Photo by Oscar Hanson Curt Dressen on the left, Jack Dressen on the right, working on a 1934 Chevy for owner Dean Blomgren.

TYLER — With the Shades of the Past Car Show coming up at the end of this month, there will be lots of people who are interested in seeing old, restored cars of every year, make and model of cars from yesteryear. And the chances are that a majority of those car owners have worked with Jack and Curt Dressen in some form.

They either had the work done in their shop in Tyler, or they got parts for their vintage cars from Dressen’s Body Shop. The boys took over the shop from their dad, a mechanic who ran Jim’s Garage for many years in the ’50s and ’60s. Their older brother, Harvey Dressen, was also in the shop but in the mid-’80s, he started an auto salvage yard, and Curt and Jack took over the building to do body work.

All of the older brothers, Terry, Harvey, Darrel, and Gene were mechanics, but the two youngest brothers decided to do body work instead.

They started their business by doing straight body work on current models, repairing cars that had been damaged. But they dabbled in doing restoration, and about 20% of their business came from people who wanted to relive their youth by restoring cars they had as teenagers.

After a few years, restoration became a bigger part of their business, and today, those numbers have switched to 80% restoring old cars. They have traveled the countryside to pick up old cars in various conditions, and at this point, they have approximately 300 vehicles in their inventory.

Most of them are Ford Mustangs from 1965-70, which Jack prefers to work with, while Curt favors the bigger cars, like Ford Galaxies, Fairlanes and Thunderbirds.

Jack has built several Mustangs for his personal collection, with his preference being the fastbacks. Curt has restored a Thunderbird convertible, a rare car for that era.

“I think the first car we ever restored was for Marvin Swanson,” Jack said. “It was a Mustang, and it was the first total restoration we did. We still have a picture of that in our office. After that, we started doing swap meets, then I put some cards out and got a response from a guy in Cold Spring who wanted a convertible restored.”

Curt said, “It kind of took off from there, and a relative of Jack Thooft got us in touch with a man in Virginia, and we did two cars for him. Word of mouth goes a long ways.”

They now are so busy with the referrals that they have gotten that they have had to turn down jobs. With the requirements the insurance companies have now, and the computer components in the newer vehicles have made it much harder to make a profit, so they are really focusing on the restoration projects.

“We have five or six jobs pending, and we are able to pick and choose which projects we want to work on now. We still do some windshields, and minor body work, just to bring in a little cash. But when you work on these old cars, most of the time, the owners aren’t breathing down your neck to get it done. They know it takes time, and for some people, that is good, since they can come up with money to pay for the job in pieces. We take an initial deposit, then as we go, we will get paid at certain intervals along the way. That gives the owners a chance to see how much money it may cost to get the job done,” Jack said.

“Sometimes, they don’t have enough to finish the job, and they just take what we have done so far. We are very proud of the fact that since we started our business, we have never had a car in the shop more than one year. We had a guy bring in a car that sat in a body shop for 15 years, and we got it done in six months,” he said.

“For many people, it can be years before a car can be restored, and we have always tried to be reasonably priced, yet still give them quality work.” Curt said.

“Some shops really rip you off in price or quality, but we have a good reputation nationwide that we want to maintain. It is hard to give a quote initially, since you don’t know how much work is involved or what parts may cost. The owners have to understand that is an on-going expense, but most people are doing it for nostalgic reasons. They could probably go on Ebay and buy the same model car for less money than the car they are restoring, but they want to have the car they first bought, or their father or grandfather gave them. So money may not be the biggest factor in how much they spend,” he said.

When they first started the business, the cars they worked on weren’t considered collector’s items, since they were cars that people were still driving. They turned into collector’s items when 20 years went by and they still had the car. The prices of those cars are cyclical in nature, and last year was probably the highest they have been. Right now, old pickups are the hot item, especially the ’70s models. They have made lifelong friends along the way, and they have customers from all across the country and several countries overseas.

They have done work for former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, and with relatives of former Bears and Vikings quarterback Jim McMahon.

“We really don’t want to get outside of our wheelhouse, so the Mustangs we work on are pretty simple, and we have the parts for them somewhere in our inventory,” Curt said.

They don’t really have the cars organized on the computer, or cataloged somewhere, Jack said.

“It is pretty much in our heads what we have, and we can find a part we need usually pretty shortly, whether it is one we need or one that a customer is looking for. It’s an organized clutter, but we can find the part we need,” he said.

“In all of our years of doing this, we have never had a bad customer, who was unhappy with the work or the price. We don’t know how much longer we will be doing this, but being able to pick the jobs we want makes it more enjoyable.”

So when you see all of the vintage cars around the area, chances are that the Dressen brothers have their fingerprints on it . The nostalgia phase is still going strong in this area, and the Shades of the Past car club have members that can give you a great story behind the cars they own. Thanks for the memories!