By William Abernathy
Photo by Randy Grubb
Randy Grubb has one sweet job: workingย from his Grants Pass, Ore., garage, he buildsย hot rods. His rides, however, are far from ordinary.ย No small-block Chevy engines or deuceย coupe chassis litter his yard. He builds fromย supersized truck, jet, and tank parts.
The son and grandson of dentists, Grubbย seemed destined to continue the family tradeย until a glassblowing demo in college led himย astray. Using French โlamp workโ techniques,ย he built brightly colored glass sculptureย paperweights, which earned him a good livingย for 20 years. For fun, he built cars.
At age 40, Grubb decided to take a year offย to work on a giant car. The next month, 9/11ย occurred, cratering the high-end collectibleย market. โThere was no career left to go backย to,โ he says. He poured his life savings andย a year of work into the Blastolene Special, aย 9,500-pound roadster built around a 29-liter,ย 910hp M47 Patton tank engine. Flush withย new owner Jay Lenoโs cash, he found a newย career: extreme cars, built on spec.
With the success and acclaim that theย Blastolene Special brought him, Grubb continuesย to work long hours on new rollingย sculptures, winning awards and (he hopes) aย place in the pantheon of great coachbuilders.ย His latest creation, the Decoliner, mashes upย a 1973 GMC motorhome and a 1955 Whiteย Motor Company cabover truck with Buckย Rogers styling cues. With its polished aluminumย finish, nautical portholes, and rooftopย fly bridge for land-yachting, the Decoliner isย a truly unique ride.
โI consider myself really lucky,โ Grubb says.ย โI can spend 3,000 to 6,000 hours on a singleย project in a culture where you can hardly getย a three-second sound bite in. Thatโs what itย takes to make something special.โ
From the pages of MAKE Volume 31:
The maker movement is making science exciting again. Forget the lame baking soda “volcanoes” and the zillion-dollar supercolliders — just as punk rock took music back from the supergroups and big studios, “punk scientists” are making inexpensive new tools to conduct real experiments in garages, schools, and hackerspaces. In MAKE Volume 31, you’ll learn how to make DIY laboratory equipment (even a scanning electron microscope!), create high-voltage sparks from falling water, control a cockroach electronically, get started in biotech, and see how individuals and schools are networking their data for real scientific discoveries. Plus: Get started with multicopters or servo controllers, and build an automatic dog ball launcher, great-sounding speakers with flashing LEDs, a classic folding-wing Rocket Glider (a new MAKE kit), an iPad music desk, a levitating solar Mendocino Motor, and much more.
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