Ryan Friedlinghaus

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West Coast Customs (abbreviated by the firm as WCC) is a car repair shop focusing on vehicle customization. In 1993, co-founders Ryan Friedlinghaus and Quinton Dodson founded it. He began the company with a $5,000 loan from his grandfather, according to Friedlinghaus, but other sources claim he raised the seed money for the operation while working at his father's liquor store. The company has gained a lot of attention thanks to celebrity patronage, as well as appearances in the reality television series Pimp My Ride and Street Customs.

West Coast Customs has also produced cars for multinational companies such as Virgin, Nintendo, and Microsoft. It is regularly regarded as one of the best custom car shops in the United States. However, the firm has been accused of missing deadlines, using aggressive marketing techniques, and building low quality and potentially unsafe customized vehicles. Any observers and former employees have also slammed the company's employment policies.

It has had some success outside of the United States; it has opened franchises in Dubai and Shanghai (as Chinese: ). However, other franchises, such as the one in Berlin, were closed shortly after opening due to insolvency. Burbank, California, its new flagship and largest facility with a long tradition of many locations throughout the United States state of California, 5,600 m2) is located.

Early years; Pimp My Ride (1990–2007)

West Coast Customs was established in either 1994 or 1998 by auto enthusiast Ryan Friedlinghaus, according to two contradictory claims in the Los Angeles Times. In a 2008 essay, USA Today listed the year as 1997. West Coast Customs International, LLC, a California corporation, was established on October 20, 2000. By age 14, a young Friedlinghaus had had his custom cars on the front pages of auto journals, but he became dissatisfied with the tedium of dealing with several specialty stores, which culminated in longer build times. According to Entrepreneur, the commotion, as well as his obsession with custom cars, led to the opening of his own shop.

WCC went back to Inglewood to get a reputation for quality, which prompted celebrities to have their cars modified there. Shaquille O'Neal, one of his first clients, needed a customized Chevrolet Suburban, and this connection helped him locate other celebrities searching for custom vehicles, according to Friedlinghaus. Music Television (MTV) invited Friedlinghaus as the host and co-founder Quinton "Q" Dodson to appear on his business with co-founder Quinton "Q" Dodson as the actor and rapper Xzibit; his acceptance of this contract led to the 2004 television series Pimp My Ride.

Pimp My Ride was very popular, prompting international spin-offs, and its success raised the profile of West Coast Customs dramatically. According to the show's format, typical Americans with junk cars would be discovered by the Film producer of MTV, Friedlinghaus, and the crew, and then WCC workers would fix their junk car and transform it into a custom car expressing the owner's tastes and personality. The show continued to place first in the 12 to 34-year-old demographic for its 9:30 p.m. time slot in 2004, according to CBS News.

According to a former employee of the company at the time Pimp My Ride was shot, the bulk of the work on the cars was done behind the scenes. On Monday, cars and hopes for the final product would arrive, and staff waited until the following Friday to complete a project, sometimes necessitating twelve hour work days. Many of the off-screen jobs were done by illegal immigrants from Mexico, with some estimates of around 11. MTV was apparently unconcerned about potential ramifications of WCC and not MTV as the employees were part of WCC rather than MTV.

West Coast Customs was prominently featured in the 2005 street racing video game L.A., due to the success of Pimp My Ride. The car upgrade process is causing a lot of panic. According to the Chicago Tribune, Midway, the game's producer, paid "handsomely" to be able to use the brand.

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

As early as 2005, rumors that the show will relocate and Friedlinghaus will appear on a different network werecirculating. After the fourth and final season with WCC as the store, these rumors were confirmed by MTV and Friedlinghaus in 2007.

Friedlinghaus credited Pimp My Ride for his post-Mexico move from West Coast Customs to Galpin Auto Sports in a 2007 interview, but Friedlinghaus said that his attention on building cars for the television show damaged his relationships with his other customers.

However, Friedlinghaus would soon begin a new television show based on Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel, produced by Pilgrim Films & Television, after leaving Pimp My Ride. The new show appeared after continuing customizations for consenting customers of West Coast Customs rather than building the cars for the people selected by MTV. "I want to build cars on TV, not for television," Friedlinghaus explained the difference between the two shows: "I want to build cars on TV, not for television." Although the breakup was described as amicable, several at WCC were not so keen: "Most of the MTV people are not real car guys," Sean Mahaney, a then-emplodee of WCC, said. They pay us to build the cars, so we do what they want even if it sucks."

Street Customs will change names and networks four times, but its style stayed unchanged. Although cars are now being manufactured for individuals, as the series went on, more and more episodes were devoted to brands. Because MTV was no longer footing the bill, all episodes of the new series were about automobiles built for people who could afford the costly expense of customization. Carroll Shelby's one for Shawneal, a Cadillac for Shaquille O'Neal, (according to Friedlinghaus, O'Neal had already 30 cars built for him by WCC by July 2007, a modified Range Rover for an unidentified member of the royal family of Dubai, and a Cadillac CTS-V for Justin Bieber are among the notable models built for celebrities in Street Customs. Chronic Tacos and Vans were two brands built for.

In an interview with Friedlinghaus, the 2008 global financial crisis harmed his company greatly: he had to lay off half of the company's employees, orders reduced, and customers preferred to have used cars repaired rather than buying new ones that had been customized.

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

Inside West Coast Customs was renamed after the 2009 season. Along with this upgrade, Discovery HD Theater was also upgraded to Discovery HD Theater, which later became a separate automotive-related cable channel, Velocity.

Jalopnik announced that Jalopnik would perform in 2012. Friedlinghaus then proceeded to discover the allegedly stolen vehicle. No police report was submitted, nor were the police even called; Jalopnik describes the situation as a "viral marketing stunt that went horribly wrong."

Fox Sports Network took over the show's production in June 2013, removing the word "Inside" from the show's name and starting to produce new seasons of the show until 2016. Velocity returned to Velocity in March 2017 for a new season; Velocity then renewed the program in January 2018.

Six Flags Magic Mountain was scheduled to build West Coast Racers, which was developed in part by West Coast Customs.

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