Alex Fees: At the October SEMA 2007 conference in Las Vegas. One display replicated the facilities of West Coast Customs in Corona California. Owner Ryan Friedlinghaus has taken that small business and turn it into very big business.
Friedlinghaus gave SBTV.com a tour and agreed to explain to you, how he made it happen.
Ryan Friedlinghaus: The cool thing is at this time at SEMA I was able to really set up a display on my company and what we really do. It's kind of give a little view of what my guys go through everyday, but also let people have hands on experience.
People can come in and practice painting with my guys, so it's kind of cool to get back to our fans really. This is the fabrication area, where you can learn how to weld on one side of it, but on the other side is we, I mean we do suspension and you know all the exhaust components.
All of the custom stuff that comes into the fabrication world when you are shaving the door handle, or you are chopping the top, or you are widening a body, I mean it's all done in the Fabrication Department.
My TV show is definitely a lot of drama because my day consist of a lot of drama. When you are dealing with five different shops under one roof and five different artists that don't want to get along and at the end of the day we build badass cars, and I think that's what we wanted to be recognized for.
Basically our business is based on art, so I have from the street artist that draw the stuff to my graphic designer that put it in a computer, and now we are able to print it on a vinyl, which we hang on walls, we wrap cars with it.
I mean we design our whole shop around the artwork, in the style that West Coast Customs really is. Just stick to your dream, I mean that's, that's been my biggest is thing is I never gave up.
I started this whole business with $5,000 and I dreamed to really build that shop that has everything under one roof, that has all the guys working together as a family not like a corporation kind of feel. But just run it like you would want to be treated and that's how I have always ran my business. I think that's why lot of my guys have been with me for 9 and 10 years now. It's been a definitely a hard struggle for me just because the finance hasn't always been there, or the support hasn't always been there.
But I have always believed in myself and I say, you know I am not going to give up. I want to make this work and I think we were making it work now.
Alex Fees: In Las Vegas at SEMA 2007, I am Alex Fees for SBTV.com
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