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T H E S E R V I C E D E P T. RPM: Restoration. Preservation. Mentorship.
FROM RANDY ELBER’S PLACE IN MOUNT Kisco, New York, it’s a 45-minute drive to Fishkill. For the entire trip, Randy can’t keep the smile off his face, because he knows what awaits him. Just off U.S. Route 9 is a small junkyard with a yellow metal warehouse in the middle of it, and inside that sits the long-dormant 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing that Randy will be trailering back to his shop, R&R Auto Restorations, to begin its resurrection. Cars grabbed 33-year-old Randy Elber early on. He loved their looks and the sounds they made. At 13, with every penny he had, the native Clevelander bought a 1968 Pontiac LeMans and proceeded to make a GTO clone out of it. A friend’s father, Auguste “Gus” Trzop, became a mentor. Trzop was a dyed-in-the-wool hot rodder, SEVEN YEARS AGO, WHILE TAKING IN and his 1971 Corvette was an inspiration to Randy. the cars motorcycles display the “Gus had and a workshop off theonback of hisatgarage Art ofhethe Car Concours onand theI grounds of where worked on his Vette, liked to hang the there Kansas Jason out andCity watchArt himInstitute, work,” Randy says.Peters Pontiac lived at his house for a while, hadRandy’s a revelation. and “I then it, too, ended up in Trzop’s workshop. really didn’t have any career ambition “That’s when everything started coming in high school,” he remembers. “So after together for me,” he says. “I got hands-on graduating, I got an associate’s in nuexperience and guidance under Gusdegree and began the trition andofwound upLeMans.” working in a local hosrestoration my $670 pitalOver kitchen.” home-care to human rethe nextFrom couple of years, everything Randy could do ahimself, did.followed He scoured sources, series ofhejobs at St.junkyards Luke’s
for parts to rebuild. He built up a Chevy engine, because it was two grand cheaper than a Pontiac. He got his Goat clone painted, andis he SMS an rechromed upholsterybirthday, lover’s dream, the bumper. Just shy of his 17th Randy rack after took his first drive. The car hadwith no carpets, no door rack of materials panels, no door glass, but it was perfect. every By the time he finished it,for thenearly GTO was almost under the too perfect. “I got pulled overdomestic more than 20 times sun. It’s perfect that first month,” Randy says. “Thethelocal cops placecar forfor Peters thought I’d sneaked out my dad’s sometojoy spend days.‘Yeah, riding. But my shtick was always thehissame: it’s my car. Yeah, I built it myself. Yeah, it’s loud.’ ” Randy soon got accepted into the mechanical engineering program at the University of Cincinnati, and he sold the Pontiac. Although he didn’t know it at the time, that car and the work he put into it shaped what he wanted to do with his life. In December of his senior year of high school, a piece in the Cleveland Plain Dealer helped him realize his goal. The story was about Jay Leno’s endowing a scholarship through Hagerty’s Collectors Foundation—precursor to today’s RPM Foundation—for automobile restoration at tiny McPherson College in Kansas. Within a two-week period, everything changed for Randy. “I checked out the McPherson website a bunch of times. I made a few phone calls. Without setting foot on campus for a visit, I knew it was the place for me.” RPMthe Foundation Randy dove headfirst into program at McPherson, which included provides businessscholas well as arships, formal restoration coursework. “Each class was total training, and immersion in one facet of the industry. Not only mentorship to the could I rebuild a car, I knew what to bill for it.” His next generation of hard work during his first yearautomotive paid off, and for his and sophomore year, Randy got amarine partial scholarship restorers from the Collectors Foundation. would follow and He preservationthat up with a full scholarship from Mercedes ists. Learn morefor at his junior year. In 2005, he becamerpm.foundation. the first McPherson student to get an internship at Paul Russell and Company, a shop in Essex, Massachusetts, renowned for its work on European classics. It was exactly the type of work Randy wanted to be a part of. He returned to Paul Russell for another internship in 2006, and by summer’s end, he had a job lined up after graduation the following year. Once he settled in professionally at Paul Russell, Randy delved deeply into the world of postwar BMWs, Ferraris, and, particularly, 300SL Mercedes, where he worked on everything from basket-case roadsters in boxes to one of the 29 felt his career clock ticking. All this time, Pealloy-bodied Gullwings. “I got intimately involved ters had casual in claswith everymore nut, than bolt, aand gearinterest that makes up a sic cars. HeI loved grew resurrecting up workingcars with histhe father 300SL. And from ashes on the family’s Chevelle and breathing life 1972 back into them.” Malibu, a car 2014, long-distance theyBytook to alocal shows andrelationship cruise-ins. that At could longer be long distance500, meant 23, henobought a managed 1969 Ford Galaxie hisit was to move on. After nearly a decadeatatthe Paul firsttime major purchase while working Russell, Randy moved to White Plains, New York, hospital. and took a job at Automotive Restorations. “One “I restored thatthere car by paycheck,” of my first projects wasthe a Gullwing thatPehad ters entered says, and estimates spent $30,000 been to run the Millehe Miglia in May 2016. It belonged toGalaxie the Audrain Automobile Museum fixing up the over 10 years. Through-
Hospital in Kansas City. Peters loved the work, but he was 30 and
out the process, he had no idea you could get a degree in automotive restoration.
