A silver Chrysler 300C glitters in the parking lot.
“That’s my baby,” she says with a flick of her prismatic pink fingernail.
Arletha Jackson, 41, calls herself the mother of seven — five children, one husband and her car, Spoiled Rotten. She got the Chrysler in January as a birthday present from her husband. Five months and $6,000 later, her baby is chromed out.
But she’s not done yet. When Jackson wants her next chrome accessory, there’s only one place she will go — Bad to the Bone.
Bad to the Bone Auto Shop & Accessories is a hot spot for chrome accessories in St. Petersburg, Fla. Over the past three years, the shop’s profits have increased by 40 percent due to a leap in chrome accessory sales, says owner Leo Calzadilla, who has run his shop on 34th Street South for 20 years.
Chrome accessories, which range from sleek gas cap covers to elaborate grills, are part of the growing $34 billion aftermarket industry. Once the domain of car enthusiasts who wanted to enhance the look or performance of their rides, the aftermarket industry is becoming mainstream as everyday drivers look to personalize their cars.
Inside the shop, Calzadilla, 45, a Brooklyn native, wrestles a chew toy from his dog Xina, while her buddy, Hurcules, crouches on the glass counter, ready to pounce. A neon sign on the back wall glows pink and purple — “What’s Your Pleasure?”
Outside, Eddie Hawthorne admires his midnight-blue Chrysler 300. Silver hair peeks out from his black baseball cap and chrome outlines the curves of his car.
Hawthorne, a local nightclub owner, brought in his Chrysler to have a decal reading “Fly Blue Toy” applied across the top of the windshield. For Hawthorne, the story behind his decorations is simple: “I love blue and I love chrome.”
Chrome accessories are Calzadilla’s second-most popular product, after car audio. Chrome sales at Bad to the Bone took off about two years ago, after Calzadilla became a manufacturer’s distributor.
By buying chrome accessories directly from the manufacturers, Calzadilla pays 30 percent less than when he was buying from the smaller distributors. The manufacturer requires him to stock more, so he must sell more. And sell he does.
Phyllis Kitchen, 51, of Palm Harbor, sits in a lawn chair under a strip of shade by the garage, waiting for her 1999 Ford Expedition. She wears white capris and a bold flower-print shirt. Her gold-capped tooth gleams when she smiles.
Today, she spent $2,000 on chrome accents.
“I just told him to chrome it all up for me,” says Kitchen, who runs a home day care.
Some customers add chrome to their cars gradually — piece by piece. Verdie Ingram, 52, grew up in St. Petersburg and has been coming to Bad to the Bone for years. Three months ago, she moved to Tampa, but she still comes to the shop to make her car beautiful. She stops in on payday to get new additions to her 2007 Dodge Magnum.
Chrome accessories are making a comeback after getting a bad rap during the 1980s, when they were considered gaudy and associated with pimps and drug dealers. Now chrome reflects class and luxury and is seen more frequently on high-end cars, says Myles Kovacs, president and co-founder of DUB Magazine, which follows urban car culture trends.
For Jackson, chroming is not just about looking good on the road. It’s about pride. Jackson says she wants the police to pull her over so she can show them her papers and prove she got her $35,000 Chrysler the honest way. She says she resents the lingering stigma that tricked-out cars are connected with the drug culture. Jackson is especially sensitive about the stereotype because her husband, Tyrone Jackson, spent time in jail for dealing drugs and now is clean. The Jacksons now run a landscaping business together; Arletha Jackson earns extra money for her car by working a part-time job as a waitress.
But chrome’s not for everyone.
Tom Murray, a lumber yard sales manager and avid outdoorsman from Palmetto, came to Bad to the Bone to boost the technological capabilities of his 2006 Ford F250. For safety, he bought a navigation system and backup camera system. For fun, he bought amps and a DVD flip-down monitor.
Strips of leaf-print camouflage line the tops of his windows and the bumper of his car.
“In my neck of the woods,” he says from behind his dark sunglasses, “it’s who’s got the best mudders, who’s got the best camouflage.”
He refuses to buy chrome accessories for his truck.
So does Mittie Cooper, but for different reasons. Cooper, 36, goes by “Nukie,” the nickname tattooed on her right forearm. She’s waiting for her car to be detailed at Bad to the Bone. She likes the way chrome looks, but believes that flashy cars are targeted by police.
“I won’t put chrome on any vehicle I own,” she says. “It calls too much attention to the police. … The police might think this is a drug car or whatever.”
Before Calzadilla opened up Bad to the Bone in 1987, he sold car alarms out of the back of his car. He chose the property on 1446 34th St. S because most of his prior business was coming from that area.
“That location that I choose, most people would not have opened there,” Calzadilla says. “It was considered an undesirable piece of property, an undesirable area to be in.”
Due to the high crime and poverty in the surrounding areas, Calzadilla struggled with drawing clientele from middle- and high-income areas. Though the area has changed in the past 20 years, attracting wealthier customers is still a challenge.
Calzadilla believes he made his mark in the community by holding customer appreciation parties and by supporting local entertainers, such as local inspirational singer Tanya LaReese, who sang at a recent car show in Tampa.
Over the years, his reputation as a reliable salesman solidified. “My philosophy: sell something good and make sure it doesn’t come back,” he says. “That way you have people who are satisfied.”
Calzadilla compares the leap in chrome accessories sales to that of car alarms 10 years ago. Aftermarket shops had a monopoly on car alarm sales until leaders of the car industry realized they were losing sales on the popular item. Now, virtually every factory car comes equipped with an alarm system and aftermarket sales are down.
He thinks that chrome accents will be a standard features on most new cars, but that there will still be a market for specialized chroming on older cars.
And Arletha Jackson will still be adding more glitz to her Chrysler. Though dressing up her baby has been expensive, she’s not finished yet. She figures she has $8,000 more to go. She wants a flip-down television, a navigator system, and, of course, more chrome.
