Today we’d like to introduce you to Savannah Kusak.
Hi Savannah, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Growing up I was often referred to as two things, “Rusty Vaughn’s daughter” or “Rusty’s shadow”. I spent a lot of time following my dad around and he spent a lot of time in his garage working on old cars and motorcycles. He taught me the basics very early and as I got older he taught me some of the more difficult things, like how to weld. I believe I was 12 when he taught me to weld. When I was 19 I decided to restore my first car and we did it together. It was a ’59 VW Beetle. That’s when I learned electrical from him, bodywork and paint, and how to install a headliner from YouTube. I really thought my favorite part of the project was going to be upholstery because I was making some of my own clothes at the time. But when the day came to paint, I fell in love. I really didn’t see that coming. I believe that was around 14 years ago but I still remember the day vividly. When the silver metallic paint came out of the gun and hit the dash I got chills. I couldn’t believe how much I loved it. From there I started teaching myself everything I could about paint. The internet was around of course but me and my dad would often go to Barnes and Noble. He would look at magazines there and I would go to the automotive section. It was small but they had several books on painting. Me and my dad knew a little, but I wanted to know a lot. I still have those books and look at them sometimes but the paint industry has changed so much, it’s funny how outdated they’ve become. From there I really just started teaching myself everything I could through trial and error. I messed up a lot of my own stuff in the process but it’s how you learn if you don’t have an apprenticeship. I taught myself how to pinstripe during the cold months so I could work inside since our garage wasn’t heated. Fast forward to when my husband and I got married, we built a shop at our place and started working on cars together. Our interest are very different which make us a great team, he doesn’t want to do bodywork and paint and I don’t want to do mechanical and metal work. So we each get to do what we like. Our first shop was great to us at the time, but as the years passed we realized how much better of a place we needed. Our heating and air was just a small unit with no temperature control which is tough as a painter, our shop floors weren’t sealed and there was no paint booth. But that is the shop I became a full time painter in regardless. I left my very comfortable well paying job I had at the time and made the leap. I cried a lot in the first couple of years but I learned a lot too. One of the things we learned quickly, is that a better shop would help with a lot the issues I was having. And so we moved. My husband built me a new shop that fixed all the issues we had prior. Sealed floors for cleanliness, exhaust fans, and lighting – SO MUCH MORE LIGHTING! My husband is very particular about things and helped me become that way too. He researched and built me things in my shop that have helped me tremendously over the years. I owe both my dad and husband a big thank you for how they’ve helped me in different ways. My dad instilled the passion to work on old things in me at a young age, and my husband has shown me in a 1,000 different ways how to work smarter – not harder, even though he’s not a painter. But he is just plain smart. I owe myself a pat on the back for how stubborn I am. I have refused to give up, and just keep getting better.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There is a saying, “painting is easy, if you don’t know what you’re doing.” And it’s true. When you first start you’re happy with your results because you don’t know any better. But the more you do it, you want it better and better and then you have to find out how. And at the end of the day painting is about chemistry. There is so many things that can wrong with chemical reactions that mean you have to start over from the beginning. Sand it all down, and do it all over again. In the beginning I repainted things multiple times on my dime before giving them back to the customer. Contamination, humidity, water in your air line, the list goes on and on. But those are all technical issues I had to learn about and how to fix them. Then there are all the other things you have to learn about a business when you don’t have a mentor. Pricing jobs in the beginning is so difficult and in the early years I stayed in the negative.
We’ve been impressed with Cult Classics LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are a husband and wife team who care about your car just as much as you do. We offer full restorations on your classic car or bike and will do whatever it takes to keep it on the road. Between the two of us there’s not much we don’t offer. My husband Bert does mechanical work, electrical, fabrication, suspension, and tuning. I do paint, body, pinstriping, candy, metal flake, metal leafing, and detailing. Between the two of us the only thing we don’t do is upholstery. One thing that sets us apart from other shops and that we are really proud of is timeliness. We only take 2-3 cars at time, they NEVER sit outside, and we work on them until they are complete. Many old cars go to shops and stay there for years in the corner before they get touched. We only take the car when we can work on them and get them back to you in a timely manner.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I don’t quit. Painting and auto body is hard work. It’s hard on your body, the chemicals are terrible for you, and if you make a wrong move, you often have to start over from the beginning. But it gets easier. The longer you do it the more you understand about the craft and make less mistakes. I never gave up on teaching myself. Many people over the years have told me they thought my dad owned a body shop and taught me all the tricks of the trade. But the truth is he didn’t, he had only painted two cars in his life when we painted the VW. He knew the basics and I’m grateful he taught me those things, but to get where I am now, a full time painter, took years of trial, error, blood, sweat, and tears. In other words – I didn’t quit.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cultclassicsllc.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083165747320
Image Credits
Daron Gray (first photo) Trashy Betty Photography (last photo)
