What Really Happened at West Coast Customs | Up to Speed

**The Truth About Pimp My Ride**

Pimp My Ride was a popular TV show that aired on MTV from 2004 to 2007. The show was about transforming cars into luxurious and unique vehicles with the help of West Coast Customs, a car customization shop based in California. The show was hosted by Xzibit, a rapper and TV personality.

**The Show's Formula**

Each episode followed a similar formula. A contestant would bring their car to West Coast Customs, and Ryan Tuerck, the owner, and his team would transform it into a custom vehicle with advanced features and unique designs. The contestants were often surprised by the extent of the modifications, which were sometimes done to make the car street legal or due to safety concerns.

**Behind-the-Scenes Secrets**

The producers of Pimp My Ride had to obtain permits and insurance for filming and wanted to keep the location of the contestants' homes private. To achieve this, they would often tell the contestants to wait by a fake door, where an intern would give them a gift certificate to Pep Boys or Xzibit would show up.

The production team also fudged some information to make the show more exciting. For example, the cars might be modified for months before being featured on the show, and some of the features installed in the cars were purely for camera purposes.

**Fake Modifications**

The producers would sometimes fake the original condition of the car. They would sand off existing paint, knock off bumpers, and even add cigarette butts to make it look like the car had been used by a smoker. Some of the modifications were also done to make the car more street legal or due to safety concerns.

**The Contestants' Reactions**

When the contestants first saw their modified cars, they would often be shocked and amazed by the extent of the changes. However, some of them might have been disappointed or even frustrated with the final result.

**Legacy of Pimp My Ride**

Despite its flaws, Pimp My Ride had a significant impact on popular culture. The show made cars fun and approachable for a generation of viewers who might not have been interested in them otherwise. It also inspired a new wave of car enthusiasts and customization shops.

**West Coast Customs' Rise to Fame**

The success of Pimp My Ride catapulted West Coast Customs to fame, with Ryan Tuerck becoming a household name. The company launched its own TV show called "Inside West Coast Customs" and became known for its outrageous and often impractical modifications.

