West Coast Customs is an automobile repair shop that mainly deals with the customization of vehicles. This requires the team to substantially alter the performance or the exterior of the vehicle in order to make a personalized and stylized car. Although West Coast has churned our numerous high-quality vehicles, there are some conflicting reports about the inner workings of this famous shop. This autobody shop has helped to create one of the greatest car shows on TV now. 

Let’s dive deeper into the real story behind West Coast Customs and explore some hidden issues that have crept up in the past.

The History

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West Coast was founded in the late 20th century by Ryan Friedlinghaus, supposedly in the year 1997. The legal entity was created in late 2000, forming West Coast Customs International LLC. before Friedlinghaus opened his own shop, he had been educated in the world of creating custom vehicles, but didn’t like the process of dealing with numerous shops, hence he created his own. Add this to the list of facts we don't know about Friedlinghaus

The company location moved various times within the first years of inception, but finally settled in the Inglewood spot that has made West Coast famous. One of Friedlinghaus’ first celebrity customers was Shaquille O’Neal, when he requested a customized Chevrolet Suburban. This celebrity interaction spurred Friedlinghaus to accept a deal with MTV to air the teen-hit show, Pimp My Ride.

Pimp My Ride

Pimp My Ride
Via YouTube

This famous car customization show was very successful and shot West Coast Customs into stardom. The staff and crew would fix up and customize junk cars, creating masterpieces that embodied the interests of the car owner.

Some controversy with this show revolved around the quick turn-around of the products. Cars would arrive on Monday, and the employees had only until the following Friday to complete the job, requiring insanely long working hours. According to one of Friedlinghaus’ employees, some of the off-screen work was done by illegal immigrants.

RELATED: 20 Times West Coast Customs Messed Up

Street Customs

West Coast Customs
via Forgiato

Friedlinghaus almost jumped right from one car show into another, despite his self-reports that focusing on the television show damaged his relationship with some of his customers. He was a part of Street Customs, a program on Discovery Channel, where the customizations being done for customers of West Coast Customs was followed. However, there was a short-lived respectable working relationship, as he didn’t like creating cars solely for the purpose of good TV.

As time went on, MTV was no longer paying for the bills, so the customers had to have enough money in their pockets to pay the costs. Some of the celebrities that visited this location were Justin Bieber, a royal in Dubai, and Carroll Shelby. After celebrity success, he had to lay off half of the company’s employees due to the 2008 financial crisis. This led to more issues with his employees, after the infamous immigrant scandal in the Pimp My Ride portion of his business.

Inside West Coast Customs

via reddit

Once the 2009 season was over, the show was renamed Inside West Coast Customs. The location was also changed to Discovery HD Theater. Changing the name and location hasn’t spared the owner from more controversy, however. In 2012, the rapper will.i.am and Friedlinghaus organized a stunt where the rapper would pretend to have one of West Coast Customs’ cars stolen. Despite this being a crime, it was chalked up to a very bad publicity stunt.

RELATED: 10 Best Mods By West Coast Customs (And 10 That Flopped)

Mistreatment of Employees

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Besides the reports of the immigrants working to quickly finish cars and the extreme layoff during the 2008 crisis, there were many more incidents within West Coast Customs that have spurred employee complaints.

Long Work Weeks

Back in 2008, USA Today noticed that the shop typically worked 60 hour work weeks. Friedlinghaus was described as micromanaging everything, ensuring that the work was perfect and every detail was finished. One employee came forth and said he worked 60 hour weeks as an undocumented worker, and didn’t receive any benefits.

Going Home? No way. Friedlinghaus has reprimanded those who have gone home when a project hasn’t been completed, forcing them to stay overnight at the shop to complete the work. He said in an interview that the guys who want to work will stay and get the job done, insinuating that if they don’t stay, they won’t have a job.

Federal Violations

In 2014, the shop was found to be violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, stating that Friedlinghaus wasn’t paying employees the correct overtime or minimum wage standards. All employees were paid a base weekly salary, regardless of how many hours they worked - and this sometimes averaged out to $6/hour for some workers.

After this allegation, Friedlinghaus had the option to go to court or pay the fine - and he chose the latter. He paid almost $160,000 back to the wronged employees, plus additional civil penalties.

Quality Issues

Throughout the show, there have been many quick turn-arounds of vehicles into fun, cool, and customized vehicles. However, the work churned out from the West Coast isn’t always the best.

Jake Glazier’s Buick Century

Jake Glazier’s Buick Century
Via Hotcars

During this episode in season 4, the crew was in charge of ‘pimping’ Jake’s Buick Century. After receiving the completed vehicle, Jake claimed that the quality of vehicle he received was very compromised. He Noted that the muffler was removed, the exhaust pipes made the car very loud, no mechanical work was done on the car, and he was forced to sell the car. In addition to receiving a malfunctioning vehicle, he was forced to act more enthusiastic upon receiving his changed vehicle.

Trisha Paytas’ Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon

via twitter

Trisha Paytas, an internet celebrity, brought her brand-new Mercedes into the shop in 2015. She requested that the car was painted pink, among various other exterior requests. The car was promised to her by November 17, which was not met. When she came to pick up the car on December 17 instead, none of the electronics worked, such as the headlights and windshield wipers.

West Coast’s solution was to tell her to bring her vehicle to a dealership where they could perform an in-warranty repair. After Paytas uploaded a video blog of the unfortunate experience, West Coast responded with their own. The video further hurt the reputation of West Coast, with numerous users agreeing with Paytas’ side.

Firefall Bus Red 5 Studios

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In 2010, The9 Limited, a Chinese online game operator, announced that a new first-person shooter game would be produced by Red 5 Studios. The game was called Firefall, and would become available in 2013. The CEO decided to have a tour bus built, and inquired to have it done by West Coast. The customization was featured in season 3, and resulted in the tour bus arriving much later than anticipated. The CEO also accused West Coast of going over budget, not delivering what was asked, and missing some key features.

There you have it, the Real story behind West Coast Customs.

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