Beyond the Price Tag: Curating Custom Cars
I’ve been into custom cars since I was 15, nearly five decades ago. In that time, one lesson stands out: the true value of these machines is rarely reflected in the market.
Take my 1969 Camaro project. By the early 2010s, I had already poured $210,000 into it with no interior or bodywork done — easily a half-million-dollar build in the making. I sold it unfinished for $100,000. A tough lesson, but not unusual in this world.
In 2015, I stumbled into something bigger: the QuadraDeuce. Built in 1995 and reimagined by Rad Rides by Troy in 2000, it was a highly technical, groundbreaking car. Despite costing hundreds of thousands to build, I picked it up for just $51,000 — a steal, but also proof of how poor marketing can erase years of craftsmanship and pedigree. Over the next nine years, I refreshed it, put 6,500 miles on it, and created QuadraDeuce.com to preserve its history. When I sold it in 2024, the website went with the car, ensuring its story would live on.
That same year, I landed my current obsession: the 1951 Ford Coupe known as the Wicked Shoebox (GT51). Built over six years with an open checkbook, its rumored $1.4 million build cost is easy to justify — more than 12,000 labor hours plus parts, all performed at the highest level. Yet after its original owner passed away, the car quietly sold for around $300,000. Criminally undervalued, but not that uncommon considering how poorly these cars are typically marketed. To make matters worse, the car sat at a consignment lot just 30 minutes from my house for over a year before the second owner bought it — and I had no idea!
I paid far more than that to pry it away from its second owner — and I’d do it again. To me, it’s worth every penny. At the 2025 Grand National Roadster Show, many of the original builders joined me to unveil it again, sharing stories that proved just how special this car is. I launched WickedShoebox.com to make sure that history is never lost.
I don’t see myself as just an owner. I’m a curator. These cars aren’t commodities; they’re rolling works of art, built from thousands of hours, immense skill, and boundless creativity. My role is to preserve their stories, showcase them, and make sure their legacy lives on for the next curator down the line.
In the world of custom cars, the real value isn’t in the sum of their parts — it’s the history, passion, artistry and countless hours of labor that goes into conceiving of and building each one of these spectacular machines. Consequently, online classifieds and auction sites that work so well for buying and selling mass-produced exotic cars, luxury cars and rare stock restorations fall short of marketing ultra high-end hot rods in a compelling way to the right target audience.
That’s why we’re launching the Wheel Hub Vault, the premier online marketplace for buying and selling the most spectacular custom cars ever built. By applying the same exacting standards that go into curating each issue of Wheel Hub to the cars offered for sale in the Vault, it’s our mission to provide the ultimate shopping experience for buyers and sellers alike.
Thank you for joining us on this journey!
Desi DosSantos
Listing Curator
Wheel Hub Vault