Lincoln Continentals and custom wheels with Emma Sauve of Mobsteel

In This Episode

Learn more about Miller Electric.

Learn more about Millermatic 142.

Learn more about podcast sponsorship opportunities.

ABOUT THE FABRICATOR PODCAST

The Fabricator Podcast brings you conversations with people in manufacturing who make things out of metal. We speak with manufacturers, metal fabricators, welders, job shop owners, small business entrepreneurs, artists, marketers, educators, and more. Host Dan Davis also goes beyond discussing just manufacturing and the skilled trades, and chats about pop culture, current events, food, music, movies, comedy, and, of course, robots. The Fabricator Podcast is presented by the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association.

We shape the conversation around metal.

Host: Dan Davis

Producer/Editor: Gareth Sleger

Video Producer/Editor: Brandon Geier

Ad writer/spokesperson/social media: Sara Spring

Additional video editing: Dana Wiker

Graphics: Billy Kulpa

Marketing support: Elizabeth Gavin, Mary Diamond

Sales support: Andy Flando, Amy Hudson

Web support: Mike Owens, Jared Carlow

Additional support: Ed Youdell, Maurine Semevolos, Lincoln Brunner, Tim Heston, Rafael Guerrero, Josh Welton, Darla Welton, Amanda Carlson-Hicks, Callie Check, Rick Lehnhardt, Judy Steinbach.

Where to listen to The Fabricator Podcast:

• Spotify
• Apple
• YouTube Music
• Amazon
• iHeart
• Pandora

• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

TRANSCRIPT

Emma Sauve: I've got this double-edged sword where I'm like, I love my job because I get to hang out like this with you guys. I'm having so much fun right now.

Josh Welton: Likewise.

Emma Sauve: This is a blast.

Josh Welton: Same.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, you better agree.

Josh Welton: Yes. I just don't show emotion very well.

Emma Sauve: Yes you do.

Josh Welton: All right, I'll take your word for it.

Emma Sauve: Yes you do. "I don't show emotion. Yes I do."

Josh Welton: Maybe a little bit.

Emma Sauve: The contradicting podcast.

Sara Spring: This episode of the Fabricator podcast is brought to you by Miller Electric. Welders make their impact one weld at a time, leaving a piece of themselves in every finished project. Miller supports and fuels their passions with machines, technology, and safety equipment to meet the ever-evolving needs of manufacturers, fabricators, construction workers, and artists. Because it's not just about welding, it's about fostering new ideas and inspiring the next generation. Go to millerwelds.com to learn more.

Dan Davis: Welcome to the Fabricator podcast. I'm Dan Davis, your host from the Fabricator magazine, joined by Josh Welton of Brown Dog Welding. He also works with the fabricator and the welder, and we're joined by our guest.

Emma Sauve: Me.

Dan Davis: Emma...

Emma Sauve: Sauve.

Dan Davis: Do the French pronunciation, Sauve.

Emma Sauve: It is me, Emma Sauve. I don't even know if that's a French accent.

Josh Welton: Three semesters of French, I still can't get that. We are at SEMA. We're in the Miller Electric booth. We're happy to be here, and we thank them for offering space for us to do this.

Dan Davis: Absolutely.

Josh Welton: As part of SEMA, there's a lot of stuff going on at the show and after the show, and last night we're at a soiree with Ms. Sauve.

Emma Sauve: That's true. Correct-ay.

Josh Welton: At Christian Sosa's Metalworks, his facility, and that was...

Dan Davis: Christian Sosa's shop is so rad.

Josh Welton: Yeah, it was really, I mean, just decked out for a real nice...

Emma Sauve: Low riders as far as the eye can see.

Josh Welton: Exactly. Some lit, some not lit.

Emma Sauve: Some jacked up.

Dan Davis: And new sculpture, the skull sculpture in the back was so dope.

Emma Sauve: Sculpture. It was awesome.

Josh Welton: What was the scoop on that?

Dan Davis: So he had another one that he had built and was going to bring it, told Christian, "I'm going to bring this to the show." And then he got mad because he had made it and he hadn't designed it, he hadn't taken the extra time to design it to be hollow, so it was all solid. And he's like "It's 200 pounds." So he attempted to take weight out of it and was like, "Screw it, I'm just going to make another one." So he made it in two days.

Josh Welton: Oh, wow.

Dan Davis: He had his files for the cutting and everything, but it was pretty...

Emma Sauve: Was there smoke coming out of the bottom of it?

Dan Davis: So they had, I don't know what it's called, but it had something to do with, you know how they have... I wish Darla was here right now, because she understands the...

Emma Sauve: The mechanics of it?

Dan Davis: Yeah, with the skull and the smoke and the...

Emma Sauve: Dry ice?

Dan Davis: At the party last night. I think it was dry ice.

Emma Sauve: Was it dry ice?

Dan Davis: Not sure.

Josh Welton: Oh.

Dan Davis: But it was all, you know, they'd have the candles lit and remembrances for people and things like that.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, it was all Day of the Dead.

Dan Davis: It's got that culture, got that vibe.

Josh Welton: Of course. Day of the Dead, the party was held on November 1st.

Dan Davis: Yup, yup.

Emma Sauve: That was so cool.

Dan Davis: And every year it's like that, and it's gotten bigger and better.

Josh Welton: And this thing was suspended almost in a teepee sort of, three...

Dan Davis: Had a frame on it and then yeah, it had the...

Josh Welton: Three legs.

Dan Davis: Was hanging.

Emma Sauve: Well-lit.

Dan Davis: So the first one weighed 200 pounds. This one weighs 80 pounds.

Josh Welton: Okay.

Dan Davis: So he's like...

Emma Sauve: Significant difference.

Dan Davis: "I can lift this one without killing myself."

Emma Sauve: Or anybody else.

Dan Davis: Yeah, or anyone else.

Josh Welton: Probably under-discussed portion of art is like, "We should do art that we can actually handle."

Dan Davis: I know that people have built stuff and then been like, "Oh crap, I don't have a big enough door to get this out." There's problem solving.

Emma Sauve: "We're going to have to cut a hole in the wall."

Dan Davis: Yeah. I've always wanted to do large scale stuff and I haven't yet, but I would imagine building within the scope of your building is a big deal. So you see a lot of them in pieces. There's actually a fringe industry out there of people who just go around repairing sculptures that were put on site and damaged as they're being installed or whatever.

Josh Welton: Oh, wow.

Emma Sauve: My dad and I went to the Di Suvero studio in New York City, and that is, talk about large scale art. The facility is massive. It feels very surreal, but it's off, it's a little farther away than Manhattan. But just seeing, you have to have a roof over your head when you're working, or else you don't want anything, especially with large scale metal, you don't want anything corroding. So yeah, weather impending, but yeah, it's wild.

Josh Welton: That's awesome.

Emma Sauve: Yeah.

Josh Welton: So you're going to enjoy this episode. We're going to talk a lot about Mobsteel Detroit.

Dan Davis: Detroit Steel Wheels.

Emma Sauve: In Detroit.

