RM: A Canadian Success Story

by Jean-Charles Lajeunesse February 19, 2014

Ever heard of RM Restorations? How about RM Auctions? Unfortunately, very few car enthusiasts know about this company. RM Restorations is one of the few classic car restoration shops in the world with such high credentials. To put things in perspective, let’s start with a bit of history.

Son of an Antique Car Collector

Back in 1976, Rob Myers, son of an antique car collector and founder of RM Restorations, started a small auto restoration and modification shop in a single-car garage in southwestern Ontario. Incorporated in 1979 the company then moved to a larger dedicated restoration and sales facility nearby in Chatham-Kent, Ontario in 1980. During the 1980s Rob Myers actively bought and sold collector cars. Soon joined by connoisseurs Dan Warrener and Mike Fairbairn, they formed a partnership in 1988. The team grew larger, adding knowledgeable experts while continuously bringing a growing number of cars to collector car auctions. RM cars collected trophies and honors wherever they went. The volume of business soon reached several million dollars a year. This prompted RM to branch out into the collector car auction business. So successful was RM Auctions that they are now the world’s largest auction house for collector grade automobiles, and have the distinction of selling six of the top ten most expensive cars ever sold at auction. With offices in Canada, USA, UK and Germany RM handles everything from planning complete restorations right up to major auction events.

RM Restorations

In spite of the success of the auction business, RM restorations still forms an important part of the RM group. In fact, they restored five of the “Best of Show” Pebble Beach winners since 2000. Not a coincidental record as my colleagues and I were soon to discover in a rare and privileged visit to the RM Restoration shop. We were about to discover why owners from all over the world send cars in for work at RM’s renowned facility.

Katherine McFadden (Press Officer) cheerfully greeted us in the reception lobby as we were gawking at the antique motorcycles and artifacts located within the entrance hall. Moving through the employee cafeteria, we entered one of the most awesome shops my colleagues and I have ever seen. It is home to 30 of the finest craftsmen in the business, many RM employees since the beginning. Surrounded by some of the greatest and rarest automobiles in the world, these highly skilled artisans and car enthusiasts certainly rank as some of the luckiest people in the world.

Don McLellan (Quality Control Manager) gave us the grand tour of the entire facility, comprised of several dedicated ateliers. Starting with the general repair area, handling some restoration work as well as tune-ups and modifications, we then moved on to the dedicated panel fabricating, painting and upholstery shops. They even have a wood working shop and a chassis dynamometer!

Exhaustive Research and Period Tools

Throughout the tour Don McLellan explained that each part of a restoration project vehicle is inspected, photographed, documented, and repaired, rebuilt or fabricated using original methods, meticulously reproducing the initial build. It does not matter whether the vehicle is a one-off or mass produced, RM has dedicated documentation and research people searching the smallest details before starting the work. This allows the shop artisans to have all the necessary information to ensure the work attains the level of quality they are famous for. As further proof, the upholsterer confided researching the actual pitch of the original stitches as well as the exact material used. This attention to details ensures the final product not only looks correct, but also feels exactly like the original.

Run into a rare collector car heavily modified by previous owners? Not to worry, researching original documents and period photographs RM craftsmen reproduce the basic profile on CAD (Computer Aided Design) equipment. The metal fabricating shop then builds appropriate wood bucks to guide the painstaking metal forming process using period correct equipment.

At the end of the restoration process, the chassis dynamometer confirms that the performance is up to the standards of the original. RM provides owners with fully documented superior quality cars, each a perfect tribute to the craftsmen that built them in the first place. No wonder RM cars garner so many awards!

And speaking of RM cars, the list of their work history reads like a who’s who of the classic car industry. No less than nine Duesenbergs, dating from 1929 to 1937, seven Packards from 1934 to 1954, seven Talbo-Lago T150s including Figoni and Falaschi bodied coupes, certainly some of the most sensuous cars in history, six Mercedes-Benz vehicles, including two 300SL roadsters, a 300SL Gullwing and two 540Ks, Cadillac, Cord, Delage, Horch, Lincoln, Tucker, the list goes on. They even refurbished a certain Aston Martin DB5, yes that one, complete with muzzle flashing machine guns, which sold in 2010 in London for £2.9M.

An Impressive Display

After the impressive shop tour, Greg Duckloe (Research and Cataloguing Specialist) invited us to step into the no less impressive museum, which is not a static collection but rather a revolving assortment of RM as well as customer cars. Some of the vehicles on display are clean originals, while many are beautiful RM restorations. Take a moment to feast your eyes here on some of the masterpieces photographed by my colleague during our tour: http://www.guideautoweb.com/en/galleries/23782/ .

The RM museum, open year round to the public, contains a stunning display of rare vehicles and is well worth a visit. Just off highway 401, in Chatham-Kent, it is practically in our own backyard.

I wish to thank Katherine McFadden, Don McLellan and Greg Duckloe for taking time from their busy schedules and sharing their exceptional enthusiasm.

Want to learn more, click the following links:
RM Restorations: http://www.rmautorestoration.com/
RM Auctions: http://www.rmauctions.com/

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