TMCP 623: Don Abenante – Fabricator to YouTube Star – Building And Driving a 1970 Chevelle From Rhode Island To Vegas For SEMA 2025!
The MuscleCar Place
Robert Kibbe
4.5 • 702 Ratings
🗓️ 10 October 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Don Abenante of Retro Fabworks isn’t your average YouTube builder — his story blends Hollywood grit, family legacy, and pure horsepower. After early stints on Below Deck, Horsepower Wars, and Netflix’s Resurrected Rides, Don found his true calling behind the welder instead of the camera, documenting every cut and weld for his growing audience.
His current project is deeply personal: a 1970 Chevelle he first planned to build with his late father. That dream paused for years but never died — and now it’s roaring back to life. Don’s transforming the Chevelle into a Ford Coyote–powered showstopper for SEMA 2025, filming the process step by step for his followers. The twist? He plans to drive the car all the way to Vegas, proving that craftsmanship, creativity, and heart still belong on the open road.
The post TMCP 623: Don Abenante – Fabricator to YouTube Star – Building And Driving a 1970 Chevelle From Rhode Island To Vegas For SEMA 2025! first appeared on The Muscle Car Place.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Muscle Car Place Online Podcast episode number 623. |
| 0:05.0 | This week, YouTuber and former reality TV star Don Abinanti is here, and he's a guy building |
| 0:11.3 | cars of his own, his very own cars, in Rhode Island on YouTube, and he's going to drive |
| 0:16.3 | his 1970 Chevel with a coyote engine under the hood from Rhode Island to Las Vegas for the 2025 |
| 0:23.4 | Seema Show. It's like 2,700 miles. He's a featured content creator. Now he's doing this because |
| 0:28.7 | he needed a new outlet after becoming sober. And he chose his Chevelle to climb that mountain |
| 0:34.0 | of building cars for living because that's the last thing he and his dad had picked out to do together. |
| 0:38.3 | Well, years later, Don has that car and he's built it numerous times, but this time it's going to help him get to the 2025 Seema show and live out his dream online. |
| 0:49.3 | Part of the process, I just knew that I wanted to build and do something and I knew I liked cars. |
| 0:53.3 | I didn't know like where it went. I didn't want to just build hot something, and I knew I liked cars. I didn't know, like, where it went. |
| 0:55.2 | I didn't want to just build hot rods. |
| 0:56.8 | And I also wanted to get really good at it, but I was scared. |
| 1:03.0 | This is the Muscle Car Place online podcast, brought you by National Parts Depot. |
| 1:09.5 | This is the weekly show dedicated to people worldwide who love American muscle cars. |
| 1:15.8 | If you're buying, selling, restoring, even racing them, this is the place for you. |
| 1:22.1 | Now here's your host, Rob Kibby. |
| 1:25.4 | Yes, indeed I am Rob Kibby, and welcome to the Muscle Car Place podcast. Well, here we are. |
| 1:30.2 | Seema is just around the corner, and I have a very timely story for you about a guy headed to |
| 1:34.8 | Seema and a 70 Chevel with a coyote under the hood, number one. That's kind of unique. |
| 1:39.9 | Don Abinante is his name, and he has a very unique story. He was a reality TV star sort of |
| 1:46.8 | accidentally for a while. He will share that story. You know those shows where like they fall |
| 1:53.2 | around the crew of people on a boat that wealthy people own, but everybody's like super good |
... |
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