Bobwires

slngblde · #1 08-31-2010, 02:43 AM

- Name
Nelson Hays

- Where do you live?
Ketchikan, AK. Born and raised here.

- Do you work for yourself or a shop? Name of it?
I own Bobwires Audio

- Did you go to an installer school or are you self taught?
I started installing pretty young and at 18 years old I went to Mobile Dynamics

- Who is your biggest influence in your work?
That’s a tough one. I really can’t name one person. I spend a lot of time on the forum looking over work by some by the masters like Handcrafted, Lord of the Rings, Short Katy, B@D @PPLE, Steve Hock, Steve Coogle and many others. My instructors at Mobile Dynamics gave me lots of tips and tricks to work with. They were Mark Lowe, Chad Marra, Wayne Connolly, Orlando Sanchez, Paul Wanders and Rico Felice. My uncle Marshal taught me a lot about fiberglass over the phone. I also have done lots of research in different industries and how they choose materials for a given job and why. Quite often I approach a project in a different way than most stereo installers, and I’m sure this is because of my varied interests, extensive research, and many influences.

- What got you interested in fabrication work?
At a young age I wanted to be a carpenter. By 14 years old a friend of mine wanted to upgrade his stereo, and we tackled his sub box – from there we had a few mounting issues to address for the speakers and we cut out some metal, cut wood rings, and goofed around with the mounting. I could see then that a lot was involved in the stereo end of things, and lots of potential to make this cool looking, not just functional. As time passed I saw more pictures of custom cars, and I was hooked.

- How long have you been working with fiberglass/metal/wood?
Fiberglass – 5 years
Metal – 3 years
Wood – 8 years

- Does your interest stem from hobby or profession?
Hobby. I never would have dreamed I’d be a ‘stereo guy’ as a career.

- First job using fiberglass?
I tried to make a fiberglass face on an existing box, and when it was turning out like crap I bagged the project so I could learn more about the process and try it again. I never tried anything else until mobile dynamics a year later where I built a box for my little Nissan truck for a 13w7, amp on top, and aluminum insert as a ‘coffee table’ =D. It was fun.

- What was your best use of fiberglass in an installation?
The tahoe box I built in June was well tuned, looked good, and had good clean glass work. I’m proud of that project, although in retrospect it was not the most efficient process.

- What was your worst use of fiberglass?
My first project that I canned – that thing really sucked.

- In what area would you like to see your work improve?
I want to see my work improve in every way. and if I ever feel like I have a specific process down pat, I can still make it faster.

- Best use/innovation with fiberglass?
I started using urethane foam to get the shape I want on the front of a speaker box. I’m no good at carving foam, so I use the normal process of wood for whatever I can, and a wood ring for the speaker, and stretch fleece and resin it. I glass the fleece and use the urethane foam on top of that. Fleece across a box is an easy way to get the shape, but I’m usually not happy with that shape as it is. I glass it for strength, then foam it. The foam acts as a core for rigidity, and can be easily sanded and shaped, unlike glass and bondo. When you glass over the of the foam core you have very little bondo work to do since your shape is already just right.

- If there's one thing you would do different what would it be and why?
I never want to have just 1 thing to work on. I’m always trying to improve, and I always see a lot of room for improvement as I go through a job. I’m not 100% happy with any job I have ever done.

- If you were to be remembered by only one job, which would it be? Why?
I don’t want to be remembered by one job. I want to be good at everything, as impossible as that goal is. I’d at least like to be known as a well-rounded fabricator.

- Any words of advice to those just starting out in custom fabrication?
Become a perfectionist. Custom fabrication really isn’t something you can practice since every job is different, so you have to jump into a project head first. Since this is the way it is, you have to be careful every step, and you can’t settle for anything that’s not right. It’s worth it to rip apart a first attempt to do it better.

- Besides fab work or installing, what do you like to do to unwind?
I play bass, sports, study the bible, peruse the forums, and watch lots of movies. I spend lots of time doing research on random topics. I love looking up weird animals, and other random stuff. I also do lots of research on other aspects of the design and building of cars, boats, and homes.

- What do you drive? and whats your dream car?
’77 F150 named Buela. She’s a beast, but she’s my beast. My dream car is a Nissan GTR. I have my doubts I’ll ever own one, but you never know. I’m just looking forward to a chance to work on one.

slngblde · #2 08-31-2010, 02:44 AM

Whats the story behind the name Bobwires?

LBaudio · #3 08-31-2010, 04:36 AM

Congrats Nelson, you earned place in spotlight section!

bobwires · #4 08-31-2010, 04:41 AM

I guess I should give more of a bio.

I charged for my first stereo at 15 years old. I was an ambitious kid who never wanted to wait for anything. I wanted to sell stereos and install them as a side job after school, so I called up a distributor and found out what it would take.

My dad is an electrician named Bob. He has a company called Bobwires, inc, an electrical contractor. He let me use his company to get started in the stereo business, although he knew nothing about it, and hates working on cars. He opened a retail store in '04 when I was 16, and let me build a display in it. After a while I was making some money with my side business, so he decided to invest in it. He put out some capital for more inventory so I could expand. At this point I still didn't have a shop to work out of except for my garage at home, which was way south of town. So 99% of the installs were right there in front of the store. The company kept the money from the sales, and I kept the labor dollars.

This continued to expand until '06 when I graduated high school and my dad decided to downsize his business and eventually decided to close up altogether. I went off to school at Mobile Dynamics in September of '06, and when I returned a few months later the shop was still in the same place but no longer a functioning retail operation, simply a base-of-operations for my Dad and his crew.

I was on the phone well before I returned home trying to find a place to start my business, and had a really hard time locating one. I ended up moving in to a part of a big shop that already had a little retail area. It worked out well, save for a few weird things about the old building and funky parking and entrance situation.

So in April of '07 I was officially in business on my own, but I had already been operating under my dad's company name for a few years, so I opted to keep it. I got a license as Bobwires Audio, and rolled with that. I got bobwires.com going, signage with that name, and I even kept my dad's old shop phone number. As it turned out he did not close up his company, but kept working solo as an electrician which has made for plenty of confusion over the last few years. In fact we still get many calls a week at my shop by people trying to find my dad.

In the fall of '08 I was booted out of my shop so they could remodel the building with the intent that I move back in in a few months. ....that didn't happen. I never got the call. So my temporary shop, 2000ft2 of open space that once was part of a cold storage for fish egg processing, was home for another year and a half. I framed up a few walls, but I couldn't put lids on any of the 'rooms' due to the sprinkler situation in the building code. I was stuck in a dust pit.

In April of '10 I moved for the third time in 3 years to my current shop, which took a lot of work, time, and money. But here we are in a well set up shop, in a good retail location, with enough space, and even a water view.

I still have some of the same manufacturer's rep's I had when I first started calling around 7 years ago. My only real competition closed up last spring, making my operation the only one within 250 miles. So the name Bobwires is here to stay.

First shop:

the view from the shop door

the 2nd shop, in the back of a huge warehouse-looking building

new shop -

view from the table saw