West Coast Customs is a car repair shop that focuses on the customization and personalization of vehicles. The show takes boring and old cars, then transforms them into upscale, luxurious, and highly-customized vehicles for their owners. This hit show was started by Ryan Friedlinghaus and Quinton Dodson in 1994. Both of these owners have interesting facts about themselves that many people might not know just by watching the show.
With numerous celebrities appearing on the show, West Coast Customs has created vehicles for famous people and global brands, shooting the popularity of the program high up in the TV ranks. Although there are tidbits about the popular show that they have hidden from the audience. Such a successful and interesting show has to attribute at least some of its success to the original creators, Ryan and Quinton.
Let’s see who is the man behind West Coast Customs.
Ryan's Entrepreneurial Inspiration
West Coast Customs was created by Ryan Friedlinghaus in 2007. The legal entity, West Coast Customs International LLC, was created a few years later in 2000, cementing his place in the business world. Ryan had been interested in cars, and especially custom vehicles, since he was a teenager. At 14 years old, he became tired of dealing with the tediousness of specialty shops, and of the time he would spend waiting around for the work to be completed. This frustration combined with his love for cars helped spur him to create West Coast Customs.
Pimp My Ride success
After having years of success with the West Coast business and helping many celebrities, like Shaquille O’Neal, he was able to score another deal with MTV. MTV offered Ryan the chance to have a reality show filmed at his business with a co-founder, named Quinton Dodson. Ryan accepted the offer, and the show Pimp My Ride began in 2004.
This show was very successful, and shot West Coast Customs into stardom. The format centered around Americans with junk cars who would meet the host, Xzibit, and describe what their passions and hobbies were. The WCC crew would then be in charge of molding the car to their lifestyle. This show was a hit, and helped Ryan gain notoriety on television.
Discovery Channel show was a no-go
After leaving the hit show Pimp My Ride, Ryan decided to jump right into another program, called Street Customs. This show aired on both the Discovery Channel and the Learning Channel. Also it followed the process and customizations that were done by West Coast Customs for the regular patron. However, Ryan didn’t enjoy the theme of building cars for TV instead of having a camera crew that shows his process. There were reports of the crew saying they were not enjoying building the cars selected, and were creating cars purely for the money.
Stunt Gone Wrong
In 2011, Will.i.am the popular rapper and lead singer of the band The Black Eyed Peas, decided to organize a publicity stunt with Ryan involved. He was going to claim that his car, a modified DeLorean that was customized by West Coast Customs, and cost $700,000, had been stolen. Ryan was then in charge of finding the ‘stolen’ car. This didn’t help anyone’s publicity, and only hurt the reputation of both personalities.
The Trademark King
In 2007, Ryan was able to create a Dubai franchise. This franchise was owned by Al Ghussein Global Investments, which was opened with a whopping price of almost $5 million paid to West Coast Customs to use the trademark legally.
Similarly, in 2016, Friedlinghaus paired with a Shanghai business to create another franchise. This franchise opened in August, and was met with widely positive news coverage in the Asian media. The franchise was shown in the magazine Autohome and Phoenix InfoNews Channel, a television station in China.
Friedlinghaus Family
Ryan is married to Meagan Friedlinghaus. The couple has three children, two boys named Ryan Jr. and Dylan Friedlinghaus, and a daughter, Briana. Both Ryan and his wife are not very active on social media, with Meagan having only 3 posts on her Instagram, and Ryan just using Twitter.
Legal Trouble
While his crew is working at West Coast Customs, he was fined by the United States Department of Labor. After a week-long investigation, they found that the workers were overworked and underpaid. Ryan listed his workers as independent contractors, so they could get paid weekly instead of hourly. Due to the high amount of hours they were working per week, some laborers only averaged a measly $6/hour to do strenuous work. These violations happened consistently over a 3-year time span, and ended when he was forced to pay back almost $160,000 in wages.