Overall, while Pimp My Ride was not without its flaws, it remains a memorable and influential TV show that continues to be talked about today.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Let's say that you're ahome chef, nothing crazy,but you've got a littlegame in the kitchen.Every once in a while, you'llpick up something fancy,like wagyu and you mess around with it.Now, imagine you're at a partyand you're chatting with a strangerabout a new recipe thatyou're excited about.Now imagine that thatstranger leaves the partygoes to your house.Steals your car and brings it backsix months laterwith a full size pizza oven in the trunkand a stand mixer wherethe glove box used to be.It still runs the same,but now it's painted to look like wagyu.Since you love wagyu so much.Insane, right?Well that weird stranger is MTV.And that's the exact premiseof one of the most successfulcar shows of all time.Pimp My Ride became a phenomenon.And in the process,turned a small California customshop into a household name.But what happens to a companywhen they go from beingknown for cool bodywork,to being famous forinstalling low res TV screenson any flat surface they could find.- Monitors in the bumpers man, oh my gosh.- Today, we're gonna find outhow an underground celebrity body shopturned into a mid 2000s punchline.Then see how they've stayedon TV all these yearsand look at all the offscreen dramathey've had along the way.Yo dawg, I heard you like, up to speed.So we putting up to speedon your up to speed.This is everything you need to knowto get up to speed on West Coast Customs.(upbeat anime music)Huge, thanks to gpd and carparts.comfor sponsoring today's video.When you're looking fora quick and smart way(man bickering)Clumsy Carl, what are you doing man?I'm right in the middle of shooting an ad.- Dude, dude, can't hearyou cousin, I'm racing.- Just be careful becausethat car is a classic.It's falling apart and that door.She tends to stick.- Meemaw said I can do what I want.- Meemaw doesn't letanyone do what they want.- Well, we've got differentroles 'cause I'm her favorite.- We've all got a friendwho's a little heavy handedwith cars like my cousin,and intern here, Clumsy Carl.- Oowee, it's getting hotterthan alligator's temper in here.The door handle is broken.- And with a Clumsy Carl in your life.You're gonna be spending a lot of moneyon replacement parts.- The air conditioner don't work.- That's why I trust carparts.com.It's your one-stop shop forall collision, maintenance,mechanical and repair parts.Who said that you have to sufferthrough the heat all summer long?- Oh God, cousin you got any water line?- They provide a quick and smart wayto keep your car cool and road readyno matter what you drive.- Call meemaw.- So whether you need ACcomponents, door handles,window cranks, you name it.Carparts.com will get your vehiclelooking good and running like newwithout breaking the bank.So head on over to carparts.com today,or click the link in the description.And now, back to the show.(Carl panting)What's up everybody?It's your boy, J to the P, James Pumphrey.♪ pop, pop, up and down the headlights ♪♪ pop, pop, up and down the headlights ♪Los Angeles, Californiathe city of angelssurfing in the morning,earthquake drills at night.And in-between, chillingwith the Beach Boys.Y'all know Hollywood Boulevard has stars,but did you know it has cars?(upbeat retro music)Southern California hasone of the world's greatcar cultures.It started with hotrods in the 50s and 60sand was perfected by the ChicanoLowrider and G-Funk scenes.By the early 90s,West Coast hip hop had madean icon out of the 64 Impala.And as we all know,the Lexus, flexes fromLong Beach to Texas.Cars are as essentialto our local identityas the terrible fries at In-N-Out.And it was this culturethat inspired a youngRyan Friedlinghaus.Ryan grew up as a car nerdand worked in his dad's liquor store,saving money to open his own shop.And in 1994, his dream became a reality.When he opened West Coastcustoms in Laguna Niguel,a bedroom city south of LA,and started staffing up.He didn't know it at the time,but he was slowly puttingtogether a team that Americawould fall in love withthen fall out of love with,and then fall back in love with.One of those guys was Quinton Dodson or Qas he would come to be known.He was a truck driver who delivered beerat Ryans dads shop.He ended up hanging outat West Coast Customshe talked cars so muchthat Ryan brought him onto the staff.That is exactly what happened with Nolan.I kid you not, that's actually not.Next step was Dane Florence or Big Dane,because the only thing thatcar guys like more than carsis giving each other nicknamesdon't believe me?Ask Nolgang, Jack Zobe,Jer-Bear or Joe Webstinz...air.Big Dane showed up to the shop one dayto get hydraulics put on his low rider.It was the 90s after all,but instead of hydraulics,Ryan installed an air systemthat would give him the same effect,but smoother and lighter.Dane was impressed enough thathe not only joined the shop,but he gave Ryan his mostvaluable piece of advice.Get out of Orange County.Now, if you're not fromSouthern California,where we are, Orange Countyis home to Laguna beachDisneyland, and about 3million retired dentists.And unless West CoastCustoms was gonna installdubs on big thunder mountain.They had to move.So, in 1998,they packed up and movedsomeplace more welcomingfor what they did.Little place called Compton, baby.Short Kendrick Lamar'sfrom, also my friend, Carl.