Many suppliers of classic car restoration parts were started by enthusiasts. One of them is CARS Inc. in Michigan which was started in 1976 by a couple of Chevy guys looking for parts for their classic Chevys. Today the company stocks over 30,000 parts for many of the most popular cars Chevrolet ever produced. by Anders Dahlgren
You can build a new 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air with parts from CARS Inc. on a modern Art Morrison chassis.
CARS Inc. was started in 1976, thirty nine years ago, by a couple of Chevy enthusiasts who had a few classic Chevys to restore but few places to turn to find any Chevy restoration parts.
This search for parts led them to many local Chevrolet dealership parts departments, where they looked for any NOS parts that were available.
During this process they found that some parts departments had a large number of certain old Chevy NOS parts and others would have a completely different stock of parts.
Joe Zidzik at CARS Inc. displays a door panel that a customer sent in to be restored.
Eventually they decided to buy as many of these parts as they could and afford from the different Chevrolet dealerships and start taking them to classic car swap meets.
One of the first swap meets they visited to meet the demand of other restorers was the one in Carlisle, PA.
It is still arranged a couple of times every year and has grown to one of the major swap meets.
The business developed and the next step was to start making reproduction parts that were commonly rusted or torned on most classic Chevys, e.g. patch panels, floor pans and interiors for 1955-1957 Chevrolets.
CARS INC. bought machinery and tools from General Motors to reproduce interiors for classic Chevy cars.
Today, thirty nine years, later CARS Inc. offer more than 30,000 restoration parts for classic Chevrolet cars and trucks. CARS Inc. also sells modern replacement chassis from Art Morrison which makes it possible for anyone who has the inclination to build a replica of a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible with completely new and modern components and a driveline after their own desire.
With sewing machines from GM plants every seat cover and door panel is sewn by people who have been doing it for 10-25 years.
CARS Inc. has a variety of machines for reproducing interior components for classic Chevy cars and trucks. Some of the machinery was purchased from General Motors. This includes a dielectric machine that fuses vinyl material together and was used in many door panels and seat covers during the 1960s and 1970s.
CARS. Inc. has two locations, this is Rochester, MI. The other location is in Placentia, CA.
They have another machine that is used to create specific patterns in the vinyl to reproduce the original patterns.
CARS Inc. also has a vacuum form machine that they use to make a variety of plastic parts including arm rests for certain Chevy cars.
In addition, they have a room full of commercial sewing machines where every seat cover and door panel they produce is sewn by people who have been doing it for 10-25 years.
CARS Inc. still stocks an impressive collection of NOS upholstery purchased from GM dealerships.
They still have an impressive collection of NOS upholstery that was purchased from GM dealerships over the past 40 years, as well as directly from the original suppliers, as they cleaned out old inventory.
This material covers models from the 1950s through the early 1980s. What is available varies for specific models, and of course, once this stock is sold, it is gone forever.
A machine is used to create specific patterns in the vinyl to reproduce the original patterns.
CARS Inc. also has material (cloth and vinyl) made specifically for them. The company makes interiors for Chevy cars and trucks as old as 1951. For some models, they make the interiors through 1972, and they make them for almost all Chevy cars and trucks from 1951-1964. Whatever models they do not make the interiors for in-house, they resell from other manufacturers to offer interiors for cars through the 1980s.
In the back of the Rochester parts store CARS Inc. manufactures interiors for Chevrolet cars from the 1950s through the 1980s.
Thirty nine years, and tens of thousands of genuine CARS Inc. parts later, CARS Inc. has two facilities, their headquarters location in Rochester Hills, Michigan but there is also a location in Placentia, California. CARS Inc. still also visits most of the major car shows and swap meets across the USA every year.
Currently CARS Inc. makes and sells over 30,000 classic Chevy restoration parts for these models: 1953-54 Bel Air, 1955-57 Cameo Pickup, 1955-57 Chevy, 1958-72 Impala, 1964-72 Chevelle, Malibu and El Camino, 1962-79 Nova, 1967-76 Camaro, 1970-72 Monte Carlo, 1967-72 Chevy Pickup and the 1971- 72 Blazer and
Suburban. Chevrolet enthusiasts from all over the world turn to Cars Inc for restoration parts for their classic Chevrolet, thanks to the foresight of a couple of Chevy enthusiasts in the mid-70s.
Great company to deal with !
Been using them for 20+ years and I just got some stuff yesterday that we will ship to Sweden today.