Making it big in Hollywood isn’t limited to actors.
L.A. Prep Inc., a Signal Hill-based company, is celebrating 30 years of preparing high-end vehicles that wind up in the spotlight on television, in commercials and in movies.
Founder and president Jim Kirby, who once raced cars for fun and later turned those skills into a career as a movie stunt-car driver, launched the enterprise in 1983 as a one-man operation.
About three years into his professional driving career, he “saw a need for a more professional disciplined way of providing car prep services for the film industry,” he said
Over the decades, the company has grown to 45 employees with additional locations in Detroit and Tampa.
L.A. Prep transports cars to film and photo shoots, car testing, ride-and-drive events, tours and for individuals. Hundreds of clients’ cars are stored in its expansive facilities, where they are prepared, repaired, prepped, inventoried, and reserved for projects.
The cars, usually of the luxury or exotic variety, travel to U.S. destinations and to international shoots in Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Iceland, Argentina, Europe and elsewhere around the world.
Transporters are a major operating expense, which adds to the cost of shipping. The company has a fleet of 20 vehicles ranging from specialized location-support vans to tractor-trailer rigs with custom-built trailers for carrying vehicles.
“We are more expensive than traditional open-car haulers. Our desired customer is someone who is willing to pay more for enclosed transportation to protect their car,” he said.
Among its many assignments, the company housed and transported the NSX Acura used in the first Iron Man movie, and most recently, the Audi car in the Iron Man 3 commercial featuring Robert Downey Jr.
The company founder has also worked on more than a dozen movies, including Against All Odds, Heat, Adams Family, Lost World: Jurassic Park and Speed, along with about 300 TV car commercials.
L.A. Prep’s Signal Hill facility includes two 30,000-square-foot buildings with four internal wash and detailing booths, a downdraft paint booth for rapid drying, three custom-fabrication areas, and secure vehicle storage and viewing areas. A third, off-site location provides 75,000 square feet of additional secure storage.
L.A. Prep now offers services to the public.
“We were exclusively servicing advertising agencies and manufacturers for their high-security prototype cars for commercials,” Kirby said, adding that non-industry clients can ship cars nationwide.
L.A. Prep services are often very similar to that of a Hollywood agent — but for cars, Kirby contended. Whether a client needs to find one car or 50, L.A. Prep can get that vehicle, he said.
For information on L.A. Prep, call 562-595-8886 or go to laprepinc.com.
pam.hale@presstelegram.com
