You might not recognize the name Mark Oja but you probably have seen some of his builds over the years and if you were a fan of Overhaulin' with Chip Foose you definitely will remember Oja as one of the head honchos on those frantic three day builds.
Oja lived in Canada and was a successful service manager for a dealership. Being so close to Detroit and being a hot rod enthusiast at heart, he frequented the Detroit Car Show and became friends with Boyd Coddington. Coddington convinced him that a twelve month season of custom cars in Southern California beat the cold up north. So Oja and his wife moved down to work with C. After Coddington' sudden and untimely death, Mark Oja opted to open his own shop in 2007- California Speed and Custom.
Oja built up a clientele by doing great work and thinking outside the box. Then he met up with Chip Foose and worked with him on Overhaulin'. That was the television show where a handpicked crew thrashed in secret on a car for three days and turned a wreck into a jewel. For the last four seasons of the show, Oja served as a project manager, herding the crew and resolving last minute hiccups. Oja stated that Overhaulin' was the "best experience of my life" and working with Chip "was an amazing time". In fact, some of those episodes were filmed in his very shop.
Oja works out of a 12,000 square foot shop in Huntington Beach, CA and besides his wife has six full-time employees. Typically he has eight-ten cars in the shop in various stages of work. Inevitably one car needs to be pushed aside waiting for parts or another vendor, but another car is always waiting in the wings.
Oja loves to see cars as art pieces and appreciates all the marques. Though he has mainly worked on Mustangs, his portfolio includes just about every make and brand. One particular stand out is his 1973 Chevy truck that he took to SEMA last year. It sports the original paint and he bought it from the original owner. He put in a supercharged 350 ci short block and tries "to do what the others don't" by doing the best that he can.
An emerging trend that Oja has spotted is to keep a car or truck looking stock, but modifying what you can't see by improving the suspension and changing out the power plant. He is tired of the patina look and felt that was overdone.
Oja's first love is painting and he says that the biggest changes in that field, has been to keep up with the changing environmental regulations. His shop is limited to how they spray paint and how much material they can keep on hand. Even Bondo dust needs to be accounted for. But Oja admits these rules are better for the environment and keeps things safer for all.
A suggestion for owners looking for a shop from Oja is to look around, check out the vibe and see how often the cars are changing out. One of his advantages, he feels, is that he is an actual worker in his own shop so he won’t make promises to an owner that he can't fulfill.
Oja is presently working on a 2018 Mustang GT for the SEMA Show. They are changing it to a wide body by producing carbon fiber pieces. But these pieces don’t just rivet on to the existing sheet metal. He's making quarter panels that will be an exact replacement for the original Ford pieces. I can't wait to see it Las Vegas at the 2018 SEMA Show. Can you?
©2018 Mark C. Bach