Josh Welton: Detroit. It's probably the star of the podcast outside of...

Emma Sauve: Yeah, Detroit represent.

Josh Welton: Emma Sauve.

Dan Davis: Multiple stars of this.

Josh Welton: Yes.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, five stars. Five stars.

Dan Davis: So stick around and enjoy. Thanks.

Sara Spring: Every job deserves Miller quality. That's why the new Millermatic 1 42 makes professional quality MIG welds easy. Miller's newest portable MIG welder is fast and simple to set up, has a high duty cycle, and can run on generator power, everything you expect from a Miller MIG welder. Give every job you weld no matter its size pro quality results with the Millermatic 142. Learn more at millerwelds.com. Now's a good time to mention that we offer sponsorship opportunities for the podcast. Amy Hudson, senior account executive, is here to give us a quick overview.

Amy Hudson: Yes, we have two sponsorship levels. The first has logo placement, some ad read-ins. The second option that we're really excited about is definitely kind of cool where you can bring in a customer and kind of tell the problem-solution story that way.

Sara Spring: Great. So to get all the details, please go to thefabricator.com/advertise, or you can contact your sales rep directly. And now, back to the episode.

Dan Davis: We're at the SEMA show at the Miller Electric booth. Thanks to Miller Electric for having us.

Josh Welton: Of the show we're all going to be using your mic. It's just going to be like this.

Dan Davis: Isn't that right, Dan?

Josh Welton: We're going to join in like, Partridge Family song?

Emma Sauve: "Don't touch them."

Dan Davis: Hello darkness my old friend... No, that's...

Emma Sauve: "My old friend," yeah.

Josh Welton: Yeah, I was on the road this weekend and I heard a Partridge Family song.

Dan Davis: Which one?

Josh Welton: I can't remember it now. Geez. I'm not blessed like y'all two. I can't remember everything.

Emma Sauve: Well, that's okay. I don't know anything about the Partridge Family. So you can say it and I'll agree.

Dan Davis: Once again proving age is not good.

Emma Sauve: What?

Dan Davis: They're a heavy metal band from the '90s.

Emma Sauve: Living is dangerous. A heavy metal band? Oh, yeah.

Dan Davis: No, it was like one of those TV shows about a family that's a band.

Josh Welton: The Waldens?

Emma Sauve: Oh, geez.

Dan Davis: Yeah.

Emma Sauve: They weren't living in a...

Josh Welton: Fun time mountain band. So we're here.

Emma Sauve: This is going well.

Josh Welton: We should introduce you sooner or later.

Emma Sauve: Me?

Josh Welton: This is Emma from Mobsteel.

Emma Sauve: That's right.

Josh Welton: And she has a last name.

Emma Sauve: You should try and pronounce my last name.

Josh Welton: Emma Suave...

Dan Davis: It looks like Suave? I like Suave.

Emma Sauve: That's so much cooler. But actually, if you guys want a little French Canadian history...

Dan Davis: Uh-oh.

Josh Welton: Oh, here it comes.

Emma Sauve: My name is Emma Sauve.

Dan Davis: Sauve? That's still awesome.

Emma Sauve: Thank you. It means savior in French.

Dan Davis: Well, that doesn't give you a complex at all, does it?

Emma Sauve: I'm here to save this podcast.

Josh Welton: That's really? I really thought it was like a made-up name. That's a real name.

Emma Sauve: Don't you have so much more respect for me now?

Josh Welton: Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Emma Sauve: Thank you.

Dan Davis: He thought it was your stage name.

Emma Sauve: I'm either Rico or I'm a shampoo company.

Dan Davis: Is it your dad's artist name? That's...

Emma Sauve: That's right. Sauve Art Foundation. John Sauve, my father.

Dan Davis: Her father's an excellent artist.

Josh Welton: Oh.

Dan Davis: Works in metal.

Josh Welton: Okay.

Emma Sauve: He does.

Josh Welton: Oh, wow. So it's in the blood a little bit.

Emma Sauve: He's not a great welder, I'll say that, but that's okay. That's why he became best friends with my boss so that he could utilize a CNC machine and people that know how to weld.

Dan Davis: And the boss is?

Emma Sauve: Adam Genei.

Dan Davis: There we go.

Emma Sauve: Who, if anybody has been to FABTECH, he was keynote speaker I want to say in 2016 and 2021, and I got to go in 2021, and it was so much fun.

Josh Welton: I was there. He was great.

Emma Sauve: You were there, yeah.

Josh Welton: Yup. He gave me a little shout-out.

Emma Sauve: He looked in the audience. He goes, "Oh, hey Josh." Up on stage and he just goes, "Well, anyway."

Josh Welton: I love you.

Emma Sauve: Wow. That was like, "Yeah, I love you too, buddy."

Josh Welton: That was a little forward. I apologize for that remark. Mobsteel.

Emma Sauve: Forward?

Josh Welton: What's Mobsteel about? For the people that don't know.

Emma Sauve: All right, so Mobsteel, it started off as a custom car shop and specializing in badass... Can I say that?

Dan Davis: Sure, yeah.

Emma Sauve: Mobsteel Custom Car Shop, specializing in the beginning in '60s Lincoln Continentals. They had a vision that just made them gangster, and everybody else hopped on board because they realized that those are not just old man cars. They can be awesome. So blacked-out Lincolns, that was kind of our bread and butter in the beginning. Let's fast-forward a little bit to 2012 when Adam realized there's no wheels out here to really complement these big body styles. So the brainchild that was Detroit Steel Wheel was born, and they actually debuted at SEMA in the Ford booth with the transit.

Dan Davis: Yes.

Emma Sauve: So the Detroit Steel Wheel transit. For anybody in Detroit that's seen that rolling around...

Dan Davis: Black and yellow, black and yellow.

Emma Sauve: Black and yellow, black and yellow. That came out around the same time too. So I was like, "Wow, we're doing something right." But yeah.

Dan Davis: "We're on a trend."

Emma Sauve: Wow. Yeah, we're trending right now.

Dan Davis: "We're going viral."

Emma Sauve: Which, actually, that's a great way to segue into what I do for the company.

Dan Davis: There you go.

Emma Sauve: Which is social media.

Dan Davis: Yes.

Emma Sauve: Social media, videography, photography, and yeah, it's...

Dan Davis: You've been at it for a while now, haven't you?

Emma Sauve: Yeah, I actually grew up at the shop because of my dad.

Dan Davis: Okay, right on.

Josh Welton: So how many SEMAs have you been to?

Emma Sauve: This will be my fourth. Oh no, it won't. Oh my gosh, it's five.

Josh Welton: It's changed.

Emma Sauve: It's changed, yeah. In this moment. Actually, I came, I think, 2018 and 2019, then we had our wrinkle in time, and 2021 was my first year that I covered it by myself.

Josh Welton: Oh, wow.

Emma Sauve: Because Adam and Steve are incredible. They love coming to SEMA to connect with everybody, but at the same time, we have so much going on.

Josh Welton: They have a job to do.

Emma Sauve: They have a job. We have have a job to do for this industry, bringing back manufacturing to America. And that is what we proudly, proudly like to let everybody know for Detroit Steel Wheel is...