Randy Elber has traveled a long way from the beater LeMans he transformed in a friend’s garage.
ear, Randy Collectors t up with a r his junior st McPherip at Paul ssex, Mask on Europe of work eturned to ip in 2006, ob lined up ar. ally at Paul o the world particularked on evers in boxullwings. “I y nut, bolt, And I loved nd breath-
onship that g distance After nearndy moved took a job One of my g that had glia in May n Automod had good mechanical essive, and sion, axles,
MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED How a $670 Pontiac changed Randy Elber’s trajectory. Story and photos by Sean Smith
LIFE’S A STITCH
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How a “quarter life” change took one man from healthcare to upholstery.
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in Rhode Island and had good history, but it wasn’t in a good mechanical place.” The time frame wasThen aggressive, Randy rebuiltCollege the engine, he sawand the McPherson tent suspension, axles, and wiring—all of had at the Art of the Car. Talking to thewhich school’s to be Peters period correct. was a wonderful feelingonto rep, had his“It revelation. He stayed know the car was going to be used and not just put at St.inLuke’s continued education away a glass and bubble.” Once thehis 300SL hit Italy,init human resources management at Kansas put in 1000 flawless miles. City’s Parkville University.with But in spare Randy’s involvement thehisAudrain deepened, as did at hisjob family commitments, and time, he looked options in the collecby 2017,world. he’d relocated to Rhode Island to work tor-car directly with the museum. collection wasArt big He also entered his “The Galaxie at the and varied,” he says. “The Gullwing was there, plus a of the Car the following year. There he met lot of Ferraris and prewar American iron, and I was RPM Foundation president Diane Fitzgertuning cars by ear as well as by computer.” Soon he ald.curating “She encouraged decision was the growing my collection, too.to enroll at McPherson and finddays, a career thatRandy bridged Since his McPherson however, had envisioned his own shop. Every part of the my humanhaving resources and recruiting experiprocess andsomething the people interested him. Thenrestohe met ence into in the car-hobby Bob Torre, Jr., who had come to a shop on Long ration world.” Island where Elber was working in search of a 300SL At 34, Peters headed off to McPherson roadster. “The salesman wasn’t available, so I went and the itscarAutomotive Restoration Manageover with him,” Randy says. “I asked what his ment program, a full-time curriculum that expectations were and how he wanted to use the car. TH E Spored E R V I Cover Estudents D E it P Tand . prepares forthe running a shop-based We in end agreed it wasn’t the RPM: Restoration. Preservation. Mentorship. right Mercedes for him.” it led to more. and business. He landed anBut RPM scholarship Randy learned that Torre’s collection was 15 in the summer of 2015 traveled to Tacoma, minutes from his home, so he paid a visit. Torre Washington, for an RPM internship at Lementioned he’d always wanted to have a restoration May—America’s Car Museum. shop, that he loved to work on his own cars but was McPherson, Peters quickly realized he not At at the level to spearhead a professional facility. had ahething for interiors and, specifically, What did have were the space and years of small-business experience. Randy had the years of upholstery. Aside from the engine compartknowledge top shops, he had ment and from paintworking job, heinsays, a car’sand interior aisbusiness plan.that draws the most attention the thing It seemed only natural the two men would at shows. go into business together, and in 2018 they “I love theAuto lookRestorations and feel ofinclassic upholopened R&R Mount Kisco. stery,” weeks he says. like figuring outR&R patterns Within of “I opening its doors, had all withright the cars gentle of a sewing machine in the in hum the building: Mercedes, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche. In Randy Elber, the kid the background.” whoPeters long ago fell in love the graduated in with 2017cars, andR&R tookhad a job right guy, too. editor@hagerty.com with SMS Auto Fabrics in Portland, Oregon.
Servicing owners of every make and model
RPM Foundation provides scholarships, formal of domestic car from the 1930s on, SMS has training, and mentorship to the next generation America’s largest selection of original autoof automotive and marine restorers and preservamobile Learn carpet, vinyl, leather, and upholstery. tionists. more at rpm.foundation.
“If we don’t have the original in stock,” he says, “we have the ability to reproduce cloth in any pattern for nearly every American classic. We even produce custom door panels.” Porsch Now 37, Peters has found rewarding work R&R’s that pays well. He has expanded his personwork, Emory al collection of classics, too, to three Edsels 356 “o the ba and a ’78 Thunderbird. and th from a He hopes to have his own upholstery and awaits Porsches fall under R&R’s scope of work, too. on the detailing business in the next five years. “InHere an Emory Motorsports 356 “outlaw” is in sidebackground, and out, enthusiasts want their to the and the transaxle fromcars a 1970 914-6 awaits disassembly on the bench. bewiring—all phenomenal,” Peters says. “I lection find great and of which had to be period was bigjoy and varied,” he correct. “It was a wonderful feeling totheir know dreams Gullwing was there, plus a lot of F in helping them make a realithe car was going to be used and not just put prewar American iron, and I was ty.”—Bob Butz editor@hagerty.com away in a glass bubble.” Once the 300SL hit by ear as well as by computer.” S
Italy, it put in 1000 flawless miles. Randy’s involvement with the Audrain Photo by deepened, as did his family commitments, RPM Foundation is the educational arm of America's Automotive Trust. and by 2017, he’d relocated to Rhode Island to work directly with the museum. “The col114
Toll Free: 855.537.4579 Website: www.rpm.foundation
curating the growing collection, Since his McPherson days, ho
Stefan Lombardhaving his ow dy had envisioned
ery part of the process and the p ested him. Then he met Bob Tor