Rick
- Profession: Certified Auto Body Technician, Frame Specialist, Welder,
Rick is recognized and rated as one of the top auto body technicians in the industry. His 33 years of experience began by following in his father’s footsteps at a very early age. His passion for building cars and his ability to customize them inspired Rick to create 360 Fabrication Inc.
Daryl
- Profession: Licensed Engineer & Licensed Mechanic & Machinist ELTT.
Daryl’s 22 years of education and experience in aviation engineering has taught him the skills needed for customizing any vehicle. He is a perfectionist who takes pride in his work. His skills in fabrication and design complete the 360 Fabrication Inc. team. His goal is “Making the Customer’s Dreams a reality.”
The Interview:
Interviewer: You mentioned that you followed in your father’s footsteps learning from his experiences at a very young age. At what age did you realize how much you loved cars, and how much did your father’s experience play into this?
Rick: When I was a child, we would sit around the dinner table and listen to my dad talk about the body shop business and cars. He would tell us the good things and the bad things about the auto shop business, while enlightening us on what he did that day. I’ve been fascinated in my dad’s career as an auto mechanic and have pursued that same path.
I’ve always liked cars and looked at them when I was young, imagining how amazing it would be to own one of those cars. My dad would always tell me the details of the cars I was interested in, and how to fix and maintain each one.
Interviewer: Explain the process of creating 360 Fabrication and when you realized this is what you wanted to do.
Rick: I grew up in Sprout Lake in Port Alberni and attended junior high school there. My dad asked me if I wanted to work after school in the shop and of course, I said yes. It was about 2 miles from my school, so I would run there 2-3 times a week. I was sweeping floors, cleaning toilets, cleaning up the garbage all the little stuff, but 10 minutes a day he would let me practice welding and show me how to weld properly when I was just 13. Safe to say after that, I was hooked.
When I was attending high school I worked every single day after school. My high-school was a lot further to the shop than my middle school was, so I had to ride my 10-speed bike. I would skip school to go to work, to which many of the teachers caught on, and many of them eventually just accepted it. My dad had subsidized his wage so I could work with him, and I worked there until I was 19 years old.
Fast tracking to a little bit later in my life… I was working at a local collision shop and I was asked to build a custom car. The car turned out awesome and the customer really liked it. After this, we kept building more custom cars and generating our own clients. Eventually I was asked by a customer if we would go out on our own and have our own company. After a lot of thinking and stressing, we took a shot and went for it.
Interviewer: With Daryl having 22 years of education experience with aviation and engineering, how much does this help you see things from a different perspective and how much has he been able to help with the company in this regard?
Rick: Daryl is unbelievable at what he does. He basically built a house with two pieces of string; he just has a knack for that stuff. Daryl is highly effective in the engineering department of the company. He can design anything custom and somehow make it work within the car. He can bend metal and shape parts at a much higher level than any regular auto mechanic can.
If there is a problem, he will have a working solution in about 24 hours. Daryl is now head of sales and service for 360 Fabrication.
Interviewer: 360 Fabrication has completed some amazing projects; which project would you say was the most challenging project to date? Was this the most rewarding project?
Rick: Well that is an impossible question to answer. All of the projects that we do here are extremely rewarding in their own separate ways. Over our 12 years here we have built a lot of cars for people and they are all different, which makes our job fun and even more rewarding when we see the customer’s satisfaction after we complete the project.
I think back to the time when we created the Red Bull Bus, which was pretty over the top. The million- dollar Lincoln comes to mind when talking about these projects, and how can I forget about the world greatest Mustang; a 1967. This has to be the most rewarding project as the owner of this car now happens to be my wife!
