Pimp my ride: Uganda's latest craze
Apr 03, 2014
Pimping my car or ride is when one desires to have a complete new look for his car; change of shape, the interior or rebuilding it.
By Nicholas Oneal
Pimping my car or ride is when one desires to have a complete new look for his car; change of shape, the interior or rebuilding it.
Godfrey Namunye aka Car pimp and maybe the only one known for this kind of job is leaving a dream that many think is exclusive to Kenyans or South African mechanics.
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Back ground
“My luck came when I was told to panel beat a car in a garage at Akamba which immediately earned me sh4000,” said Namunye.
He recollected that car pimping was his second job after trying out being a porter on one construction site in Seeta but work came to an end so fast that he needed something else to do.
“I was given a challenge to do something unique in the garage around Gadafi road in Makeere because there were so many youth employed to do the usual things” he said.
In response, Namunye advised the owner of the garage to start pimping cars which he rejected for being an expensive investment in a country where people shun spending on cars after purchasing them.
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Turning point
Namunye did not give up. He knew someone who was well connected to some mechanics in Nairobi doing the same thing although only on buses.
“I have earned my experience through working on different cars like that of Bobi Wine. I had a design which I introduced to him, he liked it and accepted to pimp his Escalade car,” said Namunye.
Currently he is working on a Toyota Lexus which has so far costed the owner about sh45milions just on the materials and fibber’s to redesign it.
Namunye says, “pimping a car needs time and trust from the owner; I can spend over three months working on a car. I use expensive fibres which I import from Kenya and that means I need enough time to do a good job.”
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Cost
Every design or car costs differently so he normally advises his clients to come up with a design before he searches on the internet for new and better designs for that particular car.
“France has the best designs and this is where I get them for my clients. However, I only work on the exterior because I can’t do much in the interior,” he explained
He also noted that due to the poor state of our road system, he uses over seven layers of fibre matt to harden the body plus other chemicals.
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Future plan
“One thing I dream of is not to go to France but the French to come here and admire what a 27 year old can do without too much technological knowledge,” said Namunye
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