Bodie Stroud knows cars. More specifically, he knows how to take old cars and rebuild them into immaculate showstoppers — or customize them into candy-painted, HEMI-stuffed unicorns of hot rod glory. He has more than twenty years of experience in the automotive space and has spent almost a decade helming his own custom hot rod shop: Bodie Stroud Industries (BSI) in Sun Valley, California. It’s little surprise that celebs like Johnny Depp, Jonny Knoxville and Tim Allen have tapped Stroud to design painstakingly reimagined four-wheeled chariots for them.
This month, Bodie can be seen starring in the new season of American Restoration on the History Channel. For 13 episodes, Brodie’s BSI shop will be doing what it does best, including restoring an antique fire truck for the Los Angeles County Fire Museum, rebuilding an ultra-rare three-wheeled Davis Divan for the Petersen Automotive Museum and resurrecting a numbers-matching 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge from the dead.
Which makes it a perfect time to hit Bodie up with his rules for buying a classic car — for the joys of ownership and the possibility of investment. Since 2005, classic car collecting has outperformed the stock market and real estate in valuation, making it one of the best places to stash your retirement money. And wouldn’t you rather be driving a 1979 “Screaming Chicken” Pontiac Trans Am down the Pacific Coast Highway than stuffing twenty grand into a savings bond? We certainly would.
Since most of us don’t have seven figures to be shopping for a Ferrari GTO or Bugatti Type 57, we’re targeting our advice to those looking for something between $20,000 and $50,000. But it ain’t easy. “It can be a hard deal, and to come out totally unscathed is a rarity these days,” says Stroud. “Sometimes it’s like trying to [know] Wednesday’s winning Lotto numbers [on Monday]! But it’s worth the effort.”