Ivy Hartman: The Specialty Equipment Market Association is all about making vehicles faster, sleeker, and one of a kind. And one family business has been making one of the kind cars for nearly 30 years.
Chris Anderson: In 1979, George Gaffoglio and Ruben Gaffoglio came to America with their father John from Argentina. John Gaffoglio, their father, was a world known craftsmen in Argentina with metal. He was a metal worker.
Chrysler came to the manufacturers, to Gaffoglio's and said will you make us a concept car? We think you guys can do it. So we started with one car in 1979 and since then we've done multiple cars for all the OEMs out there. So our real niche has been the concept car market.
Ivy Hartman: To get your very own concept car just like this one that the Gaffoglio family built and Metalcrafters built, you only have to come up with $1-2 million and maybe the only small business you'd want to go with.
Chris Anderson: The car behind us is a customer Barracuda. It's just - he always wanted his own one-off car. And so he came to us and he said I want my own one of a kind car. He always wanted this one. A Barracuda, an old style, but with kind of new technology.
Male speaker: It's an eye catcher and if you are side driving by you'll definitely look at it.
Male speaker: I mean its old school style. The old school lines that it has, yet it's still modern enough to appeal to the modern era.
Male speaker: I want to pop the hood but I don't want to step on anyone's toes around here.
Ivy Hartman: Everything on a concept car like this one is made by hand; even the glass has to be made from scratch.
Chris Anderson: It's a business sprung out of a need, from the concept car business. So no one could make the glass. We had to figure how to make the glass. The carbon fiber that was a way to go. We'd to create our own carbon fiber team. So we've kind of created these teams and from that point, they are going to grow into their own little existence, which is kind of exciting.
Ivy Hartman: So concept cars and glass making are not the limit to what the Gaffoglio family metal crafter can do.
Chris Anderson: We also have the Camera Ready car division, and that division is also a division which we go and support all the commercials of the cars. The cars come to us, we take them on location; we've a whole team to support these commercials. You know cut the car into six pieces. We are going to field coat on in a different color; fill in the back on when we are done, and that's the only division that's being around for 27 years also.
Ivy Hartman: So what has kept this small family business going strong?
Chris Anderson: The key to success is that they are one of few companies in the world that can do this. The quality is what they are known for and no one else can really do what we do.
Ivy Hartman: Reporting from the 2000 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, I am Ivy Hartman reporting for SBTV.com. Small business is our only business.
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