LANSING, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Chicagoland’s lowrider culture goes back decades, but in 2023, only one mechanic shop remains for those looking to customize their rides to get them rolling low and slow.
The shop is called Damage Auto Werks, located at 18220 Torrence Ave. in Lansing, Ill., but it isn’t just a place to get work done. It doubles as a home for the Damage Car Club, a group for lowrider enthusiasts. On this week’s episode of Looped In: Chicago, members of the club shared what makes their lowrider community so special.
“It’s all about the crew,” said Felipe Ledesma, who’s been with the club for one year. “The people that [don’t] have family, the kids that don’t have brothers or sisters and stuff; when you join a bike or a car club … they have your back. That’s family. You will never feel left out.”
Another member, Eddie Cortez, echoed that sentiment. He told WBBM that he’s been a member of the Damage Car Club since its inception, about 20 years. Cortez and his wife Star drive a green, vintage Chevrolet Caprice with vintage flames on the car’s grille. The Cortez’s Caprice was one of about 10 cars that members brought to the shop on a recent Friday night.
There was the gray 1960 El Camino — with the license plate “Mother Ship” — that belongs to Carla Navarrete. The vanity plate calls back to how she and her husband George got the car in their native Mexico. George, a teacher, brought his own black 1957 Chevrolet — his license plates read “El Profe” — to the meetup.
“Anybody can go out and buy a brand new Corvette,” said George Navarrete. “But keeping these vehicles alive and on the road is … just an experience.”
Lowriders date back to the 1940s, and while Damage Auto Werks doesn’t go back quite that far, shop owner William Chalifoux said they’ve been fixing up cars for nearly three decades. As for how they’ve been able to last, he said Damage Auto Werks survives because “we do everything.”
That means when lowrider business dries up in the winter, they still have a loyal customer base.
Chalifoux, who’s also the Damage Car Club president, said his introduction to lowriders came when he was growing up near 28th Street and Pulaski Road. The lowriders would close out some of the Mexican parades that would run down 26th Street, he said.
“You see these cars going up and down, and so, like any other kid, that interested me,” he recalled. “I started looking into it.”
Eventually, when Chalifoux was 15, he got his first car: a 1960 Chevrolet Impala.
Decades later, he’s still loving the lowriders.
Listen to the full Looped In: Chicago episode on the Audacy app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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