Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters Inc. used to be a body shop,the kind where you’d take a Ferrari to get its top chopped off.
Thirty years later, the Fountain Valley company, known as Metalcrafters, makes prototypes of planes, trains and automobiles, but mostly autos.
Auto designers come up with ideas for cars and then hire Metalcrafters to turn them into working vehicles at its 130,000-square-foot factory.
Automakers then promote the prototypes at auto shows, hoping to create enough interest to possibly mass produce a version of the vehicles.
Metalcrafters works with the design arms of big automakers, such as Toyota Motor Corp.’s Calty Design Research Inc. in Newport Beach and Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc.’s design center in Cypress. It also works with independent design shops including Foose Design Inc. in Huntington Beach.
The company does some custom work.
It stretched Shaquille O’Neal’s Lamborghini by a foot so that he could sit comfortably.
Metalcrafters also built the body and made the glass for Jay Leno’s biodiesel EcoJet car.
The EcoJet is a collaboration between Leno, who came up with the idea, and General Motors Advanced Design Studio in North Hollywood.
Metalcrafters builds about five to eight concept autos a year from the ground up, including interiors. The engines and transmissions come from suppliers.
The company’s glass shop cranks out about 20,000 to 30,000 pieces a year for the windows of cars, planes and trains.
150 Workers
Metalcrafters employs about 150 people, most of whom work in the factory. The company doesn’t disclose sales.
Chief Executive George Gaffoglio and his father, John Gaffoglio, founded Metalcrafters in 1979 in Santa Ana.
“The family trade is shaping metal by hand, not that we do too much of that these days,” George Gaffoglio said.
The company now has giant, million-dollar machines carving and shaping metal.
Brother Ruben Gaffoglio, Metalcrafters’ president, helps his brother run the company. Michael Alexander is chief operations officer and part owner. One of George Gaffoglio’s five children also is involved in the family business.
Argentina
George Gaffoglio and his father hail from Argentina. The senior Gaffoglio, now retired in Buenos Aries, started shaping metal as a teen.
“His dream was to come to the U.S.,” George Gaffoglio said. “One day he packed up the whole family and moved to California.”
His father didn’t know anyone when he arrived here with his family in tow. George Gaffoglio said his dad is a visionary with a lot of street smarts.
“The old man is still kind of crazy, very talented,” he said.
As a teen, George Gaffoglio worked with his father at auto body shops in Los Angeles and Orange County. They worked for about four years in shops owned by others before opening their own. Neither George Gaffoglio nor his brother finished high school.
George Gaffoglio calls himself a hands-on manager, involved in the research and development aspects of the business and monitoring quality. All of management is hands-on, he said.
One of Metalcrafters’ first projects was the Chrysler K-car. It built six K-cars, which became the basis for the Dodge Aries, Plymouth Reliant and others. The K-car, developed in the 1980s, is credited with helping Chrysler LLC’s then-chairman Lee Iacocca rescue the company from bankruptcy.
One of Metalcrafters’ latest projects is the Scorpion. It’s building a prototype for Ronn Motor Co., a custom automaker in Texas.
The Scorpion is a luxury sportscar with a hybrid engine.
The car is billed as a green version of a Lamborghini or a Ferrari.
“I kind of wanted to help change the world today, my little bit,” said Ronn Maxwell, chief executive of Ronn Motor. “I still want to make cool cars. I still want to make fast cars. But I want to do it more responsibly.”
The Scorpion is expected to sell for $150,000 with a limited edition going for $250,000. About 10 people have put down deposits on the car, Maxwell said.
Maxwell called on Metalcrafters to get the car made.
“I don’t think there’s anyone else who can do what they do,” he said. “I asked them to do something short of a miracle.”
There was a three-month deadline to get the car ready for the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association automotive trade show in Las Vegas starting Nov. 4, according to Maxwell.
George Gaffoglio said his company usually gets projects on short notice with quick turnaround times.
“That’s what we specialize in,” he said. “They say jump and I say how high.”
