Meet Troy Davis | Custom painter, pinstriper

We had the good fortune of connecting with Troy Davis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Troy, what do you attribute your success to?
We are uncompromising – we insist on creating custom paint work that is truly flawless or it doesn’t leave our shop. We believe “there’s the right way and then there’s all the garbage that falls short of meeting that standard.”

What should our readers know about your business?
Spray Katz is small (by design) and very tight-knit. We are 3 full time and 1 part time employees and that’s all we’ll ever be. We stay small so we can stay focused – quality and pride of workmanship above everything else. We scrutinize client selection very carefully – we interview our clients in the same way they interview us – we only work with perhaps 1 out of every 40 people who contact us. We choose clients based on their dedication to the project and ability to comfortably afford the work that we do. We are not at all cheap, our labor rate is approximately triple the average body shop rate and we do not quote prices on jobs – we charge by the hour and track every minute spent on a project. Getting people to understand why we do things this way has been extremely difficult, but once they see that it’s the only way to be completely transparent about project cost, they’re on board. Sticking to our guns when it comes to the overall process and billing structure is what has brought us to this point – we don’t compromise quality for the sake of budget on custom work – that’s what has allowed us to develop the client base we have and that’s how we’ve managed to be successful.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Cafecitos at Versailles – gotta start every day that way! Definitely need to spend some time on South Beach; the food, the culture and architecture have to be taken in slowly, you have to give yourself a few days to really absorb and embrace all the area has to offer.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I was about 7 years into my custom painting career when I asked my friend Ron Hernandez (pinstriping legend from Phoenix, AZ.) to teach me to stripe. He said “I’ll teach you what I can, but developing the skills to actually do the work lands on you. You gotta practice, a LOT! If you’re not gonna be dedicated and follow through, don’t waste my time!” He was right, learning to pull lines was HARD; I spent at least 1000 hours just practicing pulling lines on a piece of glass before I was actually decent at it and could confidently step to a customer’s car. He gave me the basic tools to grow with – how to trim a brush, how to load a brush, pull a tape line straight and [perhaps most importantly] to be absolutely fearless with picking and combining colors. That little piece of information spilled over to every custom paint job I’ve done since – putting together color combinations that are totally unexpected, but somehow work together to please the eye – I really pride myself on doing that and I have Ron to thank for it.

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