Jon Kosmoski founded House of Kolor in 1956 as the original "kustom" paint brand, introducing the industry's first organic pigment formulations, "kandies," "kameleons," and more trusted by professional painters and car builders.

Those who know me know I'm a hot rodder and custom car enthusiast, and I got to sit down recently with "Koz" to talk about 70 years of custom paint and how he built it into the brand that defines custom finishes. Although House of Kolor is now owned by Sherwin-Williams, Koz remains a highly visible — and passionate — spokesman for the brand. And like many success stories, his business success story started by accident.

"The next year, I came out with the urethanes," he says. "That was a boon moment for this company, when we could offer kandies, and we could offer basecoats. You used to have to base a car on one day and let it dry overnight, come in the next morning to put the kandy on by noon, and then wait a couple hours before you cleared it. Because if you didn't all of that solvent and all of that material would start to mottle the base."

It was evident in our discussion that Koz still has the fire in the belly that led him to forgo automotive mechanical repair for car building and custom painting.

"The painting became such a love. You take a raw piece of steel, whether it be motorcycle parts or a car — or whatever it is — and make a thing of beauty out of it. Let me tell you something — that does not get old. And that passion lives on today in all the painters out there. They want to be the best, they want it to look the best, and they want to use the best materials that can be made. And that was my goal."