THE BUILDING OF BRIAN'S ECLIPSE

[Music] [Music] [Music] hi everybody welcome back thanks for watching I have a very special guest for you today I've been teasing you guys about this for a couple weeks here he is meet mr. John lapid owner and builder of Brian's Eclipse the green Eclipse in the first movie good to see you John alright he's been a minute how long has it been uh maybe twenty years twenty years married kids married kids I don't kid one kid daughter yeah sixteen years old do you let her go to airport car shows good for you say good now you know so did you ever think the movie would get this big no I had no feeling what's wrong you you were there right from the start I remember who showed up to call with the car right so was it did RJ call you cuz I don't ever know actually we started at the Auto Show you guys were there mama Kentucky was there our G was there and the producers or the actually D just call them recruiters David martyr martyr right he was there looking two cars and then you guys my car the car was silver at the time right no the car started off as forest green as I recall earth green here and then you would painted it silver so will Mercedes silver and the body kit was robocar it has an old body kit before and then we switched over to the ruble it's kit robocar so it's a blitz ripoff okay so that's what that came from st. you know all the Blitz parts blitz so it's the style front spot a front bumper side and we're we're and they're all blended and all that PJ Bonifacio did the paint yes good Mercedes silver did he do did he do the green tier did universal do I don't know universal did it I was actually you suggested to leave that color I did to have it more of value I said I opted not to um I think it would have been better if I said yes because it probably might have turned up a little bit better Green subway might go back because it was supposed to be like a Lamborghini greenish color yeah like that they didn't put a top corner right just clean like like a dull green Kawasaki green is what they use so but there's multiple variants of carry on socket green so you would have been from 99 or 2000 ones I think was 777 paint code or whatever the hell was but that was universals idea now they had a conversation with you this I remember because I remember hearing about it in the hallway they said we're gonna call Jonatan we want to paint the car a different color we're not sure yet and you said to them what please not green anything Bud green and so then the next time you saw the car it was Green did I call you and tell you was Green no I saw it at the at the shop Oh over at the picture car warehouse or any-any Paul was running that program they turned it green but it was bright green or green so then what did you think about the graphics that were used on the car um it was off and on for a little while but it growing it grew on me and you changed it soon after right you changed some things around you put a bunch of stuff on the hood yeah that's a that's because of my contracts with the sponsor sponsorships and stuff Toyo tires was already on there so I didn't have to mess with that Tanabe I had to Reebok M ID logo' modern image modern image will go and had to put that thing back into it to not be so yeah the hood was carbon fiber carbon fiber yeah a lot of people think it was black those carbon fine was a real carbon fiber hood just vague recollections I don't even remember if the replicas had carbon fiber hoods I think we just know carbon fiber decal yeah so we do it that's another way we cheated because it's good enough seven copy six copies friends craziness yeah even even when we're getting sponsored parts yes so then we the question I always one of Master under my own curiosity the hood van at the top of the roof I remember we had promised driving those things on set at any kind of speed because the wind coming through there so what what did you do when you were driving the car cardboard take tape in front and what you do about drainage for water um usually I didn't drive it in the rain some predicted all these guys are running around with replicas how the hell they do it well some of them have sunroofs because they're running right okay nice try guys that's I mean you did it's cheaper to pay body people body shop people go to buy the right car because I have the VIN list you can and I looked at to see how much we were paying for the cars that time they were still pretty pricey back then they were still ten or eleven thousand dollars but then they weren't cheap no so getting sunroof cars they were all about the same price over plus or minus a thousand bucks yeah which was a surprise to me because yours was the RS roll down Windows yes so why didn't that was another question I get always windows yeah is that the Filipino action those are my people right there I ride bikes with these guys anyway so you've got a people a couple people giving me flak like oh man well why didn't he buy a GS X or a GST so to tell the story out of your own mouth well you know what back then I was working going to college I had little or no money to work with you know my dad and my mom funded the bunny for the car and slowly I paid it back get it back and I started to you know most of it is just monetary reasons you know that I didn't have sixteen thousand dollars yeah I looked at the MSRP for gsx for that period is about fifteen thousand bucks and it ignores twenty three thousand sorry new new new new and then do a tax license registration in California in the People's Republic of California Scania twenty-five