WHO WE ARE

“No one comes here because they want a fancy car. Every car that comes out of here is somebody’s dream,” founder and designer Chris Odom said.

 

Extreme Metal and Paint is the premier design studio for hot rods and custom classic cars in Washington State and the Pacific Northwest. The shop has produced numerous award-winning projects featured in car shows like SEMA and in top magazines like Hot Rod, Volks America, Street Rodder, National Truckn’ Magazine, Cruzin, Super Rod, Classic Trucks and more.

 

Chris has been building hot rods and custom restomods for almost fifty years. His story starts where most automotive passions do, in his father’s garage.

 

Growing up, Chris’ dad worked at the US Post Office but also did side jobs, like home and auto repair. His dad did anything that required building, from sheet rock and bathrooms to building engines and fixing up old cars. Chris often hung around and picked up new skills, taking a particular interest in the unique look of classics.

 

“I was just naturally into cars,” he said.

 

Chris grew up in a period of funny cars and drag racing, street freaks, Big Daddy Roth and Rat Fink art, custom vans, and street machines. There was plenty to inspire a love for custom cars, but what really got him fired up was seeing American Graffiti in the summer of 1973.

 

Two years later, when he was 15, Chris’s dad bought a 1958 Ford F-250 for the tires, and Chris decided he was going to fix it up and make it his first car. He started working at a grocery store to pay for the materials and a new interior.

 

He managed to finish it just in time. At 16, with a license in hand, still warm from lamination, he drove his very own custom car into school.

 

“I almost wrecked it,” he said. “I tried to race a bus.”

 

He said he tried to turn a sweeping corner into the school and did a 180, ending up in the woods instead. But he also felt the speed of his own machine, and he was hooked. Not long after he bought fixed up another car, a 1955 Ford Thunderbird. He couldn’t have been happier.

 

Then, in 1979, he showed up late for work and the grocery store fired him. At first, he said he felt defeated and kind of gave up. It was almost like he was determined to become a “bum,” he said. He even sold his cars to subsidize his own laziness. When asked how he overcame this period of his life, Chris described a day when his dad came into the house and asked, “Want to come help me in the shop?”

 

“I was like, why not,” Chris said. “I don’t have anything better to do.”

 

Soon he was in the shop working everyday, and his dad realized that together they could take on a full workload. Not long after, his father decided to leave the US Post Office to run his side business full time, dubbing it Evergreen Builders. Chris knows he could have continued down that path of laziness to his own detriment, and his gratitude shows in how he mentors new techs today.

 

When he joined his dad’s business, Chris started painting cars, and his dad focused on the mechanical work. Chris also found an artistic outlet in the metal and bodywork involved in rebuilding classic cars. They continued home repairs too because those jobs earned more money than autos. Yet, Chris couldn’t take his attention off learning new hot rod skills, and he started taking classes in the ‘80s.

 

“I always wanted to do hot rods. I wanted to build cool stuff,” Chris said. “Dad didn’t like it though because it was a money loser. Artistically, it was fun, but financially, it’s a tough game.”

 

Eventually, they moved from working at their house to a shop in Mill Creek, Washington. Chris continued to develop his skills at Evergreen Builders until 1997 when his dad brought in a “pencil pusher” type to help the business make more money. He recommended stricter business practices and less family dynamics. In retrospect, Chris said this was a good thing for the business, but at the time, he was cocky and didn’t follow the rules, so his dad gave him the boot.

 

Chris’ had spent enough time watching his dad run a business that he had already been dreaming of how he’d do it himself, so he set out to start his own shop. Without capital, he got started by advertising his services in the local magazine Little Nickle Classifieds. He went to people’s houses and did metal and bodywork in their garages. Eventually, he saved enough to rent a stall behind a strip mall, and then he expanded into renting half a shop in Everett, WA.

 

“I had to do or die and that’s how I learned the whole trade,” he said.

 

He chose the name Extreme Metal and Paint because it described what he wanted to do. He wanted to run a custom car business that didn’t say no to high-end and extreme projects. When other shops ran into unsolvable problems and couldn’t finish, he wanted to be the guy who found a solution and delivered.

