West Coast Customs

Early years; Pimp My Ride (1990-2007)

According to two contradictory statements in the Los Angeles Times, West Coast Customs was founded in either 1994 or 1998 by auto enthusiast Ryan Friedlinghaus. In a 2008 article, USA Today put the foundation year as 1997. The legal entity, West Coast Customs International, LLC, was incorporated in California on 20 October 2000. A young Friedlinghaus had gotten his custom vehicles featured on the covers auto magazines by age 14, but he became frustrated with the tedium of dealing with multiple specialty shops which led to longer times to build the vehicles. According to Entrepreneur, this frustration, coupled to his love for custom cars, was what led to his opening of his own shop.

The company moved many times in its early years, but it is at its Inglewood location that WCC began to gain a reputation for quality, which caused celebrities to have their cars modified there. According to Friedlinghaus, one of his first customers was Shaquille O'Neal, who wanted a customized Chevrolet Suburban, and this relationship helped him get contacts with other celebrities who were looking for custom automobiles. Owing to this, Music Television (MTV) offered Friedlinghaus the opportunity to have a reality television show filmed at his business with co-founder Quinton "Q" Dodson as the star and rapper Xzibit as the host; his acceptance of this deal led to the 2004 TV show Pimp My Ride.

Pimp My Ride was extremely successful, spawning international spin-offs, and its success increased the profile of West Coast Customs substantially. The show's format was that the producers at MTV would find typical Americans with junk cars, they would be given a short interview with Xzibit, Friedlinghaus and the WCC crew to determine their interests and hobbies, and then WCC staff would fix their junk car and also transform it into a custom car embodying the interests and personality of its owner. In 2004, CBS News reported that the show consistently ranked first place in the 12 to 34 year old demographic for its 9:30PM time slot.

According to a former employee of the company at the time Pimp My Ride was filmed in an interview with NPR, most of the work actually done on the vehicles was done behind the scenes. Cars and expectations for the final product would arrive on Monday, and employees had until the following Friday to complete a project, sometimes necessitating twelve hour work days. According to this employee, much of the off-screen labor was done by illegal immigrants from Mexico, around eleven in total. As the employees were of WCC and not MTV, MTV was apparently unconcerned about possible ramifications of this for them.

Owing to the popularity of Pimp My Ride, West Coast Customs was prominently featured in the 2005 street racing video game L.A. Rush as the car upgrade mechanism. According to the Chicago Tribune, Midway, the developer of the game, paid "handsomely" to be able to use the brand.

In June 2005, Friedlinghaus took over the role of host from Dodson for the fourth season.

As early as 2005, during airing of the second season of Pimp My Ride, rumors circulated that the location of the show would change and Friedlinghaus would part with MTV to host a show on a different network. These rumors were confirmed with simultaneous announcements by MTV and Friedlinghaus in 2007, after the fourth and final season with WCC as the shop.

In a 2007 interview in the Los Angeles Times Friedlinghaus gave after the Pimp My Ride relocation from West Coast Customs to Galpin Auto Sports, Friedlinghaus credited Pimp My Ride with helping him build his brand, but said that he felt that his focus on building cars for the television show damaged his relationships with his other customers.

Street Customs and (Inside) West Coast Customs (2007-2016)

Nevertheless, after leaving Pimp My Ride Friedlinghaus would almost immediately begin a new television program that aired simultaneously on Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel, Street Customs, produced by Pilgrim Films & Television. Instead of building the cars for the people chosen by MTV, the new show followed ongoing customizations being done for consenting customers of West Coast Customs. Friedlinghaus described the difference between the two shows thus: "I want to build cars on TV, not for TV." While the break up was described as amicable, others at WCC were not so subdued: Sean Mahaney, a then-employee of WCC, reportedly said "Most of the MTV people are not real car guys... They pay us to build the cars, so we do what they want even if it sucks."

Street Customs would change names twice and networks four times, but its format remained constant. While cars would still be built for individuals, more and more episodes were devoted to brands as the show ran on. Because MTV was no longer footing the bill, all episodes of the new series were about cars built for people who could afford the high cost of customization. Some notable individuals built for in Street Customs are Carroll Shelby, a Cadillac for Shaquille O'Neal (according to Friedlinghaus, O'Neal had already had 30 cars built for him by WCC by July 2007), a modified Range Rover for an unnamed member of the royal family of Dubai, and a Cadillac CTS-V for Justin Bieber. Brands built for included Chronic Tacos and Vans.

According to Friedlinghaus in an interview with The Press-Enterprise, the 2008 global financial crisis affected his business heavily: he had to lay off half of the company's employees, orders decreased, and customers opted to have used cars repaired instead of buying brand new cars to be customized.

