From hobby to obsession

It started as a mere hobby. He was in his teens when he first tinkered with cars, starting off with engines then later on moving to body parts. Then it became a full-time job, a thing to do daily. And now it has turned into an obsession

For Jowell Pelayo, owner of the Hannah Auto Center, fixing cars – from doing minor tune-ups to major restorations – needs passion.

"Kailangan gusto mo yung ginagawa mo," he often reminds his staff from the tinsmiths, painters, mechanics down to the car-wash boys. "Pag gusto mo yung ginagawa mo, pag-iigihin mo ang paggawa."

Jowell knows whereof he speaks. He has been doing what he wanted since high school. With his classmates and their friends as his first non-paying customers, he would tune up cars, set up engines for illegal drag racing, and even paint some of them – all for free. And he did all these in the garage of his parents’ home, enjoying every minute.

He was 24 when he decided to leave a job in an insurance company and go into business full-time. He had a ninong who owned a car repair shop named Hannah in Sta. Ana, Manila, and he approached him for a joint venture. Having borrowed the Hannah name, Jowell put up his own shop in Bgy. San Isidro in Makati, in an open 300-square-meter lot that only had a small, makeshift roof for cover.

"Unang taon bagsak ako. May magpapahilamos nga, pero paglabas mas maganda pa yung dating pintura. Nagkautang-utang ako. Mga kapitbahay lang ang nagpapapintura. Sinubukan ko yung insurance repairs pero puro problema rin. Ang daming back jobs," Jowell recalled.

It took Jowell eight years to fully master his craft and make the business grow. He experimented with paints, techniques, and management styles. He trained his people, gave them good wages, moved the shop to a better location, invested in tools, and presto! his customer base began to grow.

To test the quality of his work, Jowell fielded entries in car shows. He knew that since competitions usually bring out the best in people, he expected them to bring out the best in his repair-and-paint shop. In 1998, he joined his first car show and immediately got the Best Japanese Sedan award for his Mitsubishi Galant GTi entry. He continued on the following year and won Best In Show awards in three car shows he competed in.

His winning entries were a mix of old and newer cars which he restored to their brand-new form. They include a ’69 Opel Olympia, a car he just saw rotting away along Evangelista street in Makati. The 1700cc special-edition car immediately caught his interest because most of its factory-installed parts – including the leather seats – were still intact. The car even had the manufacturer’s original "Power Tuned" sticker on the rear bumper.

"Yun ang hinahanap ko sa lumang kotse," he said. "Kailangan kumpleto pa. Kung may kulang man, yung medyo madaling hanapin o i-fabricate," he said.

His list of winners also include a Honda 2-door Euro version, a modified Corolla, a Nissan Patrol classic, and three Lancers.

He is now working on a ’97 Civic which he already stripped down to its bare frame. The car, or what had remained of it, now occupies the waiting lounge of his shop. He is putting every piece back after repairing, cleaning and repainting each of them.

Jowell has also put up a car wash bay – the Auto Wash Mania – as a side business. His customers there, numbering about 100 on good days, are often spellbound whenever there’s an activity in his paintshop which they see from the street through a glass wall. Lately, they’ve couldn’t stop watching Joel and his team put back the blue Civic piece by piece.

"Ang tiyaga, no?" observed one customer who was delighted to know that the same painstaking work Joel does on the Civic is also being carried out, on a small scale, by the car-wash boy on his vehicle. Patience, you may call it. To Jowell and his people, that’s a major part of their job.

"Ang sarap kasi ng pakiramdam pag nakita mo na mas maganda pa yung ginawa mo kesa bago," Jowell said, his lips stretched in a wide grin.

Hannah Auto Center is located at 4974 Bautista corner Enrique streets, Palanan, Makati. For inquiries, call 833-0250.