My name is Josh Sadler and I am the owner/creator/proprietor of YoshiFab. I have a hard time figuring out when this all started, its been a slow natural progression of my life. Im a natural tinkerer, even as a child, I couldn’t leave anything alone. When it came time for me to get a drivers license,I had already researched the car I had wanted and managed to import a classic mini cooper from England. It wasn’t long before it had a heavily modified motor in it and it was time for a daily driver. This is 2000, I have just graduated from high school and I bought a real clean 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse turbo. The only thought was that it was Japanese (reliable hahahaha) and had a reasonably peppy motor in it. I had no intention of modifying the car but once I replaced the air filter, it was a steep slope. Within a year of buying the car it would spin the tires well into 3rd gear and the decision came to sell it and buy a 1990 AWD Eclipse. About this time I met up with some guys at the local races who told me about this “SoCalDSM” list. As time progressed I found myself spending more time helping people modify their cars than working on my own. This was a problem so I started charging people for my time. To my surprise people were still wanting me to do work for them. My 90 eclipse was now running 12.3@116mph, not bad for a daily driver. The jobs I was doing went from clutch/timing belt service to engine swaps, building AWD Spyders, and other bigger projects. Around this time the local ¼ mile tracks were long gone but I had already had a new setup for my GSX in the works. The car ended up running 7.8@98mph in the 1/8th on 91 octane pump gas. The car was scary stupid fast… too fast to really have any kind of fun with on the street and there were no tracks to race at. By this time I have swapped a Honda b16 into the mini cooper. The Mini was a blast to drive, not too fast to have fun on the street but enough to make anyone grin from ear to ear. Time to part out the Eclipse and get something practical…
A Volvo 240 Wagon. Volvo 240 w/ VW TDI swap Always like the funky look and utility of these cars, my parents had one when I was a kid and it was an awesome car. Once again I cannot leave anything alone so I swapped a 1.9 TDI diesel into it. That brings us to about June 2007. Its time to make something out of this. I have been going to school full time and running a small fab shop for years now and I was ready to make it something more. The DSM guys through a series of not very interesting events casually gave me the nickname Yoshi. The parts I made jokingly became Yoshifab and when it came time to pick a name it was the obvious choice. Over the last year things have really picked up. I have had an opportunity do so some high end work on some very nice cars as well as develop a product line for RWD Volvos. In August 2008, I hired my first employee, Nick Salyer. Nick is a guy I met through DSMs who is also a skilled fabricator and wiring guru. When it comes to things intricate and electronic, there is nobody I rather have working on it.
All that pretty much tells the story of how the shop got to where it is now. I am often mistaken for a DSM shop. It is true that 90% of the work we do here happens to be Mitsubishi products but that’s not what we are. People try to classify shops as an “import shop”, “offroad shop”, “hot rod shop” etc. , I don’t like any of those. What we are is a hotrod shop for just about anything but traditional hotrods. We specialize in hot Roding cars that are not the normal hotrod material. If you can dream it up, we can make it happen. We are anti carburetor and rather enjoy tossing those in the trash in favor of a custom modern fuel injection setup. Not only do we have a shop full of fabrication equipment but we have the knowledge to use it. We can design one off or production parts in Solid Works and have them produced by an outside CnC machine shop. I am always eager to hear about a new project and would love to take on something “out of the box”. My name is Josh Sadler and I am the owner/creator/proprietor of YoshiFab. I have a hard time figuring out when this all started, its been a slow natural progression of my life. Im a natural tinkerer, even as a child, I couldn’t leave anything alone.
When it came time for me to get a drivers license,I had already researched the car I had wanted and managed to import a classic mini cooper from England. It wasn’t long before it had a heavily modified motor in it and it was time for a daily driver. This is 2000, I have just graduated from high school and I bought a real clean 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse turbo. The only thought was that it was Japanese (reliable hahahaha) and had a reasonably peppy motor in it. I had no intention of modifying the car but once I replaced the air filter, it was a steep slope. Within a year of buying the car it would spin the tires well into 3rd gear and the decision came to sell it and buy a 1990 AWD Eclipse. About this time I met up with some guys at the local races who told me about this “SoCalDSM” list. As time progressed I found myself spending more time helping people modify their cars than working on my own. This was a problem so I started charging people for my time. To my surprise people were still wanting me to do work for them. My 90 eclipse was now running 12.3@116mph, not bad for a daily driver. The jobs I was doing went from clutch/timing belt service to engine swaps, building AWD Spyders, and other bigger projects. Around this time the local ¼ mile tracks were long gone but I had already had a new setup for my GSX in the works. The car ended up running 7.8@98mph in the 1/8th on 91 octane pump gas. The car was scary stupid fast… too fast to really have any kind of fun with on the street and there were no tracks to race at. By this time I have swapped a Honda b16 into the mini cooper. The Mini was a blast to drive, not too fast to have fun on the street but enough to make anyone grin from ear to ear. Time to part out the Eclipse and get something practical… A Volvo 240 Wagon.
Volvo 240 w/ VW TDI swap
Always like the funky look and utility of these cars, my parents had one when I was a kid and it was an awesome car. Once again I cannot leave anything alone so I swapped a 1.9 TDI diesel into it. That brings us to about June 2007. Its time to make something out of this. I have been going to school full time and running a small fab shop for years now and I was ready to make it something more. The DSM guys through a series of not very interesting events casually gave me the nickname Yoshi. The parts I made jokingly became Yoshifab and when it came time to pick a name it was the obvious choice. Over the last year things have really picked up. I have had an opportunity do so some high end work on some very nice cars as well as develop a product line for RWD Volvos. In August 2008, I hired my first employee, Nick Salyer. Nick is a guy I met through DSMs who is also a skilled fabricator and wiring guru. When it comes to things intricate and electronic, there is nobody I rather have working on it.
All that pretty much tells the story of how the shop got to where it is now. I am often mistaken for a DSM shop. It is true that 90% of the work we do here happens to be Mitsubishi products but that’s not what we are. People try to classify shops as an “import shop”, “offroad shop”, “hot rod shop” etc. , I don’t like any of those. What we are is a hotrod shop for just about anything but traditional hotrods. We specialize in hot Roding cars that are not the normal hotrod material. If you can dream it up, we can make it happen. We are anti carburetor and rather enjoy tossing those in the trash in favor of a custom modern fuel injection setup. Not only do we have a shop full of fabrication equipment but we have the knowledge to use it. We can design one off or production parts in Solid Works and have them produced by an outside CnC machine shop. I am always eager to hear about a new project and would love to take on something “out of the box”.