As the years continued I remember hanging around my dad and just
being curious about anything he was doing. From his days of karting
to adding a new hood scoop to someone’s Corvette or rebuilding
the crashed 59 Vette he found or building his own airplane, there
was never a lack of cool stuff going on around the house. I was
in 3rd grade when he let me do my first oil change on his 70 Z28.
I remember it well, because I put in too much oil and had to drain
out the one extra quart. My interest in model building also started
at this age and any extra parts where always kept and used for
future creations.
While living in
Kansas I probably lived the ultimate middle schoolers dream. I
was able to get a restricted drivers license at age 14. Not that
I needed to drive every day but I could drive to school once in
awhile when necessary. The car I drove was a 57 Chevy Nomad wagon
with a solid cam 350, Muncie 4spd,Crager Mags and Lakewood traction
bars. I’ll never forget the look on the principal’s face when
I went to the office to ask where I could park my car.
I bought my own first car, a 57 Chevy 4dr sedan in high school.
On it, I tackled the engine rebuild, trans replacement, interior
change and my first complete repaint in the garage. At that time
a guy said he’d shoot it for $180.00 and I though that was too
much. Let’s just say that thanks to dad that first paint job went
from “what happened!” to “that really came out nice“. I still
have the car today.
After high school
I attended Florida Institute of Technology and earned a Bachelor
of Science in Mechanical Engineering. After many unsuccessful
attempts at getting into the engineering field, I joined dad at
the shop. Working with him on projects that had always been considered
hobbies is now something that has allowed us to share with others
our love of the automobile. Although there are certain aspects
of the business that are not the most fun, we both realize that
they are necessary to provide the best possible job for our customers.