thousand right and so the the sticker price on an RS was about under fifteen thousand under fifteen grand new so that was in 96 and you bought the car about ninety eight about ninety eight and then I started seeing your car shows with its silver yeah so there you go so that extra seven or eight thousand dollars there could go right into the car to be bigger and PG Bonifacio the guy who painted your car he probably gave you a good deal cuz my understanding is that guy was working on the low end of cost for a tutor guys he just loved to do the work in one of the recognition but used to see his name he actually did pretty good work especially we spent an extra few bucks to do the door jams and pull the glass was pretty good he actually did the paint job for the TRD uh white body come are two that's which one RJ's got the rid with uh with a white pinstriping all the actual TRD car okay good good to know so the guy was a talented guy yeah so is he still around oh yeah miss the working could it still got PJ Bonifacio oh yeah use that everything that is a long Valley Boulevard that's and what city is that the Sousa Azusa which is up a little north from me yeah but but don't call calling this guy for body parts and techniques on how to blend your white party kid he's gonna hang up on your ass so yeah we don't do that kind of stuff so alright so there that explains why you chose an RS and and so forth so then we get the car we get it we use it in the movie get it all back you get it they had it what about two months a month on up two months no they actually had it for about I would say three months then it started raining then they extended it trying to look at the dates because we did race Wars in September of that year right so that means big principal photography carried over into October mm-hmm I'm wondering if it's part of the research that reshoots I got a look at the yeah it started raining and it started to extend and extend and extend hey we need your car for another one I hope they paid you good he also gave you money to recondition the car a little bit not a lot what yeah they're supposed to hit up supposed to pay the pain it back I don't know what happened you should have talked to me yeah again one of my main men many mistakes well not talking to you getting advice from well the good thing about in that movie David martyr was a champion in the tuner cars meaning that it was he was an ally and he he fought for us first the guys who were renting the cars he was very careful with the cars the picture car guys I was there every day or almost every day though they were very cognizant of the hero cars very careful about how they loaded the car stunt cars not so much cuz he don't have to be but for our Christ it was very careful I mean the good thing about it was David said you know if the movie is over I mean when the movie is over you know you get to keep most of the parts yeah back to you I was happy with that I mean I didn't the rental of the car yeah the sale of the car so we'll get to that in a minute so after the movie we started doing car shows for Universal we went to quite a few when Ji Won down in Del Mar as I recall no bottom corner hot import flights import show off whatever I don't remember was excused to be a car show all our friends were there anyway so it was good times so we did a few of those I traveled a little with Paul and so forth you did a handful of shows and then sometime around that I remember I remember calling you up or the room reaching out to you by email maybe it was and asking you to be another showed you said the car was in the process of being sold and so the person who bought the car was there's George Barris customs who passed away a few years ago George Barris for those of you who don't know was the guy who did the Batmobile back in the 1960s so he got the card he negotiated back and forth you want to mention how much he paid for the car yeah well he wanted actually to lowball me and I showed him their insurance papers it was reassured for 80,000 bucks that's too much you know no too small error so I go you know what let's put haggling meet in the middle 50,000 bucks and we're done yeah and the car went and then of course for those people who don't know you saw the car later on what he had done to the car yeah oh yeah through your your pictures actually oh really so he started putting on like glue on cage housings literally go random places on top of the - wire loom all over the place second second tachometer on top of that tech ometer that's already in the car I mean so I don't know what this guy was trying to do so he created that company faster and more furious something or other and he was trying to sell parts and so forth and yes oh god it was it was awful it was really bad but thankfully that that car went someplace else after that that's people so museum her yes it's not a museum so he doesn't have it anymore so it's gone thank God I don't know whether or not they're gonna restore the car but I doubt it museums tend to sit on cars and then leave it for somebody else does will say so the car was gone then what did you buy to replace it though did you move on with your life I just moved on with my life I had you know a taste of Hollywood I was my girlfriend at the time concentrating on that school life eventually got married and had a kid so life was life so like do you remember the premiere the Hollywood premiere yes okay so you were up there I posted pictures of that hopefully I saw you have a whole bunch of pictures who goes out here in a minute after the break but when you