Inside The Paint Shop: What Makes Karl Kustoms The Go-To Paint Shop In Iowa

At Karl Kustoms, we have a state-of-the-art paint shop. We use modern equipment and we stock a variety of high quality automotive paint.

Our set up makes us a good paint shop, but that’s not what makes us a great paint shop. What makes us great, then? Two words:

Ed Birmingham.

Ed Birmingham is our auto body painter. He has almost 30 years of experience painting cars and motorcycles. His talent is so great that his work has been featured in magazines. His name is known in many circles, including the Sturgis biker crowd. Many car and motorcycle owners trust Ed to paint their prized possessions. It’s because he’s the best of the best. We hired him 12 years ago not only because of his unparalleled talent, but also because his rigorous standards match our own.

Ed took some time out of his busy day to grant an inside look at Karl Kustoms’ paint shop. It’s where Ed’s team paints all kinds of vehicles, especially the classic cars we help restore. Ed’s team helped bring everything from classic Cadillacs to a Impala pedal car back to their original glory.

Our Paint Shop Does All Kinds Of Paint Jobs

Our paint shop offers a full range of custom paint jobs, including:

• Pinstriping
• Airbrushing
• Graphics
• Lettering
• Full body paint jobs

Ed says with confidence, “Anything that has to do with paint, I can do it.” Ed and his team are very versatile. They have painted all kinds of vehicles for all kinds of people.

“We do everything from street rods to [daily drivers like] the Ford Focus.” Ed said. “We’ve painted everything from a Lamborghini Countach to a Bentley Continental GT, and everything else under the sun.”

Most of the time, customers come in looking to have their car paint refreshed or restored. We don’t do a whole lot of super custom paint projects. But when a customer comes in looking for a custom paint job, Ed is always ready to tackle the project.

“I like to do things a little bit on the mellow side,” Ed said. “I don’t go too wild with things. I like to feel [customers] out. I’ll ask them what colors they like, and what themes they like. I [also] ask them what they don’t like. I sit down and come up with some cool ideas, and we go from there. Nine times out of ten, [the customers] love my ideas.“

In other words, Ed doesn’t stick to only a few styles. Instead, he listens to the customers and paints in whatever style they want. Customers can even see mockups of Ed’s ideas on the computer and approve them. They can also see different colors on the cars and pick the color they want.

Our Paint Jobs Are As Thorough As They Come

Our paint shop is not only thorough when it comes to listening to customers’ needs. Our work is also very thorough.

Some other paint shops don’t paint the parts that aren’t visible to the average driver, but Ed’s team paints everything. “We’re willing to go the extra mile here,” Ed said. “It may take a little bit longer or cost a little bit more, but [you’ll get a gorgeous paint job]. Everything will look really nice. When it comes to the places you can’t see on the car, [other shops] kind of let it go. Here, we don’t do that. We want to make sure it’s done right. We’ll strip the paint all the way down so we can guarantee [a perfect paint job] all the way up.”

In our paint shop, we make a point to paint everything, including the:

• Interior
• Exterior
• Underside
• Top side
• Door jams
• Trunk jams
• Edges
• Even areas where people will never see

No matter how small or basic a project may be, Ed’s team is still as thorough as possible. They won’t finish until the paint job is perfect all over the vehicle. They have very high standards and it shows in their work.

If your vehicle needs a new paint job, bring it into our paint shop and watch Ed and his team work their magic on it!