Meet
Meet Wamilton Teixeira
Wamilton Teixeira ( a.k.a “Wammer”), is one of those types who seem to have the golden touch; success just seems to follow his footsteps. No one could ever deny that Wamilton is a gambling man – he came to the United States in 1987 from his native country Brazil. Only 22 years old, and looking to get ahead in life, his first stop was Chicago. After two weeks of trying to find work, Wamilton met a fellow Brazilian who owned an automotive body shop. He pitched the owner that he would work one week free, to prove himself. After the week was up, the owner was so impressed with his work that he never wanted to let him go.
Wamilton spent two years in Chicago learning everything he could about paint and fiberglass, mostly from repairing Corvettes and classic cars. While working he also went to school and received diplomas for paint and body work.
Tired of the cold weather, he moved to Florida and got a job installing huge mirrored walls and ceilings. Because very few people wanted this job, Wamilton was able to obtain his permanent citizenship papers. Wanting to go back to what he knew best, he went to work in a few different body shops in the West Palm Beach area…but the Wammer could never have imagined what would happen next….
While working at the body shop, a huge department store chain bought a store mannequin to see if the shop could repair it. The shop turned them away but Wamiltons didn’t. Taking on the project as side work, it quickly became much bigger; apparently they had a ton of ‘dummies’ to be repaired, and the only place that repaired them was in New York City. He soon had his own body shop that not only fixed cars – but also mannequins.
About this same time Wamiltons was introduced to watercraft; a Kawasaki 650SX to be exact. He borrowed his friend’s ski, crashing it the first time out.Wamilton felt so bad that he bought the ski from his friend. In a short time Wamilton had the hull patched and even added a custom paint job. Of course he didn’t give up on riding, and eventually started racing. Others racers would ask him about his paint job and who had painted his ski. Soon, Wamilton was taking orders for custom-painted watercraft. He never quit racing and the more he raced, the better he became – this also meant more orders for custom paint! In 1993, Wamilton quit working on cars and mannequins, and dedicated all of his skills to working on watercraft.
Wamilton pretty much owns the freestyle scene; his products have allowed riders to take the sport to a new level.
In 1994 the Wammer painted Lloyd Berlew’s boat, and Berlew went on to win the National Championship that year. Rick Roy sported his first Wamilton-designed paint scheme in 1995, and Roy went on to win the National title that year.
Freestyle boats aren’t the only PWC Wamilton seems to have the magic touch with, he also painted and constructed the WaveBlaster that Dustin Farthing rode to his 1996 World Championship win on. Rius, MacClugage, and a host of the sport’s top names have ridden Wamilton painted boats.
Wamilton is a perfectionist, and he has enough projects going to keep ten clones busy 24/7. He is proud of his products – not just because he made them or designed them, but because they really work. When you look at his paint jobs and products, it’s easy to see that they are second to none.