went to the premiere what was your thought of the movie that was the first time you know you saw the movie with us and as we speak yeah what the hell for what do you think of the movie then I was like okay I hope this makes it and because some of the stuff that they they saw I mean they some of the stuff that they said and and filmed were they kind of yeah that's kind of weird that's kind of strange right new from I'm a guy that knows cars or you know coming from a manifold you did a manifold in the floor plate I was like oh we're gonna talk about that right after we come back so let's take a break and we'll be right back all right welcome back part two of the interview with John laughing for those of you don't remember who John laughs it was from part 1 part 1 we talked about John lapid as the owner and builder of the original clips from the original movie he owned and built Bryan's Eclipse before it became Bryan's and club so we're back so we were talking a little bit about in the first part you know your involvement how do you did they they got your car and all that kind of thing but we I think we missed a few things when we had the casting for the cars it was a couple of different castings right so you had they had found your car at a show and seen it won a silver then invited you to universals backlot right and that was in a feature called the making of red line that they wound up using video from that Rob Cohen was there Neal Moritz Doug Claiborne Paul Walker was there and easie was there all those and they saw your car in what condition that point was still silver right it was still silver yes and so the Mercedes silver that you with painted it after getting it painted over the dark forest green that the original color of the car so cars Mercedes silver he's got the roll cage in there I put the roll cage in the second casting call just right before the second cast okay and that's the one that had that clear bar the clear tube open front by the rear view mirror for for neon lights for young lady and that the down bars as well the down tubes as well they had neon lights because this was a hot important night stays yes and people were building cars for so one of the questions I get of course is that you know the car had the 428 motor wasn't the mitsubishi motor because it was you know the RS model of the eclipse so people were asking about the horsepower and all that kind of stuff so that motors rated about 140 horsepower you had all the parts on the car I know those spec list but I'll let you go over headers K&N air filter that's pretty much most of it everything else was Egyptian dressing so the nitrous system on the car talking about that's them didn't work did not work all for sure so yeah well so the danger to manifold with a three-stage nitrous system wasn't real is that what you're telling us yeah actually that was a movie gimmick yeah so the first time you saw you saw with me we were sitting in a theater doing a pre-release it was still rough they would still had time marker type stamps and all that different soundtracks right the butterfly crazytown about it so we see it and we're all looking at each other shaking our heads going they're not using the right term here white because why I have the actual list that I gave them three pages of car terms that should be used they've mixed a match them like like sofa and and and couched motek systems Motech system exhaust right what and we're laughing rob actually tapped me on the shoulder says why are you guys laughing I said because some stuff in here needs to be fixed because I hope not because we're done yeah anyway but he reminded me that you know most people who see this movie were not gonna be car enthusiasts and of course that's not really the case here we are 20 years after nearly and people still harp on that which and rightfully so so it's very difficult to sit and watch it now because we know we know before we were sitting in the theater we might not have noticed it but all the way they did but you might not have noticed but once you learn something about cars you watch it again you're like what danger damn manifold yeah who the hell puts a three-stage turbo kit on a naturally aspirated hundred and forty horsepower stock block motor right yeah oh yeah so you know but that was just the fantasy of it you know I had seen it actually several times by the time it got to the theaters I was there when they were doing the sounds like to remember the scene where where Brian pulls up and the Eclipse for the first time and then Dom shows up with me the rx-7 all those girls walking around you know I'm not going I'm not gonna I don't I'm gonna take her out tonight I'm trying to get lagea trying to go down every circuit well all those characters in the background they didn't record them there they put us in a room and has a microphone hanging from the ceiling and then all these people walk around we had lip-readers there and they were trying to read the lips of people so I had to clarify what they were saying cuz they didn't understand car terms right and then we had to have the actors and actresses in the room repeat these terms wasn't walking around the microphone so I had seen many bits and pieces of the movie but not all put together so the first time I saw put together was with you but after it was released I was shocked at how big it was what was your impression I was like ok with all the stuff that's going on right now and all the other things that we have to deal with the police cops the sheriff stuff I was like this is gonna bomb but after I saw the