Article FWST

Ramsey's Rods and Restoration has been featured in four major publications in the last year.

Fort Worth Star Telegram-Feature Article
Street Scene Magazine-Feature Article
GM Repair Insights-Feature Article
FD Luxe Magazine

Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
2010-05-01
Page: E
Models for life: Stephen Ramsey loves, his customers, classic-car aficionados
BRIAN MELTON, Special to the Star-Telegram
Imagine strapping yourself into a fine work of art and roaring down the road. It's hard to do with a Picasso, but easy if you're Stephen Ramsey or one of his numerous international customers. For more than 30 years, he's been restoring and rebuilding big iron from Detroit's glory days. His cars have won multiple awards from virtually every big-time car show in the country, including last year's GoodGuys show at Texas Motor Speedway -- a 1969 Chevy Camaro Pace Car that he had built for a customer took top honors from a field of more than 3,000 entrants as the Muscle Car Finalist of the Year. His office walls are plastered with awards from show after show, as well as pictures and letters from ecstatic customers that encompass a lifetime of what some might call an obsession.
He just calls it "being a car guy."
"I love the looks, the designs, the power and the sheer fun of driving a beautiful piece of art, because that's what they are," he says with a grin that lights up his still-youthful face (he's nearly 70). "I can't help it, I just love 'em all."
Tri-Five fan
Love them all he may, but Ramsey confesses to being especially partial to "Tri-Fives," the series of iconic 1955-56-57 Chevrolets that many aficionados regard as the golden age of post-war American motoring. (Although the Bel Air Sport Sedan and the two-door Nomad station wagon are the most recognized of the lineup, the less-familiar, economy model 150s and 210s are also coveted by collectors.) And a few years back, when GM paid homage to Tri-Fives with a massive display of flawless examples at its headquarters, it asked another of Ramsey's customers if he'd lend it his stunning coral and black 1955 Bel Air Sport Coupe, updated with custom leather interior, 502 cubic-inch ramjet V8 and state-of-the-art suspension and transmission. In a testament to the car's superb rebuild, GM awarded it "Best Modern Restoration."
"I've often thought," he reflects, "that if GM built these same cars with today's modern mechanicals and safety features, they wouldn't be in the shape they're in now."
GM's loss is Ramsey's gain. He's happy to rebuild a classic to original factory specs, or to customize it with today's high-efficiency engines, transmissions and suspensions. And in the world of car guys, that's a fairly provocative philosophy.
"There are two basic approaches to classics," he says. "Some people want their classy chassis rebuilt and updated with modern amenities and mechanicals. Others want their cars restored to exactly the same condition as when they rolled off the line. Both sides get pretty passionate about their preferences," he adds with a chuckle. "My passion is all about delivering what the customer wants. If the car is already near original, I'll usually recommend that we keep it that way and make it better. But if it's already been modified, then let's update it and have some fun. That's the key word."
That sense of fun is palpable at Ramsey's shop, a neat-as-a-pin, 12,000-square-foot space spread out between two aircraft hangars at Hicks Airport, north of Fort Worth. A traffic light blinks red-yellow-green, casting its light on a vintage gas pump, a giant tin Texaco sign and a squat, '50s-era Coke machine. Music by Elvis and the Beach Boys fills the air. Tigger and Beauty, two rescue cats, continually prowl the grounds and nap with Sadie, Ramsey's beloved Heinz 57 dog. "They're our on-site security patrol," jokes Ramsey, who set up an office for them, complete with food, water and litter boxes.
A classy, classic lineup
The animals are cute and speak to Ramsey's softer side. But the real attractions are the cars, obsessively fussed over by five specially trained mechanics. Just sitting there quietly, the black 1963 Corvette Sting Ray with the broad red stripe running front to back looks dangerous. Crank the high-performance 383-cubic-inch engine, and the shop fills with a menacing rumble. "That's a rare one," says Ramsey, "because it's still got the Bill Mitchell-designed split window. Lots of owners back then had it removed for better visibility. Chevy got the message and did away with it a year later, but this one is original and all the better for it."
Then there's the sky-blue 1968 Camaro Z28 Rally Sport Coupe with twin white stripes fore and aft and 302 engine, restored to blinding glory and blistering performance. "It's one of only 7,199 made," Ramsey says. "It's only got 290 horsepower, but that Muncie transmission will get it going pretty quickly. If you really want to move, though," he says as he opens the hood on a nice but unassuming jade-painted 1965 Dodge Coronet, "this one's for you." He gestures casually to the beastly 426-cubic-inch Ramcharger V8, equipped with dual-quad carburetors and says, "It's got 620 horsepower. Passes everything but a gas station."
He's also working on a special project in his "secret room." As he cracks the door to a narrow room away from the main hangar, his face lights up like a little kid showing off his private fort. And sitting there like Sinbad's treasure is a 1955 Chevy Nomad that he is rebuilding with a Corvette LT-1 engine and C-5 suspension. Basically, it's a modern Corvette disguised as a 55-year-old station wagon.
Even Ramsey's forklift isn't immune: spinners sparkle on the little yellow Clark workhorse's wheels as he uses it to set a pallet of Camaro spare parts into a customer's truck. "It used to have flame decals on it, but they wore off with all the abuse it gets," he says with a shrug.
Long-term legacy
Ramsey traces his obsession to fond remembrances of scampering around the family garage as a boy, fetching wrenches for his grandfather and father as they souped up Model A's and Model T's. The attraction persisted, even as he attended the University of California-Berkeley and hung out at Haight Ashbury during the tumultuous 1960s. "My dad said packing me off to California was a bad idea, and he was probably right," says Ramsey.
But the long-haired hippie was also a practicing capitalist who marshaled his funds into a decade's worth of successful real estate investments in Fort Worth's hospital district. He also noticed that when he took his own collectible cars into various shops for restoration work, progress was generally slow, poor quality and much more expensive than the original quotes that he'd been given.
Sensing an opportunity to feed his soul as well as his bank account, Ramsey's Rods was born.
Ramsey credits wife Denise ("a fellow car guy") with being the catalyst to getting the business off the ground, setting up the corporate structure and inspiring what he calls "our very simple business philosophy -- we put our work and our customers on the same high level. Cars don't gather dust in our shop. We always have a queue of projects, and when yours is at the top of the list, it gets done quickly and correctly. I want people to say that we did what we said, on time and spent wisely and fairly. It's a philosophy that's served us well for more than three decades, and I'm proud of that."
Today, Ramsey is mindful that while his days of picking up transmissions single-handedly are over, he's still adept at getting his hands dirty with electrical and detail work. But his specialty has always been the overall planning and design of rebuilding and restoring cars, and that's what still energizes him every morning.
"Even if I wind up in a wheelchair someday, I can still point and tell our crew what I want done," he says. "I've always taken solace in working with cars and taking what's there and making it better and putting my personal imprint on it. And the knowledge I've gained over all these years tells me what needs to be done and dictates how I want it done, and I'm pretty picky about that. I have a real zest for life and a hugely positive attitude. With that, I can do anything I want. And this," he says, waving at his shop and the rolling art that he brings to life, "is what I want to do."