Jeff later moved to Arizona and I hired Adam King and Jerry Hauer to head up the restoration and worked alongside them. After Adam and Jerry set up their own shop (King’s Color and Chrome) in Dundee, Minnesota, Steve Fruge became my full-time mechanic and body technician. He was responsible for most of the restoration work, but I was still pretty active in the shop.
I am often asked if I would ever sell one of my restored BMWs, or any of my classic cars for that matter. I certainly have a different feeling about the cars I’ve restored versus the ones I’ve purchased already completed. When I would walk through the warehouse to decide which car to choose next, I could almost feel the cars trying to send me a message to pick them next to be restored. Imagine they have been abandoned in a barn or left out in a pasture for 40 to 50 years in a terrible condition. I feel an attachment to the cars I rescued and I know how happy each one of them must be now that I have restored all of them to their former glory.
The favorites in my collection are the corked cars for obvious reasons. From the terrible state they were in when we started, and the time, care and attention spent on them, makes them the front runners. Not only the exterior’s unique beauty, but the interior quality and mechanics as well, turned out better than I imagined. The blue and green BMW 600’s are the latest ones we’ve restored and I think we did our best work on them as we had more experience. All of the restored cars in my collection I’m proud of and are very well done.