Dan Davis: Hundred percent.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, we are an American made product. That does not go without its struggles, but we fight those, because we are a company that's worth waiting for because of the mission that we have behind everything. We have character, we have integrity. We are hard workers, and we work very hard to make sure people are getting the highest quality product at the lowest cost possible. It's really, really rewarding because I think about, I'm still relatively young, I'll say. I got a youthful glow, but I have friends that just, their jobs are so monotonous and there's nothing to work for and there's nothing to believe in. And I'm like, "I'm sorry." I'm like, I just feel so proud of what my team does and what Adam and Pam and Steve have created. And honestly, it's made me a better person too, because character is a big thing at the shop, and you're the only person that you can really manage and change. You cannot change anybody else.

Dan Davis: No.

Emma Sauve: But you can set an example, and that's what they did. I'm pretty cool, right?

Josh Welton: Right, yes.

Emma Sauve: Do you think I'm funny and cool?

Josh Welton: At this table, I think that's a pretty...

Emma Sauve: At this table, anything's possible.

Josh Welton: No, I think you're pretty cool for this table.

Emma Sauve: Thank you.

Josh Welton: I don't know what that does for you.

Dan Davis: We're not at the cool kids table, by the way.

Emma Sauve: Really? You know what's wild, though, is we're neighbors.

Dan Davis: It is. We live right around the block from each other, and I love every chance I get to talk to those guys, talk to everyone over there. They treat their employees right.

Josh Welton: How many are we talking?

Emma Sauve: We have five on the wheel line right now and we've got a killer sales team in the office. We've got Alison, Trish, Spanky, and sometimes if the lines are all full, you get me on the other end.

Dan Davis: Right on.

Emma Sauve: And there's been a couple times where they're done on the phone and I'm still yapping away.

Dan Davis: "Wait, did you hang up? What?"

Emma Sauve: "Oh, are you still there? Oh my gosh, I don't know if they're going to fit the new Dodge Charger, but I think that looks so cool."

Dan Davis: Every time I get a chance to stop by and they're there and I talk to Steve or Adam or both of them, they're just...

Emma Sauve: We do burnouts.

Dan Davis: We've done burnouts. They're actually, you're kind of tied to my Demon, because we did the Demon and the international, the Gangstar burnout, which was awesome.

Emma Sauve: Dude, and it was great because it's like, the Gangstars got that good 30 seconds and you're like, "All right, brrr."

Dan Davis: He's like, "Oh, and you're the turbo spool." And they spool at such a low RPM, I'm like, "Are they... Oh."

Emma Sauve: "Ready?"

Dan Davis: He's presenting his tires, all right.

Emma Sauve: Okay, cool. Please don't hit my car with those rocks.

Dan Davis: No, I didn't. That was awesome. That was so much fun. And then the day, so last year, or earlier this year, Fascut was dropping off my CNC table, but I didn't have a way to get it because we were out of town. We were in Vegas for the Demon 170 unveil. And Adam and Steve were like, "Just have them ship it to our place and we'll drop it off at your shop." So they did that, and when we got back, we moved it to my shop, and after talking to them for two hours...

Emma Sauve: Yeah, honestly,

Dan Davis: Ran inside, came back out, my car was gone.

Emma Sauve: Yeah.

Dan Davis: So that was that day. The good and the...

Emma Sauve: It wasn't us. It wasn't us.

Dan Davis: They've had issues too with that down there, but I guess that's not funny.

Josh Welton: Oh, no.

Emma Sauve: I forgot about that part of the story.

Dan Davis: Sometimes you have to laugh, it hurts so much.

Emma Sauve: Oh, yeah.

Dan Davis: "Oh, this is going to be great... Wait a second. I know how this ends."

Emma Sauve: What'd you come by for? You came by and we were hanging outside for a while. There was a lot of foot traffic that day.

Dan Davis: When was that?

Emma Sauve: We were standing outside and you were giving me the lowdown, like some updates.

Dan Davis: Oh, when Steve was welding, or when he was showing the other dude how to weld?

Emma Sauve: Yes. Carson.

Dan Davis: Carson, yeah.

Emma Sauve: Carson, who is Adam's son.

Dan Davis: Really?

Emma Sauve: Yeah. Carson is Adam's son.

Dan Davis: Okay, cool.

Emma Sauve: He just turned 21. It's wild.

Dan Davis: And then I butt in there and I'm trying to give advice and I'm like, "Wait a second, I'm not over here to..."

Emma Sauve: Oh, come on.

Dan Davis: Sorry Steve.

Emma Sauve: You're not the kind of person that somebody would be like, "Oh, I don't want his advice."

Dan Davis: You'd be surprised. Some subjects, right?

Emma Sauve: Well, at least I could speak for Mobsteel and the Steel Wheel family that...

Dan Davis: Well, it's much appreciated.

Emma Sauve: Thank you. It is also much appreciated from our end too.

Dan Davis: What's an average day for you like at Mobsteel?

Emma Sauve: Okay, so we'll go with Mondays. I wake up.

Dan Davis: It's the first of the month.

Emma Sauve: It's great. Well, actually it was yesterday, but I don't live that far from the shop now. I'm so happy. I live over in, I'm going to say the Grosse Pointe Park area. For people listening, you're going to think I'm bougie. I'm really not. It's a choice rent situation.

Dan Davis: "I'm not."

Emma Sauve: I'm really not. I'm not.

Dan Davis: Hard to believe.

Emma Sauve: Like 15 minutes from the shop, I cruise in, and usually we're either having, we're getting some wheels shipped out or, somebody's always at the shop because the guys, they built such an incredible company and it makes me so excited that everybody just wants to check it out and be a part of it. So I'll hang out with whoever's in the parking lot or just inside, and I'll say hi to Carson who's over at our HOS machine. I walk upstairs.

Dan Davis: It's 35 steps.

Emma Sauve: I get a snack. Yeah. Oh my god, our staircase.

Dan Davis: "At 8:35..."

Josh Welton: Coffee.

Dan Davis: "I open a door."

Emma Sauve: Oh, coffee's already been drank hours beforehand, as you can see. I don't want to crush it too much when I get in there, but I like to... Things are really spontaneous at the shop. So for me, for my own mental game on Mondays, I'm like, "I have got to get my posts set up for Detroit Steel Wheel." So I post four times a day on our Instagram and our Facebook. I get all of our videos prepped for our YouTube, which is a lot of celebrating the customer. That's like what I do here at SEMA is just interviews with everybody that's running our product, because it's so cool that we get to be a part of the story, and especially when it's like "My '49's been in my family since my great-grandpa" or something, and "My son's helping me work on this, and we just thought that these wheels would be the perfect upgrade because it still has that old school look." It's awesome. So I get my posts planned because you never know what's going to happen during the week. There's so many different opportunities to get photos, get video, and just to hang out and talk to people.

Josh Welton: You try to plan out efforts, like marketing efforts?

Emma Sauve: Yes, I do.

Josh Welton: Okay.

