Jeff Ismail, Scout Master on Episode 237

If International Harvester made it, Jeff Ismail knows about it. From printed manuals to Scouts and Travelalls, Jeff has his finger on it. A self-made man, Jeff understands that happy is a choice, join us for a conversation on episode 237. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

3:29 – my friends were playing and swimming, but not me and my brothers, we were with Dad – raking leaves and edging lawns, doing what we had to do to earn a living 

8:50 –some grew up in Ford, some Chevy, some Dodge – we grew up in IHs             

17:17– You don’t forget people who race in Scouts; we won a couple of seasons, and it was always by attrition. It looked like the Turtle and the Hare

28:28 – my dad came to me and said, I want to take you back to the home country to get married; I’m like, I’m not ready to get married! 

36:36 – my dad goes, “why don’t you just fix up that pole barn out there and start working on Internationals again?” If I got Dad’s blessing, why not?

43:27 – we’ve always had this thing, “If the job makes sense, we’ll take it!” 

49:38 – people don’t know me, but they know my truck.

57:23 – Some people are like, Oh, I can’t wait for the future. I know good times, I’m living in good times.

Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.

Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

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Automotive related topics. Anything from owning an repair facility to racing. Anything...

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• 15:38 [Ad] All Automotive with Matt Clawson
• 16:18 (Cont.) Jeff Ismail, Scout Master on Episode 237

Transcript

[00:00:01.100] - 

Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview-style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the off-road industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call off-road. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active and off-road. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call off-road.

[00:00:46.560] - 

Whether you're crawling the Red Rocks of Moab or hauling your toys to the trail, Maxxis has the tires you can trust for performance and durability. Four wheels or two, Maxxis tires are the choice of champions because they know that whether for work or play, for fun or competition, Maxxis tires deliver. Choose Maxxis. Tread victoriously.

[00:01:13.030] - 

Have you seen 4Low magazine yet? 4low magazine is a high-quality, well-written, four-wheel drive-focused magazine for the enthusiast market. If you still love the idea of a printed magazine, something to save and read at any time, 4LOW is the magazine for you.  4Low cannot be found in stores, but you can have it delivered to your home or place of business. Visit 4Lowmagazine.com to order your subscription today.

[00:01:39.520] - Big Rich Klein

My next guest is a guy who never got over playing with tractors. In fact, he has made a life and business out of corn binders. Jeff Ismail, how are you doing this morning?

[00:01:51.270] - Jeff Ismail

I'm doing awesome. Rich, how about you?

[00:01:53.420] - Big Rich Klein

Doing fantastic. So we got a lot to talk about. You know your love of tractors and how that all started. You just got back from UA, the new UA. So we'll talk about that as well, if we can.

[00:02:10.530] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah, absolutely. It was a blast.

[00:02:12.610] - Big Rich Klein

Cool. So let's start at the very beginning. Where were you born and raised?

[00:02:18.520] - Jeff Ismail

I was actually born in Southern California, in North Ridge, and lived there till I was 13. My dad was a gardener and landscaper, and smog was just killing him. I mean, it was just bad. I remember as a kid playing down there, at the end of the day, you'd try to breathe, and you'd be like, you'd be all up tight in the chest. So anyways, when I was 13, he moved us up here to Loomis. I'm the youngest of five. So my one older brother and sister moved up with us. My two oldest brothers had already moved out before then and stayed in SoCal. But we moved up here to They're still in the same house in Loomis. And from 13 on, Northern California was my new home. And and I love it up here.

[00:03:09.280] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And so your dad was a landscaper and gardener and moved you guys up to Loomis. The smog was too heavy. Was that about late '60s, mid '70s? No, that was actually...

[00:03:25.830] - Jeff Ismail

So we moved up here in '88.

[00:03:27.520] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, in '88. Okay.

[00:03:29.180] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah. I started It's my first year in high school here in Del Oro. My one brother above me, he started as a senior. He's three years older than me. And so he finished out high school there. But yeah, I graduated Del Oro. When we moved up here, my dad He still did some landscape jobs and stuff, but he opened up a nursery there on Sierra College, and him and my mom still dabbling plants to this day. The nursery is officially closed, but they'll still They'll never stop being green thumbs and growing plants and stuff. So people still stop by and we'll do that. But yeah, growing up, my summers were especially in Southern Cal. I remember all my friends playing and swimming, but not me and my brothers. We were with dad. We were raking leaves and edging lawns and mowing lawns and doing what we had to do to earn a living. But it taught us you had to work hard for what you want. You can't just sit around. There is fun. My dad would take us. He's an avid hunter. Every weekend, if he wasn't on a hunting trip or taking us hunting with him, he was fishing.

[00:04:42.450] - Jeff Ismail

We did a lot of fishing down there like on a rock dam and on the Castake Lake. So as a kid, we did definitely a lot of outdoor stuff. I was always with him like that. You got to a point where finally I looked at my mom and said, Okay, I want to go with dad on this trip. I used to follow him for miles and miles. My dad would just put in the miles. He was always the one that came home with the game. But he put in the effort. And like I said, I just remember as a kid just chasing him for miles over the Santa Barbara Mountains and all that. And then eventually, I was a teenager when we moved up here. But once we moved up here, and as I got older, I definitely started hunting a little bit less. But I still remember walking the forest up here with them, trying to find a deer, quail, or grouse, or something. Always good times, though.

[00:05:30.160] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And in school, were you a good student, or were you always looking out the window?

[00:05:39.350] - Jeff Ismail

A little bit of both. I mean, I always went to school. I always got good grades. Obviously, my favorite was small engine repair and welding shop and stuff. By the time I... I think when I was a freshman, I had already taken the Foley Belsaw Institute of Technology Institute of Technology and Repair or something, whatever it's called. I can't remember the name. I still have the notebook, but it was like a mail order thing on how to work on lawn and tractor engine. I actually still somewhere have business cards when I was 13 or 14 and I was doing lawn repair right there at the same place. My parents still live on Sierra College, and charging people for oil changes and tune-ups and sharpening their blades and all that. That's where my mechanics side of it started, because I would tinker with minibikes and go-karts when I had a young age. That's what I started with when it came to motor recreation. In fact, I was just down at my parents house a few weeks ago, grabbing a pile of frames, and they're laying in the dirt was the minibike I made in high school that I drove maybe 100 yards, but I didn't have the technology at the time to build one special part for it to make the chain drive work.

[00:06:50.760] - Jeff Ismail

It was part like Honda 50 suspension and like I said, custom frame. That's where I used to tink with. I used to actually take the cam shafts out of the five-horse car, Riggs & Stratt, and I'd weld on the lobe, and I'd grind a new cam profile, too. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was just trying to get more lift and power. Definitely, my buddies that were all in minibikes and go-karts, they never really could ever keep up with me because I would always play with those camshafs. But again, it was just dumb luck making them run better when I did that.

