1662 S.13th St., Milwaukee
Neighborhood: Historic Mitchell Street
FOUNDED: 2014
OWNER: Martin Sanchez
SERVICE: Rim repairs, ironwork/gate repairs
How did you get into the rim repair business?
Martin Sanchez: “I have been doing ironwork forever. I learned how to do it in Mexico. I worked for a company about 30 years ago on the north side. They made security doors. But I used to work in a restaurant, in a foundry, in factories. When I started doing ironwork and welding again, I didn’t know anything about rims or tires, but there was a guy who came in with a broken rim and he wanted it fixed because I was doing aluminum welding. I didn’t want to do it, but he made me do it. I didn’t like it at first, and then I did the second one the same way and people started coming in. And then bingo, I hit the jackpot.”
What kinds of services do you provide?
“I serve a lot of customers with large, expensive rims, especially with low-profile cars. The main problem is the potholes, but before potholes it’s the low-profile cars. After I started doing rims, customers were asking, ‘How come you don’t have any tires?’ so I started getting used tires to make everyone happy, to fix the flat tire and the rim. We fix about 10 to 12 rims a day. Each one takes about an hour and thirty minutes to do. I also do some gate repairs. I fixed a gate and a rim for (Milwaukee Common Council President) Jose Perez.”
Why do you think your services are so popular?
“I am the only one for probably 50 miles who does this, so I save the city a lot of trouble. Believe it or not, before there were a lot of complaints to the city because of the potholes, so the city used to have to replace the broken rims because I wasn’t here. They would have to get a whole new wheel. People were spending more money than what they spend now.”