Emma Sauve: So I kind of have a basic structure, it's morph. We keep things pretty organic, so I want to make sure that I always have something to post, but at the same time, I don't want to be oversaturated, because that's boring, and we're not boring. So keep things interesting. But yeah, I mean, we're in Detroit. We're in Detroit. Josh, we're in Detroit.

Josh Welton: Yes, we are in Detroit.

Emma Sauve: This is the heartbeat of the automotive industry.

Dan Davis: The industrial mecca of the world.

Emma Sauve: Yes. It's the industrial mecca of the world, and actually, we went to Barrett-Jackson for these last two years. And being in Scottsdale, I felt a little unnerved just because everything's so new. And I'm like, "Man, my city is like OG."

Dan Davis: Yeah. We've got culture.

Emma Sauve: We've got culture. And honestly, for anybody that doesn't know anything about Detroit, if you haven't been, you don't know Detroit. You got to go to know Detroit.

Dan Davis: No, and you've got to be willing to immerse yourself in the city and not just be like, "Oh, we came down to Selden Standard," which, Selden Standard's awesome.

Emma Sauve: It's really good. It's really good. I like Stott across the street myself.

Dan Davis: Honest John's right there, they're good.

Emma Sauve: Yeah.

Dan Davis: And that's kind of an old school thing.

Emma Sauve: It's very cool.

Dan Davis: You get a really old school vibe in there. But Detroit has a creative energy unlike any other city. And it's like the biggest small... It's the smallest big city. And that's actually true-true because the footprint of Detroit, you could fit, I think it's Manhattan, Boston, and San Francisco within the footprint of the city. So you've got only 600,000 people in this huge footprint. And I think the creatives, they find each other, and it's been the Wild West for so long. It's not really like that now, but you catch some of the old timers that have been around the city for a long time.

Emma Sauve: The music scene.

Dan Davis: The music scene.

Emma Sauve: It's insane.

Dan Davis: The party scene, which was part of the EDM and all that stuff.

Emma Sauve: I was talking with Brook Banham the other day. Oh, Brook is an OG. He's like, "Well, if you want to go find a really cool party, I suggest going to the speakeasy at the Speakerbox." And I'm like, "Oh, that'd be awesome." "Or go to Spotlight, that's where me and Judith like to walk to." And I'm like, "That would be awesome." For the people that have been there...

Dan Davis: Brook's an incredible artist.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, Brook... Brook is somebody that I'm like, "Pen and paper. I'm giving you 15 minutes." And I'm like, "Okay, I want to frame that."

Dan Davis: He did a big version of the guys in my Demon stealing it with the cops chasing him, and I'm like, "I'd rather me be in the Demon and the cops chasing me. I think that'd be way cooler, but I like it."

Emma Sauve: Anyone in there? Let's reframe the story a little bit.

Dan Davis: There you go. I'm going to make up my own story...

Josh Welton: Hey, history as I remember it.

Emma Sauve: He was the police sketch artist for the situation with the big fat markers.

Dan Davis: "This is the car."

Emma Sauve: Yeah. Oh, we actually just did Sketch Battle with him.

Dan Davis: I couldn't make it. We were out of town.

Emma Sauve: Yeah. Y'all are all over the place.

Dan Davis: FABTECH.

Emma Sauve: Yes, it was FABTECH. It was, yeah.

Dan Davis: And what exactly is Sketch Battle?

Emma Sauve: Okay, Sketch Battle is so much fun. So Brooke and Judith have, Middlecott Design is their group, their company. And what they have done with Sketch Battle is they brand it as the fight club of design. And they get a full table together. They have probably 20 different contestants.

Dan Davis: And the artists and designers around the city...

Emma Sauve: They know.

Dan Davis: They show up to those events.

Emma Sauve: Yeah. There's top of the line drudges... Top of the line judges, sorry. Flub. And my boss, Adam, was one of them this year. He usually gets involved. He used to do it actually in conjunction with SEMA, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So Sketch Battle, fight club of design, you get 20 artists and there is three rounds of 30 minutes, and he gives them a theme. This year was flying cars, and it was really cool.

Dan Davis: I was bummed I missed it.

Emma Sauve: Oh, man. And I think the color scheme was yellow and black and I was like, "I like that." But we actually had it at the Newlab building in Detroit, which Newlab is, I believe it used to be the old post office next to the train station. Yeah. I think.

Dan Davis: Was that the place they were calling The Factory for a while?

Emma Sauve: I think so, yeah. I'm like, "Okay, Andy Warhol."

Dan Davis: Well, I ended up being in there for an event and a friend of mine, this was way before the train station thing was announced and he's like, "Yeah, the Fords are buying that and then they're going to buy this too."

Emma Sauve: "And Sean's going to make a big announcement soon."

Dan Davis: Basically, yeah.

Emma Sauve: Yeah. But dude, you are going to be... Walking in there, it's insane. And the turnaround time really wasn't that long. For anybody that has been to Detroit and been over to the train station in the last, I'm going to say five years, within this last spring, it's absolutely... They redid the grounds out front. They've got grills, they've got fire pits, they've got swinging benches. It's beautiful.

Dan Davis: I don't think it was, long-term it might be... Where they were at as a company I don't think it was a smart financial move, because they ended up spending a billion on the building and putting a billion into it. Meanwhile, they're laying off a bunch of people, but...

Emma Sauve: Marketing aspect.

Dan Davis: But Bill Ford has always, the contentious union contracts aside, he's always had the city in the forefront of his mind.

Emma Sauve: Exactly.

Dan Davis: And he's always invested back into the city, so I really appreciate that part of it. Because it was an emotional, it was more of an emotional... To me, it felt like more of an emotional buy than a responsible one. But truly, the building looks incredible. The whole area looks incredible.

Emma Sauve: If you're going to be Bill Ford and you're going to put that much money into something...

Dan Davis: It better...

Emma Sauve: Yeah, it's going to be something that's going to better your community.

Dan Davis: Yeah, for sure. For sure. I believe they're going to headquarter their autonomous stuff.

Emma Sauve: They have it over there, yeah. And then they talked about, I think they talked about ripping up Michigan Ave, right? And turning that into the first charging road, street.

Dan Davis: I've heard rumors of that.

Emma Sauve: Yeah. There's been a lot of talk.

Josh Welton: Wow.

Dan Davis: But one of the things I love about, they'll take out, like her Steve, Adam...

Josh Welton: Lincolns baby, we got some Lincolns.

Dan Davis: They'll take out the cars and they'll just cruise Detroit and she'll video it, record it, and then the content is awesome because Detroit has...

Emma Sauve: Thank you.

Josh Welton: How many Lincolns are we talking about?

Dan Davis: A million.

Emma Sauve: Oh, right now? Oh, gosh. Okay. We've got '63 drop top. We've got a '70, which, that has been something that Adam and Steven have been on the hunt for a long time. I'm not going to get all of the details correct, but I know from the '70s Lincolns that they pulled a lot of concepts from, you can see a lot of different vehicles, especially in the front end of it, but it's great because it's like this retro yellow. How do I want to put it? It's like a pastel kind of yellow.