[00:07:23.400] - Big Rich Klein

So when you were even smaller, did you play with tractors and stuff?

[00:07:29.950] - Jeff Ismail

Before mini bikes and go-cars, I actually had a wagon.

[00:07:36.460] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:07:37.550] - Jeff Ismail

I had a wagon, I lift it. We had a half an acre there in Southern California, so obviously this was in my single digits, but I remember putting mud tires on it and stuff, and I would rock that wagon all around. It was my four by four. Nice. Tractor-wise, I've always liked tractors, and I do have some, but Well, you know the reference, of course. Yeah. Like, nowadays, it's when I say tractor, I'm referring to my trail tractor, hideous. Right. I like to call it. But yeah, I was He's been in it. Like I said, growing up, my dad, so for the landscape business, he had one international for that. And then he had, which my oldest brother to this day still owns. And then he had for his hunting and all that, he had a '59' B1 B120 crew cab Travelette. My other older brother still owns that truck to this day. That's where the whole international harvester bug comes from, is that my dad had a couple of international harvesters, and all of us, even my two oldest brothers, are in the similar business. We're an IH family, I guess you could say.

[00:08:50.950] - Jeff Ismail

Some grew up in Ford, some Chevy, some Dodge, but we grew up in IHs, so that's what we gravitated to or stayed with. The wheel of.

[00:09:01.420] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. So you're working in high school. Summers are spent working with your dad.

[00:09:10.590] - Jeff Ismail

Well, yeah. In the beginning, like I said, as a teenager in Southern Calgary, we But once we moved up north, he opened up the nursery. But yeah, when we moved to Loomis, the four acres, like half of it was jungle. And I remember my brother and I, my sister doing a Heralda Rivera, like impersonation of tunneling through the jungle and stuff. Then we weren't even up here three days. Then the next morning, my dad's waking us up early and going, Come on, we got to go to work. We started carrying out that jungle. He graded that whole property and now raises cattle on it for both supplemental income and for keeping the freezer full. But that's when I first started, and I actually got a job down the street at a nursery. What's funny is my mom and I both applied at High Ranch Nursery. My mom's the experienced one, of course, but they hired me and not my mom. My mom ended up going up to Iisley's nursery in Auburn, where she ended up being there for a few 20, 25 years where she retired at it. So I did nursery work a little bit.

[00:10:21.430] - Jeff Ismail

And then I think by the time I got my first scale, I was 16 and a half, and then shortly after I got my first job, and that was Auburn Equipment Rental, just above the Fort dealer there in Auburn. It's obviously long gone. So I was working there part-time, actually. And then once I graduated high school, I was full-time. I started as an equipment washer there. And by somewhere in the age of 16, by the age of 19, I was managing the place, making a whopping $7.85 an hour. So I needed to make... Yeah, I liked it and all that. The owner was a cool dude and good people. And As people quit above me, that's why I kept stepping up. But they would see me that I'm responsible and, Hey, this kid can run this place and stuff. So eventually, I went from there. And then the mechanic left back to, I think, Georgia, Jerry. And so I was like, I'm done, Kyle. I don't want to deal with people. So he moved me in the back and I was doing that. Like I said, I wasn't making much money. And as a young kid, we always have big ambitions.

[00:11:26.410] - Jeff Ismail

So I left there and joined one my cousins into the construction business. So I started doing humping lumber and all that stuff and digging in ditches, whatever they needed, until one day they discovered I knew how to weld. The one benefit to working for this company was a lot of the prevailing wage jobs we were on. So we were at the shop, we were just making our base wage. It wasn't much. But usually on the jobs, they were all government jobs. We're making prevailing, we're making good money. But once they discovered, like I said, I could weld, they had me back at the shop at base wage, pumping out rote iron, fencing for jobs and doing other stuff. I was like, It was cool and all. I said, Another good company. When I would get out on the job, it was good money. But that was around the time I rented a little, like a one-day shop out of New Castle and officially started working on IHs. So that would have been around 1996, I want to say.

[00:12:31.140] - Big Rich Klein

So you owned one at 16 and a half, and was it pretty much stock or did you start fixing it up then? And then is that what- Oh, I started fixing it.

[00:12:44.500] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah Yeah, it started like a stock Scout. Four-cylinder, a 76 Scout, too. I still have it to this day. It's a million pieces. One day we'll rebuild it. One-niny-six, four-speed, 354 gears, just The sky blue, that's not the color they call it, but I have always known it, just the sky blue. Just cool little stockish Scout. So yeah, it didn't take me long before I started teetering with that thing and throwing these springs under it and 33s, and then it didn't take long. I was taken because I was a little bit ahead in high school and had all my credits. I started taking... They were allowing me to go to Sierra College and take classes there to continue on and fulfill my duty. So I took engine machining, and I was building heads and blocks and stuff. It was pretty cool learning that side of it. But that was about the time I did the V8 swap on the Scal. And in the weekend, basically, had to use 304 on Rebuilt and made it for a weekend and popped that thing out, popped it in, added one exhaust pipe down the side because the 196 basically looks like the V8 on one side.

[00:13:59.110] - Jeff Ismail

So I only had half an exhaust system. Got all that done and V8 swap teacher gave me, walked him out to the parking lot and he gave me extra credit for doing a V8 swap on that thing and it looked good. But that was my first intro into it was that scout. That's where it all started. And I started fabricating on it, making bumpers. Like I said, I learned a lot, had a lot of adventures and misadventures in it. But like I said, I hope one day to rebuild that. My son Zade started tearing it down one day, and he was going to rebuild it in his... Heck, almost 10 years ago. And then as a young kid, he's like, Oh, the easy parts, tearing them apart, and then putting it all together. And then he moved on to other projects. But we have all the pieces. I still have that truck. And, yeah, someday we'll put it together. I mean, I used to take that thing to Southern California. I used to desert race back in the day with my older brother, and I was a co- driver. Every six weeks, I was driving that thing down to Southern Cal, and I used to travel trailer behind it.

[00:15:06.790] - Jeff Ismail

I remember almost dying on the 15 when I jackknife my travel trailer, trying to keep caught up. Oh, man. Like I said, so many adventures just running down and out there, out to the desert with it and wheeling here locally a little bit with it. Not too crazy. I don't think I ever Rubicon or Four Dice, that scalp, but just going and buy over a full Lake by Rattlesnake and stuff, just as a young kid, just messing around with it out there. But mostly it was trips out to the desert, that thing.

[00:15:38.620] - Big Rich Klein

You said you were off road racing with your brother. Was he based in Southern California? Did he move back to there?

