How a Navy Hobby Shop Launched the Ringbrothers Automotive Phenomenon

It's no secret that U.S. service members and veterans love our muscle cars. We can't get enough of them. Most of us pick up something used, some can afford to buy new, and one lucky soul even landed a Challenger SRT Demon 170 with some help from Dodge. Given a winning lottery ticket, though, we'd probably all end up shopping at Ringbrothers.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of drooling over a Ringbrothers design, allow me to recalibrate your understanding of what a dream car looks like. Mike Ring, Jim Ring, several family members and a cast of automotive artisans run a body shop in southern Wisconsin. When they're not repairing local fender-benders, they're crafting exquisite machinery for A-list customers.

You won't find car prices on the website because each one that leaves the shop is totally customized with CAD-designed hinges, rearview mirror bezels carved from billet aluminum, you name it. And under the hood, you'll find anything from a souped-up Chevy LS to a Dodge Hellephant. The engines vary, but horsepower figures reliably include a comma.

How does a young service member get into such a cool job? It turns out that Ringbrothers exists largely thanks to the hobby shop at Naval Base Coronado in California.

A Rescue Swimmer's Crash Course

Before Mike Ring earned international recognition in the car scene, he was a rescue diver in the Navy. After enlisting in 1981, his job description involved leaping into the ocean to pluck fallen pilots and crew members from the waves, armed with little more than his own ability to swim.

As first impressions go, Ring certainly made a splash when he arrived at his first unit as an H-3 Sea King crew member.

"The CO and the maintenance officer are always the first ones to take the new aircrew out," Ring told Military.com. "So we were off the coast of San Diego, and we were flying and the maintenance officer -- just amazingly calm pilots -- he goes, 'Oh, we just lost No. 1.'"

The pilot gained altitude, dumped as much fuel as possible to lose weight and headed back to the coast. Shortly after, the second engine died.

"All you do is practice, right?" Ring said. "It was so calm. They just said, you know, if we hit the water, we go upside down, just wait till all the violent motion stops. But H-3 is kind of built like a boat. ... We hit the water. Pilots did an amazing job, kept it afloat, got it shut down. Jumped into a raft, Coast Guard was nearby, picked us up, hoisted the helicopter up and we were fine."

Maybe it was training, trust in each other or the invincibility of youth, but nobody seemed too bothered by the looming crash.

"Just lucky, but I was never afraid at 19," Ring said. "Like you can't die at 19. To look back, it was probably more traumatic, but at the time? No big deal."

Ring walked away unscathed, save for a fitting nickname: "Crash."

Don't Call Him a Pollywog

Ring's introduction to the fleet was no walk in the park, but there were plenty more challenges on the horizon.

For those not in the know, anyone who hasn't crossed the equator aboard a Navy vessel is a pollywog. Those who have are shellbacks. Transitioning from one to the other is no easy feat.

Ring remembers swimming through a sea of garbage, biting a cherry out of King Neptune's belly (played by the heaviest sailor available, of course), surviving a gauntlet of whirling fire hoses and climbing topside to be recognized as a shellback -- if he could keep his wits about him.

"All day, they're asking you, 'What are you?' 'I'm a wog; I'm a wog,'" Ring recalled. "If you get to the end and they ask you what you are and you say you're a wog ... gotta go all the way and start over. You better remember you've become a shellback at the time."

It sounds tortuous, but like other (very unofficial) rituals in the U.S. military, it means a great deal to those who got to take part.

"Yeah, you just remember the good times," Ring chuckled. "You know what I mean? It was a good time! I've got pictures of me doing it, and it's just -- you're smiling at the end. You accomplished something."

Step Inside the Ringbrothers' Garage

In the 1980s, Ring's only place to work on cars was the Naval Base Coronado hobby shop. It wasn't fancy, but the work was his passion, and plenty of people benefited from that.

"I painted some of the officers' cars," Ring said. "People figured out I could do it, and I just enjoyed doing it. The military gave me a great space to do it; at least, Coronado did at the time."

His fee? The cost of materials.

"If they could cover the costs or pay for the rent of the tool would be all I needed," he said. "No, it was never for the money. Just wanted to try to get better at it. I never imagined this is what I'd do when I got out, but it was always something in me that I couldn't shake."

Today, Ringbrothers uses cutting-edge design software and masterful skills to create one-of-a-kind cars. They use hand-formed steel and featherweight carbon fiber instead of stock body panels. The paint is immaculate. Every single detail -- inside and out -- is personalized to the buyer.

Just look at the carbon fiber grip on Tusk's Hurst shifter. Gaze in awe at Paramount's starry sky headliner. Enyo looks more like a cyberpunk video-game car than the 1948 Loadmaster it started as.

There's nothing like them, and yet, Ring feels like he's just getting started.

"I think what drives me is, never felt like we nailed it," he said. "I always feel like, it's cool -- but ... I think in life if you ever think you nailed it, or did the best, or that's the best, I've never felt that. I've always felt like I can learn. There's younger guys that can teach me, and I want to do better. I think that's the key for me, is just never being quite satisfied."

Ring describes car-building as easy to start and hard to finish. He credits the Navy with instilling the grit necessary to get the job done.

"There's a lot of good things that the military could do for a lot of young people," he said. "I'm a huge advocate of it."

Visit Your Base's Auto Skills Center Today

Will you ever find yourself building world-famous custom cars? Never say never. It could all start with a few tools and a trip to your base's auto skills center.

If you're passionate about working with your hands -- whether that's building cars, cabinets or HVAC systems -- you have Ring's support. Don't be afraid to make short-term sacrifices in the pursuit of long-term goals.

"If people can get over that -- maybe not having the lifestyle they have, but doing something they love -- the money will come," he said. "The money will come. Life's too short to work in something that you're really not happy at, just for money."

If you do it right, you might never have to go to work another day in your life.

"Now I'm gonna be 62 and people ask, 'When are you gonna retire?'" Ring said with a grin. "This is what I'd wanna do if I was retired so I have no plans! I'll probably be laying dead out here, you know? This isn't a job that I call a job. I don't want to leave the guys. I want to continue to be excited every day. I feel really lucky, and the Navy gave me the tools that I never had."

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