The Real Reason Why Inside West Coast Customs Ended
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Published 2022-06-27
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West Coast customs is probably the most popular custom shop in the world. It was the custom shop behind the first really mainstream car show, Pimp My Ride, and since Pimp My Ride ended the shop has gone on to be behind another car show named Inside West Coast Customs.
The shop has a very interesting history too and is probably the one shop in the world that does not have an exact founding date. According to some, the shop was founded way back in 1994, and others say it was 1997.
In any case, what we do know for sure is that the shop was incorporated in the year 2000 by Ryan Friedlinghaus, a young mechanic who had a passion for building custom made cars.
However, Friedlinghaus had discovered quite early in his life that there were almost no garages that could do all everything needed to make a custom car in-house.
So he created West Coast Customs as a shop that could make custom cars from top to bottom without outsourcing any part of the vehicle. That was his vision for West Coast Customs, and for a while, that was precisely what the shop was.
At first, the shop did not get a lot of orders, but soon celebrities like Shaquille O’Neal started bringing their expensive cars around for custom effects and that is when West Coast Customs blew up.
Before long, the shop drew the attention of media giants MTV and they pitched the show Pimp My Ride to Friedlinghaus. But here was the catch, Friedlinghaus was not going to be the host of the show. It would merely be hosted in his shop and he would be the one to coordinate the actual work on the vehicles. The real host of the show would be a rapper named Xzibit.
In the end, Pimp My Ride was a successful show, but after the first few years, West Coast Customs started seeing the first problems that would eventually run the shop out of reality TV shows forever.
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All Comments (21)
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His company basically proved that most people can't tell quality from shit. I've seen a lot of the cars they've done, and while some of his workers were skilled at what they do- I've never seen a car from that shop which displayed consistent high quality throughout the build. If it had killer paint, the interior was half-assed with pulls and crooked seams. If the interior was nice, it usually had wavy bondo or electrical problems. The average person likely doesn't know the difference, and being able to hose people out of money was the only reliable and consistent skill displayed.
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Building custom vehicles is a very high-stress job. In the late 80's and early 90's I worked at several custom shops. In the mid 90's I opened my own shop and lasted several years, until my divorce forced me to sell it. It really aged me! I think being a former employee made me a better boss, as my crew was pretty happy. I rarely had someone quit, and only ever had to let a few people go. Most shop owners can be tyrants, with unreasonable expectations.
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One of the pimp my ride cars had a fish tank in the doors. There's about a million reasons why that was a terrible idea!
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The show ended, not the shop…
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Car customisation is becoming a thing of the past.
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That was well documented. Great pictures and narrative plain, simple, easy to follow. 😎
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It’s sad that business owners screw employees on pay.
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As a biz owner, what he did could have easily been avoided by hiring an Accountant and Lawyer
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This is an extreme example but Bentley had a mere 3% sales increase, but over 500% in profitability. The reason is customers can customize their Bentley to order. Bentley sometimes even flies their customers to their manufacturing plant to see your car being built. So customizing cars is very profitable business but probably high stress.
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I never liked the vehicles he turned out. I thought they were cheesy and had way too much thought. I would've never taken a car there
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Most of the custom work is done for shows, not for everyday driving. So those vehicles that went caca few weeks after where just for showing off to make more sales n BS. One thing I've noticed about the shop is, there where never long term employees there. That alone says alot about the stress level at the shop. ✌️
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I was surprised when I went to the 2022 SEMA show and they weren't there. 2021's show after the reopening after covid they had a huge display outside
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As a foreigner watching WCC, I was always thinking "God, impossible is not an American word !"
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Chip foose. True car builder & treats his team well.
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“Everything turns to chit” Tony Soprano’s best quote!!!
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Quality work takes time , Shtty quick work gives shtty product. Alot of things can go wrong. Wrong parts, late parts delivery, sick employees, etc.
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Idk why they would complain the accessories they put in most cars would buy a better one than they brought in .
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Honestly all he has to do is buy airtime and resell commercials. That's the formula that's been done for decades in order to get a show out there. Not to mention he could ink a deal with hulu or netflix to do cars yet have sponsorships built in .
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If that shop crew had a different boss that didn’t treat them like shit like friedlinghaus and Rawlings do their employees… I bet that show would be amazing.
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Some people roll up in a clown car and then if you call them a clown they get their feelings hurt.
