Department > 4 Wheel Parts Employee Profile
4 Wheel Parts Employee Profile: Ray Sommer
by Steve Temple
Some guys have it made, getting paid for working on what they also enjoy playing with on the weekends. That’s the case with Ray Sommer. When he’s not advising customers about how to outfit their off-road and rock-crawling rigs, he’s out scrambling in his personal ride.
Before building a tube-framed custom buggy, though, he started out modifying a ’50 Willys when he lived in Tucson, Arizona. After adding a small-block Chevy, slushbox and coil-overs, he ‘wheeled that vehicle in the surrounding desert for about three years. At that time he was working for some other off-road companies, and later ran his own fabrication shop.
Through some friends he heard about a new 4 Wheel Parts Performance Center store opening up in Colorado Springs, where his father and sister happen to live. After landing a job as a shop mechanic, Sommer relocated and then began working in earnest on the buggy in his garage. He transferred several parts from the Willys to the buggy, but swapped out the old V-8 engine for a Vortec V-6. “It’s lighter and has more power than the 350,” he explains. Other components he added include Dana 60s, an ARB air locker, 4:1 Atlas outputs, and a Warn 8000-pound winch. In addition to the body panels made of aluminum and Lexan, he bolted on an early Willy’s wagon hood.
The buggy turned out so well, Sommer now competes in the XRRA series, running in Moab, California, Arkansas and now Colorado Springs. On his last outing he broke a transfer case, but plans on coming back with a vengeance. In the meantime, he enjoys minding the 4 Wheel Parts store, where he’s now the manager. That’s no surprise, considering how much he enjoys the job. “It’s fun. I enjoy the people that I supply parts for,” he smiles. “I like it when customers come in and say, ‘Make it look good.’ They trust me to do what’s right.”
But as we noted at the outset, “The best thing is getting paid to do what I like.”