a lot of floor-length
C-notches. I call us more of a suspension fabrication shop. You kind of want to stick
to the thing you love so much because you'll always be good at it, because you care about
what you're doing. You start going off into stuff that you don't like and you won't be
the best because you don't have the passion for it. I built a 1980 Monte Carlo to kind of go back
to my low-riding days, and I wanted to bring back something that they did back in the 70s
and the 80s. I feel that the low-riders then had a lot of soul, a lot of heart and I wanted
to capture that and I wanted to make it so that it was something that meant something
to me and the people that lived the low-rider days, to the wheels, paint, the moon roof,
I was trying to capture all of it and trying to make it as authentic as possible. The '59 Impala was always, always, always
a dream car of mine as a kid and ever since then I've always wanted one, and here I am
15, 16 years later and I actually own one now. I never thought I'd actually have it,
it's pretty crazy to actually own something that you've wanted for so long. Classics Car Club is a bunch of rad, rad guys.
The idea behind the whole club is to have a bunch of rad people with really good personalities,
no negativity. I would say the club is more based on people than the cars, because people
is what makes a quality club. We're trying to make the Classics Car Club something that
everyone's proud to be in, no stress, everybody gets along with each other, pick and choose
guys that we know are good people and have fun, and drive f***ing (beep) rad cars. Everybody has the thing that they appreciate,
and I can't take that away from anybody. Me, I just, I stay true to what I like and I definitely
respect anyone's ideas and anyone's thing that they're into because they care about
it just as much as I care about what I'm into.
