Rolling Restorations

Oct. 27—For Cody Hicks and Mike Kozlowski, lifting the hood of a vehicle begins a journey that will lead them on detours they can't predict but which ensure their job is never boring.

Frustrating at times.

Rewarding at others.

But never boring.

Their work, a curious combination of detective, mechanic and artist, requires that they leaf through dusty manuals written before World War II, and consult online diagrams of the latest in computer technology.

Sometimes both on the same day.

Hicks, 28, and Kozlowski, 38, own Old Iron Garage, an auto restoration and custom building business at 2157 Windmill Lane east of Interstate 84 in Baker City.

They bought the business, which opened about five years ago, on April 1, 2021.

They worked with Jeff Nelson of Blue Mountain Community College's Small Business Development Center in Baker City to develop a business plan and find a lender.

Hicks grew up in Vale and earned a degree in industrial engineering at Oregon State University. He worked as a quality engineer in new product integration for a Clackamas company that makes equipment for automakers.

Kozlowski is from Eagle, Idaho, and he worked as a mechanic for 20 years before joining Hicks in buying Old Iron Garage.

Although buying any business during a pandemic might seem a daunting proposition, Hicks and Kozlowski said that in general, the auto restoration industry has actually been busier in the era of COVID-19.

Because people have been traveling less, Kozlowski said, more owners of older vehicles have decided to resurrect a car or truck that's been parked in a barn or garage for years or even decades.

"A lot of shops are booked out for months," he said. "I've talked to engine builders who said they've done more work in the past two years than they did in the previous 20 years."

Hicks and Kozlowski, who are brothers by marriage, said their shop has been busy since they bought the business.

On the morning of Oct. 21, there were several vehicles inside their 5,000-square-foot building, in various stages, and another parked near the front door.

That's a 1946 Dodge Power Wagon pickup truck, and it's the sort of project that both Hicks and Kozlowski prefer.

"I enjoy working on the older stuff," Kozlowski said. "It's a fun challenge. You never know what you're going to run into when you tear them apart."

The Power Wagon also represents a type of restoration that is increasingly popular, the pair said.

The concept is simple — take a vintage vehicle, leave the body original but swap the engine, transmission and other running gear for modern, and in some cases new, parts.

In effect, you're left with a car or truck that looks old but drives like new.

The Power Wagon is an extreme example of the breed, Hicks said.

The owner, who's from Washington, not only wants to keep the original body — he insists that Hicks and Kozlowski ignore every dent, scratch or patch of discolored paint or rust.

Which means the truck will continue to look as though it had spent most of the past half century or so parked in somebody's field.

Without a tarp.

But once the pair has replaced its original engine and transmission, which might have been capable of propelling the rig at 50 mph — on a downgrade and with a favorable wind — this truck, which has aerodynamics approximating a barn, will cruise along with freeway traffic.

"You get a lot of weird looks when you're in a vehicle like that driving down the freeway at 70," Hicks said with a chuckle.

He said the owner chose to install a new Cummins four-cylinder diesel engine in the Power Wagon, along with a five-speed manual transmission.

'Rolling stories'

Hicks said he particularly enjoys projects like the Power Wagon because they always come with a compelling backstory.

Sometimes the vehicle has been in the same family for multiple generations — grandpa's first car, perhaps, one he wants to hand down to his children or grandchildren.

Others were rescued from a garage or shed where they had been deteriorating for decades.

"My favorite part of the job is hearing the different stories," Hicks said. "Rolling stories."

Both he and Kozlowski can add their own chapters.

Kozlowski said his dad, for instance, still owns the 1969 Chevrolet Impala that he bought in 1970.

Kozlowski bought his first project truck — a 1960 Ford F100 — when he was 15, and he has refurbished many Ford trucks, vintage 1957-1960, since.

Hicks bought a 1971 GMC pickup during his second year in college, and with help from Kozlowski, his future brother-in-law, he swapped its automatic transmission for a manual during a hectic (and no doubt greasy) Christmas break.

Hicks has a particular interest in Chevrolet C10 trucks from 1967-1972, and he has restored a 1967 C30, even adding kegs to make it a mobile bar truck.

