Who is David Newbern?
Welcome to Newbern’s Garage. My name is David Newbern aka 12 Volt Dave. I was born and raised in West Georgia. Why do they call me 12 Volt Dave? Six different cars and trucks I drove caught fire for no reason and I happen to be behind the wheel, so the name was born. My love for Hot Rods came from my Dad who built everything from the 30’s to the 70’s. Growing up we traveled to different car shows every weekend. His favorites were anything from the 30’s and early 40’s. Naturally that carried down to me. The first car I ever built was a 1932 ford coupe at the age of twenty one. That wasn’t my first car though. When I was thirteen my Dad gave me two options for a new project car, a 1965 mustang or a 1964 Impala. I chose the Impala that had been sitting for twelve years. We got it home and my Dad and I gave it a tune up, replaced the brake master cylinder and put some fresh fuel in it. It was on after that. I drove my friends all over the neighborhood in that car. I still own that car today. That was just the beginning of my love for cars. I have now owned 250+ cars and have totally lost count. All of that led me to where I am today. I have met some amazing people in the car community and have been able to participate in some crazy adventures over the years. I met Mike Finnegan (Host of Roadkill) in 2014 when he moved from California to Georgia. We became friends and before I knew it I quit my construction job of 15 years to go full time car building with Finnegan. Not long after that we were approached by Motortrend about a new show idea where we wrench in the shop with our buddies making slow cars faster. In 2019 the Motortrend show Faster with Finnegan was born with two of my best friends, Finnegan and Mike Cotten. We built some crazy rides and had the time of our lives. The show grew bigger and bigger and before I knew it I was working 7 days a week day and night. I was trying to keep up with my day job working with Finnegan and doing lots of behind the scenes work for Faster w Finnegan. I had kids at home who missed me and I made the decision to quit working for Finnegan and focus on the show to allow myself to be home more. Finnegan being a family man himself completely understood the situation. A couple of weeks later he decided he needed to step back and do the same. He wanted to focus on his Youtube channel and Roadkill which meant more time at home with the family. So that was the end of Faster with Finnegan. Motortrend wanted to keep going with the show so it became Faster with Newbern and Cotten. Cotten and myself jumped at the opportunity to continue on and we started building cars out of my home shop in West Ga. It was a great run and we had an absolute blast but unfortunately the company got bought out and filming stopped for all the Motortrend shows. Luckily we have Youtube and still plan on building and racing hot rods.