Industry Vertical
Gas Monkey Security
Dallas hot rod mechanic wants security systems to take care of themselves
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- Sep 01, 2017
When you have a garage full of antique and
high-end performance cars, you better be
thinking about a reliable security system.
One that will not only allow you to protect
your investments, but also ensure that
nothing drives out of the garage without proper permission.
Keeping Track of Everything
Richard Rawlings is the kind of guy that keeps track of everything
in his shop, and when his Gas Monkey Garage started
booming, an up-to-date security system was critical. While Rawlings
didn’t go out searching for a security system, when pitched
the idea, he knew he had to have it. Enter Keith Daulton, regional
sales manager at Costar Video Systems, who got 30 minutes of
Rawlings time, and turned Gas Monkey Garage into a veritable
Fort Knox.
Gas Monkey Garage started in an extremely small two-bay
garage, and not in the greatest Dallas location. It was a rough
area, but soon enough Rawlings bought a larger building, and
knew he was going to “have to have video, not just for security
but to keep up with everything going on in the garage.”
Ever popular on the Discovery Channel with his Fast N’ Loud
television series, his fan base has grown worldwide. Locally, one
fan of the show is Keith Bell, owner of KB Technologies and the
security integrator who worked with the Costar team to secure
the premises.
“Installing the security cameras was fun for me because I am
a fan of the show,” Bell said. “We all just worked together to find
the best solution at every point in the garage. We installed a few
360-degree cameras in several key locations in the shop to ensure a
complete view of a car while it is being worked on. The 360 camera
is all encompassing, and it certainly brings the wow factor.”
Unique Challenges
Installing the cameras and security equipment had its unique challenges
with Gas Monkey Garage constantly in TV filming mode,
Bell and his KB Technology team had to be aware of production’s
cameras here and there, and behind every door in the facility.
“We were growing so fast that it got to the point that I could
no longer look out an office window and see what’s going on,”
Rawlings said. “We’re gonna have to have video to keep up with
it all. We also needed the security because [fans] would walk in all the time to get a glimpse of what we’re
doing. This is a working shop, and we’re
doing some proprietary stuff in here.”
Speaking of the fans, groups of people
will begin to line the outer perimeter fence
almost every day just to see inside the
shop. However, a perimeter fence keeps
the fans at arms’ length and out of the way
of the working staff and the crew. Filming
takes place every day of the week, so film
taken today by a fan could potentially ruin
a scene six months down the road.
Gas Monkey Garage is not a garage so
much as it is an attitude. Rawlings figured
this out early while settling on a security
system, and knew that cameras installed
around the working garage would also
be of interest to his fans. KB Technologies
dug a trench between the shop and
the Merch store, laid in fiber and displays
real-time video from inside the garage on
TV. It also doesn’t hurt that Rawlings will
wander outside the garage to meet and
greet the fans throughout the day.
Security cameras took on another
duty, after hours. There was the usual reason
of making sure no one stole, and that
happened… once. But then, there was the
time that the cleaning crew posed with a
recently refurbished Ferrari.
“Things that just happen, and are
caught by the security cameras, have also
turned into a marketing advantage,” Rawlings
said. “There are 50 cameras around
the facilities, and we’re about halfway
there to the security that we expect. All the
camera feeds go into Daphne’s office, and
she keeps track of the business.”
All in the Family
Daphne Kaminski is Rawlings’ sister.
As he explains it, she has been with him,
“well, all of my life.” She keeps it all together
and running on time, every time.
While there haven’t been any huge security
challenges, it is partly because everyone
knows there are cameras in place to keep
the shop secure, and under surveillance.
The cameras are always recording, but
even that changes when there is motion.
Once motion is detected in any camera
range, recording speeds up from real time
to 30 frames per second, and via a cell
phone app, Rawlings gets an alert that
something is moving inside the garage.
Rawlings recognizes his strengths in the
business world being his ability to find the
right people for the job. From the security
perspective, he found the perfect solution
with Keith Daulton and Keith Bell, and
allowed them the space to do what they do
best. While the facilities are electronically
secure, Gas Monkey Garage also employs
a full time armed guard to further secure
the premises 24/7.
Security plays a vital role in this realworld
hot rod shop. Cars are built fast,
within 21 days, and there isn’t time to
worry about intrusions or theft. Rawlings
doesn’t want to worry about the details of
security because, as he writes in his book
Fast N’ Loud: “Being a Gas Monkey is
about getting out there and getting dirty
with your hands, having a good time and
enjoying the fruits of that labor.”
This article originally appeared in the September 2017 issue of Security Today.