Customers say Roadster Shop is top notch

MUNDELEIN – Two out of the last three years, a local custom car design shop has taken one of the top prizes available in the hot rod industry.

In July, the Roadster Shop in Mundelein won The Goodguys Rod & Custom Association’s 2011 Street Machine of the Year award for a 1967 Chevy Nova that was designed and built by owners Neal, Phil and Jeremy Gerber.

In the car world, the award is the equivalent of the Super Bowl, said Neal Gerber.

And in the mind of Barry Blomquist, 65, of Onalaska, Wis., only Autorama’s Ridler Award, a best in show-type of honor, ranks higher than Street Machine of the Year.

Maybe that’s because Blomquist is the owner of the C1RS 1962 Corvette built by the Roadster Shop that won the company’s first Street Machine of the Year title in 2009.

Or maybe it’s because the Roadster Shop truly is becoming a name to reckon with in the industry.

“They have built a name in five years for themselves, from not being known at all, to being a huge contender in all of this stuff,” Blomquist said. “They are noted now ...  . The custom car world is really a west coast thing – predominately big name builders have always come from California. Some of the nicest cars in the world now come from the Midwest.”

For Neal Gerber, building and restoring cars is in his blood, he said. He built his first car at the age of 15, and his sons – 30-year-old Phil and 28-year-old Jeremy – did the same.

Now, Phil takes care of the  sales and marketing side of the business the family bought in 2004, while Jeremy heads production and the design team.

Traditionally, the shop has built custom frames and suspensions that are shipped all over the country to customers looking to work on cars themselves, Phil Gerber said.

But in recent years, the shop also has turned to building hot rods and custom cars that have been featured on the cover of more than 25 magazines and in more than 50 articles within those publications, Phil Gerber said.

While the shop works on cars that have factory numbers matching – meaning the originality of the car is kept intact – Roadster employees also do a lot of custom design work to bring older cars up to date with the latest technology.

The Gerbers did both types of jobs for customer Dennis Mandala of Itasca, who also has a home in Fox Lake.

The Roadster Shop team worked on Mandala’s 1968 Chevelle, completely restoring the engine compartment, drive train and breaking and steering components, while also adding power breaks, power steering and air conditioning to make it a more drivable vehicle, Mandala said.

But with Mandala’s 1970 Chevelle, they stayed numbers matching.

“They can build a hot rod that can go 200 miles per hour, and they can also restore an antique piece,” Mandala said.

Not only is the shop’s work of the highest quality, the Gerbers and their 22 employees are good people to work with, Mandala said.

“It’s hard to find good, quality mechanics that want to work on these old cars that aren’t stuck up or treat you like they’re better than you,” he added. “The guys at the Roadster Shop ... take care of your stuff when you take it in there.”

The hard work of the family business is starting to pay off.

“The first time around, it was a fluke,” said Jeremy Gerber of the shop’s first Street Machine of the Year Award. “The second time around, everybody put their heart, soul and body on the line to make sure there was nothing else left we could do to the car.”

That passion for the hot rod industry is what has kept old customers coming back and new ones flocking to the shop.

“It was a leap of blind faith,” Blomquist said of his first encounter with the Roadster Shop. “In a business that sometimes attracts flakes and arrogant people, there’s a lot of car dealer stories and car repair people stories. [The Gerbers] are just down to earth, really nice people. When they say they’re going to do something, they do it, and they do it well.”

“They’re just regular guys,” Mandala said. “That place is second to none – the best I’ve ever dealt with.”