Ruiz Bros. Hydraulics & Upholstery

Story Road · Tue–Sat

Setups, switches, seats, and the pinstripe your tío still talks about.
Story Road, San José.

What we do

Four jobs. One bay.

Every job starts on a work order. Nothing gets a price until the car has been on the lift and Beto has had a good look at it.

Ruiz Bros. · Work orderNo. 01

Hydraulic setups

pumps, cylinders, switches

Pumps: 2 to 4, mounted and run clean
Cylinders: Front, rear, or all four corners
Switches: Dash panel or hand-held, wired and fused

Quote after inspection

Customer copyBeto

Ruiz Bros. · Work orderNo. 02

Upholstery

tuck and roll, buttons, headliners

Tuck and roll: Seats, door panels, trunk
Tufting: Button tufting on benches and rear decks
Headliner: Cut, sewn and stretched in the bay

Quote after inspection

Customer copyGil

Ruiz Bros. · Work orderNo. 03

Pinstripe and gold leaf

by hand, one brush, one pass

Pinstripe: Hand-laid lines, no vinyl
Gold leaf: Scrolls and lettering on the paint
Where: Hood, roof, trunk, dash

Quote after inspection

Customer copyBeto

Ruiz Bros. · Work orderNo. 04

Chrome and wire wheels

spokes true, chrome bright

Wire wheels: Built, trued and fitted to the car
Chrome: Bumpers, trim, undercarriage
Knock-offs: Chrome or gold, your call

Quote after inspection

Customer copyGil

Book a setup

Featured build

The wine-red '64

A two-pump setup, a buttoned bench and gold on the hood. It came in on a flatbed and went out on its own switch. Here is the job in four frames.

01 / 04Frames

1Trunk setup

Two pumps, a row of batteries. A clean street setup on a chrome rack, and the trunk done in the same tuck and roll as the seats.
2Interior

Tuck and roll. Gil cut and sewed the bench and door panels right here in the bay. The chain steering wheel is just for show.
3Pinstripe

Painted by hand. Every gold scroll is one stroke of the brush. Beto still stripes every car himself.
4Out on the street

Its first night out. Gold wire wheels on a wet East Side street, sitting low until the switch.

How a setup goes

Four steps up.

You see the quote before we pick up a wrench. You hit the first switch yourself.

Bring it in

Drive it in or flatbed it. Tell us what the car is for: cruising, shows, or both.

Inspection and quote

We check the frame, the wiring and the trunk floor, then write the quote down. No quote, no wrench.

Built in the bay

Frame reinforced, pumps mounted, lines run, seats sewn. Gil texts you a photo at each stage.

Tune and first hop

We set the pressure, bleed the lines and take it into the lot. Then you hit the switch. Brinca.

Book a setup

Since '89

Still Ruiz Bros.

My brother Rafa and I opened in 1989. One rented bay on Story Road, down the street from King. Rafa moved to Fresno in '97. I kept the name. He's still my brother.

Mi sobrino Gil started here in 2009, sweeping up. Now he does the upholstery and most of the switches. The pinstriping I still do myself, all of it by hand.

Beto Ruiz

Bring it in. We'll take a look first.

The Ruiz Bros. shop front at night: roll-up door open, a blue lowrider inside under shop lights, a worker at the bench

Story Road, after close

Close-up of Gil's work in the '64: button-tufted door panel above a pleated red bench — Gil's stitchingDoor panel and bench, the '64

Off the bay wall

The '64 made the cover.

A woman in a Los Primos San Jose club jacket looks back over her shoulder at the open door of the candy-red '64, on a 1991 car magazine cover

The purple '67 shot twice in a studio, front up top and the rear with its trunk mural below, on a 2022 car magazine cover

San Jose · Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Council lifts the cruising ban

Lowriders are welcome back on city streets after about three decades

The San Jose City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to repeal the city's ban on cruising, a rule that had stayed on the books for about thirty years.

Councilmember Raul Peralez, who led the push, called the ban discriminatory against the city's lowrider community, which had asked for years to have it lifted.

Taped up next to the register since the day after the vote.

Two covers off the bay wall: Bajito in '91, back when the '64 was still candy red, laid out like issue one of Lowrider Magazine (which started across town at San Jose State in January '77), and Bajito in '22, the summer cruising came back.

Clubs and cruise nights

The plaques on our wall.

Each one belongs to a club we build for. You don't buy a plaque, you earn it. Come say hi at a cruise night, or bring yours by the shop and hang it with the rest.

Bajito y suavecito.Low and slow.

Cruise nights

Next three.

Sample dates, not a real schedule

Oct30FriNo. 0107
Story Road Cruise Night
The lot behind the shop
6 to 10 PM
Admit one
Nov14SatNo. 0214
Toy Drive Show and Shine
Eastside parking lot
12 to 5 PM
Admit one
Dec5SatNo. 0305
Winter Roll-Out
Meet at the shop, cruise at dusk
4 PM
Admit one

Visit and book

Swing by the shop.

Tue–Sat 9 to 6

Tue–Sat9 AM to 6 PM
Sun, MonClosed

Story Road, San José
(408) 555-0189

Four jobs. One bay.

Hydraulic setups

Upholstery

Pinstripe and gold leaf

Chrome and wire wheels

The wine-red '64

Four steps up.

Bring it in

Inspection and quote

Built in the bay

Tune and first hop

Still Ruiz Bros.

The '64 made the cover.

Council lifts the cruising ban

The plaques on our wall.

Next three.

Story Road Cruise Night

Toy Drive Show and Shine

Winter Roll-Out

Swing by the shop.

Book a setup