The business is located on Sepulveda Boulevard, the main north-south route through the valley parallel to the I-405.  "The business has been here since the beginning," Fisher said.  "Having good access to the freeway has always been a plus for us.  We don't need to be on the main retail street, but we do need to be easy to get to."

Fisher is very much a hands-on manager, an ASE Master Technician who said he has the final say on all the work in the shop.  He said he supervises three mechanics and does all the custom and prototype work for the business. 

Fisher  is usually the one who people want to see when they contact the shop, said Lucas Aguilar, who staffs the front counter and phone.  "Everybody just calls him Ed," Aquilar said.  "Even his business card just says 'Ed.'"

The shop is looking to hire one more counter and phone person for a total staff of six in addition to the owner, Fisher said.  "Lucas just can't handle it all by himself up front, and my time is better spent out back," he said.  "We say one-day installation on a standard kit, and it is important to us that we make good on our promises.  And I need time to work on the custom and prototype work we do." 

The "kit" he was referring to is a lift kit, which together with other suspension work comprises about 60 percent of the shop's business.  The shop installs 12 to 15 kits a month, Fisher said. 

Gear work is approximately 25 percent of the business, and the rest is installation of accessories and maintenance, Fisher said.  That percentage is changing a little, however, because the cost of fuel is causing more people to inquire about gear work and or the addition of overdrive units, he said. 

"The prototype and development work is not a large percentage of our volume," he said.  "But we believe it is important. It helps us to maintain our knowledge about what is new and our contacts with the development engineers for the kit manufacturers. 

 
"That is why we continue to do the prototype and custom jobs," Fisher said.  "They are expensive but not that profitable. They take too much time.  So we can only do two or three a year.  We do them because we believe that they pay off in other ways for the business.

"We cannot recommend something unless we know that it works." he said.  "The thing that this business is built on is our reputation that we are the knowledgeable source.  We don't do a lot of advertising.  We don't do Internet sales, catalogs, none of that.  People have to come to us. 

"The reason they come is because they believe that we will sell them the combination of parts and modifications that will do what they want to do," Fisher said.  "And they believe that because of our reputation within the four-wheel-drive community.  The community is not that big, and the people all talk to each other."

"So, typically, someone will come in here and say that they have seen a truck or a Jeep, and they spoke to the guy who was driving it and he said I need to talk to Ed," Fisher said.  "Or they call the people who make the kits and sometimes they tell them, 'Go to 4 Wheel Specialties, see Ed, tell him I sent you.'  Or someone else does a kit and it doesn't work the way they thought and then they get referred here to see me.

"And then I ask them, 'What is the make, model, and year of your vehicle?  And what exactly do you want to do with it when we are through?'"  he said.  "That is one of the most important parts of the process.  Because I know that certain combinations of parts work well in certain vehicles to do certain things. I know what I am talking about and I am real straight with them.  It all goes back to product knowledge.

"And I believe you have to be real clear about that with the customer right up front," Fisher said.  "I don't push any one brand because we sell all the major brands: RCD, Fabtech, Superlift, Kelderman, Cage, etc. I will tell them what I think will work to do what they want to do, and why it is the best combination for that purpose.  And if they are on a budget, then I tell them which steps to take first and why.  I recommend what I believe is best for the application."

The building housing 4 Wheel Specialties is approximately 5,000 square feet, Fisher said.  There is a showroom across the front of the building, a row of offices and inventory storage space behind, and three work bays with hoists on one side in the rear with access off an alley.  The bays are 16 feet wide by 35 feet deep with a fenced parking lot behind the rear two. The work bay closest to the front is next to the inventory storage.

"I do the prototype work out of the front bay because I am close to the front counter when people come in and because of the machines in the end of the inventory space,"  Fisher said.  Those machines are a manual Bridgeport mill, a manual Cadillac lathe with approximately a 10-inch throw and a 5-foot bed, a welding machine, and two drill presses. 

 
Fisher said his prototype jobs usually involve making parts that are not available.  That is another reason the manufacturers and 4 Wheel Specialties maintain close relations, he said, adding that he knows what the customers want and are willing to pay for that the manufacturers are not making yet.  And when a customer orders it, he said he develops the parts to fill that void.

The current prototype job he was working on was a Cage brand lift kit being modified to fit a '92 Ford Bronco.  The kit originally fit an earlier model, Fisher said.  A 6-inch lift kit will be fitted with dual shocks all the way around with a Dana 60 front differential and a Ford 4:10 in the rear, he said.  

 
"A job like this can take two or three months," he said,  "because basically I am engineering and manufacturing as I go.  Everything has to be thought out, tacked into place, bolted on, measured many times, checked for interference, taken off, modified, refit, measured again, etc.  before it can ever be really welded up and put together.  After all that's done, it gets painted one last time before it gets final assembly and touchup.  That's why we only do a couple a year, three at the most."

In addition to the industry connections associated with the custom work, Fisher said he reads trade publications and once a year he goes with the owner to the SEMA show, that those are his sources of information for staying current.

 
"I don't see any major trends in the industry other than the economy slowing down a little," he said.  "That is causing some guys not to drive their trucks so much, and some people are considering smaller, lighter trucks instead of the full-size units.  As soon as they get them, however, they still want to do something to make them distinctive.  We are still selling accessories and still selling nitrous.  

 
"This is still Southern California," Fisher said.  "There is a long history of four-wheeling in Southern California, with the beaches and the deserts.  We have been through cycles before.  Sometimes instead of a full vacation, they will take the family for a mini-vacation by taking the truck out to play for a weekend.  We just have to stay focused on maintaining our reputation for doing quality work."