The Culmination of a Dream - Background of the Chief Disruptor (Kirt Weidner) BSME

Ever since I was a boy, I loved building things. It did not matter what it was, as long as it was cool. It started off as Legos, then model trains, airplanes, cars and always helping my dad build things at the house including garages, a homebuilt in-ground pool and jacuzzi, and all the while modifying and customizing my bike at the age of 8-16 years old. Not sure what type of dad allows an 8 year old to use a circular saw but apparently I showed I knew how to do it safely so mine did and it was awesome!

Then at the age of 16, I convinced my mom and dad I wanted to buy this car, a 1973 Mercury Cougar for a whopping $575 and in Jersey you did not start driving till 17. But it needed work so I told my dad I could fix it up. Dad worked on cars very little and did not know much about them. However he was a machinist and thought the car looked cool. Little did he know, what that car would do to me. It sparked a passion inside of me that has not ended to this day. So, like many of you every penny I earned went into that car, even today it still feels like that. My days then consisted of school, soccer in the fall and then when soccer was over worked after school and every Saturday as tire changer and oil & lube technician and of course worked on the car every free moment.

That car started me down the road of modifying every car I have ever owned, with a rough estimate of over 20 cars as nothing was ever just right. Also, it sparked another passion inside of me for engineering. Luckily, I was very good in the math and sciences and took the advanced classes in high school so off to college I went to study Mechanical Engineering then earning a Bachelors of Science in Engineering. I was still working summers changing tires & oil and of course still working on the 73 Cougar and a 72 convertible Cougar (bought for $150) and a 1965 Galaxie 500XL which my parents have had in the garage since the mid-70’s plus playing college volleyball.

Yes, hard work is in my DNA.

Work History

I started my career in the Medical Device industry and was able to focus my abilities towards Manufacturing Engineering specifically machine design and automation. It was long hours but it was great. I was able to blend my desires to build things and go as fast as the machinery was capable of producing parts at 1,200 parts per minute and this was with early 90’s technology. I loved designing and building custom machinery and integrating robotics into the high-speed assembly and packaging production lines and got very good at it, so much so I was presented the opportunity to develop a Manufacturing Engineering department.

There I would develop and train others to help grow a company by implementing machinery and automation to enable it to go from $10M annual revenue to $90M in under 10 years and advanced to Sr. Director of Manufacturing Engineering with over 30 people in the team. With this success and managing several integrations of companies, some over $20M I was looking for more and was presented an opportunity to run a Medical Device chemical manufacturing site as the Sr. Director of Operations with annual revenue of over $50M and over 100+ people. The site was scheduled to be moved from CA to PA and the technology transfer and downsizing began. As a person who loves his teams and building and growing companies, this came at a huge emotional toll and loss. Therefore, after several years and once the site and people were at a sustainable level and in a good place, I was determined to go back to what I love, which is building cool things.

So, after more than 25 years of building other people’s companies and with the never-ending support from my wife, Laura it is time to do what I always wanted to do full time which is to build a car modification business which specializes is combining the old school styling with new school technology.

If you ever asked yourself “I wish I had this type of part or design for an early Bronco or classic car or truck but I can't find it”. Then please look at our Products and if you do not see what you are looking for then we could design and build a custom part which fits your desires. Please feel free to go to our Contact Us page or give us a call at 610-906-7790.

We look forward to working with you and providing parts for some really cool cars that you can actually enjoy and drive anywhere.