Shop Facility

Long before leaving Los Angeles, Bob had already drawn up a floor plan for the shop of his dreams. Having already put together a collection of 10 classic cars, the shop would not only be home to Midlife Classics as a working restoration facility, it would also become home for the cars already in his collection while leaving enough room for a few more.

The primary shop's 4200 square foot shell was constructed by Morton Buildings over the summer of 2006. Bob completed all the interior construction, wiring, and plumbing himself over the course of the following 9 months. Construction was completed at the end of May 2007 - just in time for the June 2nd Grand Opening car show.

Just over 2,500 square feet is dedicated to the storage of Bob's personal collection as well as pending project cars and client projects that are waiting for parts or their turn "at bat". A 4-post storage lift was added at one point to increase storage potential and to function as a short-term work lift on occasions when the lifts in the main shop are occupied. Much of the perimeter of this area is also used to store parts removed from vehicles undergoing restoration.

The main shop covers roughly 1,400 square feet. This is where the bulk of our work gets done. Two lifts (one 2-post and one 4-post) provide the ability to lift most any type of car safely. A clear floor-level area is set aside with additional lighting (fluorescent and incandescent spots) to perform detail work that doesn't require the use of a lift. The flexibility of the lighting in this area is helpful when working on final bodywork preparation and detailing paint finishes.

The remaining space is allocated to the shop's business office, a small multipurpose room, restroom facilities and overhead storage.

After subcontracting out our first few paint jobs, it became clear that we needed to bring the paint process in-house in order to maintain quality control over our restorations. So, we constructed an additional 18' x 36' building with garage doors at both ends. “Building 2” serves multiple purposes. At 18' x 36', there is plenty of room for storage and to accommodate most any vehicle we might work on. And, with the addition of a simple positive-pressure ventilation system, it is quickly converted to a paint booth when necessary. Since we are not out to become a paint-and-body shop, this setup provides a very cost-effective solution without sacrificing our ability to turn out quality paint jobs on our restorations.