Custom car parts industry getting back to top speed in Southern California

Let’s talk about car parts. Not spark plugs or fan belts, but the custom auto parts that transform a heap into a hot rod that burns rubber and turns heads.

Those accessories represent a $30 billion a year industry – and a lot of jobs in Southern California.

John Cesareo starts his car.

“This is a ‘55 Chrysler New Yorker St. Regis. It was a limited production car, originally came with a 331 cubic inch hemi," Cesareo said.

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Cesareo, retired high school auto shop teacher, recently showed off his shiny classic at last month’s Mooneyes Auto Show at the Irwindale Speedway. He spent 10 years and $40,000 restoring that car. Now he’s restoring a ‘57 Chevy he raced in high school.

"By the time I’m through with interior and all new glass, stuff I’ve already bought, I’ll probably have $25,000 in all those parts," Cesareo said. "I mean I’m going down to every nut and bolt and screw and rubber grommet, everything is new, reproductions just like the original."

He prefers parts that are made in the USA. With aftermarket parts, “made in the USA” often means made in Southern California, where hot-rodding began.

"This really is the epicenter of this industry," Peter MacGillivray said. "This is where it started after WWII, when there were a handful of manufacturers."

MacGillivray is with the Specialty Equipment Market Association, or SEMA. It represents 6,000 companies – more than a quarter of which are in Southern California.

As MacGillivray talked, a ‘56 Chevy two-door wagon pulled up. The driver, Gabriel Montoya, bought most of the parts from Southern California manufacturers:

"Quality, limited production on a lot of the parts," said Montoya. "There’s one of 50 on this car of certain parts.

"The only parts I bought from them they make in-house – the fuel block, shifters, all that they make here."

MacGillivray said a brand like Moon is one of the founding fathers of this industry.

"These people care deeply about how their vehicles have been put together," MacGillivray said. "And they want that authenticity, so certainly who is making the parts, whose hands are on those parts are a big part of that."

Shirley Ann Phillips has had her hands on a lot of custom auto parts. She’s worked on the production floor at Street Scene Equipment in Costa Mesa for 10 years.

"To me it’s made better," Phillips said. "You get more of a pride in what you’re doing. Just like I roll the tape. I count the screws by hand. Everything is done by hand. There’s nothing by machine that doesn’t need to be done by machine, you know, like in other places."

With 3,000 custom parts in its catalog, Street Scene does need some machines.

Grilles, spoilers, bumpers, the camera that helps you back up without craning your neck? Street Scene put ‘em in show cars years before they reached the mass market.

Chevy sends the new Cruze, or Ford, the new Mustang to Street Scene long before the public sees ‘em. Under lock and key, they design new products to trick ’em out.

Mike Spagnola bought Street Scene 13 years ago when it employed five people – and grew its workforce to more than 50. The recession forced Spagnola to let go more than half of his workers, but he’s adding them back.

"Certainly the business climate for manufacturing is not easy, and especially not easy in California, but you know, we live here," Spagnola said. "That’s probably number 1, we really believe in U.S.-made product. We think there’s still a quality difference in many cases. We’ve seen some of our products knocked off, copied overseas, and you can tell the difference."

Spagnola says there’s another reason for making stuff here. "When we make a part, we’re not only employing jobs here, but we are employing outside manufacturers, so it might be a chrome shop, powder coating shop. We have to buy boxes, hire trucking companies to move the product, and so there’s a whole ripple effect that takes place when you’re manufacturing."

The ripple ends at Cesareo’s ’57 Chevy – restored from rims to roof with $25,000 worth of parts made here. Some parts companies also offer cheaper stuff.

"They’re trying to hit another market where the guys just don’t have $800 for a new hood for a ‘57 Chevy," Cesareo said. "They can buy a new hood that’s made in China for half the price. It’s not gonna fit right. It’s thinner metal. It’s just ch– you know, you get what you pay for."

And when you buy custom parts, what you pay for fuels an industry revving back up to speed in Southern California.