Hello, My Name Is: Sonja Serventi

Name: Sonja Serventi
Occupation: Owner of Dame Customs
Current hometown: Montebello, California
Birth place: Montebello, California

How did you get into cars?

My dad. I grew up around old cars and motorcycles thanks to him. I’d always been in the car scene in some way — I went to car shows, or my boyfriends were always into cars, or working on them as a profession, so I was always around cars or involved with them in one way or another.

As far as a profession, it happened through one of my friends. We opened a shop together, SunBelt Customs, and worked together for five years. Just recently we split and I got a new shop and named it Dame Customs. But that’s where I learned, with my ex-partner. At first I was a babysitter, you know, a helper, then as the business grew and more customers and cars were coming in, I told him, “if show me how you do it and I guarantee you that I can do that.”

I’d done body work with my dad, mildly. I could use Bondo, and I’d been to a paint supplier or auto body house to buy supplies with my dad. But I learned in the shop how to do things the right way, the school-taught way. That’s how I learned: being at the shop every single day.

What’s the craziest car you’ve ever worked on?

Me and my partner worked on this ’40 Mercury a while back, then a year ago I ended up buying it from my customer, so I’m working on it now for myself — and that’s crazy. Also a ’54 Chevy. A four-door, and we shaved the door handles. We’ve been doing body work for the last year on it and just recently we metal-plated the roof, which was probably the coolest thing I’ve done so far in my career.

What’s the hardest job you’ve encountered?

The downfall of this business is reworking other people’s mistakes. I’ve yet to get in a car that doesn’t have previous work that’s been done really poorly, like patch panels put in incorrectly. I have to undo what somebody’s done and start all over again to do it right and by the time I’m done dealing with people’s crappy work, I haven’t even started on making it my own. Bad work costs customers so much more money. It makes me feel so bad.

That’s the most disappointing thing — not always having the opportunity to work on cars that haven’t been worked on. If somebody gets a hold of a car and doesn’t know how to work on it, it’s hard to get things done right.

Another thing — I have an open-door policy. I encourage people to pop into the shop whenever they want so they can see the work being done on their cars. Sometimes people can be too persistent, they want to really be involved in everything that’s happening and it can get really tiring. I had a car I had to pull out of another shop for a customer because they weren’t doing any work on it. We took on this project but she came around to check in all the time, and that is time consuming, especially when we start doing things that are really difficult and take time.

What’s your favorite part of working on a car?

I like imagining how it’s going to look like at the end. That’s the best for me.

What’s it like being in such a male-dominated industry?

A lot of people assume I’m just in the office. I think the last time I was in my office was when I set up the electricity and got the water turned on! Most people really think it’s great that I’m a woman and I’m doing this. They’re amazed. There are some who are judgmental, but they’re haters. It’s normal in the game. People will always have something negative to say. But for that one negative thing, there are ten positive things people have to say.

What advice do you have for women in the automotive industry?

Be strong and do it. That’s all you need to prove to anybody. All my customers know that I work seven days a week. I make my own schedule — drop my daughter off at school, come back home to sleep, wake up at 11 o’clock so I can stay up late. I’ll stop to cook dinner, go back at nine, work for five more hours — but I’m always around. I just like to show people that things are getting done. That’s the thing: you have to do something, not just talk about it.

Is it hard to balance being a single mom and running your own shop?

It’s incredibly difficult, but I’m lucky because I have my mom and my dad and they’re my greatest support. The guys at the shop, too. They came with me from my old shop. They see I’m a hard worker and that’s why they followed me. That was really cool.

My daughter does little things around the shop too. She’ll take out the trash, feed the dog, clean up, move things, organize. I show her things, get her to know things, cleaning my spray gun, sanding, priming. I gave her the task of masking a car the other day and she did a good job.

Maybe she’ll follow in your foot steps one day.

Maybe. She’s really getting into photography right now, though.

Hot: my cell phone, old cars, Facebook, friends and family.

Not: people with bad attitudes; stupid drivers; talking to drunk people; haters.