- The only real dangerthat exists is man himself.- The dudes were finallywhere they needed to beand they got to work.Making cars bounce up and downand installing sound systemswhere the faceplate was detachable.So you can take it withyou into the grocery store,ask your parents about it.That's the thing that we used to do.Things were going well,but tragically, Ryan was aboutto be a victim of an attack.(suspenseful music)Shaq attack.That is right.LA Laker, the new Papa John,the 1800 Generals bestfriend, Shaquille O'Nealfound himself in need of a custom jobfor his new Suburban.Shaq is famous now,but in the 90s, he was a superstar.All right.They put them in movies,even though we all knowthat Charles Barkley is a better actor.Steel, Kazaam, a video game.He put out like 12 albums.There were Shaq action figures.He was a literal sheriff.Do you know how famous you have to beto just be an honorary sheriff?Now, Shaq loved the Suburbanand started recommendingWest Coast Customs to allof his famous friends.And from there,it was just a matter of timebefore the shop got famous too.Alright, so, check it.My boys at West CoastCustoms were startingto make a name for themselvesby taking care of my boyShaq, my boy, 50 Centmy boy, Steve Harvey.But, they were about to go bigger.Working with executive vice presidentof series entertainmentat MTV, Lois Curren.But first, they needed to getone more member of the team.In the early 2000s.MTV was in the market forautomotive programming.I guess a reality show about Dave Navarroand Carmen Electra's marriagewasn't bringing in young viewers.Who would have guessed?He's so terrifying.Because of all the celebrity workWest Coast Customs wason MTV's radar already.Now, by this point,they moved into an evenlarger facility in Inglewoodand were set up to provide,start to finish customwork under one roof.It was exactly what the MTV people needed.And on March 4th, 2004, theworld was officially pimped.(upbeat music)Now, if you've never seen Pimp My Ride,here's the basic idea.Someone with a terriblecar shows the cameras,all the things that suckabout what they're drivingand their friends and familytalk about how embarrassing it isto be seen with them in their crappy car.Suddenly X to the Z Xzibit surprises themand roasts themmercilessly in between cutawaysto his own music videos.All right.- What up?Your car is a piece of (beep) ma.(both chuckle)no, no, tell me something, bump some more.- In the processhe'd find out a factoid about the owner.Were they into fitness?Did they like video games?Whatever.Then, Xzibit would drivethe car over to the shopand mad Mike and theboys would check it out.I mean, think about that.Imagine a very famous guy shows upwith tons of cameras for a showthat's on, back then, the coolest network.And you're like a teenager.And he's like, what's one thingthat defines your identity?When I was in high school.I didn't want to like anythingout of fear of ridicule.And now this famous guy'smaking fun of your crappy car.Brutal.After seeing how bad things were,the guys would make a planto fully personalize the car.Based on the factoid from earlier.- We want to add a projector to her car,but the trick, where we gonna do itwe're gonna sew inside the trunk.So when it opens up,she can project a picturereal big on the wall man,her own drive in moviemobile.- The installations would be bah-nanas.The owner would come back,see the car, freak out.The dudes would showthem all the new insanityand X would make more jokes.And then finally, he'd tell them- You've officially been pimped.Let's go.- Roll credits.And let's just sayit was a hitit was the perfect blendof cringy and heartwarming.And people loved theWest Coast Custom guys.They put fricking waterfalls in cars.Finally, someone brave enoughto put a waterfall in a car.The only trouble was,the whole show was fake.All right, not the entire show was fake.People actually did gettheir cars worked on, pimped,if you will.And I will.But that's about all that was real.For starters, whenXzibit would just show upto people's houses,those weren't actually their houses.MTV rented those to film inI'm gonna let that one slide becausethat honestly makes sense.You need permits andinsurance for filming,and you don't want tolet a million people knowwhere this personwith this newly famous car lives.Also, Xzibit didn't really drive the carsback to West Coast Customs.You really think that Xzibit at the time,a very famous TV star rapperis gonna drive a two hourcommute in some strangersEconoline?