[00:15:47.250] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah, he lives in Lancaster to this day. Together, I bought this from a buddy of mine. I think for $60 in a lawnmower, I got this Scout Traveler, and that was the basis of the racer. I gave it to my brother. He built it into a racetrack. I think I was able to get down there and help him wire it. It was about it. But he pretty much built it. Then we raced initially in NDR. No, I'm sorry, in La Rana. We started in La Rana and raced that for a couple of seasons in the 400 class. That was fun. It had a six-cylinder at the time. We did that just to stay out of trouble, really, limiting the horsepower. You only go so fast. It was fun. Then until, if I remember right, I think Lorana, they had issues in folded or something, and then we ended up in MDR. At that time, we switched from a 400 class to an 850 class. We were the 4 by 4. What's the 850 class? Like 4 by 4, full width. I can't remember exact definition of it, but I know it had to do with us being four-wheel drive.

[00:17:03.040] - Jeff Ismail

But we were pretty much racing against the courage. That was fun and interesting. In fact, when I still run into this day and I'm like, Hey, remember me? We used to race you in a scout.

[00:17:14.280] - Big Rich Klein

You don't forget people that race in scouts.

[00:17:17.560] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah. There was a couple of seasons we won, and it was always by attrition. It was like I always looked at it as the turtle in the hair. They were always faster than us. They were always blowing by us. But it was just a matter something on their rig break in or going wrong. And then we would just be the little turtle just steadily making our laps. And eventually it's like, Oh, dude, we finished in front of them or they broke, so they didn't finish. They got a DNS. And we would be the winner. So it was fun. That truck was, as a co- driver, somebody who sat in it, was a beating of torture. Being Lee Spring's front and rear and everything, and Rancho Shox and all that. I just remember so many times I had to have my ball up my hand into a fist, stick it between my belt and my chest, tighten my belt as tight as I could, just trying to collapse my chest because I felt like my innards were ripping out. It's weird to explain, but talking to other people, they know what I'm talking... Racers, they know what I'm talking about.

[00:18:26.050] - Jeff Ismail

They're like, Oh, yeah, I know that. You get into a certain angle and a certain rhythm, and like, yeah, your innards start juggling around in there, and it ain't good. I did race after race after race with him. I did pretty much every race until the day, I guess, I cheated the Grim reaper on an off-road accident. When I broke my femur in an off-road accident, that slowed me down in life. I think that was for me, my day of infamy on December seventh of '96. That was the day, like I said, I'd like to say I cheated death, you could say.

[00:19:02.320] - Big Rich Klein

What happened in that accident?

[00:19:05.810] - Jeff Ismail

That was a local thing. That was right here in Auburn. My old boss from Auburn Equipment Rental, Don Carroll, he just lived right up the road, off Bell Road there on the east side, just past where the helicopter is. They're not the Cal Fire helicopter, but the rescue helicopter there. Awful enough, they'll come into play here in this story in just a moment. He had a property back there in an easement with the railroad that they could drive to their house with. And his son, Brett, was cruising his Jeep and messing around back there and got stuck. I don't know those Jeep things too much. It's just your basic wrangler of the day. And it had bald tires, and he just couldn't make it up this little 20, 30-foot switchback. So he gave me a call. Hey, Jeff, can you come out and help me? I'm like, Yeah, dude, I'll be there first thing in the morning. So I came out there I took my old Scout Terra. I named it rental draft because that thing was... Or no, this was a brown... I take that back. This was before rental draft. This was a brown Terra that I had.

[00:20:10.720] - Jeff Ismail

It had only been driving for 10 months. I built it and raced it at Prairie City in the mud drags and won both my heat in it. It was an awesome time. Then did one Rubicon trip in it. Then fast forward to this day, so I show up. All I had, I was a poor boy, poor old farm boy, as I like to say back then. All I had was a chain. So I went to go. I pulled him up this incline to get him up top of the road. And I got him up to one part and I just needed to get him up one more. And I felt something happened and I looked back, and the chain had pulled the bumper off his Jeep, and I was like, Oh, shit. Excuse me. This kid's got a pretty nice old Jeep. I hate to do that. So I put my Scout in park. It was a springover deal. I'd never had the parking break. So I put it in park, had a torque light in it, walked down the hill, and he's still sitting in his Jeep, and he goes, What do you think?

[00:21:06.440] - Jeff Ismail

And I crouched down, and I looked at it, and I'm like, Man, you better get out and look at this yourself. I just didn't have the heart to tell the kid I just tore his bumper clear off his Jeep. Right as I stood up and right as he had his back turned getting out of the Jeep, my scout ran me over. And basically, I was the meat in the sandwich. It pushed me between the Jeep and the bumper of the Scout and the bumper of the Jeep. I feel like it threw me uphill. I just remember laying there, watching the Scout and the Jeep go down into the gully. Brett got knocked down, but fortunately, he was okay. I looked over, my left leg is doing a turn to the left where it's not supposed to been. I had to pick my leg up and straighten it out. The one blessing is Brett's mom was the head ER nurse of Auburn Bay Hospital. Oh, wow. Happened to be home that morning. There was a rental house that they owned in between their house. I remember Brett ran up and got Frank, and Frank came down to console me until Melinda could get down there, and then she pulled Trash in.

[00:22:11.610] - Jeff Ismail

Of course, it wasn't fully life-threatening. In fact, they couldn't get the helicopter to me anyway. They put me in an ambulance, drove me into the helicopter that I had just driven by earlier that morning, loaded me up, flew me down to Roseville. Another helicopter or another ambulance ride to the hospital there. In the end, like I said, it was a sound of femur, but otherwise I was okay. Like I said, I say I cheated death because like I said, it was just crouched down. That could have been my head. I would have been done. But I stood up at the very last second, and then instead of my head, it was my feet. So I've always just said, I feel like I've cheated death that day. Always December seventh, I'm always real anxious those days. I always December it. It's like, December seventh, stay away from off-roading or don't walk behind any vehicles. And anytime I'm off-roading, I'm always actually just real, try not to ever walk on the downhill side of a vehicle unless I know that it's got a good rock in front of it or something holding it in front. But anyways, I ended up living.

[00:23:22.660] - Jeff Ismail

Obviously, they put a rod in me and I got out of the hospital after a few days. And then a few days later, I got a blood clot and I was back in the hospital, and then I got out. And the girlfriend I had at the time, all this was an epiphany to me that I needed to move on from life. And I was just letting her use my scout and exactly through A few weeks later to the day, she totaled it. She was drunk and totaled it, and that was the end of that scout. I only had that copper gold, brownish scout for 10 months. I remember building it. It was a cool scout, but it lived a short life. But anyways, I was in the scout business by then. That was what, '96? I had started earlier that year, January, February, and things were doing good. But then breaking my leg, I got behind. I just Before that, had met and hired Chad, Chad Maycroft, who's like my brother from another mother at this point in life. He was working for me. He really helped me keep the business going while I was down and out.

