Slug Hefner is used to his classic cars making their way to his namesake furniture stores as well as the St. Louis Car Museum.
One of his recent remodels, a 1959 Ford Thunderbird convertible with the roadster package, is also making its way to the Velocity Network as part of the TV show "Speed is the New Black" and will be aired on Velocity, Amazon, VUDU and various streaming services sometime this summer as part of the show's second season.
Hefner's Thunderbird was on display at the St. Louis Car Museum when he got a phone call about the TV show.
"Somebody who knows me and knew them told them I had this car," Hefner said.
He bought the rotisserie restored car with all original parts a few years ago, not intending on changing anything, but then decided it needed some user friendly upgrades like fuel injection, air rides, disc brakes and a smaller steering wheel.
"You were like Fred Flinstone stopping his pedal car, that's how hard you had to push on the brake pedal to stop and it was a pain in the butt," Hefner said.
He was planning on having the work done anyway, so letting the show do the work was fine by him. He also made two trips to St. Louis to film with the show's host Noah Alexander. The first was for a few hours in the early spring with the top up, and the second was in mid-May with the top down and took the entire afternoon.
SDLqSo we drive all around Clayton filming the entire time," Hefner said. "The harrowing part was they would say, 'Get up close, get up close.' Well I would get (a few feet away) going 30-40 mph. I thought 'I hope he doesn't stop quick because I am going to cream this little guy hanging out of it. This guy in the back is just hanging out like in a WWII fighter."
Hefner, who is used to filming commercials, added he is anxious to see how the bigger budget production gets edited together.
Once completed, the Thunderbird will likely go through the same cycle as 15 to 20 cars over the past 20 years. Hefner will drive it around some, enter it in local car shows and have it be in some parades. Then it'll be displayed in his Poplar Bluff store, then in his Farmington store, then in the St. Louis Car Museum, and eventually sold.
Which is his cue to buy another car.
"That is the way it is supposed to work. I may be ahead of that cycle a little bit," said Hefner, who also currently has a 1929 Cadillac LaSalle in the St. Louis Car Museum. "It is about a two-year cycle by the time we get one in the Poplar Bluff store."
The next car in the cycle is likely to be a 1915 Ford Model T, Barnum & Bailey Surface Wagon. It is currently being remodeled at the Volo Auto Museum outside of Chicago. It will have red and gold with gold leaf paint complete with hand-carved wood scrolls, white tires (not white-walled tires) and brass bars in the back for the animal cage.
When it is done, that car is going straight to the Poplar Bluff store.