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FEATURE INTERVIEW:
Nathan Warren:
Warren Customs LLC
This week I traveled to Warren Customs in Hamilton Alabama to hang out with Nathan Warren and pickup my freshly updated General Lee! I dropped the car off in January for the full “Season 2” Dukes of Hazzard conversion and after months of hard work he was ready to roll. Last week, he was done! This is the whole story of the restoration, soup to nuts.
Even before I purchased this car, Nathan had offered to be the one to do the work to make my dream come true. Creating this particular car seemed easy….but was really tricky as most of the subtle changes were fairly major. Other than the fact that my car was already orange and wearing the GL uniform, cosmetically almost everything else had to change. In episode 353 of The Muscle Car Place I did the first full interview with Nathan where we detailed the plans how to make it as TV correct as it could get. Little did I know that things would go way beyond our simple plans.
The General Lee is as much a character in The Dukes Of Hazzard show as any other cast member. Like most actors the role changes and the actor looks different over several years of filming. To be as accurate as it can be, a specific season had to be chosen and I chose to make the car a season two clone with all the oddities that time had to offer. Nathan was more than up to the challenge and even has parts he can make for other General Lee creators out there.
One piece that REALLY pulls off the “Season 2” look is the amazing push bar that is the most accurate recreation I have seen. In order to make it that great it had to go through a couple iterations, and change more, even after it looked correct at first. There is a lot of work in any restoration but Nathan admitted that in some cases he made more work for himself by striving for the most accurate representation possible. Customers in his shop agree that he is a stickler and they trust him to make the job right.
From the brown interior, to the exhaust pipe roll cage, and even the heater pipe foam wrap, the inside of the car is a step back to the time when the Dukes ruled the backroads. The colors are dead on, and even look like a different color on camera. This matches what viewers saw on the small screen. Nathan spent time on all areas of the car including the trunk and there is a video of him inside the vast luggage area sanding down the black paint that was in there, prepping to make it all orange. He has commented more than once that there is a LOT of room in that trunk.
It’s hard to tell what the “crown jewel” of his work is on this car because he both restored the car and replicated a car at the same time. The replica items of the firewall cover, underhood detail, complete brown interior, and pushbar are pretty amazing pieces on their own! The restoration work it top notch as well. I love it! Every time I look at it I smile realize how great the details are on it. Even the “Charger” emblem on the grille is blacked out!
You can follow Warren Customs and see the General Lee videos on the YouTube Warren Customs Channel or you can view many images on Instagram.com/warren_customs_llc . The show handles all kinds of work from simple to the in depth and all jobs are treated with utmost detail. You can contact Nathan through the website Warrencustoms.com
Thanks so much, my brother from another mother, Nathan!
-Rob Kibbe
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This interview sponsored by our pals at National Parts Depot –
your premier source for muscle car restoration parts!
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