[00:24:28.460] - Jeff Ismail

But we When they looked back, we didn't know what we were doing in business. We were loving, wrenching. We liked IHs. That's what brought us together. I'll lead up. We went to high school together, Chad and I, but we didn't really know each other in high school. So I didn't meet him until afterwards on one of the Sierra Scout trail rides. And then I eventually met his dad, Hal. But we stuck together and we did the business up until, I think until '98. Like I said, I just didn't know what I was doing. And then, what I like to say, I just failed miserably and ended up getting out of it. By '99, I was working for other shops locally.

[00:25:11.320] - Big Rich Klein

So let's... When you said you started your business. Did you walk away from the equipment rental? That's right.

[00:25:23.240] - Jeff Ismail

No, I was at Construction by then. Right. Yeah. No, it was like I said, good prevailing way. I was making prevailing wage, making good When I was on the site, I remember walking into my boss's office explaining my situation, said, Hey, I got this whole site. Keep going. It's starting to pick up. I'd like to switch over to part-time with you if that works. If not, then. And he's like, No. He goes, Hey, man, you're great. And all that. I really appreciate it, but part-time doesn't work for us very well. But good luck with your adventure.

[00:25:51.420] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. So you left on good terms.

[00:25:53.760] - Jeff Ismail

That was easily February of '96, when I really officially launched out. And I said, I'd say by '99, it was all over with. We were broke. Like I said, I just was not a financially responsible individual at that time. More or less just chasing the girls and drinking a beer and just trying to survive. I mean, literally, Chad and I, we'd be so broke. Coming into the shop, we'd go through every parts vehicle we had, even though we'd gone through them. Sometimes we still scround up with that money change out of them to go buy a soda out of the machine out front. But obviously enough, we're paying the electricity to operate, but we didn't own the machine. We just had some view that started a soda machine there. So anyways, every once in a while, we'd come in and Hal would have a note on the door and say, Hey, there's breakfast paid for it. Otherwise, go eat up. And we'd be so thankful to go like, Oh, let's go, dude. Let's go eat. We'd go, and it all, Hey, how left us the... He's like, Oh, yeah, you guys stood out. Your breakfast is paid for.

[00:26:59.130] - Jeff Ismail

What do you guys It was so awesome to have that support.

[00:27:03.660] - Big Rich Klein

The work that you guys were doing, it was general maintenance and fab work, everything?

[00:27:14.350] - Jeff Ismail

Everything.

[00:27:15.430] - Big Rich Klein

And the concentration on international harvesters?

[00:27:19.960] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah, mostly at that time, it was all scout tools. It was the most popular. We were doing anywhere from a complete frame-off custom build to Spring over actual conversions, and then a lot of maintenance, oil leaks, electrical. That's always the big things on these things. So we're doing a lot of maintenance work. One of the things, besides not being financially responsible on the business side. But what also killed us, I remember the day a gentleman walked in and said, You guys need a website. I'm all website. I mean, we were so busy. I'm like, What do we need a website for? We're already so busy. I don't need that. I get out of here. And the guy left. We had a few yellow page ads at the time in our local area. But what happened, what I came in conclusion is, on these vehicles, you do so much work, you make them driveable. Again, the customer is happy. You don't see them except for maybe an oil change or something at that point. And we basically saturated our local market. We had no more business. And nobody outside really knew of us. So we didn't have parts for sale at the time or anything like that.

[00:28:28.530] - Jeff Ismail

We were mostly just a shop fixing these things up. Once we had fixed up everybody in our local area, business got tight. It definitely wasn't as profitable or there just wasn't as much work. When I looked back on at that day and I'm like, Man, it was really a website that I needed. But again, 99, I got out of it. I was living with my cousin at the time, being a bachelor, working at an automotive shop in Auburn. Pretty content in my 20s, just being a bachelor. Then my dad came to me one day and he's like, I want to take you back to the home country, to Syria, to get married. I'm like, I'm not ready to get married, but you know what? I won't mind going back there because I hadn't seen a lot of my cousins and relatives since '85. My parents immigrated here from Syria in the '60s. My grandfather immigrated to Ellis Island way back in the day and actually worked for Ford, oddly enough. Anyways, that's where the whole Syria thing comes in. I'm like, meh. I got to tell you what, I had just started a new job at Rogers Automotive there in Auburn.

[00:29:41.220] - Jeff Ismail

I said, You come in and talk to my boss, and if he says I can leave, I'll go. I didn't think my dad was going to show up. Son of a bitch, if he wasn't there the next morning talking with Bob and they just having a good old boy conversation, I'm like, Oh, man, I better start packing my bags. I think I'm going to Syria. Like I said, I really I was like, I'm just going and I am not ready to get married, but whatever. I'm going to go on this trip. My dad's paying for it. Why not? I went, and I swear it wasn't even in the country more than an hour or two. The moms are stopping by with the daughters, Cortin. It was like showing me, showing the goods, meeting the parents. They'd leave this with so and so, and that's your daughter. I'm like, Yeah, okay, whatever. Like I said, I just wasn't interested. I remember when I met my wife, she caught my eye the first time we were getting a bus ride out front. They use those little fans out there in that part of the world. I remember seeing her.

[00:30:43.370] - Jeff Ismail

That was the first time she caught my eye. Then fast forward a couple of weeks, I'm hanging out with my cousins, and they're like, Hey, man, you want to go with us? We're going to go across the street, shoot the breeze with the neighbors. I'm like, Yeah, I'll go with you. I go over there, and that's when I see Norma for the first time. I didn't even know that was her name. She's like, she just caught my eye. I'm like, Oh, there she is. She's the only one that's like, she went made us popcorn. I'm just hanging out with my male cousins, hanging out with her brothers, basically, for a little bit. Then when we went to leave, I go, Hey, who's the girl that made us the popcorn? Oh, that's Norma. I'm like, Norma? She's got an American name, too? They're like, Well, yeah, that's an American name, I guess. I'm Holy crap, man. I'm like, Okay. Like I said, from there, man, she just won my heart. Basically, on first sight. Back there, it's just like, Hey, if there's an available Syrian heritage male from America. It's like, you consider it. But anyways, long story short, she had a good feeling about me, what she told me.

