Jarmo, yankee cars and junk.

Everyone laughed at the young Jarmos ideas. Junk yard  in Österbybruk – you? Hahaha! Today, he owns everything, is free of debt and release the reins to daughters and younger brother. If you are young and want to follow your dream but hesitating – read this and make an Jarmo. by Krantz

Jarmo Rahkonen went out through the gates for the last time at the Forsmark nuclear power plant. The construction was completed. It blew from the sea. The safety shoes  abraded steel fronts shone bright in the industrial lights orange glow. A plastic bag with his empty  lunch box fluttered up on the shoulder. The year was 1984.

They had broken up from their childhood home in Finland in financial difficulties. He had taken little brother by the hand and moved with her mother to work and money in Sweden.

They had settled down in the little cottage in Österbybruk. He was the   breadwinner at 23  just leaving the permanent job.

Jarmo got into the car and looked out over the newly built Forsmark.He had  a backlog of monthly salary, that’s all, he knew.

Borrowed 20 bucks.

The interest of cars  he had from birth. Mechanics he sure knew and he sure could work  around the clock if needed.
-I’m going to start a scrap yard, he said when he came home at the kitchen table.
– You mean the start of a scrap yard, Mom said.
– Nah, start one, here in Österbybruk.

Everywhere he got the same reaction.
It will not work, said the people.
The resort is too small, there is no basis, no customers and no old cars in sufficient quantity.
– What were you thinking when they asked incredulous.
– I´ll  buy the old foundry and begin slaughtering cars.
– You, buy a industrial building, ho, ho how do you do it without paycheck, son?

Cold winter for Jarmo 23  in the empty industrial building
Icicles hanhing  inside the shop 
 – You get to warm up by work, he says  spending 12 hour days at the junk yard.

Young Rahkonen didn’t  listen to the other laid-off, was not listening to the municipality  people, economy people or other pundits.
– I borrowed 20 bucks from mother to register a  firm and started in a corner of the disused foundry, he says.
There were at the same time also a car shop and a custom bike store

Jarmo points

Today, 30 years later, we go through endless space. Jarmo pointing and telling.

-In that corner I started, over there were the motorcycle company, behind that wall I  expanded and later I  bought the motorcycle gang place .

-Now We build out a floor and in the future I will. . ..

 

 

 

He bought the entire industrial house !!
– 60.000 honking square feet paid and done

Today  he scraps 2,500 cars per year, presses and send to recycling, has six salvors that pick up cars in Uppsala / Stockholm area, buys company cars in clusters, importing, driving parts sales and collects the Yanks with Jarmo style, i.e . burnt paint  and storytelling patina.

His energy and drive have been caught up by newspapers and television. In the TV show Erik and Mackan series  Jarmo shows how to break in and start a car in seconds and demolishing a family  caravan weekend in one minute.

Hands over
Jarmo Rahkonen have created his own economic  success from zero but has also nurtured the family of the craving that was formed when his work shifted from a breeze to a windy weather to a tornado now creating its own energy growing to a hurricane with constantly new customers and new missions.

 

Inspected and ready for the road. Wife Lillemor keeps track of all jarmos cars. 

Wife  Lillemor two daughters Madelene and Therese and the younger brother Joni are on the train and the old man could relax a bit . The free time is spent in American travel, automobile hobby, home improvement, rebuilding the clubhouse and the creation of a rock café  in the middle of of the metal.

In Osterbybruk today the young Finnish from 1984 has become a well-known and trustworthy man who creates jobs in the countryside, not with toughness and tricks but with energy, enthusiasm and a smile to everyone.

Look, I can have a car painted as well, he says, pulling in his stomach and jumps like a movie star  into the Charger from -68.

 

In the corner stood a Buick 1950 on end.

 

Pimped Lincoln for partying all night .

The Jarmo effect  stays  with Worldkustom a long time after the visit. The guy has put pranks on the countryside, has a great company, fills the park with mopeds and American cars at meetings and organizes rock happenings today. Is well off and it all started with a loan of 20 dollars  30-years ago.

Worldkustomwill  return