Pearl Auto Body Co-owners Dave Call and Jeff Theisen began Gunslinger Custom Paint, a custom motorcycle paint shop, in the corner of one of their four Pearl Auto Body shops about five years ago.  Today, the stand-alone business has grown to custom-paint parts for more than 4,000 bikes a year.

"In the beginning, it was an ancillary business," said Theisen, who spends the majority of his time running Gunslinger.  "We opened, and it grew so quickly that we broke it off."

Most of Gunslinger's volume comes from a major American bike manufacturer who saw a Gunslinger paint scheme at the Sturgis Rally in 2004 and quickly enlisted their services on a mass scale.  That was the catalyst that allowed the pair of owners to open a dedicated facility in 2005.

When comparing the custom motorcycle painting business to collision repair, Call said, "They're exactly the same, but different.  You can deal with the big insurance companies or the big bike manufacturers."

Splitting resources between the collision businesses and the custom paint shop has its advantages, said Call, adding that he spends most of his time running the four Pearl Auto Body locations in Boulder, Denver, Littleton, and Greeley, the latter of which opened last September.

Gunslinger's offices in Golden serve as the headquarters for all five businesses, Call said, adding that all payroll, receivables, and payables are performed in the central office, with each business having its own profit-and-loss statements.  In all, the pair said they employ 105 people, with 60 at Gunslinger.

Another advantage in owning and operating the collision repair businesses alongside Gunslinger is that they have buying power with their common paint distributors, who supply them with Sherwin Williams' Planet Color, Valspar's House of Kolor, and PPG's Vibrance Collection.

When Gunslinger first opened, Theisen said the work flow was set up similar to his collision repair facilities, where a single tech would take a job from start to finish, a system that's not necessarily designed for speed.

After moving into their new facility, Theisen said they reworked the production process and set it up as a lean-production model, where each stage of the painting process is departmentalized.

"Now it's set up as a production line, not per piece," Theisen said.  A group of specialists work in each department, doing sanding, polishing, pin-striping, paint, and clear coat.  "Multiple people are touching multiple parts of the job at a time."

Some employees rotate through the positions of paint booth loader and painter, so there's a lot of depth in each department, which has three to four employees, Theisen said.  The shop runs two 15- by 30-foot paint booths that can fit 15 tanks or fenders at one time, he said, adding that they also have four 15- by 15-foot booths that can fit 12.

Although Gunslinger has been in a steep growth mode since 2003, business is starting to stabilize, Theisen said.  They continue to get exposure from their Web site gcpaint.com, through several bike enthusiast magazines, and custom work for Optibike, an electric bicycle manufacturer from Boulder, Fat Baggers Inc., a motorcycle parts supplier from Chariton, Iowa, and a recent project with motor scooter manufacturer Vespa and the Gap.

Gunslinger was contracted to custom-paint several 2007 Vespa LX 50 scooters in a custom Crazy Stripe design by Gap that incorporates nine colors, Theisen said.  The scooters were on display in Gap stores in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, he added.

At the center of Gunslinger's cutting-edge designs is Art Director John Pugh.

"He's the heart of all the drawings and designs," Theisen said, adding that Pugh has been in the industry more than 35 years, creating custom designs for top fuel dragsters, funny cars, and helmets for many racers, including Melanie Troxel, top  fuel funny car driver  Many of the top bike designs today came from him, he said.

Even in a depressed economy, most people with discretionary income continue to spend money on custom bikes, Call said. 

"The people that have been into bikes for years still are," he said.  "The entry-level bike buyer has slowed, but that's not the guy spending a lot of money customizing a bike."

Much like the custom bike industry, business has been good for the four Pearl Auto Body shops, Call said, despite the number of shops that are closing their doors.

"If you want to do business the way you've done it for the last 20 years, you'll be one of the shops phased out," Call warned.  "You'll be on the outside looking in.

"Everybody has seen an uptick in this market the last two years," Call said of the local collision repair market.  "The real challenge lies in the near future."