t an early age Aaron Hamusek was spending a lot of time with his hot rodding father checking out car shows and automotive swap meets in the ’70s-era Southern California. Yes, he liked skateboarding and building scale model cars, but what he gravitated toward was customizing stuff like using rattle can spray paintjobs on his bicycles.

In his high school years Aaron was into metal fabrication, machining, and welding, and by the time he got his driver’s license he had already built a single-seat buggy with a two-stroke 618cc engine with a full IRS and IFS setup. His first car (in high school) was a ’55 210 Chevy with dual quads over a 327 to which he began milling aluminum parts for (about the same time Lil’ John Buttera was doing it for Boyd Coddington).

In 1986, he got a job at Danchuk (the Tri-Five Chevy superstore) and worked there for 15 years before making a huge change by designing, fabricating, and building armored vehicles and a four-year stint maintaining Special Forces vehicles in Afghanistan and Jordan. By the 2009 economic downturn, Aaron found himself back in SoCal working as a mobile mechanic (even removing the passenger seat from his Honda Civic so he could carry his air compressor to appointments).

But even with a life that had presented him with many challenges, in 2017 he took the plunge and opened Orange County Hotrods (OCHR) in Huntington Beach, California, but soon moved the business to Corona (in neighboring Riverside County) and hasn’t looked back since. Though known for his skill and knowledge with Tri-Five Chevys, Aaron has a wide field of vehicles in his shop on any given day, though you’ll always find a ’55 Chevy or two in his parking lot.

While we were visiting there were four Roadster Shop chassis in their wooden shipping crates in the parking lot waiting for their turn to be slipped under one of their customer’s rides, with Aaron commenting, “I like using them; they just work.” Chassis swaps happen to be very popular with his customers right now, including Jeff Thisted (one of the announcers for the Goodguys autocross competitions) who has posted videos on his YouTube channel of OCHR swapping in a Roadster Shop SPEC chassis under his ’55 Chevy wagon.

Aaron’s passion for metal fabrication has carried over to the employees he has hired—all of whom are young fabricators in their own right, eager to learn and expand their own talents with the projects that roll through the shop. Whether it be small repair jobs or all-out, high-end builds, Aaron and his OCHR team can make it happen.

This ’57 Chevy sat in the owner’s yard for 20 years before it found its way to OCHR where it not only received a new Roadster Shop SPEC chassis but also a supercharged LT4 backed to an eight-speed automatic transmission. The heavy kick in the rear will give the pickup its extra-low stance.

This low-mile ’72 K5 Blazer came to OCHR for a full LS conversion (LS3 engine and 4L80E trans) as well as wiring, gauges, and a Vintage Air install.

Built during the COVID-19 crisis, “Pandemic” is the moniker given to this ’86 Chevy C10 Squarebody that was finished up by OCHR after a new owner bought the project mid build. Not a lot of late-model custom trucks have been built to this level, but this one was slated to get twin 72mm turbos for the 1,100hp Dart 427 built by Nelson Racing Engines.

A ’67 Camaro will be getting this Roadster Shop SPEC chassis that has been set up with a Baer Track4 disc brake system (12 inches in the rear, 13 inches in the front).

The Pandemic Squarebody made a big splash when it was finished. It recently held court at the prestigious 2023 Grand National Roadster Show’s Building 9 display honoring 100 historic and influential trucks from the last 50 years—and rightfully so.

One of Kevin’s specialties is wiring; this challenging project for a ’40 Dodge incorporates a special relay setup for multiple motors that will operate the flip-front nose section and other electronic features.

Rob Sanchez’s stunning ’63 C10 arrived at OCHR already painted but without an engine or trans so OCHR added a dressed-up SBC crate engine with an Eddie Motorsports front pulley system, a 700-R4 transmission, and upgraded the truck’s disc brakes.

Some projects have been inherited from other shops. The owner of this highly customized ’56 Ford is based in England but he is looking forward to having OCHR finish up his truck for him, which includes finishing the paint, glass, and interior along with a custom lifting wood bed.