- Pedophiles, start your engines.- Now you might be askingwhy do the contestantsall look so surprised?Well, it's because theproducers told them,go wait by that fake door.Either an intern will bethere with a gift certificateto Pep Boys or Xzibit will show up.But, it was always Xzibit.- What's up, baby?(woman excitedly screaming)- And look, of course theproduction team fudged some stuff.I mean it's TV, I get it.I'm in front of a freakinggreen screen right now.See?That's how the biz works, okay.And I know how the biz works.I said one line inthree different episodesof Key and Peele.- Slavery is abolished.- But what about the cars?They wouldn't fake thecar upgrades, right?That's the whole point of this show.Don't be like the Jeopardy contestantsgot to use Wikipedia.Well, for starters,even though it looks like itonly took a couple of days.West Coast Customs wouldsometimes have the carsthey were pimping for months.Also that factoid that X would havesometimes they just made that up.Hey, kid, what do you like?Video games.No, you like movies now.No, video games.I like video.Nah, I mean, movies are okay.I'm just like not a big fan of movies.That's a weird way of saying movies.What, am I saying it weird?No, video gamesMovies.Why do you keep saying movies?Maybe, maybe we'll go ask your grandmaif she likes movies.Neenaw?It'd be a real shame ifyou didn't like movies.How do you know about my Neenaw?You like movies?I like movies.Movies, great.Let's make a movie car.They would also fake theoriginal cars condition.The producers wouldsand off existing paint,knockoff bumpers, tear up carpet.One contestant said hisgrandma smoked in the car.So they dumped a bunch ofcigarette butts on the floor.Worst of all, a lot of thepimpage was purely for camera.Things would be installed, filmedand then taken out of the car right away.Sick wheels that they shot withwere swapped out for stock onesas soon as the director called cut.Some of the many, manyTV screens they installeddidn't even work.Sometimes these changes wereto make the car street legal.Sometimes it was becausePimp My Ride mods wereat heart, pretty dumb or tooexpensive to just give away.I mean, MTV still is deep cable.Look, it's easy to makefun of Pimp My Ride.It was a car show thatnever mentioned horsepowerand it was scored by Papa Roach.But for a lot of people wasthe first time they realizedthat cars are something thatthey could be interested in.I mean, now you can watcha number of huge car,YouTube channels if you want your fix.But back then, we had PowerBlock and Pimp My Ride.Stuff like Pimp My Ride madecars fun and approachable,and it introduced thegeneration to the conceptof customizing cars.As someone whose jobit is to make cars funand approachable.I have to give West CoastCustoms, MTV, and Xzibit,some credit.They pimped so that people like mecould also pimp.Nothing is cooler than putting realistichuman genitalia on a truck.The longer Pimp My Ride ranthe higher the profileof West Coast Customs guybut the notoriety came with a trade off.They were doing really, reallystupid stuffed cars on TV.I mean, who actually wantsa full-size popcorn makerin their car?Like the Jurassic park guy saidyour scientists were so preoccupied withwhether or not they could,they didn't stop to think if they should,because they were doing somuch goofy stuff so publicly.The West Coast Customsbrand was starting to belinked to wacky mods instead of cool ones.So, after four seasons,Ryan and the gang left the show.Pimp My Ride moved to Galpin Auto Sportsand West Coast Customslaunched a new TV showcalled inside West Coast Customs.They were so famous nowthat they could have a showcalled inside my business's name.It's like Gwyneth Paltrow showbeing called "Inside Goop".This is the show thatthe guys wanted to makefrom the beginning.It keeps the approachabilityof the MTV show,but it incorporatesmore actual information.On every episode,Ryan gets a project that yousee it from start to finishPimp My Ride is a box of glazed donuts.Inside West Coast Customsis steamed broccoli.With just a squeeze of lemon.You don't get the sugar rushbut it's better for you in the long run.Good way to see whatactually goes on insideof this famous shop andseeing as this is up to speed.What exactly does go onin West Coast Customs?West Coast has a wholeshop full of craftspeoplewho could make a car look like anything.A lead designer works with the customerto lock down what they're going for.And then, a talented team of painters,fabricators