Edward Brumfield  first started working on cars as a teenager, quickly learning that he preferred working on the inside of cars rather than under the hood.

“I didn’t like motors,” he said. “[I was] playing around with window tint and fabrication and then started liking to build seats and taking seats out of cars.

“[I started] fooling around with fiberglass and building a few metal pieces, [then] went into sewing a little bit,” said Brumfield.

He took classes in upholstery, window tinting and welding, and put his new skills to practice on his own cars.

“[I] just kept taking it a little bit further every time I bought a new vehicle,” he said. “I kept playing around with it until I got a good finished product. I might strip it down three or four times every six months until I started getting it right.”

Encouraged by the results, Brumfield decided to open Hi Class Detailing, now Hi Class Customs, in a garage he built with his father in New Orleans seven years ago.

“The main thing that made me open up [the shop] was that it gave me the [opportunity] to do more things,” Brumfield said. “If you don’t have a shop open on the books, you can’t buy all the supplies that you need. [It was] just a learning experience to open on my own and play around with the stuff that I like.”

The original name, though, caused confusion for some customers.

“I put the word ‘detail’ in because that’s what we mainly were trying to focus on, like full-service detailing mainly for interiors, but if a customer came in with a torn-up vehicle on the inside, we would refurbish it,” Brumfield said.

“I ended up shutting down the detail part of it [because] if somebody sees Hi Class Detailing, they wouldn’t necessarily think [we did] auto upholstery or something of that nature,” said Brumfield. “They always thought that we just detailed cars.” 

 

A New Home

Brumfield built Hi Class Custom’s reputation by attending car shows and through the shop’s website, but his small shop wasn’t attracting walk-in customers or high-end classic jobs.

“I couldn’t get those kinds of jobs because we didn’t have a good storefront to make customers feel comfortable,” he said. “It was a good spot to get a window tint; you’ll feel comfortable getting your window tinted [there] but not to get some leather seats inside of a ‘67 Mustang or ‘69 Camaro.”

Brumfield was looking for a new home for his shop, a high-traffic location with more space, when Hurricane Katrina struck. The roof was blown off his garage, the building was completely flooded and equipment Brumfield had recently purchased was destroyed.

Father and son spent the next eight months rebuilding the damaged garage. In the meantime, Brumfield found and purchased Hi Class Custom’s current home.

“I was looking for the right spot and I was down the street one day and I happened to find it,” he said. “I said I’d buy if the opportunity presented itself, and it did.”

The new location had been severely damaged by the hurricane, so father and son spent three months replacing the roof, doors, shutters and glass after getting off work at the old shop. For Brumfield, the work that went into rehabilitating the shop was worth it.

“I actually love it,” he said. “When I saw the building, I knew it was going to be the perfect location—plenty of ride-by traffic, walks-ins, people looking at the cars. [It’s] just a perfect location, all the customers think so, also.”

In the four years since Brumfield purchased the building, it’s been through one renovation and another is in the planning stages. Brumfield would like to have a building built for metal fabrication on a slab out back. He’d also like to make cosmetic upgrades.

“We’re going to repaint the whole building, [I’ve] got an idea of graffiti-ing the inside a little bit,” he said. “It’s going to be something nice and clean for the customers to look at, just mainly repainting and putting up more business signs. [I] want to spice it up just a little bit more.”

Brand Recognition

Whatever the final concept, Hi Class Custom’s revamped look will include Brumfield’s signature yellow and the shop’s symbol, a bright yellow happy face.

“My goal [is] to keep everything organized with the image,” Brumfield said. “You’ve got to see that smiley face all over whatever we do.”

That smiley face can be seen on shop T-shirts, letterman jackets, key chains and tennis shoes, which Brumfield has custom-made on request.

“I don’t sell a whole lot of them,” Brumfield said of the tennis shoes. “The way I do them is if a client asks for them, I’ll tell them it will take a few weeks. They don’t mind waiting, though.”

The smiley face and the shop’s name were inspired by customers.

“One day, [this] guy told me, ‘You’re always happy, you’re always smiling,’” Brumfield said. “[Another] guy said, ‘I must tell you, this is a high-class shop. I said, ‘OK, I’m always smiling,’ then I thought about it, ‘high class,’ the more I’m smiling, the more I say ‘hi’ to you, that’s why we dropped the ‘gh’ on the ‘high.’”

Whether advertising his business in the Yellow Pages, magazines or online, Brumfield has found the benefits of staying true to his image concept.

“If you stick to the basics, people notice you,” he said.

Team Work

It’s not just the bright logo that’s bringing customers from as far away as Washington DC to Hi Class Customs, it’s also the work.

“I want you to see the car that we do and know that Hi Class did that, [and] that [it’s] good work,” Brumfield said.

Brumfield prefers to work on one job at a time, with all four employees pitching in on every job.

“I try not to have more than one project going at a time, like a full interior, but lately it’s been going the complete opposite,” he said. “I try to schedule it where one is almost finished, then I schedule the next one to come in.”

Having all of his employees involved in the jobs keeps the work moving faster, according to Brumfield.

“It’s better to have everyone involved that way one person won’t feel like they’re overwhelmed,” he said. “If one person finishes quicker, I’ll say, ‘Why don’t you go and give him a hand?’ and that’s how we keep work flowing in and out.”

Employees are mainly paid by commission.

“They get paid on commission because it gives them an incentive to work,” Brumfield said. “I pay them by the week on commission, but if it’s a full restore, something that’s going to take a long time, we charge by the hour, we clock [the customer] in and charge them the shop rate and give the worker a percentage of the shop rate off of that vehicle.”

If a customer is on the clock, Brumfield films the build.

“The customer won’t get taken advantage of because we’re videotaping everything that we’re doing,” he said. “If I charge them for five to 10 hours worth of work, I give them a DVD of the stuff [and] they can see, ‘This guy was really working on my vehicle and he wasn’t playing around.’”

The shop is currently working on a 1974 Impala for an employee of the Washington Redskins.

“We all jumped on the car,” Brumfield said. “One guy knocked out the steering wheel, did the dashboard, another guy was sewing up the seats, my other guy was doing the door panels and headliner.”

Brumfield assigns his employees tasks based on their strengths, but knows they can all be called on to do pretty much anything that needs to be done.

“We all can do the job but I just keep everybody where they’re comfortable and I see they’re good at,” he said.

Two of Hi Class Custom’s employees have been in the business more than 20 years and the others have attended technical school. All of them, including Brumfield, regularly attend manufacturing training sessions, such as those being offered at the SEMA Show.

“We try to go as much as possible because sometimes that’s our only vacation every year,” Brumfield said of the annual trade show.

Tags: Brand Recognition, Creating a Brand, Employee Issues, Logos, Natural Disasters, Restorer Profile, Shop Apparel, Southern Rod Shops, Upholstery, Welding