Clear Skies and Cool Rides with Blue Sky Performance and Restoration
In a few short years, Jesse Barratt and Jeff Manzella, co-owners of Blue Sky Performance and Restoration (BSPR) in Andover, New Jersey, have seen their business grow from very humble beginnings to one of the fastest-rising high performance restoration shops on the Eastern seaboard. What they’ve achieved in a mere nine years of existence is proof positive that with a good business plan, positive attitude, and a staff of trained professionals, a shop can thrive and beat expectations on a daily basis, even in this extremely competitive industry.
Blue Sky has found high ground in a locale populated with similar shops, all trying to make their way in the automotive world. When asked how Blue Sky has realized their lofty spot in the field of automotive fabrication, restoration and repair, the twosome know without question how they achieved their status. “We are a younger generation of hot rodders here at Blue Sky, so we are always eager to learn, adapt, and improve,” Jesse says. “We strive to provide people with a unique product that isn’t so run of the mill. Staying in touch with industry trends and staying relevant within the trade is extremely important to us.”
Building the Brand
There are those who say best friends should never go into business together, as it could spoil a good relationship. Jesse and Jeff never saw it that way and have built their shop on the foundation of their solid relationship and untiring comradeship. “We met in the second grade when I moved from Maine to New Jersey,” Jesse says. “I grew up right down the street from Jeff and we became buddies right away.”
That was just a start for the new friends. “We bonded in our pre-teens over BMX bikes and mountain biking,” Jesse says. “Once cars came into the equation, we forgot about those bikes and enjoyed a shared love for ’80s Trans Ams. However, once a family member got a Fox-body Mustang, that completely changed our minds. When we got our licenses, we both ended up with Mustangs, each of us tearing them down in our family driveways. We were instantly hooked on modification and fabrication.”
Jesse and Jeff remained best buds through high school, then as college roommates, and even served as each other’s best man at their respective weddings. In 2009, the dynamic duo also ended up working in the same restoration shop, Blue Sky Classic Cars, with Jesse focusing on body and paint and Jeff handling mechanical work for the shop. In 2015, the twosome was presented the opportunity to take over the business, which was struggling after being poorly managed for several years. They decided to jump in as partners and resurrect the underperforming Blue Sky brand. Their hard work and dedication have brought the company to the standards the crew enjoys today as a top-performing shop, which they’ve rebranded as Blue Sky Performance and Restoration.
“We figured a lot of people knew who we were at Blue Sky Classic Cars, so we kept part of the name and that part of our history,” Jeff says. “However, we felt ‘Classic Cars’ was too broad. We wanted to inject our cars with performance, so we added that to the name.”
Growth Mindset
From there the business has expanded exponentially over the last nine years, outgrowing their original 4000 sq. ft. building after just six years, and then moving to their new, larger facility just a few miles away. Though they’ve relocated just a town over, the business has evolved and moved on from how the original Blue Sky operated. “We spent a lot of time cultivating a top-tier crew, each member possessing their own unique specialty and training,” Jesse says. “Without these guys, were nothing.”
Jesse vividly remembers a big turning point for Blue Sky that happened early in the company’s timeline. “I received email from Irvin at Roadster Shop in early 2016 saying, ‘hey, I love your work, let me know if you need anything in the chassis department,’” Jesse says. “And I said to myself ‘yeah right!’ Now we are on our twelfth project with an RS chassis under it. Back when we started out, we felt like we were on the outside looking in. We saw shops utilizing products from the high-end companies like Roadster Shop, Baer, Forgeline, Bowler, Wegner Automotive, BluePrint engines, and others. In the beginning, builds like that were just a dream, and now we have great relationships with those companies s and our clients that understand the importance of high-quality components in a build to get the best driving experience possible.”
Sky Box
The first thing you notice when you enter Blue Sky Restoration and Performance is just how clean and organized it is. With over 12,000 sq. ft. of space, it’s a large shop that was sorely needed by this ever-expanding team of professionals. The space has been sectioned off into multiple workstations of a shifting variety. It also boasts plenty of storage space, with Jesse and Jeff utilizing the square footage to maximize both precision and productivity.
In terms of capabilities, the Blue Sky team can do basically anything needed in-house, from mechanical work, to paint and body, and even dyno tuning. “We have everything we need here,” Jesse says. “We have a chassis dyno, Accudraft SS paint booth, Axalta XP paint mixing rig, a resistance spot welder, TIG and MIG welders, a large lathe, a Bridgeport, and tire machine. We are essentially a one-stop shop.
“Our facility is set up with separate areas of car building processes,” Jesse continues, “including metal work, body, mechanical, and a designated paint area and booth. We basically do anything that’s needed, except for full engine rebuilds and custom interiors, which are sent out to one of the many top-flight specialty shops we deal with.”
Blue Sky has always stayed on top of the trends, and Jesse and Jeff attend as many shows as possible to make their presence known. If you’ve been to any of the major events east of the Mississippi, you’ve probably run into these guys, usually armed with two or three of their impressive builds. Of course, these days social media plays a huge part in keeping in the public eye and showing off product, and Jesse and Jeff are always on top of that as well.
Blue Sky has had several of their builds featured in media and print, and have had their vehicles represented at industry events like the SEMA Show. “We were lucky enough to have been invited to the event twice, both times representing in the HRIA feature vehicle program. We had our ’66 Pontiac LeManster there in ’19 and our custom-built ’62 Impala in ’22, and both were a huge hit. That experience and being a part of the HRIA has been a great addition to our success. We also started attending Goodguys shows in 2020. I always felt we weren’t good enough attend, but slowly we got our name out there and felt good about attending. Goodguys has helped us immensely with getting out name and product out in the public eye.”
As for the future of Blue Sky Performance and Restoration, without a doubt this crew is going nowhere but forward, the team striving to reach new goals every time a new project is pulled into the shop.
“We are a young shop that is constantly hungry to do better and provide our customers with a notch above the norm as far as a full build goes,” Jesse says. “We want to outdo ourselves on each and every project. We love what we do, and we love who we work for. We also acknowledge the support that our wives have given us over the years, so a very special thank you goes out to them.”
Story and Photo by Scotty Lachenauer
