Autobody News: Deluxe Customs Exceeds Its Discerning Customers' Expectations With Prospray Finishes
Carlsbad, CA, April 3, 2018 (Newswire.com) - NOTE: This October SPS profile was originally published in print in September 2017, and published online in October 2017.
Matt Howard, owner of Deluxe Customs in Tempe, AZ, has a lengthy waiting list that has him backed up for the next five years.
The color matches right out of the computer are OE-accurate 99 percent of the time, and the coverage is exceptional. With every color, including reds, whites and yellows, everything covers in just two coats and reduced one-to-one, so the product goes further. We are saving time and money because of the product's coverage capabilities, which is obviously a huge benefit of using Prospray.
Matt Howard, Owner of Deluxe Customs
So if you’re looking to get a high-end car restored (especially if it’s a classic Porsche 356), you’ll need to get on the shop’s 2–3 year waiting list.
With 27 years of paint, body and restoration experience on cars and motorcycles, Howard can do it all, including metal fabrication, collision repair and complete restoration, all the way to the Concours paint and body standard for his highly discerning clientele, which spends six figures on average to get the job done right.
“We’re what is known as a bare metal rotisserie capable restoration facility, specializing in but not limited to Porsche and Volkswagen restoration,” Howard said. “Our people have more than 100 years of combined experience, and that’s why we have built a reputation for doing complete high-end turn-key restorations.”
To find out exactly what a Concours restoration is, we went to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance’s website, which states that “to contend in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, an automobile must be a well-preserved or accurately restored vehicle.”
Howard is well-known for having the knowledge and skills to do this highly detailed and intricate work. He loves it and has made it his bread and butter, so to speak.
“A Concours restoration means that if a car has a bolt that came from a hardware store years ago, we’ll find it and replace it with an original part,” Howard said. “That is how precise and careful we have to be, because these vehicles have to be 100% OE without exception.”
By meeting deadlines and impressing its customers with its employees’ work, Deluxe Customs is growing year after year.
“We take pride in getting our work done on time,” Howard said. “There are some companies out there that have gained the nickname ‘body shop jails,’ so we stress meeting deadlines with every restoration. We tell people that you’ll have to be on a waiting list, but once a car is in the shop, we will do a turn-key restoration for you in 10 months.”
For 14 years, Howard worked at a local shop where he painted approximately 25,000 motorcycles, which allowed him to refine his skills.
“We were doing 30 a week with my brother Stopher at one point, including the first 5,000 Titan bikes produced in 1995 and a lot of work for Harley Davidson,” he said. “But after a while I decided to get back to my roots and start my own business and work on cars, instead of painting cookie-cutter bikes all day long.”
That was 12 years ago, and since then the business has burgeoned at an impressive rate.
“I started out in a one-bay shop that held two cars and a spray booth, and today we have seven guys working here in a 10,000-square-foot building,” he said. “We have five boys in our family and I work with two of my brothers (Brandon and Stopher), and even though the other two don’t work here, we own the property together. Everyone here is like family, including Quintin, Dallas, Dave, Sven and Mason. It’s a tight-knit group and we all really appreciate one another.”
Something else Howard is very proud of is his 12-year relationship with Prospray® Finishes, a product he trusts to please his customers who pay top dollar for that “wow” factor.
“We gave it a shot back in 2005, and now it’s our favorite product,” he said. “We all use it here. With our former paint company, we were fighting the battle we always do with any product—quality versus what it costs and what our customers are willing to pay for the work we do. Our old paint was too expensive and we couldn’t pass it on to our clients, so we had to change. We found Prospray after trying a few other brands.”
The product is helping Deluxe Customs in two areas that benefit the business—color match and coverage.
“The color matches right out of the computer are OE-accurate 99 percent of the time, and the coverage is exceptional,” he said. “With every color, including reds, whites and yellows, everything covers in just two coats and reduced one-to-one, so the product goes further. We are saving time and money because of the product’s coverage capabilities, which is obviously a huge benefit of using Prospray.”
The product is performing at a high level for Howard, but aside from that, he also values the company’s customer service level.
“We get great support from Prospray, without a doubt,” he said. “If we have a problem, we contact our rep and he is here within a few days at most. I had a customer in Santa Barbara, CA, who had some questions about his paint job, and they actually went to his home to look at the job and confirm that it was of the highest quality. If we have a problem with anything, they replace it immediately, no questions asked. Prospray’s customer service has been excellent.”
Deluxe Customs
Location: Tempe, AZ
(602) 909-3335
www.deluxecustoms.com
Company At A Glance...
Type: Car Restoration and Collision Repair
Facility Employees: Seven
In Business Since: 2005
Number of Locations: One
DRP Programs: One
Combined Production Space: 10,000 square feet
Prospray® Finishes
A Valspar Automotive Brand
600 Nova Dr., SE
Massillon, OH 44646
(800) 321-0672
prosprayfinishes.com
Facebook: @ValsparAutomotive
Instagram: @ValsparAuto
Twitter: @ValsparAuto
YouTube: @ValsparAutomotiveRefinish
To read more body shop profiles like this and stay current on collision repair industry news, visit autobodynews.com.
Sign up to receive the free Autobody News electronic newsletter each week.
For more information, contact Bill Pierce, Digital Marketing Manager at Autobody News magazine.
Source: Autobody News
Related Media