[00:31:53.050] - Jeff Ismail

She goes, Yeah, my stomach told me that when you had asked if I wanted to come back to America with you and all that, I just had this good feeling. She had to talk to her dad, and he said, Of course, yes. I was like, What are you waiting for, girl? Pack your bags. We began the process. First, I extended my trip, and we dated for a little bit, went on some trips, and just made sure we were compatible and all that. It's like, Oh, yeah, no, I'm just head over heels. We began the paperwork, and it was about a good 10 months, almost. It was a good 10 months it took me to get all the paperwork dealing with the Syrian side of it and then our American embassy side of it. And ever since dealing with that part of life, I came to the conclusion there is no mountain you cannot climb. Dealing with a foreign third-world country government is one heck of an education in life because like I said, if you You can get through their BS. Then on our side, I remember calling our congressman Doolittle over here, writing him letters, and that's exactly what he was.

[00:33:09.770] - Jeff Ismail

But in the end, I'm sure you remember him. But anyways, Eventually, it took a while. It invigorates us to this day to see, I don't want to get into politics here, but to see what's going on in the state of people crossing the border illegally when all my family are a family of immigrants, and we've all come here legally. We believe America. We love this country. Like I said, it's like we did it the right way. It's like there's no other excuse. You just have to wait in line and do your service and all that to do everything you need to do to get here. But we did it anyways. I went back. We had a beautiful wedding back there in Syria. We came back here. We had another wedding out here. And man, that was 24 years ago, days ago.

[00:34:01.110] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, nice. Congratulations.

[00:34:02.840] - Jeff Ismail

Happy anniversary. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Thank you.

[00:34:06.260] - Big Rich Klein

So then she became a partner in the business. What happened when you guys got back to the United States?

[00:34:12.120] - Jeff Ismail

Let's see. We got back. I was still doing general automotive repair. I had moved on to like, Auburn, Honda. I was working on Toyotas and Hondas. And that's when, let's see, I was about 29, and that's when I blew out my hips. I actually had to have my hips rebuilt to age 29. It wasn't replaced. Doctors didn't want to replace them. They're like, You're too young. They're all, If I replace them now, I guarantee me replacing your hips every 5 to 10 years. They're all, I'm going to try this new technique. We're going to drill some holes in your bones. You're going to have to stay off your feet for months at a time, and we're going to try to get your hips to rebuild naturally. That's what I did. I walked in with my doctor's note to Honda to let them know where I was at. They said, I shouldn't work anymore. Then the owner came out and said, I heard you're quitting. I'm just like, Okay, I see how this is going. I went on disability there for 10 months. I had my hips rebuilt. I had one done and then I had the other.

[00:35:22.440] - Jeff Ismail

But during that time, I've always taken what's... I seem to get lucky in the worst of things that happened to me, I could turn them around and just make them the best. I didn't know poop about computers back then. Not a whole lot. Sitting there, not much to do. I still had tons of fused parts left over from the previous IH business. My wife's working with my mom up at Iisley's nursery, Zade still in diapers. I'm watching him and just trying to heal up. I get on eBay and I start listing some of these parts I have. I'm like, Man, nothing just I'm sold for that. I don't even have to talk to this guy. Like, man, that was pretty easy. In that year of being off, I was just selling a lot of parts on eBay. I was like, man, I started to save up a nice little nest egg because we were living at my parents house and eventually with the goal of buying our own place. We're just slowly saving up. After 10 months, I got healed up. I went to go work. My first job was at EuroMotors. I was working with my other brother from another mother, Darren, who's my general manager and been with me the longest here of the 20 years.

[00:36:36.920] - Jeff Ismail

He's been with me nearly 19 years. I worked with him doing European, and it was cool and all that. I really didn't like working on European cars, but there wasn't enough work for both of us. I was driving up from Loomis, so I moved on from there. I think I went to go to work for Magnuson's Dodge. I was there 4.2 days. I came back from my four on, three off. There's leaves on my toolbox, and I can't find the service writer to find a ticket. I'm like, I'm out of here. I left there, went and worked for master technicians, and back to Toyotas and Hondas. I was there for a few months and nice place to work for and all that. But in the end, I knew, like I said, that was my third job in the same industrial complex. I knew eventually I would not get along with the owner. After about six months, I walked in to quit and got fired. I didn't know what to do at that point. That was April 2004. I'm sitting there and I don't know what to do. Like I said, my dad goes, Why don't you just fix up that pole barn out there and start working on internationals again?

[00:37:55.110] - Jeff Ismail

Okay. If I got dad's blessing to work out of the house here, why not? So that's what I did. I haven't looked back. It's been over 20 years now. That's where the business started. It was literally in a pole barn, and it was like a cave. It would be hot, and you got animals in the stall next to you and stuff. So it would get smelly in the winter or in the summer and all that. You hear the animal banging back there, but sometimes the rats running around. It was just, Oh, man. But, hey, man, that's how we started. I I can't thank my parents enough for that support early on because that's what gave us a strong early footing to not have to worry about overhead so much. It was just like, Derry needs to get paid. They are parts suppliers. Ups, we're good. I don't have rent to pay. Just that's stipulated that I had to save money each month and keep saving money. Eventually in I want to say, is when we bought our property up here in Grass Valley. Then it took me a little bit more. I kept saving money and I put a brand new building on it.

[00:39:09.890] - Jeff Ismail

Then eventually, I think by 2010 is when we moved the business up here to Grass Valley.

[00:39:19.170] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. And the whole time, are you buying all the scouts or international harvesters that you can find?

[00:39:30.320] - Jeff Ismail

Oh, yeah. They usually find me. And somebody will call and go, Hey, I got this old scout, or this old travel all, or this old IH pickup, and I want to get rid of it. What will you give me for it? Or I just want to get rid of it. Come and get it. I don't want to scrap it. And I'm like, Okay. So I've always had a yard. In fact, I remember, let me back up, back in the late '90s when I was doing it, I had so many early scouts. I was giving them away. Nobody would buy them. Everybody wanted a Scout 2. Nobody really wanted pickups or travel walls, even back then. They only wanted Scout 2s. I'd have so many. I just didn't know what to do with. And that was always, and even almost to this day, The biggest problem for me is not having a big chunk of suitable land to store vehicles on. Even though I have my place in Grass Valley, and I've got my business up here in town in Grass Valley, I'm still limited in space. I would have so many more if I had acreage, so to speak.

[00:40:32.340] - Big Rich Klein

Right. That's understood.

[00:40:35.810] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah.

[00:40:37.060] - Big Rich Klein

And you're not looking for more acreage to do that, or are you happy with where you're at?

[00:40:43.360] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah, we're looking for more space. I mean, it's like, we always talk about wanting to leave California, but at the same time, we love where we live, and this is our home. And so we might as well just stop fighting that notion. I am looking. If the right piece came I would certainly jump on it so I could start storing more vehicles on it and stuff. Because there's been times, in fact, we're even currently, we're so full on parts and trucks right now. No, no, no, no, no more right now. We need to sell a few before we bring in. It's like, oh, this is a great deal. I know it's a great deal, but I have no more room.

