Stopping in to speak with Humberto Ortiz from Vulcan Specialties at LST, he tells us about his beginnings. He talks about what pushes him to do his best work and shows that everyone has a unique path to their true passion.

With almost 18 years of experience, Humberto has seen and done a lot in his shop. Starting with race car builds like roll cages, chassis, and safety equipment in his early years he has now refined what he does and moved on to full Restomod builds. He says that he has always been a sport truck kind of guy, but metal fab is where his true passion and skills are.

Asking him about where he started, he said he got this itch to build hotrods from his dad. “My dad was a product of the muscle crazy in the ’60s.” Hot Rods are in his blood.

Even though Humberto chose to put the wrenches in his hands his story started in a very different place.

While in law school and doing his internship, he saw things he didn’t like and decided to take a step back and really think about what he wanted to do. During this time he fell back on his hobby of turning wrenches on cars and that’s when it hit. Humberto left law and went all-in on building cars.

Humberto’s first build was a pro street 55 Bel-Air which he did a full restoration with his dad. Driving this Bel-Air car in high school in the late ’90s must have been pretty dope. Big meats in the back and skinnies in the front and candy red Humberto says that car became family.

Moving on in the years he finished his personal 85 D350 crew cab which he says is a “tech meets retro” build. He has driven this truck across the country clocking in 12k miles in one year.

After talking with him we could tell this is hands down his favorite build due to the time he and his dad spent on it. A lot of late nights in the shop were put into it. Debuting at LST in ’17 and being picked Good Guys Truck of the Year in ’18, Humberto and his dad were able to share in the glory.