Under the hood with the LM24 mechanic
By: Catherine Mong
The exotic roar of the Ferrari’s engine echoed throughout the LM24 garage as owner Suppy Wejpanich and his employees tested the fruits of their labor. With the car jacked up from behind, the mechanics of LM24 rigorously searched for imperfections and flaws in the vehicle while running through the statistics on a laptop. Specializing in car customization, LM24 has serviced its clients for over a decade with careful consideration to quality and detail, but this type of high-end work is expensive.
“The custom car business is a luxury and you know, luxuries are usually cut out during recessions,” Wejpanich commented. “But with the business being seasonal, once summer comes along people bring their cars out and business would pick up again.”
With people watching more carefully what they spend, the demand for car customization declined. Even so, Wejpanich noted there are still people indulging in customizing their vehicles. He had one customer request a specially made cooler in his truck to keep his drinks cool at all times. The cooler was made using the special heat exchanger metal that costs $1,000 a piece and ten were used in the project. The final cost resulted in $15,000.
“We do everything that’s needed to be done… except for paint jobs. We don’t do paint jobs,” Wejpanich answered when asked what sort of customization is requested on regular basis.
From wiring to fabrication, LM24, adjusts to the needs of its clients, dismantling and rebuilding the vehicle to its standards.
For Wejpanich, car customization was a hobby that developed into a career during his college years. His business began in Buffalo for a brief few years before moving back to Queens, New York City to work on Japanese imports. It was shortly after the recession that he decided to move his business to Deer Park, New York where the facilities were more ample and convenient for him to test-drive the cars after its completion.
The majority of LM24’s customers hear about the shop though word of mouth; however, they do have an online presence through LM24.net and a facebook fan page. Notably, articles about LM24 have been published in the magazine 0-60 during May ’09.
The movie “The Fast and Furious” has influenced his previous clientele to customize its cars for more power and speed to replicate the race wars held in the movie. It also brought a number of the popular Nissan Skyline GT-R, a car model that has less than a hundred vehicle that are legal within the country, through his garage. Among the many projects, Fuze Beverage Co. was one of the corporate customers. Fuze’s Lexus SC300 was reconstructed for the NOS energy drink project.
“Most of our customers are private, but we do have some corporate companies… it’s part of their marketing campaign,” Wejpanich explained.
While LM24 works on classics such as the 1962 Cadillac and Fords from the 1930s, Wejpanich and his staff are more than familiar with the computer software used in newer cars. One of the newer projects the staff of LM24 is working on is the Nova project, where they are trying to combine the classic look with the newer automotive technology.
“Most of the new cars [with computer aspects] need to hook up to an actual computer to diagnosis the problem, but you have to buy the software… but it makes it much easier to find the problems,” Wejpanich said. The software actually saves plenty of time when dealing with maintenance for the cars.
The normal workweek starts with Wejpanich plotting out timelines and diversifying the various projects for his employees to meet deadlines. Shouting and screaming is normal in the LM24 garage as it is necessary over the loudness of the various equipments such as the metal saws, drills and torches.
“The shop is fairly large. So there is a bunch of screaming that goes on throughout most part of the day, but a lot of time it’s not work related. We also have a good time at work. When people have good time at work it make the day go by faster, it makes the work a little nicer.”
Cars such as the Ferrari are very delicate and are unable to be left out in the rain. The design of the car was not made for rainy weather and without the tarp the water damages parts of the car. So during the rainy season, the LM24 garage becomes packed with Ferraris as they wait for servicing.
“Basic problem with a lot of these cars is when they build these cars they detune them. Things like Ferraris, they reprogram these programs to go slower than what they’re supposed to be. So we reprogram those exhaust systems… There are a lot of little things the manufacture do to slow down these cars and we find them and improve them,” Wejpanich said.
When it comes to racecars for competitions, the detail to the cars become intricate like clothing where the customers are required to come in and measured and fitted.
Normally, Wejpanich has a policy in not traveling to the customers, but there are rare occasions where he had made the exception to travel rather than having them send the cars to the LM24 garage for maintenance. With the business being seasonal, the peak of projects entering the garage are during the summer months while the winter months are calmer.
When asked if his customers would attempt to maintain and repair these luxury cars on their own, Wejpanich laughed.
“They know better, if they screw something up, we charge double and it’s not a simple fix compared to other cars.”