Last year, Coker Tire COO and President Wade Kawasaki went on vacation in Hawaii. He could have brought back the typical fare: a Hawaiian shirt, maybe a couple of leis, or even a camera full of beautiful shots of the scenic islands. What he came back with was enough to make most any gearhead perk up with excitement.

With only about 44,000 miles on the odometer and showing signs of decades-worth of wear and tear, Kawasaki happened upon a numbers-matching 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge, and brought it back with him. He had a plan for the car, and that’s when he called on none-other than Bodie Stroud of BS Industries, and star of the American Restoration series on the History channel.

Kawasaki knew that he had to have the car when he saw it, and as a reminder of the musclecar era from so many years ago, it was the perfect car to represent a decade where musclecars battled it out from the manufacturer’s level all the way down to the stop light-to-stop light grudge matches that took place in small town America.

Stroud is well known for man of his past builds, with an attention to details and zest for fabrication, and has turned out some very cool cars over the years. We caught up with Stroud at SEMA in 2013 for the unveiling of Tim Allen’s 1968 COPO Camaro, another build that showcased the subtle touches that Stroud put into the build that made it stand apart.

For Kawasaki’s Judge, Stroud had a deadline to get it to SEMA 2015, and with a short time to get there and a long way to go, he still managed to pull it off and present it to Kawasaki at SEMA. Now, the Goat will make its television debut on the History channel’s American Restoration on Friday, February 26 at 9:00 p.m./8:00 CST. The car was faithfully restored utilizing many of the factory components and drivetrain, keeping it as looking as it did in 1970.

Be sure to tune into the History channel to see the debut, as the show debuts five new shops across the country. Stroud will be representing the West Coast as the only shop to appear on all 13 episodes of this new series. Stroud said, “The GTO was a great project. We had a good base to start with and had a challenging deadline to get the Goat to the 2015 SEMA Show, but we made it and seeing Wade’s face when we revealed the finished car to him at the end of the project made it all worth it.”

Press Release:
Wade Kawasaki is the COO and President of the Coker Group overseeing the 12 Coker brands. He also serves as the Chair-Elect of the Specialty Equipment Market Association and has been a SEMA member for more than 35 years. Wade Kawasaki is a man of passion and drive who has been devoted to the automotive industry ever since he was 10 years old, when he worked as an attendant at his father’s gas station in Los Angeles, California. Over the years he has worked for every type of business in the industry including manufacturing, warehousing distributing, and retail specializing in strategic planning, international sales, product development and business development.