Custom Body Shops, What Do They Do
Custom body shops are part of the Independent Repair Shop segment of the Body Shop Business Industry. Since custom body shops do repairs, and collision repair shops do custom jobs, this article deals with the custom body job that both of them do.
Custom Body Shops
Custom body shops are businesses that substantially alter and modify vehicles. Specifically, they change their look by painting them with unique designs and adding aftermarket accessories. Likewise, they transform the car’s body by applying the techniques described in the paragraphs below. Additionally, they improve the performance of the vehicle by altering or replacing the engine and the transmission. Therefore, every transformation work is unique, because it starts in the owner’s imagination, and is up to the shop to carry it out.
Collision and Repair Body Shops
These shops do from repairing dents and scratches to making significant repairs to cars that have suffered accidents. Some of them also customize vehicles, but it is not their main line of business. Specifically, their custom work mostly consists of applying distinctive paint designs or adding aftermarket parts to differentiate the car from the ones delivered by the factory.
Types of Custom Bodywork
The custom body shops perform two types of modifications, on the body and the engine-transmission of, vintage and modern cars. They customize the body of the cars using the following techniques.
Customizing the Body
Chopping.
Consists of cutting the pillars of the roof and windows, to reduce the frontal profile of the car. Thus, lowering the air resistance, and increasing the car’s speed.
Channeling.
They replace the floor of the car higher into the body, making the vehicle rest closer to the ground without altering the suspension. In particular, it is only done on vehicles that have a body-on-frame construction.
Sectioning.
It is a modification consisting of lowering the top half of horizontal sections of the body, by removing it, cutting it, and soldering it over again. Accordingly, this modification, as on channeling, gives the vehicle more speed by lowering the air resistance.
Frenching.
Consists of recessing head and tail lights into the body for a more exotic look.
Emblem removal.
It consists of removing all the emblems that come with the vehicle and identify with a brand.
Dechroming.
It is the removal of all the trims.
Body kits.
They take stock cars and install modified body parts on them. The majority of body kits are front and rear bumpers, spoilers, and side skirts. This modification has caught up with the OEM, who now offer body kit upgrades for the stock cars.
Custome Paint
They paint the vehicle after modifying the body; the next step is to paint it with a twist, or many twists for that matter. In a custom painting job, anything goes. For instance, bright-colored transparent coat over metallic paint. Flames on the sides or over the hood that seems to be coming from the front of the vehicle.
Customizing Performance
This customizing technique removes the original engine of the car and replaces it with a more powerful one; consequently, the transmission has to be changed too.
Conclusion
Most of the car repair shops do some customizing, starting with the less complicated ones, like painting jobs and installing body kits. Likewise, the majority of the custom body shops combine their custom and repair work to balance their cash flow and profitability. Customizing a car requires skilled labor, modified parts, and expensive materials. Consequently, as the complexity of the job increases, so does the time spent on it and its price.
We hope that with this information, you are now in a better position to select the right custom body shop for your car. You can do it here.
Sources: Wikipedia, Body Shop Business, Babcox
