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Automotive Lifestyle
AUTOS: West Coast Customs At Barrett-Jackson
Founder Ryan Friedlinghaus brings his unique California style to OC auction, and reveals a new custom-car brand.
Bob Golfen  |  Posted June 27, 2010   Costa Mesa, CA
West Coast Customs founder and CEO Ryan Friedlinghaus shows off his latest creation as well as his new brand, Wrench, at Barrett-Jackson's Orange County auction. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
Barrett-Jackson targeted the famous car-culture of Southern California when it launched its fourth annual auction in Orange County, flavored by the presence of the best-known of California’s car builders and customizers, West Coast Customs.

And West Coast Custom’s founder and CEO Ryan Friedlinghaus, whose tattooed image has become a familiar TV staple on his show, “Street Customs,” took the opportunity to show off his company’s hottest products, consign some cars to the auction, and even roll out a new hot-rod brand: Wrench.

West Coast Customs built three identical flat-black pickups for an upcoming Sylvester Stallone movie, but the other two were destroyed during the filming. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
Spectators at Barrett-Jackson’s Costa Mesa event flocked to West Coast Custom’s display of strikingly creative custom cars, including a flat-black pickup truck prepared for the upcoming Sylvester Stallone film, the Expendables.

“We built three trucks, two of which got destroyed in the filming of the movie,” Friedlinghaus said. “This one we kept and revived a little bit for Sly Stallone to use as an everyday driver.”

The tale of how Friedlinghaus parlayed a $5,000 loan from his grandfather into an international custom-car brand, with the star power to attract top entertainers and sports figures, is one of those American Dream success stories for the 21st Century.

Only Friedlinghaus calls it a “California Dream.”

“I started business 15 years ago and I’m 35 now, so I started when I was very young,” he said. “I learned this business because this is what I really love and I wanted to be a part of it. I have three kids now and I hope they grow into this business and take it over someday.”

Another special car on display looks like the kind of classic “rat rod” that has been coming back into favor as the hot-rod hobby grows and matures, and looks to its past. But in this case, appearances are deceiving; this rod is no rat. What looks like old sun-burned paint and funky trim was done intentionally and artistically.

What looks like a home-built rat rod is actually a skillfully made piece of artistry that harks back to an earlier time. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
“This is definitely what you’d call a rat rod – a West Coast Customs rat rod,” Friedlinghaus said with a grim. “We did a unique paint job that a lot of people will remember because it has that old antique feel to it, but at the same time, we just painted it.”

Hunkered down low between wide whitewalls and showing off its old/new V8, the car is emblazoned with the new Wrench company logo on each door.

“This is a 1930 Model A Ford that we built for the new company we just launched called Wrench,” Friedlinghaus said.

The idea, he explained, is to present a different brand with a more retro hot-rod style separate from West Coast Custom’s cutting-edge style of custom cars.

“Wrench is definitely a brand that I really came up with on the fly,” he said. “I really wanted to field something with all the artwork that we have, to turn it into more of an authentic car brand.”

West Coast Customs consigned several cars to the Barrett-Jackson auction, including a 2006 Cadillac built on the Street Customs show for NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, which sold for $41,800, and an awesome blue 2011 Mustang Shelby, sold for $46,200, that’s the first of a series of 25 to be produced in conjunction with Shelby American.

Friedlander said that bringing the cars to Barrett-Jackson was something new for West Coast Customs.

“We call it cleaning out the closet a little bit, bringing some cars here to put up on the block and seeing what happens,” he said.

Bob Golfen, Automotive Editor for SPEED.com, is a veteran auto writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, who has driven and evaluated essentially every new vehicle sold in the United States. A lifelong car enthusiast with a passion for collector cars, car culture and the automotive lifestyle, he annually attends and writes about Arizona's famous January collector-car auctions, focusing on Scottsdale’s monumental Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event and other Barrett-Jackson auctions. SPEED.com fans email Automotive Editor Bob Golfen at
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