Next step for a growing aftermarket parts business: Exhibit at a Ford Bronco expo

Cody Rosenzweig getting some images together for social media.

I’ve been trying to get my aftermarket parts business Mountains2Metal in the sixth generation Ford Bronco market for a while now. We were first to market on a couple products and will be late to the game on some others. One thing that the internet and forums won’t do is put you face-to-face with a customer, aside from Zoom, but you get the idea. We have been pushing to try to make it to different Bronco-related events and now we are taking the plunge.

Several years ago, I traveled to Asheville, N.C., to attend a wedding at the Biltmore Estate and, conveniently, the Overland Expo East was holding an event at the same time. The industry of over-landing and off-roading has always been on my mind and draws a lot of my attention. I knew I would have some extra time before the wedding, so I decided to check it out. Little did I know I should have planned ahead. I went to the visitors’ center and tried to buy a ticket. A man came around the corner of the counter and waved for me to approach. He asked me a couple questions and I told him I was going to kill a few hours before the wedding. He smiled and told me more about the Overland Expo and said if I didn’t have a couple days to kill, I would be better off trying to come back another time. I was very appreciative. I really had no clue how big the show actually was.

Fast forward many years and many hours of drooling over over-land and off-road rigs, I was in a position that I could attend the Overland Expo East as a vendor, not a visitor. This was a big deal to me and Mountains2Metal. We needed some motivation to get our faces out there, so we decided to register and get a booth.

Before deciding to register for the Overland Expo East, my father and I attended the Bronco Super Celebration East. This is a very large Bronco-centric event held in Townsend, Tenn. I’ve seen this event publicized in magazines for years, and luckily we were able to attend. I was surprised at how many people knew of Mountains2Metal. It was very motivational and sparked a lot of interest in how we could grow the business. We knew we had a lot of work to do.

When we got back to the shop from that event, we told everyone about how cool the event was and how we needed to keep pushing forward on our product ideas. It only solidified that we should’ve had more presence at the show.

I began looking for events that we could exhibit at, but most of them were several states away. We had a lot of prep work to do before we could start traveling. For one, we didn’t have a dedicated trailer to use for shows. We have a trailer that my dad Tim uses for events where he sells fire pits, spatulas, and various nautical wall hangings. Coincidentally, his next big event was the same weekend as the Overland Expo. So, using that trailer was out of the question.

We started looking. At first, we found a trailer that a friend of mine had. It was used as small food truck, so we planned some fabrication work to get it ready for us. A few weeks went by, but there were some issues with the title. The North Carolina DMV told us it would take several months to get it sorted. That killed our timeline, so the search continued. My dad happened to drive by a trailer dealership on the way to deliver some parts to a customer. They had one in stock that would work perfectly.

I forgot to mention that this trailer had to be less than 3,500 lbs. fully loaded so the Ford Bronco could tow it. Since the Bronco had to be at the expo and future events, that seemed like the most logical way to do it. In the future, maybe we will get a big toy hauler like some of the bigger fellas. Who knows?

During all this prep work, we had frequent meetings with our team and gave everyone a punch list to knock out before the early October event. You can ask anyone that does shows like this, there are a lot of little things that must be done. For us, I think it was much worse. Before registering for the show, we had products that were only scratched on paper. To make this show worthwhile, we had to have something more to offer than the handful of products that were on our shelves.

And to top it off, we have a few Broncos we are helping with for the SEMA show in Las Vegas. There is a constant anxiety from having to provide for that event and ourselves. So, having five or six of our new products ready for the Overland Expo is going to be a huge accomplishment.

Nick Martin putting the new tires and wheel combo into perspective.

To make it all happen, we planned to divide and conquer. Watching it all come together is a great feeling. We had my sister Denee Moleta come up and help our parts specialist Star Kearney package products and prep what we would take to the show. I also put her and engineer/media guru Cody Rosenzweig in charge of apparel and booth presence. For new products, engineer Zach Hall and I worked on bringing ideas to life while everyone else gave their thoughts and input.

The trailer has transformed into a little power station. My dad has made that possible by adding with three solar panels, dual batteries, a 3,000-W power inverter, interior/exterior lights, shelving system, and a small worktable. We may have gone over the top, but it will be perfect for any future events. Cody took on the task of wiring up everything while designing the shelves’ battery containers in Autodesk Inventor.

The rest of the shop helped in any way possible, pumping out parts and trying to get an inventory buildup of new products. I’ve nearly had several mental breakdowns, but luckily I haven’t lost my wig on anything just yet. There is still time for that.

If you are in the Arrington, Va.-area Oct. 7-9, please stop by the Mountains2Metal booth and say hello. We will take any productive criticism you can throw our way. Growing from here is the only way to go. Be on the lookout for our new products for the new Ford Bronco, and eventually some for the classic Bronco.

Slide Show | 5 Images