LOU SANTIAGO, CO-HOST Ultimate Car Build-Off host Lou Santiago is a former mechanic for Navy SEAL Team Eight and a hard-core street-machine fanatic. Lou was born in May 1963 in the Bronx. His mother Lily, an aspiring schoolteacher, inspired Lou to fulfill his desire for a college education. His father Raul, an ironworker, taught him to work hard and helped to fuel his inner fabricator at a young age. Later his family moved to Long Island, where Lou attended a two-year trade program in diesel mechanics with the Board of Cooperative Education Services, better known as B.O.C.E.S. After graduation, Lou joined the U.S. Navy and had a colorful career as a Seabee mechanic, traveling extensively. While B.O.C.E.S. did add to his knowledge, Lou's lust for car building began at age 13 with longtime friend and fellow MOPAR fanatic Wayne Swanson. Their love for street racing with Wayne's '68 Dart with a 340 and later 383 four-speed required budget car building and creative fabrication. And Lou's Navy career — where he had to maintain heavy equipment overseas, with parts sparse — only increased his desire for building really cool cars. Lou took early retirement in 1997 when his wife became ill. After retiring, he earned an associate's degree in human behavior from Central Piedmont Community College and began working as a behavior management technician at a school for children with behavior challenges. To supplement his income, he began to teach himself how to build transmissions, brackets, roll cages and chassis. Lou's passion for car building again took to the forefront in 2005, when he landed a job on Spike TV's Muscle Car showing viewers the "how to's" of car building for two years. Today, Lou has a new home for his plasma cutter, and it is called Garageinsidertv.com. He will be building some really cool stuff and showing the masses once again that you too can be a car builder extraordinaire! |
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