[00:41:20.460] - Big Rich Klein

So your business now is... Explain what your business model is now and how it all ties together.

[00:41:31.210] - Jeff Ismail

So eventually it started our own product line called CPT, Crawler Proven Technology. And that was mostly off-road stuff. U-bulk plates, purchase, anything scout-specific to make awesome suspension, spring over on your scalp, for instance. That's where that started on the parts side. We've always been doing builds and lifts and all that stuff, mostly big builds, frame offs. But we would take on all sorts of jobs through the years. As the parts business expanded, we opened up an online store. Like I said, I learned back early on, I'm like, Wow, man, this online stuff is the hot ticket. When I got back into business, it wasn't much longer than that when I opened up the store and started selling parts online. That is today the bulk of our business. I would say a good 90% is online and phone call orders. We're shipping parts for these internationals all over the world, always getting emails from people all over the world, Belgium and France, and of course, Canada and Australia, the two of our biggest customers outside the US. But we'll get countries in Africa looking for parts. They have like, Yeah, we do this safari. We have these safari rigs.

[00:42:54.100] - Jeff Ismail

They're internationals. I need some parts for them. So pretty neat. But that's the bulk of our business. And then we do have a full fabrication restoration shop up here. So we're doing frame off swaps, a lot of LS builds. We don't do a lot of link suspension, but if a guy wants one, we've done them and can do them. We've done two wheel drive, slammed on airbags, travel all, all sorts of cool stuff.

[00:43:22.600] - Big Rich Klein

Wow, that's not something I would think of, a travel all, slammed on airbags.

[00:43:27.670] - Jeff Ismail

Oh, yeah. There's no job. I'm so fortunate to have such an awesome and talented crew here, led by Darren, and Rick, and all the guys here. There's not a job they're not afraid to do. We've always had this thing. We say, If the job makes sense, we'll take it. We've had people come to us and want to do crazy stuff, and we're just like, That doesn't make sense. I don't want to get involved in that. We'll pass. Because we're usually booked up for a year plus. So It's nothing. It's very rare someone just calls and gets their truck in here the next week. Like I said, the customers, we have LS engines and transmission with names on them up on the rack. Those are people who have paid for those parts, and they're waiting in line for their turn to come here and get their drive trade modernized.

[00:44:17.320] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's a good problem to have.

[00:44:20.290] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah, not complaining there. Not one day. We definitely are very blessed with the amount of business we have today.

[00:44:27.030] - Big Rich Klein

Very good. The You also have another part of the business called Binder Books?

[00:44:33.990] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah. So Binder Books, we purchased that about five, six years ago. So that's a company that's been around for a very long time for, shoot, that company at this point must be about 30 years. It was originally started up in Oregon by a gentleman named Scott Satterland. He just collected books and started flipping them. And Eventually, Scott got ill and passed away from cancer. His wife, Cindy, took over the business and kept it going. I would see Cindy once a year. We would go up to a show in Brooks, Oregon, called the Binder Bee. We She would talk. She's like, Hey, one day, she's like, Are you interested in maybe buying Binder books or buying our NOS parts? At least we have. I said, Sure, I'll have to make a trip up there. So finally, one day, I made a drive up. I hopped in my travel all the time. My a daily driver, hauled bud up there, went and saw everything she had, and brought home all the NOS parts and then got to work, thinking how we could add this business to our portfolio, so to speak. On my property here in town, in Grass Valley, we're three buildings.

[00:45:50.160] - Jeff Ismail

One of the buildings at the time, I was renting out as an office to a construction company. I looked and I saw the equipment that they had in Oregon, the printing equipment. I was like, I think I can make this work. We settled on a deal and I had the construction company move out. I think they're still our next door neighbors. We moved my books in and my wife handles all that. She does all the printing. We're licensed to reprint all service owners, parts, manuals for basically anything international harvester, case IH, back to day one. It doesn't matter if it's a reaper, a corn, or a corn a Thresher or a semi truck or a refrigerator. I mean, if international harvester made it, and we have a publication for it, which our library is quite vast, we're licensed to reprint that. Then each quarter, we're paying royalties to international to Cace New Holland, and then now to Scout Motors, who is bringing back to the Scout as an electric EV.

[00:46:54.790] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, really? Okay.

[00:46:56.400] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah.

[00:46:58.500] - Big Rich Klein

Any other aspects to the business?

[00:47:02.650] - Jeff Ismail

Well, with Four Wheeling in the last five, six years, I've been on what was ultimate adventure and now unreal adventure. So that has really opened the doors to a lot of companies that we're now dealing with today. And so that's like I said, we have so many new relationships. And off-roading is obviously my personal hobby, but our CPT line falls in. Today, CPT could be anything from a stock OEM part, though, to suspension parts like how we started. But I tried to push our line, but the whole UA thing has just been a whole other facet of life lately, especially these last six years. My whole schedule rotates around that part of the year. It's always a blast doing that.

[00:47:56.970] - Big Rich Klein

It's nice that it's continuing.

[00:48:00.390] - Jeff Ismail

Absolutely. Was stoked to see Chr. And Trent grab the reins and keep it alive. And I can't thank the other sponsors, especially like SkyJacker, picking up the presenting title and Quigley and off-road design and Milestar tires. I got to say there was 21 of us, 23 rigs wheeling this this whole last week on Milestar tires, and there was zero flash. So we were in some pretty sharp rocks, and we were asking for trouble. I just got to say, man, just amazing. Amazing tires, real great. But I got to say, overall, what a great week we had down there wheeling. I've never wheeled Arizona or New Mexico, so that was pretty cool to get a flavor of that Southwest wheeling I've not experienced before. Closest would have been Hammers. But then how the terrain changes, we went north to like Farmington and things started to smooth out and all But then totally different wheeling once we got to Montrose.

[00:49:04.160] - Big Rich Klein

Because then you got into trees and stuff.

[00:49:08.170] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah. Trees, still in the canyons because we were wet. It was more deserty, but still sharp rocks. That trail called Die Trying was just freaking awesome.

[00:49:21.270] - Big Rich Klein

And what is it like with all the cronies and the new people, the reader rides? I mean, they're not reader rides now, but they're the followers, you might say, that they get a chance, the everyday guy.

