Classic Car Studio Uses Passion and Process in its Approach to Crafting Refined Custom Cars and Trucks
Classic Car Studio founder Noah Alexander was doing well buying and selling classic cars until the economy threw him a curveball in 2008 and the financial crisis upended his business plan.
“We started out just buying and selling classic cars,” he says. “I bought stuff that I liked. After a few years we were doing well.”
Then, the financial crisis severely wounded the car market and Noah’s bank pulled the plug on the line of credit that supported the business. He says the combination of crashing car sales and the loss of the line of credit forced his hand.
“All of a sudden we had no money and we had to do something,” he says. “I had techs because we were selling a lot of cars and we had to go through them and service them. So, we started doing service work. We were doing well but we really didn’t know how to run that kind of business.”
Two Guys and a Camaro Photo
After a couple of years, two guys walked into the shop with photos of early restomod Camaros and asked if Noah could build these cars. They showed him some of the aftermarket sources of the necessary parts and Noah said he could build those cars.
“Those cars turned out pretty nice, but I don’t know if I would have trusted us to do that work,” he says.
Fast forward to today and Classic Car Studio just moved into a new 30,000 sq. ft. building in St. Charles, Missouri, with a team of nearly 30 full-time workers building award-winning rides for customers. Buying and selling classic cars is still part of the business plan, as well.
As the business grew, more people were hired, more equipment was purchased, and services were added to keep more of the work under one roof. “As we grew in the old building everything was in the wrong place, so moving gave us a chance to reset,” Noah says. “To put everything where it needed to be.”
The Truck That Set the Stage
As you enter the new building, the first thing you see is the twin-turbo ’66 Chevy C10 pickup that was purpose-built to gain national attention. The truck was featured in several magazines and was displayed at the SEMA Show.
“Everybody still remembers that build. We’ll never sell it,” Noah says. “It ended up in a video game so even kids know it.”
Another factor in the shop’s growth was the two seasons of “Speed Is the New Black,” a television show that featured the shop on what was then Velocity network. That exposure was huge for the shop, and it helped that the focus was on the actual building process and not scripted mistakes or staged shouting matches. Noah wanted the show to be realistic. “If they showed us in our daily struggles to build these cars, it would be a good thing,” Noah says.
The Process: Meet the Customer’s Needs
While the shop still does service work and upgrades, the bulk of time is spent on full-build projects that often take years to complete, so it’s important to Noah that prospective customers fully understand what they are getting into. This is especially true for a customer who’s tackling a complex and expensive project for the first time.
“We have a process that we go through. Here’s how we do it, here’s how we work, here’s our design process, here’s how we’re going to communicate with you along the way,” Noah says.
There must be a lot of communication up front, he says, but sometimes there is just a mismatch. It’s just not the Classic Car Studio style of build and the customer goes elsewhere.
For a new customer or a returning one, the team depends heavily on an up-front design to create a good vision, so the customer knows what is going to happen. The design renderings become a blueprint for the project. Noah says that process and constant communication foster the desired rapport. “We want it to be fun to choose all these things and spec it out the way it should be,” he says.
About that Corvair
The result is the trust a return customer has to bring an idea that is a bit out of the ordinary: a ’69 Corvair. The customer always wanted a Corvair, especially one that was fast and could compete with modern sports cars.
Corvair parts aren’t easy to find, especially for the ’69 models since barely more than 5,000 coupes were made, but Noah says the process is fun. The project started with a 3D scan of the car, followed by renderings that were sent to Roadster Shop to create a chassis. Power will come from a twin-turbo engine from Nelson Racing Engines.
The radical metal work being done on the car is the subject of a series of more than two dozen YouTube videos that track the build. Noah says this video diary is a great promotional tool for the shop and attracts a large following.
“They love the process,” he says. “They want to be able to take some of those skills to use on their cars. It could be just one little thing or a part that they didn’t know existed. It helps people get an idea of why it takes so long to build a car like that.”
The videos also help inform the public about not only the high-end builds that get plenty of exposure, but how the process works to restore or customize an old car whether it’s at home or in a shop. The educational value helps on many levels “Building a classic car is rather inefficient,” Noah says. “You’re starting with an imperfect vehicle. There are a lot of misperceptions.”
BMX Bikes, Like Your First Car
One distinctive feature in the shop is a wall of bicycles. The collection of BMX bikes grew over the years, and they actually look right at home in a custom shop.
“We always had a few and suddenly we had 60 or 70,” Noah says. “The bike was like your first car. Everybody could afford to get your hands on a bike. It’s like the entry to cars. It’s the first mechanical thing you work on. You could change the color, upgrade the parts. The customization wasn’t that different from a car.”
This doesn’t mean, though, that Classic Car Studio will work on bikes in the future. The crew is busy with full-build car and truck projects (there’s a three-year waiting list) as well as upgrades and service work on existing rides. And as the shop settles into its new, expansive space, there’s excitement and anticipation about the creations that will roll out of its doors in the future. For more info, click to: Classic Car Studio