Dan Davis: Yeah, yeah. Mustard almost. Not really mustard, but...

Emma Sauve: A Dijon mustard.

Dan Davis: Dijon mustard, yes.

Emma Sauve: Then we actually, we took to Sketch Battle as kind of like a centerpiece, our '66 Motor City Vice Lincoln.

Dan Davis: It's wild.

Emma Sauve: It's wild. Okay. You see me...

Dan Davis: I don't think I've seen it in person yet. I just see it everywhere on video and social media.

Emma Sauve: Well, yeah, we got to get you in it too.

Dan Davis: Heck yeah.

Emma Sauve: When they were creating the concept design behind it, they're like, "All right, we're thinking pink, purple and blue." And I'm like...

Dan Davis: It is Miami Vice.

Emma Sauve: I'm like, "Oh."

Dan Davis: "Oh, wow."

Emma Sauve: Yes. I'm like, "I appreciate those colors myself." But it's a coupe, so it's just nice that it's got a little extra something you don't see every day. And Brook helped bring it together. He really helped bring that car to life. So he designed this giant mural for us. It's eight foot by eight foot and it's split down the middle. So it's something that he created for people that have M1 garages where they want the art pieces in there. Maybe they want one, maybe they want two, or they could just have the split and choose from the two, which is pretty cool. But he made a piece for us, and that was actually for the big reveal for Lincoln's 100th birthday at Woodward Dream Show, 2022. So that's where we debuted the Lincoln, and it was really neat because we took aspects of the mural and we went full retro with this. There's Velcro seat backs in it.

Dan Davis: Oh, wow.

Emma Sauve: And you can switch out the seat backs. We've got a custom pair of shoes by Michael J. Kicks and Jordan Diab. They did a fantastic job designing this custom pair of shoes from Brook's mural. Brook made a pair of shoes and then they made the pair of shoes. So we have it lit up.

Dan Davis: The synergy is incredible.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, synergy. Developers, developers, developers. But it's matching. In the trunk there's the shoes, and you can take the Velcro Nike strip and match them to the interior, because there's a lot of fashion that goes with vehicles too. So, oh my god, I love that car so much. And we did a very custom set of Detroit Steel Wheels on it where it's reminiscent of an old Bentley wheel pattern, I think?

Dan Davis: Yeah.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, where it's got three slots just varying smaller to larger in that saw blade kind of pattern. And then we 3D printed some inserts.

Josh Welton: So how old were you when you started working-working for Mobsteel?

Emma Sauve: So I...

Josh Welton: Or how did that come about, even?

Emma Sauve: So we had a TV show. Our first TV show was on NBCSN, and I want to say that was like 2014. So Adam and Steve have always had their thumb on proper marketing techniques.

Josh Welton: Yes.

Emma Sauve: They were on, oh gosh, what was it? What's the one where everybody had the one friend? MySpace. They were on MySpace.

Josh Welton: Tom.

Emma Sauve: Tom, yeah. Tom was like, "I'm a big fan of Mobsteel." Tom was their friend on MySpace. They had a MySpace. So they always knew that there was going to be a better way to market your company. There was going to be some kind of platform that we were going to be able to share everything instead of just the shows.

Josh Welton: Adam sees the future.

Emma Sauve: He really does see the future. His brain is insane. And my dad and I always joke, we're like, "How are you this good? Did you kill somebody?"

Josh Welton: "Did you drink their blood?"

Emma Sauve: There's got to be something wrong. He's an incredible person and he's just a wealth of information. And Steve's awesome too. He's probably the hardest worker I know. Talk about energy.

Josh Welton: And kind. They're just kind people, and it's a hard combination to find.

Emma Sauve: They're so funny. They're so funny. So obviously I really like working there. Steve, when you're building a car for a TV show, you're building a car for a show. Our production team was amazing, but they're there to get the shot. So when they pack up, that's when the real work begins. We got to get this thing running. So Steve, he was putting in the hours during the day, doing the production for the show, after hours building the car, then he'd go home and he'd get on Instagram and start promoting Detroit Steel Wheels. Now, Emma was looking for an internship, because she didn't have one yet, and I was finishing up my degree in advertising, and I specialized in graphic design.

Josh Welton: Where'd you go to school?

Emma Sauve: Michigan State University. So I said to him, "Hey, I would love to start learning more about Detroit Steel Wheels, because I would really like to work with you guys and see what I can do on my end for... You know, I'm young." You know what, this is wild. It's stupid, but my college roommates and I, we had this rabbit and her name was Poppy. She was a bunny. She was cute. We started an Instagram for her. We got 10,000 followers. So I used that as a...

Josh Welton: As your thesis?

Emma Sauve: Oh, no, no.

Josh Welton: In your resume?

Emma Sauve: Yeah. I was like, "So I know a lot about social media. Princess Poppy Seed has over 10,000 followers in a two-month span, so I understand the hashtags."

Josh Welton: That's actually really good. I need to hire you.

Emma Sauve: She died a couple of years ago, so...

Josh Welton: Oh, maybe I don't need to hire you.

Emma Sauve: Rest in peace. Oh no, I didn't kill her.

Dan Davis: Under mysterious circumstances.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, she was so upset that nobody was running her page anymore.

Josh Welton: She just passed away from...

Emma Sauve: She would always rattle the cage.

Josh Welton: What did you say, attention is your?

Emma Sauve: I said my drug of choice is attention.

Josh Welton: And you gave that to the rabbit and then took it away.

Emma Sauve: And then I was like, "I can't make money off you."

Josh Welton: And it died in despair.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, well, I wasn't really the owner of it. I was just like, "Dance monkey, dance. I got to get a job. Emma's got to eat."

Josh Welton: Back away slowly, back away slowly.

Dan Davis: Emma's got to eat.

Emma Sauve: "Yeah, wear the tutu." But yeah, so I got the job because of that rabbit, I guess. Thank you, Poppy.

Dan Davis: RIP Poppy.

Josh Welton: Silly Rabbit. Jobs are for me.

Emma Sauve: Jobs are for me. The bunny got me the internship, but it was great because at that point the season had already aired and I really got that expertise from Steve, and Steve is the first person to say, it was so hard for him to give that to somebody else. And I am in the same position as him where he's like, "Do you need help?" I'm like, "Dude, I don't know if I could give this to anybody else to work on." I can still compartmentalize everything and figure out what's going to be the best line of action for me to create success for us, and I just don't see anybody else next to me yet. That's hard.

Dan Davis: So you're anti-intern because they might steal your job.

Emma Sauve: Don't say anti.

Dan Davis: I got it. I got it.

Emma Sauve: No, I just can't... I'm a pretty, how do I want to put it? I'm firing at all ends all the time, and I think that I would do a bad job right now because I feel like I'd leave them in the dust, and I wouldn't leave much of an explanation. But at the same time, yeah, it's like teaching a baby how to swim when you just throw it in a pool.

Josh Welton: What was that? What was the movie? Was it the Devil Wears Prada or something where they basically just throw the intern in the fashion industry, they just throw the assistants in?

