Father-son shop restores vintage cars for clients around the world

FRANKLIN, Wis. - Don Valenti and his son Steve restored the gleaming red 1961 Corvette about 25 years ago as nothing more than a hobby, with no intention of selling it and no notion that when they did so, they were embarking on a joyride across the global economy.

They completed that first restoration job in the early 1990s, and the early clientele for the garage where the self-taught mechanics began overhauling vintage cars was almost exclusively local.

Then along came the Internet.

For the first time, an enthusiast in the African Republic of Benin could track down Valenti Classics Inc. in metro Milwaukee and see whether he or she could find a 1918 Ford Model-T, restore it to its original performance, give it a shiny black paint job, redo the upholstery, and ship it to Africa.

For a gearhead in Bahrain, the Valentis resurrected a curvy 1967 Chevy coupe. In Saudi Arabia, there's a fully refurbished blue '52 Ford F-1 pickup racing around. A collector in Spain ordered a burgundy '35 Cadillac with an imposing grille and bug-eye headlamps. Another in Brazil took possession of a '37 Caddy.

As much as globalization has disrupted the lives of many Midwestern machinists and mechanics, it opened a world of far-flung destinations to Valenti Classics for the likes of Packards, Bentleys, Studebakers, Excaliburs, and no end of muscle cars from the 1970s.

"From my perspective, it happened by accident," said Don, 72.

"The world kind of shrunk," said Steve, 40.

During the garage's early years, Don said, 95 percent of its clientele was from around Chicago and Milwaukee. These days, 95 percent of its business is either national or international.

Amid the classic car memorabilia in their office, they hung a global pin map. It shows 34 nations where they've delivered their automotive makeovers, covering every continent except Antarctica, and every U.S. state save Alaska.

Their customers come from all over the planet. But what many have in common - apart from the means to justify buying cars that climb into the six figures - is a quest to recapture the dreams of their youth.

For an Australian couple, the dream car was a custom-restored 1966 Ford Thunderbird. They flew to Milwaukee to pick it up and then drove the length of U.S. Route 66, one of the nation's oldest highways, before having the car shipped home to Australia in a 20-foot steel container - which is how many of the Valenti Classics go abroad.

A collector in Singapore wanted the exact 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO used in the 2001 movie Vanilla Sky, starring Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz. Valenti acquired it, reconditioned it, and shipped it off to Asia.

The work often entails automotive archaeology. They search for old cars and parts at auctions, in forgotten barns, junkyards, and online. And when parts no longer exist, they fabricate them in the shop. On a recent visit, one of the workshops included two 1956 Chrysler Imperials - one being fully restored and the other a "donor" car to salvage parts.

"Everyone here is a car nut," Steve said.

And now the facility is at capacity. It's impossible to walk in a straight line from one wing of the workshops to another. With dozens of projects in different stages of completion, many are stacked on hydraulic parking racks to optimize space.

Don and Steve recently purchased additional industrial space nearby, which will become their color and design studio, focusing on the exterior body work while the existing workshops will concentrate on internal mechanics and machining.

To be sure, there are hundreds of dealerships offering high-priced old cars. But like any other class of used car dealers, Steve cautions that many are all too willing to sell "auction queens" - the collector car equivalent of a lemon, dripping with curb appeal that disguises faulty wiring, broken brake lights, or safety issues such as lousy suspension or engines with cylinders that misfire. "Lipstick on a pig," disses Steve.

Touting a 200-point safety inspection process, the Valentis claim all their cars are fully roadworthy.

About half of their orders involve the resurrection of a classic car with all or most of the original factory parts, as if it just came off the showroom floor. The oldest they've refurbished is a 1913 Hupmobile, a model from Detroit's Hupp Motor Co. that ceased production in 1940.

They know their Web presence, valenticlassics.com, amounts to a global showroom. So they routinely upgrade the site with "metatags" and other digital tricks to ensure they are easy to find on the web.

When potential customers land on the site, they're greeted by all the nostalgic look and feel the Valentis could dream up with their Web designer. There's no substitute for walking into a showroom, Steve says, "so the idea with the website is to transport people back in time."

So digital visitors can gawk at cool old cars, there's a vintage 1960s-era TV screen that shows footage of their models. And for those who visit the site while at work, it's good to put on headphones.

The site is noisy by design. It broadcasts postwar radio ads, including a campaign jingle from Dwight Eisenhower's 1952 campaign ("Bring out the banner and bring out the drum, we'll take Ike to Washington").