There has been a long lapse in blog posts and I apologize for that. In May of 2012 I moved the business into a much larger space and things just exploded. It seems there was a lot of pent up demand, or something. I tripled my space under the roof and added two outside yards but it was full with new work within 30 days. Since then I have brought in a total of 5 outside contractors to help get the work out, including a body man. I think I am most happy to be able to keep paint and body work in house at this point as that is the one outside trade that has consistently been the bane of my existence since I have opened the business. I am not able to paint complete cars in house as the cit will not allow an more paint booths to be constructed but I am able to sublease a very nice downdraft booth not 500 yards away from me.
The other guys I have helping me are without exception seasoned industry veterans and I feel lucky to have them. I am learning more from them that I have at any time. I also have a new website about to go live and 2014 marks the 10th anniversary of Schraders Speed and Style.
Needless to say, there has been a lot going on over the last 8 months! I have not been totally on top of picture taking, and I also had a laptop crash last month, but here's a few pics of some of the jobs we have had through the shop and some that are in progress. It's a new year, and I've adjusted to the increased pace so you can look forward to more regular updates in the future.
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| This 1953 Chevrolet station wagon came to us for final assembly, wiring, and a whole bunch more. It is owned by the client with the 1958 Oldsmobile and is pretty nicely done, so far. The car was going along well and then the project stalled, for some reason. The shop doing the work did nothing for nearly two years, so the client decided to bring it to us. We put the whole car together then made it into a driver. It is now at the upholstery shop getting the interior done. |
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| This 1965 Impala is owned by a client who is in the pawn shop business. He made a loan on the car 7 years ago and the owner made his interest payments all these years. A few months ago he came in and offered it to the pawn shop and they bought it! It's getting a pretty complete redo, here it is after a week of being torn down. |
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| The car is now at an outside body shop getting painted. We expect to see it in a year, no joke. That's why I'm so excited to have a paint and body guy in house. |
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| This 1956 Chrysler St Regis was a raelly nice original car from the collection of the client with the 1947 Lincoln. He drove it for a few years after buying it, and then it broke down for some reason. It was parked for 15 years, and then he decided to bring it to us! |
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| The car is an original Hemi car, with air conditioning and power everything. |
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| We did the brakes, the fuel system, got everything working again and shot some new paint on the roof and stripe. The car is now happily on the road again and a really, really nice driver! |
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| The 1959 Mercedes left my old shop to go the upholstery shop in January 2012. We did not see the car again until November (!). Here it is all done, finally, and ready to go back to the owner. It came out great! | |
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| This 1965 Thunderbird is also owned by the client in the pawn business. It's a nice car that was restored some years back and never really sorted out. |
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| We resealed the motor and gave it a major tune up, also fixed several leaks. |
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| We also replaced all the vacuum lines under the dash, which was about 60 feet of hose in total. It all works now! |
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| This Corvette is a full on race car, and a brand new build. It came in for some minor wiring work. This car is beyond badass. |
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| We finished the 1958 Oldsmobile some months ago, it came out very nice. The owner decided to run Cadillac wire wheels with wide whites. |