Emma Sauve: Anne Hathaway, mm-hmm.

Josh Welton: And you got to keep up. That's going to be you, it's going to be a movie.

Emma Sauve: They gave her bangs and then she became better.

Josh Welton: That usually is how it works in movies.

Emma Sauve: Yes, it was actually, I'm going to give it to Stanley Tucci. He really turned it around for her. Stanley Tucci...

Josh Welton: He's an incredible actor.

Emma Sauve: He's amazing. And when he came to Detroit to film for, I think it was Transformers, my friend's dad was running, I think it was the GM plant, right? No, it was a Chrysler plant. They were shooting at the Chrysler plant.

Josh Welton: Where at? They were shooting at the train station.

Emma Sauve: They were shooting at the train station, but they also shot at a Chrysler plant, and Stanley Tucci died laughing that you had to get off of 69 onto Big Beaver.

Josh Welton: On Big Beaver?

Emma Sauve: Yeah, and he thought it was the funniest time.

Josh Welton: I lived there at Kirks and Big Beaver Exit 69.

Emma Sauve: Yeah. Congratulations.

Josh Welton: Everyone around Michigan knows what that means.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, it's funny. And Stanley Tucci knows too.

Dan Davis: He does.

Josh Welton: Appreciates it.

Emma Sauve: He should bring that up in his cooking videos. But yeah, it's hard. It would be really hard to... That's something that, I'm not perfect. Nobody's perfect. And I think just identifying that there's always opportunity to learn is what creates more success for everybody. So something that I need to work on right now is figuring out how to bring somebody else on and teach them the way that I would want to teach them to be successful. It's really hard in that mindset.

Josh Welton: Well, it's also hard, you're developing a style and a language, and until you...

Emma Sauve: It's your baby.

Josh Welton: Have that fully sorted out, it's evolving, and you're constantly creating, so it'd be hard to bring someone on and be like, "All right, this is the vision." It might even be hard to explain the vision you have.

Emma Sauve: Well, and a lot of it too is, in the beginning Adam told me that he will never tell me how to do something that he doesn't know how to do himself. So I take that on. I work on the wheel line. I understand the entire process that goes into building our product, and I know all the hardships that it takes. I want to translate that message to anybody that is interested in Detroit Steel Wheels and Mobsteel in general. Mobsteel at this point, we still build custom cars, but we do a lot in our community. So actually, I was just talking to Lex this morning from DHDC, the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, and we do a lot of fundraisers with them. They have the two top robotics teams in Michigan.

Josh Welton: Oh, nice.

Emma Sauve: It's the girls that are first and the boys that are second. And I'm like, "That is so cool." So it's like, Mobsteel really wants to be a company that invests in the city as much as we can. We're not really buying a train station and remodeling it right now, but if we can be on the ground with the next generation, that's where we're at.

Dan Davis: And I've talked to Adam about things that have worked out, haven't worked out as far as trying to branch out. And the thing is, he always has a sound line of reasoning for everything he does.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, he really eases your mind.

Dan Davis: It's not hyperbole how much they do in the community. One of the things I really respect about Adam is Discovery, when you started doing the second TV show, they wanted to bring them back and he's like, "You've made..." It takes forever building the cars. So much work, it costs more money. And he's like, "I'm not in this for becoming famous or getting money. I'm in this to spread our message about what we're about." And he did, he did it for that time and was like, "All right, we're good," and went on to grow the company.

Emma Sauve: And that's the thing, it's like, our production team. I can't say enough good things about them. They're fantastic people. They have a job to do. But they came back with, I think we did eight episodes and we did a split for the last episode, I think was our, oh, maybe it was the second two. It was a two-parter for our Bronco, our '79 Bronco. But they're like, "We want to do a season two, but we want to double the builds in the same amount of time for shooting. What do you say, pal?" And we're like, "We say no. We need to invest back in our community." And people always ask "What happened to the show?" And I'm like, "The show was awesome." I'm so glad that so many people were so entertained and so excited about what we were doing, but that's not going to change things.

Josh Welton: That whole reality TV thing is, it can go off the rails real quick.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, I feel... You can burn out quick.

Josh Welton: To me it's like, how authentic is it?

Emma Sauve: Yeah.

Josh Welton: To me, I feel like it's just like, it's poor substitute for scripted drama. They're trying to do it on the cheap, but meanwhile it's costing everybody involved, not necessarily money...

Emma Sauve: Beverly Hills Chop Shop.

Dan Davis: And for a while there they were like, I know I had friends on both sides of the country that had done tons of pilots and never got anything out of it. And it's like you just spent, basically, you spent, whatever, a week or two weeks of your shop time, which is very valuable, to do this, and then nothing comes of it because for whatever reason.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, because it's your whole life you're putting out there on a whim of Hollywood Tinseltown. You know, toots, it's rough out there.

Josh Welton: It literally is the light that the flag goes to and then, zut.

Dan Davis: Oh, it's a hundred percent, that's it. The few that make it, even the ones that become really popular, a lot of them, they don't make money until they own their own stuff because they send contracts where merchandising belongs to Discovery or whatever.

Emma Sauve: See, that's what... Adam was really smart when he developed the plan for us. There's a reason we were called Detroit Steel on History Channel. We were not signing our name over at all. There was no way that was. And then we were Mobsteel on NBCSN, but like I said, he's so smart and he's got great resources to make sure that... He's not signing on for him. He's like, "I've got people, I've got mouths to feed. I have people that look at me to make sure that their livelihood is secure."

Dan Davis: He takes the responsibility very seriously.

Emma Sauve: He takes the responsibility, yeah, and he's very smart. So he organized a really, really great deal for us, and all we wanted to do was share the message of our shop, what we stand for. And a lot of it was to highlight the city, because...

Dan Davis: We still build things in Detroit.

Emma Sauve: We still build things in Detroit.

Josh Welton: So it really is kind of like a mission-led organization.

Emma Sauve: It is, yeah.

Dan Davis: A hundred percent.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, for sure. He always says that he pursues business with intent, and every piece of the puzzle just, you might not see it right away, but he's thinking so long-term. And I told him, I'm like, "Selfishly, when I start to get stressed out about things, I just go, 'It's okay. Adam's probably already thought about this. It'll all be okay.'" And it is, really. I mean, there are struggles for sure. I think these last couple of years have taught us that we're not making it back at home, there's a good chance that we're not going to get it. I remember when COVID hit and in the grocery store in Detroit, the only meat that you could get for this sandwich was from Dearborn. Dearborn Meats. And it's like, you didn't get anything else because you couldn't get it.

Dan Davis: I've talked to Viper Industrial a few different times and they're really cool dudes. But what they were doing is, their dad had done some design work for Bailey, designed some of their machines and stuff, and they had come out with a few products that they were selling, and then the pandemic hit and they couldn't get any parts. And they're like, "What can we build that's completely in-house?" So they started doing those chairs because the industry that was the niche...

Josh Welton: Oh, I remember that.