 

“When you say you’re going to do something, you do it. Or don’t say it,” he said. “I go out of my way even at my own expense to figure out how to fix it. Be careful what you ask for because I’ll make it happen.”

 

By 1999, Chris had enough success to purchase a plot of land at 9870 Padilla Heights Road in Anacortes, WA and started building. He commuted from Mukilteo, WA for a year and half while renovating the house on the land and commissioning a 5,000 square foot shop. After the house was ready for move-in and once he installed a paint booth and purchased machinery for the shop, he was ready to take on customers.

 

He started spreading the word about Extreme Metal and Paint by building his own custom cars, like the Purple 1937 Ford Phantom Phaeton. He added that Rick Federmeyer’s custom built truck Nemesis, a 1954 Ford F-100, played a big role in their growth. Rick is Extreme’s shop manager and has worked with Chris on and off since the mid ‘80s. Chris describes Rick as the type of person who started taking things apart as a kid to understand how they worked.

 

“Rick’s truck really put us on the map, Chris said. “It was mentioned in what seemed like every magazine for a while.”

 

Chris said Nemesis was special because it was the first of its kind, a custom truck with a million different innovative modifications that all flowed seamlessly. The hot rods won awards, were photographed for magazines, and were included in some television shows. They became Chris’ primary form of advertising.

 

For the next several years, they worked on hundreds of cars and continued building their own unique custom classics and hot rods, like Tic, a chopped VW Bug that was one of the finalists in the 2018 Hot Wheels Legends Tour at SEMA.

 

Extreme was on its way, growing fast, until 2008 when the housing market crashed and the economy came to a screeching halt. It was one of the worst times in the shop’s history as Chris had to watch the number of projects dwindle to next to nothing and slowly let go of all his employees, one by one, even Rick. Keenly aware of how much people needed income at the time, Chris said it was one of hardest things he’s had to do as a business owner.

 

Once the smoke of the recession cleared, all the press and buzz Extreme had before was gone. Yet, Chris pressed on, much like he had at the beginning, building his list up one person at a time.

 

Eventually, he was able to start hiring staff again, but the restomod and classic car industry took a while to pick up again. After almost a decade, Extreme still wasn’t where it had been prior to 2008, and Chris wasn’t sure it would ever get back there.

 

Then, in 2017, he happened to hire some new staff who recommended some updated business practices. Suddenly, the phone started ringing, and the shop picked up more and more positive word-of-mouth.

 

Right away, he gave all his employees bonuses, followed by raises and new benefits, encouraging their high-quality workmanship. He added the newest equipment and technology to the shop to allow for even better customizations and modifications. He purchased more storage, so he could take on more clients and bought a brand new trailer to protect vehicles during transport. Chris invested everything back into the shop, so he could provide the very best for his clients.

 

Chris had learned his fair share about running a business in his 45 years of experience, yet he couldn’t help but recall that one lesson he left in his tracks at his dad’s shop all those years ago.

 

“I could build the cars but couldn’t figure out how to make money doing it,” he said. “Now there’s reserves, when before there was a lot of panic.”

 

Chris could finally relax and focus on his dream of “building cool stuff.” Then in 2020, Covid 19 reared its ugly head, and the world locked down.

 

“I was sure that was going to take us out,” Chris said. “It was 2008 all over again.”

 

He mentally prepared to have to let people go and watch his client’s dream cars disappear into their garages.

 

Yet, after the initial panic, auto shops were deemed critical services and were permitted to stay open. Everyone kept their jobs. And to everyone’s surprise, patrons of the classics and hot rod arts came flooding in, continuing the shop’s growth and even speeding it up.

 

Chris said 2022 was the best year Extreme Metal and Paint ever had. They were back to doing the most high-end and extreme projects. And Chris continues to do what he loves, bringing people’s dream cars to life.

 

“[Our clients] come in with a memory of a car they saw when they were 14 years old or the car their late father drove,” Chris said. “These projects are personal. They’re not just cars.”