In 2010, West Coast Customs designed three identical customized 1955 Ford F-100 pick up trucks which were prominently featured in the film The Expendables. One of these cars was for Sylvester Stalone, who sold it at auction in 2011 for $132,000. In 2015, WCC created a car by combining the body of a Ford Maverick and the internals of a Ford Ranger for another film, Mad Max: Fury Road.

After the 2009 season, the show was renamed to Inside West Coast Customs. Along with this change, it was also moved to Discovery HD Theater, which later became a different specifically automotive related cable channel, Velocity. In June 2013, Fox Sports Network took over the production of the show, dropping the word "Inside" from the show's name, and has continued to produce new seasons of the show until 2016. In March 2017, the television show moved back to Velocity with a new season.

Location changes

The company has moved several times in its history, each time to larger spaces. According to Friedlinghaus, the first shop was in Laguna Niguel, Orange County, California, after which it moved to Compton, Los Angeles in 1998. In 2000, it moved again to a location on Olive Street in Inglewood. After the first season of Pimp My Ride, the company moved yet another time to a larger location near Los Angeles International Airport which had a room specifically for the filming. After Pimp My Ride left the company, it moved to a location in Corona, California in preparation for the Street Customs television show.

During filming of Season 5 Episode 12 "WCC's New Zip Part 1" of West Coast Customs, Friedlinghaus began moving the shop to its current location, a 60,000 square feet (5,600 m²) auto shop on West Empire Avenue in Burbank, Los Angeles County, California. The grand opening of the new facility occurred in January 2015.

Mistreatment of employees

As early as 2008, USA Today noted that Friedlinghaus's auto shop routinely had 60 hour work weeks and employees had 'insane deadlines' working for Friedlinghaus, a 'self-described micromanager'. One former employee, Mauricio Hernández, who would go on to co-found the Mexican franchise of WCC, claimed in an interview with NPR that during the period of his employment at the California branch (2004-2009), he worked ten to twelve hours per day, six days per week as an undocumented worker, without Social Security or any other benefits, and that by so doing he "missed...the childhood of [his] kids."

In some episodes of Inside West Coast Customs, if Friedlinghaus had agreed to a too tight deadline, employees would stay at the shop late into the night, or even overnight. In Season 1 Episode 3 "Smoothie Operator", Ishmael, an interior designer and upholsterer, was about to have a child with his wife, but Friedlinghaus' sole concern was on the project. After the baby was born, Ishmael left his newborn with his wife the very next day at the request of Friedlinghaus to finish a project.

In an interview with Entertainment Scoop, when asked "What does it take to be an employee at West Coast Customs?", Friedlinghaus replied: "Not saying, 'when do I go home?' The guys who want to stay and work and get things done...it's hard to find people that are good...[people who will do] whatever we ask them to do."

On 23 April 2014, after an investigation by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL), the company was found to have violated the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The government found that paying employees overtime, paying employees a minimum wage, and proper record keeping was not being done by the company. During the investigation, the government found that all employees were paid a weekly salary, regardless of how many hours they worked. Because employees were frequently coerced to work overtime, this resulted in a wage of $6/hour for some employees. Furthermore, until 2011, the company attempted to skirt minimum wage and overtime laws by classifying their on-site exclusive long-term employees as independent contractors, which is illegal in the United States.

When presented with the opportunity to go to court or pay the fine assessed by USDOL, Friedlinghaus chose to pay the fine, which amounted to $157,592 in back wages for the wronged employees and $16,830 in civil penalties. In an interview with The Press-Enterprise from after the fine was paid, Daniel Pasquil, the director for the wages and hour division of the West Covina office of the USDOL, noted that "The most important thing is that the company did correct the violations" and stressed that the company is now in full compliance.

Jake Glazier's Buick Century

In 2015, The Huffington Post interviewed three people who were participants on Pimp My Ride, one of whom had a vehicle that was "pimped" during the time that the location of the show was West Coast Customs, Jake Glazier (featured in Season 4 Episode 7, "Jake's Buick Century").

During the episode, the team at West Coast Customs were told that Glazier had recently graduated from a degree program in audio engineering, so they installed an MTX Jackhammer high fidelity sound system (with accompanying decibel meter and warning light, to, in the words of Xzibit, stave off deafness) and a record player inside the dashboard. Other customizations were a flat black paint job (with a red metal flake paint job on the roof with scallops on the sides and hood to match), four inch whitewall tires, removal of the muffler and installation of exhaust pipes, and black and white vinyl interior.

