About Stevie's Crazy Garage
Automotive life in general started for young Stevie going over fuel powered mechanical devices with his father---airplanes, boats, cars, and just about anything with an engine. Stevie’s father put him in the cockpit of high performance Air Force jets, took Stevie for rides the family race boat, let him start wicked nitro based model engines, and build massively powerful mini-bikes. The fun just came with the territory.
Stevie’s first high performance engine build was a 1965 Pontiac 389 that blew the engine on the way to a garage/farmhouse/junkyard in Rogers, Arkansas. Yep, the camshaft broke and the crankshaft threw push rods through the oil pan like pickup sticks through paper. The first of many weird noises coming from an engine bay that Stevie has heard. The car was being driven to the woods where a wrecked 1963 Pontiac Catalina waited in the front yard of the garage/farmhouse/junkyard. The man told us the engine in the Catalina was a 389. So Stevie and the GTO owner pulled the engine out of the wreck. The heads were pulled from the wreck and a cursory inspection was done on the wrecks short block. With new gaskets, the cleaned up GTO heads went back on the 63 block---thinking the 65 heads would be better. Boy, it was hard to start that engine after the head swap. Boy, did it have tons of horsepower and low end torque. Boy, did it burn gas, And boy did it blow heads gaskets every couple of weeks. The car had become the scary Goat of Springdale, and it hated Z28s, Boss 302s and other surprised wanna-bees. Stevie thinks back on that build with wonder. And he believes the engine was probably the legendary 421 Super Duty, and the pistons did look nasty in the short block. Stevie was in the 9th grade. This was the same car that Stevie learned to drive a manual transmission, but that is a whole other story.
In the early 70s Stevie moved south. But more builds and fun in cars and boats kept life spirited. Stevie worked part time in a large garage in Monroe, Louisiana, while going to engineering school. It was always hard to turn off building and designing high performance cars and hemi powered boats to do calculus and differential equations. Stevie went to Dallas and started work as a young engineer for a very large aircraft electronics manufacture as a test engineer. After getting married, Stevie moved back to Austin, TX, to start a family and work for a large computer manufacture. Stevie lived in Austin in the 60s, and it felt like being home. But soon the itch started again. Stevie scratched it with a junkyard 1965 Mustang GT Fastback. Stevie and the family disassembled the car and started the lengthy restoration in a small 2 car garage. The finished result was a beautiful raven black horse beast---400+ HP small block under the hood, Shelby instrument pod, TMI pony car interior, Tremec 5 speed, and a complete Total Control suspension. What one can't see can only hurt one's pride.
Stevie then decided to film and choreograph the next builds to share with the high performance car, boat, or any motor powered enthusiast world. Stevie's Crazy Garage was born with the catch phrase “ high performance video build books”. It took 5 years of digging up money and time to finish the first production. With the simple philosophy of design, build, and create products based on interesting projects, Stevie will deliver top notch high performance video build books and parts to the enthusiast's world. As for the title “Stevie's Crazy Garage”, Stevie's life has always been just that........CRAZY.........
Stevie’s first high performance engine build was a 1965 Pontiac 389 that blew the engine on the way to a garage/farmhouse/junkyard in Rogers, Arkansas. Yep, the camshaft broke and the crankshaft threw push rods through the oil pan like pickup sticks through paper. The first of many weird noises coming from an engine bay that Stevie has heard. The car was being driven to the woods where a wrecked 1963 Pontiac Catalina waited in the front yard of the garage/farmhouse/junkyard. The man told us the engine in the Catalina was a 389. So Stevie and the GTO owner pulled the engine out of the wreck. The heads were pulled from the wreck and a cursory inspection was done on the wrecks short block. With new gaskets, the cleaned up GTO heads went back on the 63 block---thinking the 65 heads would be better. Boy, it was hard to start that engine after the head swap. Boy, did it have tons of horsepower and low end torque. Boy, did it burn gas, And boy did it blow heads gaskets every couple of weeks. The car had become the scary Goat of Springdale, and it hated Z28s, Boss 302s and other surprised wanna-bees. Stevie thinks back on that build with wonder. And he believes the engine was probably the legendary 421 Super Duty, and the pistons did look nasty in the short block. Stevie was in the 9th grade. This was the same car that Stevie learned to drive a manual transmission, but that is a whole other story.
In the early 70s Stevie moved south. But more builds and fun in cars and boats kept life spirited. Stevie worked part time in a large garage in Monroe, Louisiana, while going to engineering school. It was always hard to turn off building and designing high performance cars and hemi powered boats to do calculus and differential equations. Stevie went to Dallas and started work as a young engineer for a very large aircraft electronics manufacture as a test engineer. After getting married, Stevie moved back to Austin, TX, to start a family and work for a large computer manufacture. Stevie lived in Austin in the 60s, and it felt like being home. But soon the itch started again. Stevie scratched it with a junkyard 1965 Mustang GT Fastback. Stevie and the family disassembled the car and started the lengthy restoration in a small 2 car garage. The finished result was a beautiful raven black horse beast---400+ HP small block under the hood, Shelby instrument pod, TMI pony car interior, Tremec 5 speed, and a complete Total Control suspension. What one can't see can only hurt one's pride.
Stevie then decided to film and choreograph the next builds to share with the high performance car, boat, or any motor powered enthusiast world. Stevie's Crazy Garage was born with the catch phrase “ high performance video build books”. It took 5 years of digging up money and time to finish the first production. With the simple philosophy of design, build, and create products based on interesting projects, Stevie will deliver top notch high performance video build books and parts to the enthusiast's world. As for the title “Stevie's Crazy Garage”, Stevie's life has always been just that........CRAZY.........
