We all know and love Goodguys for their awesome car shows across the country, but it’s moments like this that the company really lives up to its name. While at the 2014 SEMA Show, the hot rod enthusiasts from Pleasanton, California awarded master builder Andy Leach with the Trendsetter Award, celebrating the man’s rising talent in the hot rod and custom car building industry.

Leach’s ties to four-wheeled objects began in his childhood, when he first learned his way around a welding torch. By the time he reached age 14, Leach was a self-taught prodigy of fabrication, able to modify and customize cars to his heart’s content (as long as it was in his parents’ garage). His first project car, a 1937 Ford, was up and running just in time for the young man’s driver’s license test, and dropped jaws around town.

Leach finished college and went on to bigger and better things at Rad Rides by Troy in Manteno, Illinois, where he was able to grow and blossom under the wing of Troy Trepanier. It was also Leach’s first taste of fame and notoriety, picking up awards as he honed his passion.

The man broke away in 2009 to create his own business, Cal Auto Creations. Leach’s team made waves just four years later with the arrival of a ’40 Ford coupe, “Checkered Past,” (pictured above) that was built for business partner Ron Cizek. So fantastic was the car that it earned Leach and his crew the Goodguys’ Street Rod of the Year Award, not to mention the coveted Ridler Award.

We salute Leach on his success, and await the next great creation to pop out of his mind. Find out more about the man by visiting his company’s website and Facebook page.