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Polished Stainless Steel Fasteners for Hot Rods - Boats - Harleys. Plus a full line of stainless nuts, bolts, screws & washers. |
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Your #1 source for
stainless steel fasteners! |
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Polished Stainless Steel Fasteners for Hot Rods - Boats - Harleys. Plus a full line of stainless nuts, bolts, screws & washers. |
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| South Coast Stainless - 2001 | |
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Deana in the 'garage shop' - 1982 |
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| Busy taking orders - 1984 | |
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Bruce at the new shop - 1989 |
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| Ready for retail business - 1989 | |
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"The London Bridge" Lake Havasu City, AZ |
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The company was purchased by non "car buffs" and for nearly two years the magic that was created by Bruce and Deana all those years ago was all but lost, until 1998 when it was acquired by the Coss family. Avid car buffs in their own right, Gil and Debi along with their son Craig have been working around the clock in an effort to restore the company back to something that Bruce, Deana, Paul and Patty would all be proud of. Since the Coss family took over they have relocated the business to it's current facility on London Bridge Road, more than doubled the inventory, added several product lines, and have exhibited at dozens of rod runs throughout the western United States. (See our SHOW SCHEDULE) As it was in the past, SOUTH COAST STAINLESS currently supplies large and small manufactures, builders, retail shops and, of course, all the individuals working on their dream machines in their own garage! One
bolt or a complete SHOW POLISHED engine kit |
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Copyright ©
2004
South Coast Stainless. All rights reserved. |
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SOUTH
COAST SPECIALTIES began in 1981 in a garage in Orange County,
California. While attending a rod run in Pleasanton, California,
Bruce and Deana Bartlett saw first hand the increasing popularity of
polished stainless steel fasteners in the hot rod industry. Both
were working full time jobs when they decided to start their own
fastener business in their garage. Bruce wanted to create a logo
that would be instantly recognizable and Sammy Socket Head was
born. With the logo created and the garage converted they pasted
together their first ad and placed it in the back of STREET RODDER
magazine. To their surprise, the first order paid for the ad and
they were on their way. Although Bruce had never polished a bolt
before, he bought a bench grinder and jumped right in. Offering
pre-package stainless kits for Hot Rods, Bruce soon set a new standard
for polished stainless fasteners that no one has ever equaled.
Both
continued working full time during the day while filling orders at
night. After a couple of years the "night" part of the
job was stretching into the early morning hours. Deana decided
to quit her job to work full time at home. She took orders,
pulled and packaged them and took care of all the paper work and when
Bruce got home he would polish throughout the night. This worked
for the next year or so when Bruce decided to go part time at his day
job so he could come home at noon and start polishing in the early
afternoon, usually until midnight just to keep up with the
orders. Then in 1989 they both realized their new business
required full time attention from both of them. Bruce quit his
"real" job.
They
rented a small shop and moved the operation to its new location in
Fountain Valley, California. They were on their own now.
Soon they were spending more time at the shop than at home. They
looked into hiring some one to help with the polishing but they
couldn't find anyone who could deliver the quality they insisted
on. The business continued to grow and the days got longer and
longer.
Soon
they began getting offers from long time customers who wanted to buy
the company. Bruce and Deana loved the company they had
created. They always felt that the people they dealt with were
more like friends than customers. After a lot of thought, in
1993 they decided to sell.
The new
owners, Paul and Patty Dulmage, moved the business out of California
and into the growing desert community of Lake Havasu City, Arizona on
the shore of the Colorado River. The American home for the
London Bridge was now the new home of Sammy Socket Head. Like
Bruce and Deana before them, Paul and Patty loved everything about the
business. Paul not only loved Hot Rods, he also loved
Harley-Davidsons and with the rising popularity of Harleys, he took on
the challenge of adding a new line of stainless kits for the
Harley-Davidson market. A very welcomed addition to the line
judging from the response received from the ad he was running in HOT
BIKE magazine. With Patty taking care of the office and Paul
doing the polishing the company continued to grow and prosper.
Several year later with Paul's unexpected passing Patty came to the
difficult decision to sell the company.