Hi everyone, I’m Bill Moore the founder of Bill’s Auto Restoration.
Bill Moore, Owner
I’m not one of those legendary guys that has been building cars all my life. I’m probably a lot like you. I’ve been a car enthusiast since I was a little kid and finally reached the point in my life where I could turn a great hobby into a small business. I’ve always had a fascination for cars and trucks and started building models at a young age. The customizing “bug” hit me early and I started mixing parts from different model kits to create custom cars. In elementary school art class, my drawings were frequently the custom cars I imagined.
In my teens I did all of my own car repairs out of financial necessity. I didn’t have the funds to do any customizing. The goal was just to keep the car running and dependable. I did a variety of trades after high school which developed my skills to repair and fabricate in different mediums. After a couple of years I had enough money to start working on a college degree. Jumping forward a bit, I received my degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida. Even though my degree is “chemical” I also have a strong mechanical engineering background. I had a fascinating career in three different industries spanning over twenty five years. The problem with a long engineering career is that you eventually work your way up the corporate ladder to the point where you’re not doing any engineering. You’re a bureaucrat sitting in meetings all day. That’s painful for a person who likes to build and create. To fend off the boredom I started customizing my vehicles. Like most people in the hobby, I started out with simple bolt on parts. Before I knew it I was making one-off parts and doing engine swaps. I couldn’t wait to leave “work” so I could come home and work on the cars and trucks.
Making room for a V-8 Super Charger
My wife Sandy helped with the V-8 installation
Eventually I called it quits with the corporate world. I didn’t plan on opening up a restoration shop. My plan was to just restore cars as a hobby, play with them a while, resell them and start the process over. I had the benefit of a good friend and neighbor, Bill Svarskopf providing his automotive expertise to my projects. My first project was a 1967 GTO. Bill is a Pontiac guru so his knowledge was indispensable on this build. Another neighbor that I barely knew saw me trying to do restoration work in my small home garage. He stopped by one day when I was working and asked if I needed more room to work. One thing led to another and I was soon doing my restoration work in the back of Gary Geiger’s pest control warehouse.
It all started in the back of Gary’s warehouse
Gary already had his own Corvette being restored there by John Detterline. John has decades of high-end paint and body experience along with major car building skills. A talented welder-fabricator named Steve McClurg was also working on a circle track car chassis there for Gary and his friends. Gary is a car nut too and would drag anyone with any interest into the warehouse to see the work in progress. The next thing I knew, we were all pitching in to restore cars for other people. This loose arrangement eventually became the resources that made Bill’s Auto Restoration possible.