Show stopping craftsmanship at SEMA 2021

Episode 382

November 21, 2021

Automotive craftsman like cream rises to top again

When I met Garrett Holler at Restoration Performance Motorcars (RPM), Episode 209, April 22, 2018, he was the lead body specialist working on some of the most exotic, expensive cars on the planet. He was in his mid-20’s with more skills than many autobody specialist twice his age. He was like a sponge, getting as much information into his young mind through reading, videos, and talking with the pros.

Peter Markowski owner of Restoration Performance Motorcars, Vergennes, Vermont, on right confers with body restoration specialist/fabricator Garrett Holler on how they will proceed on making the exhaust for this Ferrari road car. April 2018 was when I met Holler. I follow his career to this day.  (HTF Motorsports photo)

Garrett shared with me how he met the DeBerti family and was called upon to build not only the C10 but a Subaru Rally Car for the show circuit. In his words, ” When Heather (Garrett’s wife) was working for DirtFish Rally, she was Brad Deberti’s lead mechanic at all the events. She got to know the family really well from racing.”

“We are now living in the same town as the DeBerti family in Mooresville, North Carolina. Brad reached out to her to see if she would be interested in helping build a Subaru for a TV show he was doing, Hooptie World Championship, on Motor Trend.

Hooptie World Championship involved 12 contestants, six teams, six different cars with $5000 maximum build costs. The teams competed in a variety of motorsports contests which can be seen on Motor Trend TV.

“Unfortunately for Heather,” said Holler, “she had just started working for Hyundai WRC in Germany, so she wasn’t available. Heather suggested me as a stand-in as I know customizing Subaru’s for no money better than her anyway.”

“During the search for a car, I had brought the DeBerti family to my shop to look at a WRX roller I had to potentially use as a car for the show. They saw my rally car with the sheet metal flares on it and thought, ‘Hey this guy could do the sheet metal for the c10!'”

“They offered me both jobs. For about four months or so, I would go over to their shop and work on both cars.”

Holler worked on the Subaru first, gutting the interior and welded in the roll cage. This was followed by brake/suspension upgrades and a general over-look and nut-and-bolt of the car.

“The car was built to all of the show rules,” said Holler. “Brad DeBerti was almost annoyingly strict on making sure it was dead on the guidelines of what the show wanted”.

C10 Slayer

At the SEMA Show at Las Vegas Convention Center with the C10 Slayer unveiling on November 2, 2021 at the HP Tuner booth.(DeBerti photo)

Holler continued saying, “After we got that car all squared away and off to the show, it was all attention on the C10.  I started with building a flat firewall with one relief in the middle at the top for supercharger clearance, then I went about building the foot wells and dog house that goes around the transmission. The center console bars that connected the middle of the cage front-to-rear were fabricated and welded in.”

View of footwell. down tubes and center console tubes on roll cage and dashboard of the DeBerti C10 Slayer under construction. (Holler Customs photo)

“The floors and the center console sheet metal were next. I shaved all of the ash tray, radio, and some other holes in the center of the dash by cutting it all out and welding  a new piece of sheetmetal. I then metal finished it out so no filler was needed for paint.”

“After the interior was mostly done up, we had to connect the cab corner to the floors and make it all look seamless and factory. This basically was it for the main cab. We went out and purchased some new sheet metal and I welded some new replacement bed ends to the tailgate. Next, I metal finished them out so that it was all one piece across the back. I made filler pieces to cap off the front of the bed ends so that the back of the taillights would not be exposed to the tire throwing rocks and burnt rubber.”

The difficult task of tying cab corners to frame and make it look close to stock was no simple process according to Garrett Holler, Holler Customs. Note the use of filler was eliminated in this area also. (Holler Customs photo)

“We then moved to more cage work, connecting the top of the main hoop of the cage thru the cab and to the back of the chassis. Yes, it is welded all the way around on EVERY joint even the one at the back of the cage up against the cab wall. I had to break out the mirrors to get to the back of some of them. We did the same treatment to the front tying the dash-bar into the front frame as the chassis had an unexpected bit of flex.”

“In the engine bay, you can find a bunch of little things that I did such as the engine mounts were custom made, possibly a bit over built but it couldn’t hurt to over build them when the engine makes over 1000hp (detuned to run pump gas).” (Holler Customs photo)

My favorite modification I saved for last. Unfortunately, unless you know these trucks you will most likely overlook it. I cut the hood in three pieces. We needed to do this as the front tires had an offset so wide and the truck sat so low when lowered the wheel would have cut the factory fender in half.”

“We needed a clean way to make everything bolt together and stay one piece. We decided to cut the hood on the outside of the hinge mounts and take the two outer bits and bolt them to the top of the original fender giving everything strength and rigidity.”

“After that was all sorted, I made some inner wheel wells and reinforced the inner structure of the hood so the hood could still be opened without buckling.”

The inner front fender was completely fabricated from scratch. And now that it’s done it’s a promo vehicle so it’ll travel the country maybe world showing off the brands that sponsored the build. Maybe also doing a few 1000hp four-wheel burnouts too! (Holler Customs photo)

“There is so many more little tiny custom tricks done to this thing everywhere that the only real way to truly appreciate this build is to watch Brad’s YouTube series of us building this truck. The DeBerti family, I’m happy to report, are true honest great car guys, they don’t cut corners and do really top-notch work. Plus, they are great to hang out with! Deff one of my favorite builds I’ve been a part of.”

Garrett Holler with the recently unveiled C10 Slayer at the 2021 SEMA Show. In addition to the C10 project, Holler had a hand in two other SEMA Show cars; a C8 Corvette and Nissan RTR. (Holler Customs photo)

UpNorth Motorsports will continue to bring the readers up-to-date on future Holler Customs projects. Until then…

Let’s go racing

Tom Hale

Soli Deo Gloria (Psalm 143)