00:00 COMM: With just a flick of a switch, 3,000
00:07 pounds of metal bounces up and down, 8 feet in the air. 25-year-old Alex Tuason creates
00:14 these custom lowrider cars that defy gravity at his father's shop, Popo's Custom Suspension
00:21 Works.
00:22 ALEX TUASON We specialise in aftermarket suspension,
00:26 particularly hydraulic and air suspension.
00:28 COMM: The lowrider community emerged in the
00:31 US in the 1950s.
00:32 ALEX TUASON We are actually a small tight-knit group
00:37 of family, you know, everyone knows everyone, whether you're from Canada, Alaska, I mean
00:41 there's guys that are lowriding everywhere, but overall, I mean, it does look like a bigger
00:46 scene than it really is. The reason they got their name Lowriders is because they would
00:50 actually be driving solo, scraping up their body, and then from there it eventually grew
00:55 into the culture that we're in now, aftermarket hydraulic pumps, making the cars go up and
01:00 down at a flick of a switch, so it evolved big time.
01:04 COMM: Alex removes the coil springs from the
01:06 car and replaces them with hydraulic cylinders. The hydraulic system is switch operated and
01:12 controlled with a remote or a dial on the dashboard.
01:15 COMM: Building one of these cars cost customers
01:19 anywhere between $2,000 to a few hundred thousand dollars and can take years to complete.
01:25 ALEX TUASON I personally know some guys that probably
01:27 have close to $200,000 to $300,000 into a car. It always starts off, you know, wheels,
01:34 paint, upholstery, undercarriage, hydraulic setup, and then from there you start going
01:39 into detailing everything you just bought. So you buy a stock set of rims and then, 'Hey,
01:44 this looks nice, but let me do something greater.' You've even seen a couple guys that are currently
01:49 building Impalas with like Ferrari motors and stuff like that, so it gets crazy.
01:53 COMM: These heavily customised cars are clearly
01:56 designed to stand out and Alex welcomes the attention.
01:59 ALEX TUASON Being West Coast, you'd think they would
02:02 kind of be used to it because West Coast is like, you know, car culture central right
02:06 here. You know, it never gets old for people. They see it rolling down the streets and you'll
02:10 still get a thumbs up every once in a while. It's pretty cool, you know, you get that reaction,
02:14 especially when you put all that money into the car.
02:15 COMM: Alex has been in the car business all
02:17 his life, helping his father around the shop since he was a child.
02:21 ALEX TUASON I've been doing this since I was in diapers,
02:24 honestly. I grew up around it, in the shop, around the cars. Eventually, you grow into
02:29 grab the tools and help this, you know, help that. My dad's been a big influence in my
02:34 life as far as the car scene, but full time, full time I've been into it about seven, eight
02:40 years now.
02:41 COMM: And he plans to follow in his father's
02:43 footsteps and run the shop in the future.
02:46 ALEX TUASON My dad owns the company. Of course, he's
02:48 showing me the right steps, what to do in order to get to the next level and not only
02:52 building a car but in the business aspect too. So, eventually he's going to hand down
02:56 the business to me. When you build one of these, you build it for yourself. It's fun
03:03 driving a lowrider, man. You can't, there's nothing really else I can describe it, you
03:07 know, you got to get in one and see the reaction for yourself.
03:11 [MUSIC]
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