Steel, Stone and Stain
Steve Mabry and Ryan Chaney of 44 Build
You may have seen this truck on the Discovery show Fast and Loud featuring the antics at Gas Monkey Garage. When we saw the episode I knew we had to do a shop tour. Texas Rich took charge and went out to shoot some pics of the shop and the famous truck. Meanwhile, I spoke with Steve Mabry to get some background on the business.
Ryan Chaney has quite the reputation building some custom homes in the Dallas area. He would work with Rusty Buffalo; owned by Steve Mabry for custom furniture and architectural details. After several projects together, they decided to shared a space, quite frankly it was a small garage with a large yard. As each company grew with more projects coming in than the little shop could handle, they decided to join ventures and pick up this building in the “Deep Ellum” district near downtown Dallas.
[History Alert: In 1914, Henry Ford selected Deep Ellum as the site for one of the earliest automobile plants used for the assembly of the Model T.]
Their client list grew to include many of the Dallas Cowboy player’s homes, and so did their business. They expanded across the street and are killing it designing, fabricating and building commercial buildings, restaurants and retail store fixtures.
44 Build recently opened “Tradesmith 44” a shop where you can browse and purchase custom furniture, fixtures, blacksmith’d goods, and collectibles by the 44 Build team, featured artists or craftsmen.
Ryan met Richard Rawlings through his tattoo artist Sam Chamberlain at Death or Glory Tattoo. They hit it off and 44 Build became the go-to shop for all things Gas Monkey and the new Richard’s Garage restaurant chain.
I asked Steve where the name came from. He said it just sorta grew out like an enigma. A mystery. You might get a different story from the guys depending on how many bourbon’s were poured. They did find out later that each of their grandparents owned businesses on 4th Street, in different cities. The mystery paid off for them and continues for Ryan and Steve who added the word Build to help people get a sense of what they do.
And what they do is bitchen. Hand-crafted blacksmith’d pieces, fixtures and furnishings. The work keeps their 20+ employees busy sanding, grinding and finishing unique pieces. Steve says many of the guys are car-guys and dig making cool stuff. They stay ahead of the curve by watching for trends and adjusting design, construction and installation techniques.
If you are looking for one-off and handmade pieces for your home or business, be sure to check out the flying wood chips, sparks and paint at 44Build.com Fabrication and Design.