About 9 years ago, I get a call; “Hey man uh, do still remember how to tig weld?”. And so started this long road of turbocharged fabrication.
That was my good friend Jon Owens (head welder of Full-Race Motorsports and current co-owner of Future Fabrications) on the other end of the line, who at the time was working at shop named Max-Rev Motorsports. Ring a bell for you old schools? I answer “Sure”, even though I had a 1 semester of tig welding and very timid about my skills. I needed a job and thought working with my friend would be awesome. After the first 2 days I welded 2 bolt flanges to the ends of downpipes and O2 bungs also. I felt overwhelmed and didn’t want to waste anyones time and decided to quit. The owner was able to talk me into staying and I couldn’t thank him enough for it.
Years go by, and manifolds are welded. I eventually left and moved on following in the footsteps of Jon to a little place he helped build to become what it is today. Full-Race. I was introduced to another level of commitment to quality. Everyone there were machines in my eyes. I knew I had to learn and learn good! Eventually they had a motto on a T-shirt hanging up on a wall, “go hard or go home…hard”. So I took what experience I could from the likes of Jon, Jackson, and Sean Sexton.
More years go by and more than a 1,000 manifolds later, I find myself at AFI Turbo. After a quick stint of doing a couple of side jobs out of Half-Race (that’s another story), I felt it was time to get a steady job so another turbo manufacturer seemed right at the time. AFI was a bit weird at first but it didn’t take long to get comfortable when you have a funny as hell redneck, Rick of Rick’s Towing beside you.
Fast forward a bit and here we are in present day. I’m still being pushed by a great welder by the name of CJ Tune helping me to sharpen my skills even further. I felt an itch to have a little more control of the skills I am developing and the only way I feel I can achieve that is to rent my own space and do what I do best. So far it’s been great having your friends and shop roommates as customers. One such friend is Juan Gonzalez. Right now, I’m currently fabricating a custom turbo set-up for his Honda EF hatchback. I am particularly proud of this manifold because it is the first B series manifold I have created under my own name. Thanks to Mike and Brad for the use of some equipment I don’t posses yet, I was able to finish and share with guys who like this kind of stuff.
Ok, ok, enough of the chit chat. Thanks for reading and enjoy. There will be another post later down the road updating the finished car in detailed form. Again, thank you and everyone who has had an influence on me.
-Aaron Garcia
