In eGarage.com’s newest video, the film crew meets with Skoty Chops, owner and operator at Skoty Chops Kustoms in Northern California. Skoty’s story is one of personal trailblazing–a self taught builder, mechanic, and fabricator Skoty is a great example of the work that traditional shade tree passion can produce. “I actually started working on cars because I couldn’t afford to have anyone else do them,” says Skoty. By attaining one of his first dream cars, a ’67 Impala, Skoty slowly learned and picked up build knowledge by addressing the various jobs that his Impala required.

Skoty got his first dose of custom flavor from exposure to lowriders at an early age. Lowrider car culture has a big influence on several of Skoty’s builds featured in the video above–from the paint and stance to the flashy soul and accessories that adorn traidtional bombs and lowriders.

Skoty’s ’67 was eventually sold and in turn he purchased a ’52 Chevy in pursuit of a kustom/bomb influenced build. Where the ’67 Impala formed the general basis of Skoty’s mechanical skills it was the ’52 that exposed him to the school of fabrication, welding, and chopping. “I wanted to chop it and I didn’t know how to weld, grind, fabricate or anything. I had a friend that welded, he left the welder at my house…so I said f*** it I’m just going to pick this damn thing up and start welding,” says Skoty.

With the help of experienced builders in the car community like Voodoo Larry, Skoty was given some much needed direction. “Voodoo Larry was actually one of the first people that I talked to, he spent hours with me on the phone and then I just started doing it. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but it was pretty f****** awesome to make something out of nothing. I knew then, that that’s what I really wanted to do.”

Having a natural fire to improve his fabrication and welding skills, Skoty took his ’52 to shows around California and this served as an initial calling card. People noticed his work and in turn Skoty started getting requests from prospective clients. This era in Skoty’s personal journey paved the way for the fully operational kustom shop that he runs today.

“The first hot rod I ever built was a 1930 Model A 5-window coupe. Again, I was still in the learning process of everything…first frame I ever built. I had this idea to have something that was super aggressive and super slammed. I built that car in my grand mother’s garage and that car is actually what really put my name on the map. My abilities of fabrication at that point and time where not all that they could be but that’s the great part about learning–you have to suck to get good,” explains Skoty in a humble tone, he continues, “If I was to build that car today it would be a completely different car, but that’s part of the process of learning and life…with that thing I learned a lot of what to do and what not to do, from styling and fabrication. That car really did make me who I am and gave me the foundation.”

Skoty Chops and those like him are a true inspiration for the younger generation of enthusiasts who are starting to produce more work. One can argue over the importance or legitimizing factor of formal education versus being self taught all day and to no avail–one thing that’s true is that in both cases learning and education occurs.

It takes a hell of a lot of passion to stick with something for that many years and to light your own path for a majority of it is as much a sign of dedication as any certification. Where traditional text book knowledge and tech trivia may fall flat people like Skoty who dig deep and do what they have to do to gain that knowledge have an inspiring level of love for the craft, untarnished humility, and a gluttonous hunger to constantly learn.