Hello, and welcome to the Heavy Metal Custom Shop website and blog! We are glad you are here. Heavy Metal Custom Shop (HMCS) is a new shop here in Bellingham, WA. While we have just opened our doors to the public (May 2017), we have been building, customizing, restoring and enjoying many cool projects over the years.
This blog will give us a chance to highlight some of the fun things going on in our shop, community and lives.
To start, here is a bit of history on us:
We are Paul and Jennifer Teigrob, owners of Heavy Metal Custom Shop. We were both raised in Whatcom County and attended the same schools until 8th grade, then we re-met in our mid-twenties and promptly fell madly in love and got married.
We have always had the passion for all things automotive between us. Paul began taking apart his toys at about age 4 to see how they work and by age 10, he was tearing apart his parents riding lawnmowers (and also driving them into ponds- but that’s another story!) He was always fascinated with how things work and is very mechanically minded.
Jennifer used to have her dad stop at every camaro or firebird for sale beside the road as a youngster, and also spent all her bookfair money on the car posters instead of the books! And fun fact, Paul had a crush on Jennifer in 4th grade.
In high school, Paul drove a ’71 Blazer with 12 inches of lift and 44 inch tires. Jennifer drove a 76 Ford Supercab (sexy, right?) and used to race the boys on the way home from school. By the end of highschool Paul was driving a 90 Camaro which he later put a Caddy 500 in (and still has) and Jennifer bought an 89 Trans Am and is amazed to this day she didn’t kill herself driving the snot out of that thing. A match made in heaven!
Our early dating and marriage days involved a lot of 4 wheeling. We have wheeled all over the PNW and in 2010 Paul was chosen to participate in Peterson’s 4wheel and Offroad Magazine’s Ultimate Adventure, which just happened to be on the East Coast! Paul and wheeling buddy Chris Nikkel drove 3000 miles to the Ultimate Adventure, wheeled some of the most hardcore trails in New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, etc, and then drove 3000 miles back home. Jennifer was home with an infant and a 2-year-old but hopes to someday get a chance to go! It might help our chances if we actually build another wheeler someday.
We have spent a lot of hours together building some really fun projects since then and now are actually getting to live our dream of opening our own custom shop. The shop has a great family vibe, our customers become our friends, and we are always excited to help get another car enthusiast moving forward on their project. We would love to help you with your project, whether it is some custom fabrication, and engine or chassis swap, or the whole project- we want to see you out there driving and enjoying your cars. Our motto is: Dream. Build. Drive.
We want to get to know our local car scene, so keep an eye out for cruise ins, pinstriping events, and other excuses to get together with all you awesome car people. We look forward to meeting you and checking out your ride!
