MAD MAX style car

What this project is

The car on this page is a Mad Max style desert racer that was fabricated, welded and painted in our shop on Cerise Ave in Hawthorne. It is not a customer repair and it was never built to be sold. It began as a running chassis and finished on a desert start line, and almost every panel on it passed through the same booth and the same hands that handle insurance work during the week.

The bodywork behind the build

Strip away the theatre and this is ordinary body shop work done to an unusual brief: cut, shape, weld, fill, prime, paint. The difference is that nothing came out of a parts catalogue, so every panel had to be made to fit rather than ordered to fit.

Panel fabrication and armour

The plating, the roof rack and the front push bar were cut and welded in-house. Everything that bolts to the body still has to line up with the factory mounting points, otherwise the shell loses its geometry. That is the same discipline that decides whether a repaired quarter panel sits flush with the door or not.

Paint, texture and finish

The flat war-rig look is harder to achieve than a gloss respray. Matte and satin finishes reflect light evenly, which means they show every ripple in the filler underneath, so the substrate has to be flatter than it would be for a normal colour coat. The skull emblem was masked and sprayed rather than applied as a decal.

Lighting, grille and bumper work

The grille, the light bar mounts and the reworked bumpers were all made and fitted here. Bumper and lighting work is one of the most common jobs we do on ordinary cars, and the process is identical — only the shapes are stranger. The everyday version of it is on our bumper repair page.

Why a collision shop builds a desert racer

A project like this is where a shop finds out what it can actually do. There is no insurer setting the labour hours and no parts book to fall back on, so the metalwork, the welding and the paint have to stand on their own. Everything learned on a build like this goes straight back into ordinary repairs the following week.

The same shop, the same hands

Nothing here was farmed out. The people who cut and sprayed this car are the people who repair collision damage at 12911 Cerise Ave seven days a week, for private customers and for every insurance company we work with.

More detail on the work itself: collision repair, bumper repair, paintless dent repair, car painting and colour matching, motorcycle body repair and a free estimate from photos.

Where to see our everyday repair work

Finished insurance repairs are photographed as they leave the shop. The most reliable places to look are our Google Business Profile, which you can open from our listing on Google Maps, and our Carwise profile, where reviews are tied to a real repair order. There is more about both on the reviews page.

Visit the shop

The Body Shop Collision Repair
12911 Cerise Ave, Hawthorne, CA 90250
Phone: (323) 661-6600
Email: 711body@gmail.com
Mon–Fri 9:00 AM – 7:30 PM · Sat 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM · Sun 11:30 AM – 4:30 PM
After-hours towing and drop-off available — call us.

If you have crash damage rather than a custom project, start with a free estimate or read how we handle insurance claims and your right to choose the shop in California.

Questions about our projects

Is the Mad Max car for sale?

No. It is a shop project and a race entry, not a build made to be sold. We are happy to show it to anyone who comes by while it is in the yard.

Do you take on custom fabrication for customers?

Case by case. Collision and insurance repairs come first, and custom work is scheduled around them. Call (323) 661-6600, describe what you have in mind and we will tell you honestly whether it is something we should take on.

Can you paint a car in a matte or satin finish?

Yes. It takes more preparation than gloss because a flat finish hides nothing underneath, so the panel has to be blocked truly straight before any colour goes on. More on finishes is on our car painting page.

Does custom work slow down insurance repairs?

No. Claim work has priority in the booth and on the lift. Projects like this one are built around the repair schedule, usually in the quieter parts of the week.

Where can I see photos of ordinary collision repairs?

On our Google Business Profile and our Carwise profile. Both show finished work along with customer feedback, and neither can be edited by us.

Can you match paint on an older car with faded colour?

Usually yes. We spray a test card, compare it in daylight against the panel and blend into the adjacent panels rather than stopping at a hard edge. Details are on the car painting page.

Do you work on motorcycles and off-road vehicles too?

Yes. Motorcycle bodywork and paint are a regular part of what we do — see motorcycle body repair. Off-road and truck work is handled the same way as any other body job.

How do I get a quote for repair or custom work?

Drive in, or send photos of the damage and we will come back with a written estimate at no charge. Start on the free estimate page.

Want your car looked at? Call (323) 661-6600 or send photos for a free estimate. We are at 12911 Cerise Ave in Hawthorne, minutes from the 105 and the 405.