[00:49:38.650] - Jeff Ismail

Man, I've developed so many awesome relationships through the last six years dealing with these guys. I have definitely learned a lot from them. I mean, just their vehicles and their build is what inspired me to build my truck, Hideas, my 52 International. That really People know that truck. They're like, They don't know me. They know my truck. They're like, Oh, yeah, I've seen that thing on the internet. That thing's so cool. Like I said, to hang out with those guys for a couple of years. I remember on my second UA, the last day I rolled my White Scout. That's been my rig for years. I was like, Man, I just wanted to... I was trying to survive the week. I was having fuel issues the whole week, and I was just trying to survive. I ended up putting it on its side. Granted, it did get me on the cover of Four Wheelers, so that was cool. But after that, it was like, Man, what am I going to do? I already knew I was going to build something else. I knew after two years, I'm like, All right, White Scout is cool and all, but I tried to keep that thing nice.

[00:50:45.630] - Jeff Ismail

And the wheeling we're doing is pretty gnarly, pretty above my head on what I had at the time. So I got back. I said I had rolled White Scout walking through the yard in the shop here. I brought I got this 52 international truck from my house. I had sold the bed and I told the guys, Hey, let's just park this thing out. I go, the grill should sell pretty fast. People always want those. So anyways, they'd sold a door hinge and a wing window out of it or something. And I'm walking by it after that U. A. And I look at it and all of a sudden it clicked. I said, I'm building that truck right there. So I walked down to the parts. I said, Don't sell another part off that truck if they're building it. They're like, You got it, boss. That's what began what is known what I call hideous. And again, it's got multiple names: Trail Tractor, Hideous, Trout, because it's half truck and half scout. So I needed to figure out that the frames on those things aren't just very well-built for an off-road rig. They're pretty flat, so they don't give you a lot of up travel.

[00:51:48.480] - Jeff Ismail

The other thing I wanted incorporating into this is as much of our CPT parts as I could. And since we build a ton of stuff for the scout chassis, that's basically what I took. I took the long wheel base I took out Terra Traveler's brain and built it all up, and then I dropped the 52 body onto it. And built it into what it is. Like I said, the builds from UA, from Burns-Symons, and from Trent McGee's Scout, and the Jeep, the CJ that Christian has, and some of those other prior bills was like, low and wide. Low and wide was the theme with those guys. And you wouldn't think it. I was always a spring over, axial guy. I'm like, Man, that's spring under low wide. It works just fine. That's how I built Hidia. I did it spring under, leave springs, front and rear, did our CPT reverse shackling kit. Eventually, I put Alcan springs in it with orbitized. For what it is, for me, basic a truck it is. Another thing is a lot of people think, Oh, you got an LS under the hood? I go, No, sir. It's a 392 International.

[00:52:56.740] - Jeff Ismail

Got to keep my core audience happy. Right. 392 International, MV4,500, and Atlas 4.3, and then ultimate Dana '60s front and rear. That thing just does awesome. It's planted, it climbs well. I just had so much fun wheeling it this last week. I mean, literally zero issues the whole week. I had one relay, got a little angry. I had to swap out for the sniper system and the exhaust system. I had to tighten back up. I didn't recheck my bolts after having it out for the pre-work before the trip. But man, it works good. Now, that's four UAs I've been on that truck in just a hair over three years. I can't believe all the states I've had that truck in and wheeled at this point from as far as Pennsylvania, and I guess at this point, well, as far as far north as Oregon, I've been up in Oregon with it. But a lot of Oklahoma, and Texas, and Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky, Marquee, of course, Utah, and now Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona. So man, I've been in a lot of states with that truck in such a short amount of time. But what a thrill it's been wheeling it.

[00:54:13.400] - Jeff Ismail

And I keep going back and forth It's like, White Scout, I'm bringing back for U. A. Next year. And that's my plan, at least. And I keep flip-flopping on suspension. Spring over, spring under, links. I can't decide, but I don't know. After coming off this last few days, just seeing how well the trout works, I'm thinking about just doing the exact same set up. I mean, I've already got ultimate 6 feet, 4 feet. It already has 392 and the 5 feet. I'm going to swap out the G300 for an Atlas and pretty much, I think, just mimic Hidius's combination there, and it just be a shorter wheelbase, more or less 100-inch wheelbase versus the 118 that Hidius is at.

[00:54:59.200] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, Just on wheel bases, I like that 108 to 110. I don't know what it is. I think just overall, they climb good, they drop good.

[00:55:13.900] - Jeff Ismail

They're not too long that you can still get around tight turns.

[00:55:15.320] - Big Rich Klein

Get tight corners, yes.

[00:55:17.510] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah, I agree with you there. I definitely have to do the Austin Power's two, three-point turn sometimes on some of those tight corners at 118 inch.

[00:55:26.690] - Big Rich Klein

Yes, especially. So what does it look like for the future? And let's talk about what the name of your business is, for any of those people out there that don't know.

[00:55:41.090] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah, I guess we haven't mentioned it. So IH Parts America, International Harvest Our Parts America. And then again, our product line is CPT, Crawler Proven Technology, and then we own the Binder Books name as well. So we do have a new... Our IH Parts America website is new as earlier this year, so there's a lot going on with it on our pictures of our shop. And we have a full retail store here. You can come in and not just buy parts, but I've got puzzles and games for international T-shirts, of course. And it's not just IH related. A lot of people notice we're almost like your local Hot Rod store because you can walk in. I've got Holly Carbator's sniper injection on the shelf, Fulleray, Bilstein and Skyjacker Shox and tabs for welding up your suspension, shock tabs. I mean, you name it. There's a swept coal oil. We actually stock a full range of swept coal fluids here. So quite a more bit than just IAID-specific, although we use all this stuff in IAID. So I'm really appreciative to have you on the podcast so I can spread that word. I know a lot of locals with them, and they may not realize that what we have here is more than just international harvester parts.

[00:57:01.550] - Big Rich Klein

I think just knowing that they can get the Swepco oil will bring people in the door.

[00:57:07.050] - Jeff Ismail

Yeah, without a doubt. We certainly move a lot of that Swepco power steering oil. We got quite a few local customers that come in and buy that.

[00:57:15.470] - Big Rich Klein

And the future, any plans, any goals?

[00:57:23.460] - Jeff Ismail

I'm blessed in life. I got to say, like I said, I I hit my low back in '96, and every day after that is a blessing. I just want to keep seeing more different parts of the country and just hope the business continues to stay successful as it has been as long as everything's going good. I'm real stoked. How it's going. I don't know, man. I'm so happy with the current. I'm just like, some people are like, Oh, I can't wait for the future. I know good times. It's I'm living in good times. I have no complaints, really. Sure, could things be better on the cost of living and all that? We can get into that, and that's what it is. But like you said, I'm blessed to have a great business, blessed to have such a great crew here. I can leave for two weeks to go on an adventure and come back. And any fires, guys? No, everything's handled. We did this much business. You just need to go pay the bills because people want to get paid. But you got it. So just look forward to just keep wheeling. Like I said, building the White Scout back, bringing it for Unreal adventure next year.