Besides problems caused by the long period of time that the vehicle was in the shop, for around one half of a year, Glazier claimed that the quality of the vehicle he received was also severely compromised. According to Glazier, when the muffler was removed, three "fake" exhaust pipes were substituted instead: these were used to make the engine sound much more powerful to viewers of the television show, but they made the car needlessly loud. He also claimed that very little or no mechanical work was done to the car, to the extent that he had trouble driving it home from the show's set. Due to all of the mechanical trouble, one month after acquiring the car from West Coast Customs, he sold it to MTX Audio for $18,000. According to Glazier, MTX did not buy the car to drive it, but merely to prevent it from falling into the hands of their competitors. Glazier further claimed that when it was time to receive the car, Dana "Big Dane" Florence intimidated him to act more enthusiastic for the cameras, saying "Listen, we put a lot of work into this. We expect you to be a little more fucking enthusiastic." Larry Hochberg, an executive producer for MTV at the time, disputed Glazier's statements, saying that in reality great lengths were taken to provide the participants in the show with automobiles in good driving condition, and that MTV even paid for free for some further repairs and tows after the cameras were rolling.

Despite the problems he faced with the vehicle, and with the caveat that he appear on a show with the same format as Pimp My Ride where MTV paid for all work done until the car was delivered (and for some afterwards, depending on who one believes), Glazier said he would happily participate in the program again if given the chance.

Trisha Paytas' Mercedez-Benz G-Wagen

There have been several high profile incidents of quality issues outside of the context of the MTV program. In 2015, Trisha Paytas, a singer-songwriter and internet personality had her three-week old 2014 Mercedez-Benz G-Wagen customized by WCC. Among other customizations, she requested that the car be painted pink, that Swarovski crystals be integrated into the headrests and steering wheel, and that the floormats be changed out with customized ones. According to Paytas, after bringing in her vehicle she was promised that it would be ready by November 17, but the company missed both that deadline and a further December 9 one. After the second deadline was missed, she uploaded a vlog to YouTube about her experience, and claims that WCC threatened her with a lawsuit if she refused to remove it. December 17 became the deadline that the company would ultimately keep, but when she came to pick up the vehicle she found that none of the electronic components worked, including ones which the non-use of is a crime in the United States besides being major safety issues, such as turn signals, headlights, and in some states, windshield wipers. Furthermore, the dashboard instruments did not function, which could cause the driver to underestimate her speed. To her complaints about these issues, Paytas claims that the company told her to drive the car home and then to the Mercedez-Benz dealership from which she bought it and ask them for an in-warranty repair. Paytas uploaded yet another vlog five days after this incident, after which point WCC uploaded its own video in the form of a scrolling text public relations statement. In the statement, besides denying that they had "talked down" to Paytas, WCC denied that its customization was the reason for the issues with her vehicle, claimed that the vehicle was late because she had changed what she had ordered "several times", denied that they had ignored Paytas as she claimed, and invited Paytas to contact them with any further requests or complaints for an "immediate resolution," noting that they had already committed to fix the problem (which, though they wrote it was "unrelated to their services", they would do it anyway "as part of providing excellent customer service"). The company also noted its track record, but did not provide any concrete details. As of 23 December 2016, the statement-as-YouTube video, which has had its comments disabled, had 261 "likes" and 1,652 "dislikes", or a ratio of 6.32 dislikes for every 1 like.

Despite the many problems her car customization had received, after the fixed vehicle was received by Paytas, she would seemingly forgive West Coast Customs, reportedly writing on Instagram "It was a bit of a struggle getting [it] but I do love my [car] so very very much."

Firefall bus for Red 5 Studios

In 2010, Chinese online game operator The9 Limited announced Firefall, an MMO first-person shooter to be developed by Red 5 Studios as their first game. The game would enter closed beta in 2011, and open beta in 2013. Mark Kern, a video game designer, was appointed by The9 as CEO of the new Red 5 Studios. As CEO, one of Kern's major tasks was promoting the game, and he chose to do this in part with a custom designed tour bus worth US$3 million made to look like one of the vehicles in the videogame and to be converted into a game room on wheels. The customization of the bus was featured on Inside West Coast Customs in Season 3 Episode 4. While in the episode itself it is made to appear that the bus was on-time, arriving at the Lost Angeles 2012 Anime Expo which took place between June 29 and July 2, in reality it arrived much later than anticipated, according to both then-CEO Mark Kern and a report by Tech in Asia. Kern also accused WCC of not delivering what he wanted and of going over budget, while Tech in Asia noted that the bus was delivered missing some of its key features, and that it missed all of the key video game conferences for the year 2011 (such as the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012, which was held between June 5 and June 7). According to their report, it now "sits in a warehouse somewhere, collecting dust." A Twitter parody of the bus describes itself as a "gross demonstration of capitalistic overindulgence."

Franchises

West Coast Customs has attempted to franchise its brand to other parts of the world with limited success.

Closed franchises

Never opened franchises

Open franchises

Despite these setbacks, some franchisees have created successful businesses.