Ron Morlan

Ron has always had an interest in cars from a very young age when he started working on his father's Winston West race car. In high school he would go to the Fremont Drag Strip which led to his interest in building and racing his own '67 Mustang, "Crazy Horse". He worked on all aspects of his car from building the engine, wiring, welding and even custom paint on the body. After that he started to work on friends Top Gas Dragster and Blown Alcohol Funny Car. Many nights and weekends were spent over some sort of engine determined to make it better or in a paint booth making them shine. Ron became an auto mechanic when he was 18, working for a local Chevrolet dealership for many years. He attained several ASE licenses as well as a smog license. Currently he is working on another Mustang, determined to make it turn heads as he cruises with his wife and two grown children. His ultimate goal is to renovate his own '56 F100 truck and his '40 Chevy both in the wings waiting to be worked on. Ron started with us in 2009, his quality of work is of the utmost importance to him and it shows through on everything he does.

Darrell Schneider Restorations

Darrell Schneider's story: I have been interested in cars nearly all my life and began “wrenchin” at the age of ten when I would help my father work on the family race car. About the same time, I became better acquainted with Mr. Steve Archer, a long time family friend. At the time, Steve owned a fiberglass shop and built complete fiberglass hot rods, as well as several individual components. He was very talented and a true craftsman. His ability and parts played a big role for six America's Most Beautiful Roadster award winners, (1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1987). Another of his cars, built for the Oakland Roadster show, won the “Best Engineering” award in 1975. In 1978, the AMBR award went to a car that used one of

Steve's fiberglass bodies, as well as several of the components he was producing at the time.
Steve picked up on my attraction to all things cars and became my mentor. At the age of fifteen, with the encouragement and coaching of both Steve and my father, I took on a modified restoration of my 1967 Mustang. Following Steve’s guidance and direction, I completely disassembled and stripped the car to bare metal and straightened and reworked the body, as necessary. After this first phase of the project, Steve continued to coach me on every step necessary to prep, repaint and finish the car. I then installed a rebuilt small block Ford engine and completely reassembled the car. The project was completed before I was old enough to get my driver’s license.

The quality of my work and the ability to complete the entire project was the evidence Steve needed to offer me a job in his shop. Working on a part time basis, until I completed high school, Steve continued to mentor and push me to fully develop all of my skills. In addition Steve also taught me the fundamentals of working with fiberglass. With this jump start from Steve Archer, I then went on to complete six more modified restorations before graduating from high school. Following graduation, I continued to work with Steve for five more years.

From 1985 to 1993, I worked for Lindy’s Autobuilders in San Ramon, California. Lindy’s specialized in repairs and restorations on Ferraris, Maserattis, Mercedes, Porsches and BMWs. In addition, the shop also built hot rods and muscle cars. While working at this shop, I was able to train on state of the art equipment as well as work alongside such craftsmen as Rod Moore who perfected the wild low rider paint jobs; Sergio Luis, who earned Apprentice of the year, four years in a row, while working in the Rolls Royce Factory; Paul Blatt, a guy that “can make a car out of a beer can”, as well as Larry Nelson, who was a fiberglass and body filler “magician”. At the same time, I also took full advantage of the opportunity to learn the business side of the collision repair and restoration business. I also used my spare time to complete two more award winning modified restorations. The experience proved to be invaluable!       

I opened my own shop, Toy Works Autobody, in 1993 and focused on specializing in high quality “fit and finish” work for bay area car builders including Roy Brizio. Between 1993 and 1997 Toy Works completed sixteen award winning cars.

In 1998, for economic reasons, my partners and I decided to shift Toy Works’ business focus exclusively to collision repair. In addition, I continued to seek out more modified restoration work in my spare time and completed five additional projects.

When my business partners and I decided to close Toy Works Autobody in 2008, I decided to continue in the line of work that, first and always, fueled my passion for “all things cars” and am now directing all my talents, skills and over 30 years of experience to continue alongside the likes of Zane Cullen, Darryl Hollenbeck, Charlie Hutton and Dave Lane in delivering complete builds with award winning fit and finish.

The plan seems to be working! As my most recent effort involved working on my long time friend, Craig Watt's 1934 Ford three window coupe, which was featured in Dupont's booth at the 2008 SEMA show, as well as SEMA's magazine and most recently took third place in it's class at the 2009 Grand National Roadster Show, finishing just behind a Moal Coachworks built car for George Poteet. Let me build one for you!      

Craig Watts

Craig has worked for Dominator part time for twenty years as our lead fabricator. Full time he was a Contra Costa Fire Captain for twenty seven years and retired in '05. Prior to working for us he spent twenty years welding in the nuclear industry working as a subcontractor. He worked for Lawrence Livermore Lab and the Linear Accelerator at Stanford University. Craig has been married for thirty five years and has two sons, six grandchildren and one great grandchild. He worked on the filming of "Rides" at Dominator on the TLC channel along with eighteen episodes of "Overhaulin" and was a Chase driver for four years for Baja 1000.

Robert Wyrsch

Robert has been working on cars since the age of seven, when his father introduced him to the Model A. He was actively involved in constructing his fathers cars which included a Street Rod '40 Ford Coupe, 40 ford 2-Door Sedan, '40 Ford Woodie, and a '40 Ford Convertible. Robert and his twin brother grounded up restorations of their own. Which included Chopped Top, Pro Street '40 Ford Coupe and a '46 Ford Phantom Roadster, which won "Bad to the Bone" honors at the Good Guys Get Together in 1995. The car was also featured in Hot Rod Magazine's Swim Suit issue in August 1994 and Popular Hot Rod Magazine in June of 1995. Robert turned his hobby into a profession in January of 2006, when he was hired by Dominator for final assembly and small parts fabrication. He is an enthusiastic person and enjoys working with our current customers making their dreams a reality.