in our armed forces. Asher has gotten requests from breast cancer awareness organizations and a handful of others as well including Folds of Honor and the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation. We are happy to help where we can and donated to the Susan G. Komen foundation last year and the American Heart Association this year. We had one lady who had won a vehicle and she was paralyzed. So, they outfitted this SUV with all the things she needed to control it then called us and said “hey, we’re putting all the stuff together, will you do a custom set of caliper covers for her? We were honored to help.” You mentioned earlier that paint doesn’t stick well to casting. How are your manufactured caliper covers different as to allow paint to stay on them better than standard casting? MGP: The base material for our caliper covers is made of aluminum. You can powder coat or paint aluminum to hold up very well because it’s a good clean surface for the paint or the powder coat to adhere to. It is important to have a perfect surface to start with. The paint fill is painted into the depth of the engraving, so it will never scratch off. The clips are all stainless steel and all that adds up to a long-lasting product that will hold up under any harsh conditions. Give me a scenario from your customer’s per- spective. For example, I’m a customer and I go to your website, and I find my vehicle type, what do I do? What is the process from the customers point of view? MGP: The first thing we must do is identify the year, make, model and sub-model of your vehicle. Say you have a 2015, Dodge, Charger, SXT. This vehicle comes with either a single or dual piston brake package so our website will ask you to confirm which one to ensure we have the informa- tion needed for an exact fitment. Identifying the exact vehicle is a simple, yet vital first step of the process. Once the vehicle information is entered, all the standard options will pop up including all the licensed engravings and our standard colors of
red, yellow, black and matte black. Along with the standard options, you can create a custom set of caliper covers designed exactly to your liking in a simple 4 step process. First you choose the paint which includes standard powder coats and optional powder coats. Keep in mind, these are not color matched and they’re powder coated colors, which is an industrial finish. But if you wanted an exact match, you could submit your VIN number and we would get the exact paint color and custom paint for your caliper covers to match your car perfectly. Second you decide if you would like bolts going across the top or no bolts. They’re basically faux bolts and you can have that on your caliper covers or you can remove it. Smoother look without, a little more detail with. Then you choose the engraving you would like whether it is licensed, optional or a custom logo that can easily be uploaded to the site. Here you can select one engraving for the front two caliper covers and a separate engraving for the back two if you would like. Last you choose the fill color for the engraving and bolts if you chose to add them. You can also cus- tomize the fill color in the engraving as well with
the multiple options available. As you add in all these customizations, there is a running total below to show how much the job will cost. And you can always go back and change your customizations if you want to. Our customizer allows you to see the finished product which brings peace of mind and confidence in the purchase. They look easy enough to install but what would I do if I wasn’t so mechanically inclined? MGP: We prefer customers taking them to a tire shop. We find the tire centers are more customer oriented than a standard mechanic, so we try and steer customers toward the tire centers for instal- lation. Who are buying caliper covers? Are you working mostly on corporate vehicles, individ- uals, or is it all over the map? MGP: It’s kind of fun, we have a pretty diverse group. We are kind of blessed because the new wheel designs, even from the factory, are quite open and show the caliper. So, we have a very diverse customer base and are doing extremely well selling direct to the customer. In one instance, I wish I had a recording of the con- versation with this 70-year-old lady who wanted
same color as their car, orange again for example, they can choose black, matte black or even carbon fiber to stand out behind the bright colored wheel creating a nice contrast that flows well. I’m sure you have some great back stories on some of the customizations you have done. But you also do some charitable work for non-prof- it organizations. Breast cancer, for example. MGP: Every year we get requests from some of these great organiza- tions. About three years ago, we got the opportuni- ty to do a full military car. We were asked to do the marines on one corner, the army on another and the navy and Air Force on the other two. It was a great tribute to the brave men and women
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JUNE 2019 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JUNE 2019
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