About

FAB-32 is named for my father: Francis Andrew Burrell — FAB — and his favorite car, a 1932 Ford five-window coupe hot rod. He was a metal fabricator, engine builder, and all-around car guy who used FAB32 as his screen name in his hot rod club — and he started teaching me how things work when I was five years old.

He’d hand me old carburetors to take apart. One day he told me the next one I had to reassemble before he’d give me another. It was the most important lesson I ever got: pay attention to assembly order, organize your parts, build a mental model before you build anything else. Everything I’ve made since — cars, software, woodworking projects, scale models — runs on that foundation.

My dad and I spent two years building a ’69 Z/28 Camaro together. He gave it to me for my 16th birthday. I’ve rebuilt it twice since — most recently with a new floor pan and front-to-rear Detroit Speed & Engineering suspension. In my mid-30s I built an ’86 S10 Blazer from the ground up: lowered suspension, a transplanted 5.7L V8 from a ’91 IROC-Z, a cowl-induction hood, and Corvette Yellow paint I sprayed myself in my garage.

These days FAB-32 reaches well beyond cars. I design and print in 3D, work wood, build scale models, and take on whatever project captures my attention. When I retire in a couple of years, FAB-32 becomes a proper small business — the kind my dad would have recognized.