Dan Davis: That the industry didn't have, and now talking to them they're like, "We don't want to make the products everyone else makes. We want to make things that solve a problem in the industry, and we want to do everything." So even on the seats, they do all the embroidery in-house, they do all the painting, they do it all there. So in a similar way they're sticking to, they're going back to their roots, and "We are controlling our destiny." And they're even making an energy drink that's actually pretty good.

Emma Sauve: Oh, that's good.

Dan Davis: It's actually really good.

Josh Welton: That really will be... I mean, I'm sure medically, pharmaceutically, there'll be some other things that come from the pandemic, but in terms of just bringing everything local, I mean, that's going to be the lasting, I think, impact.

Dan Davis: I think so.

Josh Welton: 6When we talk about manufacturing.

Dan Davis: A lot of manufacturing became really skittish over having overseas, or even not even overseas, but in country, just smaller places couldn't produce or other... Even, and I don't want to turn... We love Detroit.

Emma Sauve: We love Detroit.

Dan Davis: But we have this concentration of builders and engineers and creators, and in the 1800s, we were the shipbuilding capital of the world, then we were the stove-building capital of the world, and then, then the cars came, and then the military came, and we've always had this high concentration of...

Emma Sauve: We're a port city.

Dan Davis: People who are willing to put in huge, long hours, which now I'm like, you see the downside of that, but Darla's third, fourth generation trades, her family's always worked seven 12s. I worked a ton of seven 12s growing up, and we had that mentality. Like at General Dynamics during the pandemic, we worked seven days a week the whole time, and won them a 1.14 billion contract because we were there all the time building this new tank.

Emma Sauve: Oh, I remember that.

Dan Davis: And the company basically, I don't want to get into that, but they basically pooped on us. But the idea that we started making so much more stuff in-house because we had to, and then we started making more stuff for other parts of General Dynamics because their suppliers couldn't supply them. So we became the...

Emma Sauve: You were the resource, yeah.

Dan Davis: And every time they talk about moving, "Oh, they're going to move us to a cheaper area to work," it's like, it won't work. You don't have people with that mindset concentrated in an area like you do in Detroit.

Emma Sauve: Exactly. Like you said, Detroit's got a huge footprint, and we're pretty excited because we're expanding our location.

Dan Davis: Right on.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, next door, which is even cooler.

Dan Davis: Breaking news?

Emma Sauve: Breaking news.

Dan Davis: There you go. You're ready to burst.

Emma Sauve: Jay has been working hard on that building. He's incredible.

Dan Davis: You do your announcing voice. "Breaking news."

Josh Welton: Breaking news.

Emma Sauve: Breaking news in Bikini Bottom. But it's like, we did a lot of research in the city of different locations that would maybe be able to have that kind of power for what we're looking to do, because Detroit Steel Wheel is such a... We're growing pains, which is awesome.

Dan Davis: It's such a known, it's ubiquitous now. It's just a name that everyone knows, and if you've got a certain type of project, you are going to go Detroit Steel Wheel.

Emma Sauve: Yeah. Thank you.

Dan Davis: And even if you don't, you might.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, and I love that we have such a vast array of vehicles that we're a part of. I mean, we could be anything from pre-war era to the new Bronco.

Dan Davis: I'm thinking about, I have an idea we've talked about for my Ram.

Emma Sauve: We talked about this, yeah.

Dan Davis: Yeah, so I'm hoping that works out. I got to talk to the guys about... I did talk to Steve and he said he thinks it's doable.

Emma Sauve: Possible? Yeah, for sure.

Josh Welton: What you thinking?

Dan Davis: I want to take a plain steel wheel and then weld it like it was blown apart and put back together. But keeping it within, you can't literally do that because it would be impossible to balance, but take one of the raw wheels and pattern it like that.

Emma Sauve: I want you to be safe on the road.

Dan Davis: Yeah, yeah, I don't want to die. I think it's the Mad Max look I'm going for with the Ram, I think that would be pretty dope.

Emma Sauve: Cool, yeah.

Josh Welton: That's awesome. That's a lot of creativity there.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, you're going to have to start wearing a 1Z.

Dan Davis: I've actually had that idea for 20 years and just now I'm...

Emma Sauve: Before it was cool.

Dan Davis: Before it was cool, before I even knew what a Detroit Steel Wheel was.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, "I had this idea before it was cool."

Josh Welton: That's funny.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, I'm excited for that. I just love, especially at this show, I love running into people that are like, "Hey, Detroit Steel Wheel." And I'm like, "Yeah, yes, yes. I'm at your service. Do you got something cool that you want to put our wheels on?" And they're like, "Yeah." People have so much creativity, and I'm so happy that we have a product that it started off as a very simple design, but you can do so much with that. Simplicity has an elegance to it, and it's very applicable to so many different aspects of the vehicles that have been created in this industry.

Josh Welton: Is this show the big one for Detroit Steel?

Emma Sauve: I mean, it's SEMA. SEMA's SEMA, right? SEMA's a big one for a lot of different reasons, and I need to hit Dino's next year. I usually hit LST, which LST is Wild.

Dan Davis: One-star roundup is...

Emma Sauve: Yeah. Dude, I've been there on days when I'm like, "There's 22 trucks here on wheels." And I'm like, "There's one, there's one, there's one, there's one. Quick draw." It's awesome.

Dan Davis: I made it there once and it was awesome.

Emma Sauve: It's so much fun. The group over there is fantastic, like Woodward Dream Show is always fun, just because home city. What else? I need to add a couple more shows. Like I said, we did Barrett...

Dan Davis: You into PRI?

Emma Sauve: You know...

Dan Davis: I mean, you're not racing equipment.

Emma Sauve: I know. I'm like, that's the one reason... I want to go, just because I've got this double-edged sword where I'm like, "I love my job. I get to hang out like this with you guys. I'm having so much fun right now. This is a blast."

Dan Davis: Likewise.

Josh Welton: Same.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, you better agree.

Josh Welton: Yes. I just don't show emotion very well.

Emma Sauve: Yes, you do.

Josh Welton: All right, I'll take your word for it.

Emma Sauve: Yes, you do. "I don't show emotion. Yes, I do." The contradicting podcast.

Dan Davis: I never lie. Well, sometimes.

Emma Sauve: I actually lie all the time, except I'm very truthful when I do it. Yeah, that was a very honest answer in my opinion.

Dan Davis: I agree.

Emma Sauve: Yeah. I mean, this show's fantastic.

Dan Davis: No lies detected.

Emma Sauve: Yes, no lies detected, ocular pat-down, engaged. But yeah, PRI, I would love to add that because I would get to hang out and connect. And I'm going to say building relationships is something that I love to do. I love to do it. It's so fun making friends, and I feel like we've just got a great scope. The foundation is there because I've got a very reputable company that people can relate with, and then they meet me, and I've had a couple of people tell me I'm cool.

Dan Davis: There you go. It's official.

Josh Welton: A couple.

Emma Sauve: I'm like, "Take that, bullies in third grade."

Dan Davis: What's ahead for Emma at Detroit Steel?