[00:58:44.740] - Jeff Ismail

And I've got my show coming up next week. We do put on the IHCR fall rally every year. It's going to be our 17th year. So looking forward to that. If anyone's local and they want to come out to the Sata County Fairgrounds on I don't know when you're going to have this put up, but if they can make it at the October 12th, the weekend after this, then we'll have a probably good 100 internationals there. May not find a tractor. You might find a tractor, too, but there's going to be a lot of scouts pick up to travel Nice. So pretty cool. I enjoy it. I get our community, our IH community, together. I've got friends that come from across the country to come help me, and without their help, it wouldn't happen. But anyways, we get together, and I get all basically my competitors. But a lot of them are also my friends, and they throw a little money down. They send raffle prizes and stuff, and we get the IH community together, and we just celebrate. I'm gone on a couple of trail rides, as well as a street ride and a trail ride on the Friday before.

[00:59:51.030] - Jeff Ismail

And then on the Saturday, it's really a family event. We'll have a lot of things to do for the kids and the adults. We'll have our Not just showing up in the vehicles, but then we do have vehicle games. We do out back. And then we have a big old raffle. Of course, we got to feed them. My wife's an awesome cook, so we get everybody fed for dinner and breakfast the following morning. A lot of corn? What's that?

[01:00:17.970] - Big Rich Klein

A lot of corn? Kettle corn?

[01:00:19.750] - Jeff Ismail

Boiled corn? Sometimes people bring a good old fresh. I've got a friend from back east that if he makes it out, he'll usually bring us a fresh bag of corn from the harvest. There you go. We joke around with it. Doing some official corn binding over here.

[01:00:34.280] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. Had to get that joke in.

[01:00:39.570] - Jeff Ismail

Oh, yeah. Now, you can't hide behind it. They are corn binders. Sometimes they're an irrational international. Got all sorts of names for them.

[01:00:50.360] - Big Rich Klein

That's a good one.

[01:00:51.050] - Jeff Ismail

We can say, We've got thick skin over here in the harvester. We can take it.

[01:00:56.700] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I've never been vehicle-specific, even though Marlin just would always say, Hey, there's the Jeep guy. And then one day I showed up to, it was Cruise Moab or one of those where it was a Toyota event in Moab, and I had bought a '82 Land Cruiser Series 60. He was just absolutely amazed that I had stepped away from a Jeep. But I've owned just about everything except for international professionals?

[01:01:31.260] - Jeff Ismail

Right on. You're not going to believe this, but I bought my first Jeep earlier this year. So I finally crossed over to the dark side of my I. H. Friend.

[01:01:39.530] - Big Rich Klein

I don't know. Do you want me to edit that part out?

[01:01:42.360] - Jeff Ismail

No, it's cool. I am what I am. But yeah, no, it's a cool... It's a 2A. It's got the V6 in it. Already swapped in, although I really was wanting an original Jeep with a flat head so I could do the Red Devil around one day. But this Jeep, I couldn't pass up. It belonged to Bill Monahan. I used to build my transmissions back in the day, and it belonged to, I think it was Dick Mayner? It was Dick someone before that. What's cool about this Jeep is it's been on Fordyce and Rubicon. Back in the '70s and '80s, it's got the little placards on. It's a well-known Jeep for our local area. Just the fact that they belong to Bill and it was Mike Monahan and Rich, who helped me it a little bit ago. Bill had passed away earlier this year, so they were just trying to help Bill's family out to clear the estate. So I was like, Yeah, I'm looking for a Jeep. So it worked out. Went and picked that one up. And I like it. I said, not exactly what I'm looking for, but with the history behind it and who owned it, clean title.

[01:02:48.690] - Jeff Ismail

It's like, heck, yeah, man, I'm going to start on... It's just now yard art. It went from one yard art to another yard art, but I will get to it, and I would love to fix that thing up. And I've driven them before, not much, but my neighbor's not too far from me. We fixed one up for him once, a little two way, and it was so much fun to wheel. So I look forward to fixing this one up and toying around with it one day and just learning a little bit more on the Jeeps. To me, all Jeeps look the same. I told him, Oh, you Jeep people look alike. It's not that you all look alike, your Jeeps all look alike to me. They're all Jeeps. So I was going to defer to one of my Jeep friends, What jeeps is that? I'm I'm not even sure. But if you got an international hamster question, I'm your man.

[01:03:34.980] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. Well, Jeff, I want to thank you so much for spending the time this morning and being willing to come on and talk about your life and the Binder business. And I really appreciate it. And the other thing I'd like to say is thank you so much for stopping at my booth during Sierra Trek and finding out about the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame and then becoming a member. That was very nice of you. We're really trying to promote the Hall of Fame in the four-wheel drive side of our industry. I really appreciate you doing that.

[01:04:19.400] - Jeff Ismail

Absolutely. I appreciate you guys doing what you're doing because, even though I've always been an international harvester guy. I used to have I'd probably still have all of them to this day of descriptions. Peterson's Four Wheel and Off-Road, Fort Wheeler, maybe even JP magazine back in the day, oil, driving, sport utility. I used to subscribe to all those. I used to read about these guys my whole life, and looked up to them. Now, like I said, today, I'm so lucky and fortunate to some of these guys that wheeling with them side by side and all that, Chris Durham and stuff, Chuck Norris of Off-Road. It's just been It's just been an awesome ride. Again, I'm so appreciative that guys like you and others take the time to remember these people that are the forefathers of where we're at today. Without them doing what they did, we may not have the trails open that we do. We may not have the technology in the off-road world that we do. It's just amazing what it becomes.

[01:05:25.110] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Being able to preserve that history and recognize those that came before us is crucial for the survival of the industry as we move forward.

[01:05:36.080] - Jeff Ismail

Absolutely. It's all about preserving history. That's what I say about what we do here at IH Parts America every day. We're doing our best to preserve history.

[01:05:46.710] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. And on that, again, thank you. You have a great day, and I hope business is everything that it can be for you.

[01:05:57.830] - Jeff Ismail

Thank you, Rich. I greatly appreciate you having me on your podcast. I'm really honored. And thank you. I really appreciate. It's been a pleasure.

[01:06:05.430] - Big Rich Klein

All right. You take care and I'll let you know when this airs.

[01:06:09.320] - Jeff Ismail

Sounds great. Thank you, sir. Okay.

[01:06:10.640] - Big Rich Klein

Thank you. Bye-bye. All right. Bye-bye. Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have, or if there's anybody that you have that you think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can. Thank you.