"Volume 001" - Entry 006
Entry 06 - Sharp Customs
Filed from Darbyshire - "the trade"
I got a job at a custom car garage called Sharp Customs, and worked on everything there. VW Beetles, Ford Escort Mk1s, old Jags, split screen buses, you name it, it was probably there.
" Worth Remembering "
Andrew gave me more than the work itself. Coming off ten years in a police bodyshop, doing the same repairs on the same cars, I wasn't sure what I actually had beyond following procedure.
Sharp Customs was the first place someone trusted me with a proper variety of builds and just let me get on with it. That trust taught me I could actually do this, not just follow someone else's process.
A while later Andrew decided to change his career and eventually closed the shop. I still think about that opportunity with real gratitude. It's one of the reasons I believed I was capable of building something of my own.
Later that year, still touring with the bands, I teamed up with another school friend, Creg, to start this next adventure. My garage was formed, Outlaw UK was where it was at. Seven days a week building Porsche 911s, café racers, E Type Jags and more.
The garage eventually became something else. The Devil's Playground. That's a story for later.
My lifestyle was heavy through this time. The substances were continual. Drinking had started to take a grip, and my taste for partying was out of control. But eventually, out of nowhere, I met the person who changed it all without really doing anything other than existing.