first time second time I was like okay a little bit of traction yeah not as much but I didn't expect it to be this much so do you miss your car now that it's gone sometimes not all the time not all this on times would you have knowing what you know now would you have kept the car yes you would have kept it could be worth more money now yes that's no sniffing yeah because it's worth the money yeah so you were telling me earlier that you get a lot of people contacting you about building replicas of the car what's your what's your advice to a person who wants to build a replica of the clips as if there aren't enough floating around the world my advice is look hard do your research refer to your website I was fast and furious factory but yeah parts are hard to get now especially with you know 1989 cars even with the the Toyota's and the supras I mean their parts were fair yeah for OE parts let alone aftermarket parts yeah yeah so I was telling you earlier that we had document at least a hundred eclipsed replicas was just a big compliment to the production team at Universal for creating the car because they really did it I'm the same thing with the super really so I mean people want to build these replicas they got to know the parts are nearly impossible to find nearly impossible to find and as it is it's gonna be like you know there's gonna be a lot of work to get it look like it oh yeah that's gonna be a pinion yeah so it's going through some of the photos you shared one of the things we did together they enjoyed was the press junket oh yeah that was cool so after the movie as the movie is getting ready to release extra this is before even think of anything so they invited about 600 journalists from all over the world their TV stations there were newspapers there were magazines lifestyle magazines all that comes they came out and they wanted to interview all the actors yes with the cars RJ and I somehow got lumped in there with that group because we had worked on the cars even though the we weren't actors well he was but I was and I was the flagger guy but some of these pictures are pretty amazing this is taken ads I don't have people can see that but this was taken at Universal Studios backlot what Nick Stewart's Hector Civic and Scotties Jetta mm-hmm which of course would became Jesse's Jetta that's pretty cool here's another shot we had all got our cars back from the movie most of us have started changing the cars to some extent Keith the motors rx-7 which was originally gray dark gray was now bright red and of course there's your eclipse in the background of course Scottie's Jetta which became Jesse's Jetta my super night I've never even seen this picture I never saw that picture that was in the lot right across the street from the right in the same lot where that clock tower was yes yeah where they did back to the future in the future this is at the premiere David martyr who was our boss on the film standing with John good time I think David still has that shirt Keith Emoto all over the rx-7 and his squeeze I think he married this girl didn't he I'm not sure I don't know I think he married that girl up trying to get him and then some general pictures of the premiere someone to feed this is of this is gangster photo alright so in the front you got Scott Santro who is the owner of the Eclipse you got bill Cole one of the integrity got Nick Stewart who owned the the greenish Civic that Moira green blue marble marbleized was marbleized who the hell is that guy I have no idea who that dude was nixed buddy yeah there's you of course and then that's my buddy Aaron who his arm wrote the shoe polish numbers on the cars it's more Walker pulled on a rich boy okay that was his big appearance somebody signing something here it's been Vin Diesel signing to Scott oh I know what this was Scotty this episode I just did with Scotty last week Scotty got a the supercharger the fake supercharger the aluminum fake supercharger off the actual charger hanka and Vin Diesel assignment this is the picture of Vin Diesel same image that's my ex with you you know yeah two of those yeah me and John I was really happy to be there this is setup of the premiere hopefully people can see that set up with a premiere again with Keith rx-7 set up at a premiere with my Supra that took like forever to set up well we were there all day remember because they had to lift it and then jack it up lift it and there's another one so that's some amazing stuff some amazing stuff mm-hmm so I wanted to give you a copy of my book - cool thank you I don't know if you have a copy of it but you're mentioned in here quite liberally in the positive way thank you very much appreciate it so there's that thank you so you're still watching the movies what do you think of the new movies after the rock came in I'm sorry don't where's your favorite movie of the franchise that's probably one - yeah I said favorite one with goddamn Filipino yeah you didn't eat the pick one well Horton woof because you were any yeah yeah but it was that I mean it was the it's nostalgia - part of it right yeah because that's the blacks what really set it off without one there would be nothing else but second dad would probably be Tokyo Drift because it was in Japan my I agree even though it wasn't really filmed in Terraria but so now you think about all the Dodgers in the movie now hmm well I get there trying to promote American cars but they feel like ass trade yeah so there it's product placement I get it you know the Dodge wants ever participation and to give them the cars and it's cheaper and all