Our fellow FABO member's 69 Cuda A57 is featured on GYC tonight 4-6-21

My 83 year old brother Jan has been in the auto resto biz since 1968. He started as a line mechanic at a Buick store and worked on the dealership owners collector cars on the side. He got tired of the BS he got from that arrangement and opened his own shop a couple years later.

Over the years he has done Cobras (got my first ride in one from him), vintage Ferraris, Roll-Royce, Mercedes, etc. Many worth in the millions after he was done.

I transported cars for him for about three years...1988-1991. Went to many of the big shows with his restos... Pebble Beach, Amelia Island, etc.

I remember the first full resto he did... a 1930's Packard Phaeton. The car was a tottaly different shade of red than original but it was the color the customer wanted. He shipped it to a show in Florida where it won Best of Show despite being the wrong shade of red.

He had a Facel-Vega in one time for collision damage to the RF fender. His guys built a new fender using the traditional old school machines from the 1930's. One of his power hammers came out of a MIG airplane factory in Poland.

He has done a few Jaguar SS 100's and the first one was nearly done and it was invited to the big Jaguar owners club show. The car was complete except for wiring and headlights... he had been on a multi year search for headlights to no avail. He told the owner he could fake the wiring by cloth wrapping modern plastic wires (which he did) but he only had a pair of Rolls Royce headlights in stock. They decided "close enough" and mounted the Rolls headlights and shipped the car south.

The car got Best of Show... with the wrong lights!

He bought and sold hundreds of cars over the years. At one point he had a financial partner who was the largest collector of Mercedes 300 SL cars in the world. IIRC he owned 18 roadsters and 20-some Gull Wing coupes. He also had three restoration shops spread out over the US.

My brother had as many as 18 workers in his shop at one point. Today he operates in a small garage behind his house in Milwaukee his youngest son being the only employee. He recently finished a frame off on another SS100 and now has a '55 Jaguar 140M in his good hands.

When I was a kid he drove a '55 Chevy Bel-Air with a four barrel three on the tree...then a '55 Jag (that we took to Road America at 146 mph!).... good memories.