You have to love a woman that knows her way around a car. Especially when she does as good of work as Cheyenne Ruether at Welder Up. You've probably seen some of her work showcased on the Discovery Channel TV show Vegas Rat Rods. Ruether eats, sleeps, and bleeds classic cars, and her upbeat attitude and natural draw to hot rods proves that.
Her passion is understandable when you consider how she grew up. Her father and brother owned an auto body shop, so she's been playing around with cars since the young age of six. She would regularly race, off-road, and demolish vehicles to later help repair them in the shop. Her interest actually grew so much that she joined an apprenticeship in 10th grade at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
After that, Cheyenne's career pretty much took off.
Cheyenne Ruether Career
Cheyenne wasted no time and hopped into journeyman auto body tech, refinisher, body prep, and painting jobs to really perfect her craft. She eventually received her Red Seal Journeyman Certificate from NAIT, and helped restore some seriously cool rides along the way, including a '70 Chevrolet Chevelle, '69 Chevy Camaro, and a '66 El Camino.
She also personally bought a '67 Buick Skylark at the age of 18. Due to lack of funds, she couldn't go all out on it, but she still managed to make a custom front end, take it down to bare metal, craft her own clear coat, and create a unique-looking hot rod.
Of course, her talent was showcased worldwide, as she took on the role as a TV personality at the Las Vegas, Nevada shop, alongside Steve Darnell and his crew of talented fabricators. While she did get a chance to work on some fun projects during this time on Vegas Rat Rods and appreciated her time spent there, she felt as if it didn't exemplify her true talent. After 12 episodes, she returned back home to care for her daughter and pursue other opportunities.
Reuther has worked for a ton of different automotive shops and even helped build some cars that made it into SEMA. While we might not see her as often on television, there's no doubt she's still hard at work. Currently, she works as the lead auto body tech and body shop manager at Nefarious Kustoms. Cheyenne's Instagram page is also full of photos showing what project she's currently working on.
Ever since she got started working with cars, Cheyenne never looked back, and that's how it's supposed to be when you have a passion. Her dedication has turned her into an expert in the industry, and I'll tell you what, I can't wait to see what she creates next.
This post was originally published on November 25, 2020.