andelectricians make it happen.They can manufacturefiberglass parts in-housethey can design wheels.They can make parts ofyour car light up in a waythat violates the rules of God and nature.We're not gonna lie, it's impressive.They still rarely mention horsepowerbecause most of their workis cosmetic, but that's fine.The new TV show premiered onDiscovery as Street Customs,but changed its name andits network a few timesand ended up as Inside West Coast Customson the MotorTrend channel.That's how famous these guys are.You know how hard itis to get one TV show?Much less, multiple TVshows on multiple networks?People wanted to work with them.The show now is a more honestlook at car customizationand who gets their cars customized?Car people, rich celebritiesand corporations.There is a lot of cross-promotion.If you played a drinkinggame where you took a shot,every time they mentioned a brand,you'd die of alcohol poisoningbefore they even get to the paint job.I'm not gonna knock it.You know, you watched me doan ad read in this video.You got to pay for stuff.Stuff is expensive,especially if you do car stuff.Do I wish we would havestarted a cooking channel?Maybe, but then we wouldn'tget to work with the finefolks at eBay motors.eBay motors.These things cost moneyBy now, West Coast Customs ispretty much a household nameand that's due to theirTV shows certainly,but they also do somelegitimately creative work.The stuff they'd done forShaq alone is super famous,but off camera, somecontroversies have followed them.2014, West Coast Customs was investigatedby the US department oflabor for wage violations.They found that bymisusing weekly salaries,the company was paying itsworkers as little as $6 an hour.Well below minimum wage,the US-DL also accused thecompany of misclassifyingemployees as independent contractorsand failing to keep recordsof employee hours worked.The company paid asettlement of back wagesand civil penalties to employees,but exploitation like that,isn't really a great look fora guy whose Twitter handle isliterally @SelfMadeRyan.Speaking of,kind of weird stuff.One night, Will.i.am drovehis $700,000 West Coast Customto his own listening party in Hollywood.And when he left that night that.He tweeted that the car had been stolen.He followed it up with tweetsasking, give me back my car,come on.And that the joke of havinghis car stolen was getting old.Then, Ryan Friedlinghaus replied,are you serious?Oh, not after all that hard work.But told him not to worrybecause West Coast Customshad installed a tracking device.And a few hours later,Ryan tweeted.We found it, thanks to #technology.Making sure to link tothe official West CoastTwitter account.At no point in this process,did anyone let the authorities knowfile an incident reportor even technicallycall West Coast Customs.It just all happened on Twitter.You know.The way stuff happens whenit's really happening.It all seems like a publicitystunt for the life of me.I can't figure out whatthey're publicizing.GPS?The car in question isof course, a DeLoreanthat Will.i.am insistedwasn't actually a DeLorean.He had a number of carsdone by West Coast Customs,including a $900,000 Volkswagen beetle.That's a thousand and times morethan you have to pay for a beetle.The car was originallybeing done by the garage,but Will.i.am kept changinghis mind on what he wanted,not realizing that buildingcars from scratch takes time.And eventually he broughtit back to the West Coast.I'm not saying someone should steal it.I'm just saying it would bevery funny if someone did.These days, the companyis a full on empire.They have franchises all over the worldand even a rollercoaster at Six Flags,putting them in thesame league as the movieTerminator: Salvation.Their newest home is a 60,000square foot complex in Burbankhome to Brace Canyon, Disney studios,and about 3 million retired dentists.While some of theirtactics have been sketchyand some of their builds have been goofy.There's not a shop in theworld that has done moreto introduce cars to a wider audience.It's difficult for potential car peopleto know where to start.Cars are intimidating.So are a lot of car people.There's a lot to know.And sometimes when you'rea kid asking questions,you get made fun of for it.West Coast made themapproachable by making them fun.So to a generation ofenthusiasts, you justgot pimped.Thank you guys so muchfor watching up to speedand everything else on Donut.Make sure you hit thatsubscribe and like button.So we know that we're doing a good job.It's really the only way to tell.If you want to learn moreabout West Coast Customsand Pimp My Ride.Check out this episode of wheelhouse,where Nolan, dives, deep into it.You want to get yourself some submerged,go to donutmedia.com.Follow me on Instagram andTwitter @JamesPumphrey.I love you dad.Have you guys seen my keys?