The pair recently bought a 1977 Ford "Highboy" four-wheel drive pickup truck (so named because of its elevated body) as a "shop truck" — a renovation they can work on in their spare time.

Based on their current slate of projects, the Ford will be a long-term renovation.

In one corner of their shop, a 1966 Ford Mustang sits on a lift. The owner, who lives in La Grande, brought the classic pony car to Old Iron Garage with a host of problems, some of which arose during a previous restoration, and others that Hicks and Kozlowski have discovered since they started working on it.

Parked nearby is a 1980 Chevrolet Corvette, its fiberglass flanks sanded and ready for paint.

In the opposite corner from the Mustang is the shop's most complex, and time-consuming, task — a 1951 Ford F1 pickup truck.

It's also the only vehicle still in the shop that was already there when they bought the business.

The truck's owner, who lives in Washington, agreed to have Hicks and Kozlowski continue the work started by Old Iron Garage's original owner, Gordon Erickson.

The Ford's owner in effect wants to have a truck that's a 1951 in appearance, but drives like a modern Ford Mustang.

Inside the truck's engine bay — with scarcely a millimeter to spare — is a V8 engine from a 2019 Mustang.

"A tight fit," is Kozlowski's succinct description.

Figuring out how to shoehorn the components from a nearly new sports car — a vehicle designed with the aid of computer modeling — into a truck built during the Truman administration, the product of hand-drawn sketches, the only computing done by human brains, is not so much a puzzle as a daunting exercise in conception, fabrication and installation.

"On a complexity scale of one to ten, this is a ten," Hicks said. "It's not enough to just make the motor fit — it also has to connect to everything else."

There is perhaps as much art as science involved.

"You let the car or truck take you where you need to go," Hicks said.

The Ford F1 is likely to be a two- to three-year project, Hicks said.

He figures the owner will spend $150,000 to $200,000 — unlike the Power Wagon, this truck will have a refurbished body, with fresh paint, to complement its modern mechanical pieces.

Repairs and restorations

Although restoring vehicles is the biggest part of the business, Hicks and Kozlowski also take on more straightforward repair jobs.

Recently they replaced the clutch on a 1938 Chevrolet.

That 1980 Corvette will get a paint job but no other restorations.

The owner, who lives in Montana, heard about Old Iron Garage after he was unable to find a shop in his area that could repaint the Corvette any time soon, Kozlowski said.

Simpler repairs can be a welcome break from the more complex restorations, he said.

The Corvette will also be one of the first cars to roll into the paint booth that Hicks and Kozlowski recently installed.

Hicks is the main painter in the business, Kozlowski said.

"I'm definitely not," Kozlowski said with a laugh.

Hicks said that Kozlowski is the shop's chief detective.

"Mike definitely knows how to diagnose any engine or mechanical problem," Hicks said.

Ultimately, though, both owners have to be versatile.

"We do have to be jack of all trades," Hicks said. "When you're working on a truck from the 1950s and a car from the 1930s, it's all very different. We like learning new things on old stuff."

The pair has two employees.

On the morning of Oct. 21, one of them, David Crabtree, was applying fiberglass to part of a dashboard from a 1990s pickup truck.

The fiberglass, he said, will stiffen the dashboard and protect it from ultraviolet light, which can lead to cracks over time — a familiar flaw to people who lack garages.

This is the sort of modification, Kozlowski said, that can add value to a restored car by making it, in one way, better than the original.

Rewarding work

Both Hicks and Kozlowski said their work is satisfying in ways that can't be measured in dollars.

Hearing an engine rumble for the first time, after a months-long restoration with its inevitable obstacles and frustrations, is a unique and visceral experience.

"There's nothing like that first time you start an engine, or roll down the road," Kozlowski said. "Or to call the owner and tell them the car is done, and then see the look on their face when they see it. That's pretty rewarding."

Hicks agreed.

"There's a lot of tedious hours, but it's all worth it when it's done," he said.

Besides which, they said, the sheer variety of the jobs, and the unpredictable nature of the work, keeps boredom at bay.

"You never know what's going to walk through the door," Kozlowski said.

Or roll.