I totally get it they're a lot of people who love American cars and mostly I totally totally get it but for us our biggest I think objection to the whole concept was is that the movie started about tuner cars it started it was street racing and they strayed so far from that now there's barely any resemblance to the early moon us and who knows what's gonna happen in nine and ten because they can know and then there's a whole spin-off where they're taking some other characters they're taking some of the cars and spinning them off hobby shop right which i think is a good idea because you know I think that the Shah character is phenomenal Jason Statham and I'm and I like I like the rock I think it's good for me it did I was in the book I talk about the how much they spent to make the movies and then and then how much they made for the movies but it's just it's just just different yeah but what was unique about the first movie and even to make small extent the second movie is that Universal had said something that really had never been done before what they did is rather than going out and buying the cars and just doing cosmetic stuff and pretending and had big engines they actually rented real yes modified cars yes and then tried to replicate it and I remember telling them telling me the story that we're gonna make four or five or six of copies of each one of these cars I said when do you start filming we start filming in three weeks I said dude you're not gonna make it because although we got a whole team for that I thought it was the most arrogant thing I had ever heard um as David Martin and he was right he was right because I think they had six or seven eclipses I got a look at my friend list of six or seven yeah I think four or five years they had a total of eight cars that were super that had super VIN numbers eight eight so and I had forgotten cuz I forgot about the junkyard car I forgot about the buck the one that that we had you know on that little just a little hydraulic way that we were doing that thing with so those cars they were never because they were never at the picture car warehouse they were up in la the one with the with the truck the make the McRae McRae car yeah that car still around it got reused and too fast so a lot of the cars from part one got reused in 2 fast 2 furious got repay up the 240sx is where I'll repainted maybe and reuse the civics were all repainted rebodied kitted we were talking about that was Scotty last week so that's it man unbelievable huh it was a wild ride I mean I'm glad I got to experience it you know but as for missing that car couldn't drive it anywhere why not my daily driver why couldn't you drive it at night man dude people would follow me everywhere on the freeway or would the boy race there yeah the reven on me or they'll pull by you know the ricer blow by yeah when you're doing when you're at a stop stop light the light turns green you start to pull away and the guy knows it's gonna turn green and he's already got a 60-mile at that start audio yeah we call that the ricer blow by yeah yeah that's crazy man I mean one time one time I had a sheriff's pulled me over off the 101 freeway when the ten goes into the 101 that curve yeah yeah yeah okay he pulls pulls me over he goes you know I'm not pulling you over for the speeding ticket I'm just wanted to take a picture of your car because I've heard about the movie oh this is one it was Green okay so you just want to take a picture I wanted to take a picture so you can meet me ducked down on the on the steering wheel not the steering but the you know the divider of the freeway oh yes the camera like a rail yeah yeah look down so you don't get seen in the picture you get killed standing there but yeah boom picture yes picture yeah that wasn't I tell that story to a lot of people about the responsibility of owning a movie car is not as glamorous people think because you're gonna get bombarded people calling you wanted to come out to shows for free on the weekends like you've got nothing to do with your life but you know pump up their show attendance by driving your car 80 miles of standing there for eight hours so people could fondle and finger-fuck your car it wasn't happening man it wasn't happening I couldn't even Park it into drive and in the the the trailer parking close the gates every night yeah parking up towards the screen that car would be I mean that car today what do you think that car would be worth today upwards to maybe 150 I think it'd get more than that really yeah Paul Walker touched it yeah but no proof inside me know that what we have plenty of proof there's more than enough proof for these movies are now yes you know got the VIN number we've got we can verify the VIN number Paul drove the hero car there's no question about that so I mean that car's got to be worth way more than one good having you on I'm gonna take some look some more some of these pictures maybe they'll scan a few and share it with viewers in the video sounds good but thanks for coming on and thanks for being a part of the adventure man it has been a hell of a ride that's it for this episode thanks for watching everybody if you're liking the videos I've been producing please be sure to subscribe and share them with your friends thanks again everybody talk to you next time

Channel: Craig Lieberman

Views: 91,989

Rating: 4.9501958 out of 5

Keywords: the fast and the furious, brian's eclipse, paul walker's eclipse, paul walker

Id: cmh9EuOKKg4

Length: 28min 59sec (1739 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 08 2019