Chehalis Line-X owner Spike Magnuson shows off the Line-X Body Armor airbrushed on the side of this Ford F-350. The truck was upgraded by the shop to showcase its abilities at shows.
From its humble beginnings with bedliners and bug shields, Twin Cities Line-X has grown to be able to provide ground-up modification projects to the area’s most dedicated four-wheel- drive fanatics.
Bug shields and bedliners may still be the core of the business, but they are only the beginning.
“The business has really, really changed,” said owner Spike Magnuson.
Line-X used to deal primarily in spray-on bedliners for trucks, Magnuson said, but in recent years has expanded to become a “one-stop truck shop.” It offers an ever-growing array of aftermarket parts, protective coatings for a vehicle’s body and complete re-designs of stock vehicles.
The shop is currently in the middle of a project to rework a stock 2016 Jeep. At the end of the project, the only original part will be the frame. The finished product includes spray-on Line-X Body Armour, or other protective polyurea coatings, new wheels, suspension and a Chevrolet Corvette engine in place of the original, Magnuson said.
Magnuson’s son, Ro Cornelio, runs the shop. Cornelio said they can modify any vehicle with four-wheel drive. The business caters to anyone who wants “their personality to shine through their vehicle,” Magnuson added.
They start small, and get hooked.
“After they get the bedliner in, they start thinking about the six or seven other accessories they need,” he said.
Twin Cities Line-X has been in Chehalis for about 15 years, but Magnuson, also the vice president of the Line-X corporation, started with a franchise in Olympia about 21 years ago.
“I was working in the car industry and spray-on bedliners were just getting started,” he said.
A few years ago, Line-X moved to its current location at 2635 NE Kresky Ave. in Chehalis.
“By moving into town, we’re three times as busy as we’ve ever been,” Magnuson said. “We used to pander to the freeway … I think these people were here all the time but they were going to Tacoma or Seattle.”
Line-X works within a customer’s budget to modify their SUV or truck. Cornelio said the projects that are the most fun come with a big budget.
“We have people come in all the time and spend $20,000 to $30,000 on their vehicle,” Magnuson added.
For large or small projects, the Twin-Cities Line-X can create a computer rendering of exactly what the customer’s vehicle will look like before any parts are ordered or Body Armour is sprayed.
“The customer just gets to see what they want to build, then commit to build it,” Magnuson said. “We need to really understand what their expectations are.”
Each year, Line-X also builds its own vehicle to showcase at venues such as the Specialty Equipment Market Association, or SEMA, car shows, which are also on display at their Chehalis location. Last spring, a Jeep Rubicon owned and modified by Twin Cities Line-X, and featured prominently at the Chehalis location, was showcased on Fox & Friends on the Fox News channel.
