Rick Dore

Rick and his wife Susan with The Lavender Persuasion. Photo by Bo Bertilsson.

Rick Dore's 1957 Buick - The Lavender Persuasion

Rick Dore's 1934 Ford Roadster

Rick Dore's 1949 Cadillac Sedanette - Majestic

Rick Dore's 1953 Buick Super Riviera - "Breathless"

James Hetfield's 1937 Lincoln Zephyr - "Voodoo Priest"of Downey, California, was built by Rick Dore at RD Kustoms in 2012.

In the 2010s Rick and Chuck Palumbo became hosts of the Discovery Channel show Lords of the Car Hoards. The show documents the efforts of Dore and Palumbo as they locate and then clean up the collections of car hoarders, and it made its debut in 2014. Click here to watch the show on Amazon Prime.

Rick Dore is an American custom car builder and designer. He is a member of the Beatniks car club and runs and operates Rick Dore Kustoms in California. In 2014 Dore did also debut as the co-host of the Discovery Channel show Lords of the Car Hoards.

Rick was born in New York in the 1950s. He became interested in cars and design early in his life, and the first custom that he got close to was a chopped 1950 Ford that a friend of the family had in the early 1960s. In the 1970s many of Rick's friends bought brand new muscle cars when they returned from Vietnam. Rick liked the muscle cars as well, but, customs were more his cup of tea. One day in the 1980s, when he was sitting at a red light, a chopped 1951 Mercury pulled up alongside his car. That ignited his passion for customs again. Later on, he moved to Arizona where he founded RD Kustoms. His first custom was a 1957 Buick called The Lavender Persuasion.After running the company in Arizona for a while, he moved his operations to southern California. Dore has built several customs for James Hetfield of Metallica, and according to Hetfield, Dore is in a league of his own when it comes to building custom cars.

Rusted Development - Lords of the Car Hoards

In the 2010s Rick and Chuck Palumbo became hosts of the Discovery Channel show Lords of the Car Hoards. The show documents the efforts of Dore and Palumbo as they locate and then clean up the collections of car hoarders, and it made its debut in 2014. Click here to watch the show on Amazon Prime.

Rick Dore's Cars

Rick Dore's 1934 Ford Roadster
Rick Dore's 1949 Cadillac Sedanette - Majestic
Rick Dore's 1953 Buick Super Riviera - "Breathless"
Rick Dore's 1957 Buick - The Lavender Persuasion

Cars Built by RD Kustoms

Click here to see cars restyled by RD Kustoms