About Midlife Classics

In 2001, Midlife's owner Bob Carroll was speaking with his sister on the phone and he happened to mention that he had just acquired a 1969 Corvette. His sister's response was "Oh Bob, that's a white trash midlife crisis car." He responded with "No, it's a classic!" Well, that went back and forth with his sister insisting that - at 42 years of age - he was going through a midlife crisis and him insisting that he was just fulfilling a decades-long dream of owning a car he had wanted since he'd first seen one as a child.

Well, by the end of that day, Bob had registered midlifeclassics.com as his own personal domain name so that he could share his budding car collection (just 2 at the time) with the world. Five years later, after giving up on the corporate rat-race in Los Angeles, Bob moved to the rural suburbs of Dallas Texas for the express purpose of building the shop of his dreams and opening the restoration business he had been thinking of ever since the day the Midlife Classics website came online. Construction of the shop was completed and the business was opened to the public in June of 2007.

Midlife Classics is not - and never will be - a large high-profile shop that focuses on building high-dollar hotrods and custom show cars for the rich and famous. Our mission is to provide classic car enthusiasts with a competent, reliable and trustworthy source for all levels of work - from simple maintenance and repairs (on vehicles we've restored or have gone through a Return to Service project) to full concourse or show-quality rotisserie restorations. Of course, the mission also includes providing the owner and employees with an income. But - as Bob realized during the year-long construction of the shop - it is no longer about the money. Bob had the high-paying, stress-filled career and gave it up to do what he really wants to do for the rest of his life. Nobody's ever going to get rich around here. All we're hoping to do is to find a good balance between making a living and doing what we'd be doing with our spare time anyway.

We are not a Hot Rod or Custom Car shop. If you are looking for someone to build you one of the fastest or most unique classics out there, we’re probably not the shop you’re looking for. While we can provide a certain level of customization and performance modifications, we are certainly not competing with shops that specialize in those markets. Our forte is more one of providing quality restorations and upgrades to more-or-less original classics with modifications geared towards making vehicles more roadworthy in today’s world. We focus on classic cars and trucks from the 1950s through 1980 – with some notable exceptions (mostly rare European and kit cars).

We are not a paint and body shop. While we perform bodywork on and paint the classics we restore, we are not setup for the high volume of paint and body work that makes it possible for such shops to be profitable.

We are a restoration shop, not a repair shop. Bob's former career as an IT Director left him in a position where the staff he supported consistently threw him under the bus whenever they had a problem rather than acknowledging that maybe they just didn't understand how to use the computer systems he provided. As once reported by an NBC News poll, "The most hated person in corporate America is the IT guy." Repair shops get much the same treatment, and customers typically come in with a negative attitude because their vehicle is "broken" and they just know they're going to get ripped off, and, oh...they need it fixed ASAP. Nope. Been there. Done that. One of the biggest draws of owning a restoration shop is that clients come to us looking to have their dreams fulfilled. People come in happy that they're finally going to get "that car" back on the road. And when the long process is over, we send people home happy - often verging on ecstatic.

What we are is a small shop with just a few car-crazy enthusiasts turned professional that are doing our best to help others enjoy the classic car hobby - or (in our case) obsession.

Every person at Midlife Classics is a car enthusiast first and mechanic second. Unlike most dealerships and typical repair shops, we understand the personal connection between a classic car owner and their "baby". We know how precious that family heirloom car can be. We know what it's like to finally own that car that has been craved since childhood. We understand just how memories can come back in a flood when you get behind the wheel of a car that is just like the one you had in high school. We too have considered expanding the garage as a reasonable alternative to selling a car. And, yes, we too have been known to personalize cars by giving them names. Most importantly, we understand just how much faith is placed in us when someone leaves the car of their dreams in our care or asks us to make their dream a reality.

Give us a call and tell us how we can help you chase down your dream.