Emma Sauve: Oh, let's see. We have a big year. We have a lot of really cool stuff. Actually, Steve and I had a really good meeting a couple of weeks ago just setting precedents for what we want to do with the brand this year. So there's a lot of great people that we're meeting up with. I don't know how much I can share, but...

Dan Davis: Breaking news.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, breaking news.

Dan Davis: "I can't share anything, but stuff's happening."

Emma Sauve: Yeah, it's happening, just know that. But I'm just really excited. In this moment, I kind of am blanking, because I live in the moment.

Josh Welton: There you go.

Dan Davis: That's very Darla of you.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, blanking? Because you're just so happy.

Dan Davis: No, living in the moment.

Emma Sauve: Living in the moment.

Dan Davis: Because you're so happy, yes.

Emma Sauve: Yeah. I get really excited about opportunities like this. This means a lot that you guys are having me on this.

Josh Welton: We appreciate your company.

Dan Davis: We're so stoked you were able to do it.

Emma Sauve: I'm so stoked, my dudes.

Dan Davis: So stoked.

Emma Sauve: This is my first podcast.

Dan Davis: No way.

Josh Welton: Really?

Emma Sauve: This is.

Josh Welton: Oh, wow.

Dan Davis: That's crazy. You're a natural.

Josh Welton: Thank you.

Dan Davis: We should start a podcast.

Emma Sauve: We should start a podcast. We could talk about movies.

Dan Davis: We could set up in the showroom. We could set up a podcast studio.

Emma Sauve: You know what? That's I want to do. I mean, Adam's such a...

Dan Davis: We've talked about doing it in our shop too, but our shop is always dirty and you got actually a clean space there.

Emma Sauve: Do we?

Dan Davis: I haven't been in there in a while.

Emma Sauve: We got a lot of cars in there right now.

Dan Davis: Remember we did the van?

Emma Sauve: Oh, dude. Yeah, the van cast. That was fun.

Josh Welton: Ooh.

Dan Davis: Back when the Arc Junkies thing was a thing, and we won't talk about that, but that was a blast, doing the podcast in the van.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, because you turned the front seats around. We had the table in the back, and I remember...

Josh Welton: This is like a conversion van?

Dan Davis: Yeah, it's so dope.

Josh Welton: That's pretty sweet.

Emma Sauve: Oh, the Santana?

Dan Davis: Yeah.

Emma Sauve: It was awesome. I remember...

Dan Davis: Shag carpeting, right?

Josh Welton: That is pretty nice.

Emma Sauve: The sound quality was fantastic in there. It was, yeah, dead, Deadmau5 all over.

Josh Welton: You still have that van?

Emma Sauve: No, we sold it to our friend Darko.

Josh Welton: Darko. I know Darko.

Emma Sauve: We sold it to Darko.

Josh Welton: Oh, man. That's a blast from the past.

Emma Sauve: Yeah. I'm like, Darko's cool.

Josh Welton: Is he doing podcasts or anything?

Dan Davis: He's got a big junkyard in Detroit. No, he's totally old school.

Emma Sauve: His dad's name's Rasputin.

Josh Welton: No shit.

Emma Sauve: And I think his brother's like Brad or something. Right?

Dan Davis: They built, what was it, a Rolls-Royce with a LS engine in it?

Emma Sauve: Yeah, for 24 Hours of Lemons.

Dan Davis: Or was it the Viper?

Emma Sauve: No. Well, the Viper engine.

Dan Davis: Yeah, because he was big into Vipers back in the day.

Emma Sauve: He's got so many stocked at the shop.

Dan Davis: I bet. I haven't been to his place in forever.

Emma Sauve: Yeah. I think they tore down part of it, because it's leaky tiki back there.

Dan Davis: It was a sketchy place.

Emma Sauve: Well, I just remember, I loved it.

Dan Davis: It was awesome.

Emma Sauve: Every time he walks out, he's got this long hair and he'll flip it.

Dan Davis: It's glorious.

Emma Sauve: And he's like, "What's up, guys?"

Dan Davis: He's like a rock star.

Emma Sauve: It is glorious. He is. He's old school rocker, for sure.

Dan Davis: He is, because he doesn't crave attention or anything, but he's just that dude.

Emma Sauve: He's got a great crew. All the guys that are friends, I feel bad. I didn't go to his Halloween party, but he dressed up as a basic B word, and so he had Uggs and leggings and he's like, "You're going to have to come see it." I'm like, man, "Them skinny ankles in them Uggs. Got to keep them warm."

Dan Davis: And he has one of the buildings along Woodward, right?

Emma Sauve: He's right next to the airport.

Dan Davis: Yeah. Yep, yep.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, it's cool.

Dan Davis: I haven't talked to him in a minute. I'm trying to think of the last time I saw him, but yeah, interesting guy. Big into just weird fabrication stuff.

Emma Sauve: Yeah. He's an artist too. My dad actually, I think one of his pieces is down in North Carolina at the university, the college. Is that North Carolina University?

Josh Welton: That'd be UNC.

Emma Sauve: UNC nothing yet.

Dan Davis: There you go.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, so that's where one of his pieces is.

Dan Davis: But that's Detroit. That's just like...

Emma Sauve: Yeah. That's the scope.

Dan Davis: Yeah.

Josh Welton: That's tight.

Emma Sauve: That's a very good example of us all just kind of knowing each other.

Dan Davis: Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Josh Welton: Thank you for watching. Be sure and rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Emma Sauve: Five stars.

Dan Davis: Five stars.

Josh Welton: Emma can be found at...

Emma Sauve: Oh, I'm @mobsteel_emma on Instagram. My Facebook is really just so my grandpa can see that I'm alive, so you don't have to friend request me on that. But yeah, Detroit Steel Wheel and Mobsteel. I've got YouTube videos coming out on the Detroit Steel Wheel page for all of the vehicles that are here at SEMA. And yeah, I'm posting, tagging everybody too, so go and follow our awesome Detroit Steel Wheel family if you want to see more badass rides,

Dan Davis: Give a shout-out to Grandfather.

Emma Sauve: Yeah, Grampy. Oh, my Grandpa Ed. He always tells me, "You got to get a bag so you can pick up some knickknacks at that show. They got so much stuff."

Dan Davis: Knickknacks are important.

Emma Sauve: He's the French Canadian one.

Dan Davis: Oh. He sounds very much like...

Josh Welton: Bonjour.

Emma Sauve: Bonjour, monsieur.

Dan Davis: Sounds very much like Darla's dad.

Emma Sauve: Yeah. Dijon.

Josh Welton: Got to get him good stuff.

Dan Davis: Josh, thank you for joining us today.

Josh Welton: Yeah, you're welcome.

Dan Davis: And I think that's a wrap.

Sara Spring: The Fabricator podcast is a production of Fabricators and Manufacturers Association located in Elgin, Illinois. The show is hosted by Dan Davis and the staff of FMA Communications. The podcast is produced by Gareth Sleger and recorded and edited with the help of Brandon Geier, sales support provided by Andy Flando. Additional production support by Elizabeth Gavin, Dana Wiker, Mary Diamond, Mike Owens, and me, Sara Spring. Thank you for listening.