A Visit to Mosier Restorations

By Eric Davison

What would any normal car crazy kid in car crazy California do if what was arguably one of the most famous race car drivers in the world was restoring a car in his driveway and it was just a few blocks away?

Start hanging around, that’s what!

And, pretty soon with his high school auto mechanics class and his Ford factory technician training as his entre, Bob Mosier was helping Phil Hill restore a 1912 Packard at Hill’s place at 20th and Georgina in Santa Monica. The year was 1970.

As work went on, Hill realized that the car needed a paint job that neither he nor Mosier could apply. Enter Ken Vaughn, a former financial executive who just happened to be a friend of Phil’s and who could wield a mean paint gun.

It was the beginning of a program that brought Hill & Vaughn into being and into the forefront of the auto restoration business with the young Bob Mosier as a key and first employee.

Hill & Vaughn, purchased two collections totallng 53 vehicles. The cars were repaired, restored and refurbished. They were then sold either privately or at auctions. From there they began to restore cars for private clients and moved into a facility at 2nd and Colorado streets in Santa Monica. Soon they had to move to larger quarters up the street in Santa Monica and finally into a still larger place in Marina Del Rey. They grew from five or six employees to 18. The list of clients included the rich and famous including Steve McQueen.

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To be sure, the name ‘Phil Hill’ helped grow the business. But, Hill also helped Bob Mosier to grow. He became a father figure to him not only instilling in him an almost anal desire for perfection and for executing the minutia that goes into creating a 100 point restoration. He also taught him social graces and even, for a special meeting, gave Bob a sport coat that had belonged to Bruce McLaren.

The friendship between Phil Hill and Bob Mosier lasted until Phil’s death in 2008. Bob maintains close ties with Phil’s wife, Alma and their son Derek.

The rapid growth of Hill & Vaughn had its drawbacks. One of those was that instead of having one man be responsible for one car, specialists took over. Wood work, wiring, mechanical operations were now almost separate departments. In the arena of restoration, many clients prefer to have one man to talk to about what was happening to his treasure. The personal touch was fading and even Phil who was the one fielding most of the questions could not keep up with all the personal relationships that were required.

At this point, Jack Frank, a wealthy builder of hospitals, and who was having a car done at Hill & Vaughn approached Mosier and offered to help him start his own restoration shop and to be personally responsible for his cars. He wanted Bob to look after his cars from start to finish. Obviously this created a very large personal dilemma for Bob. Phil Hill was not only his friend and his idol but he had given him his start. Bob’s first response to this offer was “no” because he felt that he could not leave and that he could not become a competitor to Hill & Vaughn. It would have been disloyal in the extreme.

Jack Frank kept after him and eventually he arranged a meeting with himself, Bob and Phil to discuss the situation. Phil Hill was the most gracious of men and a true friend to Bob and sent him on his way with his blessings. Thus Mosier Restoration opened its doors in 1978 (with Phil Hill as a personal advisor). Greg Morrell who had also begun his career at Hill & Vaughn came along. Except for a brief hiatus when Greg decided to get away from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles, Mosier and Morrell have been side by side in the shop since 1978.

Mosier had learned his lessons well and in 1978 a 1937 Packard V12 just missed “best in show” honors at Pebble Beach. It put Mosier Restoration on the map and in the years since, Mosier has worked on cars for just about every major collector and collection. Included in his client list are such names as Miles Collier, John Mozart, Chip Connor (whose Talbot Figoni coupe won best in show at Pebble Beach in 1997) Ray Scherr, Larry Harvey and Peter Mullin.

Mosier Restoration did the mechanical work on Peter Mullin’s superb Talbot Lago Grand prix car as well as mechanical work on Mullin’s Talbot Figoni coupe.

At one point Mosier worked with his friend David Gooding to help settle the Otis Chandler collection (the building now houses the Mullin Museum.) He has also acted as a consultant to many collections and collectors.

One of Mosier’s most ongoing and interesting collectors is Larry Harvey, scion of the Harvey Aluminum Company. Harvey insists that nothing be spared when a restoration is undertaken and while he rarely enters his cars at Pebble Beach he invariably drives one of his cars to the event. He is a true lover of perfection. In addition to his classic Lincolns, Packards and Cadillacs, Larry Harvey has a perfectly restored (by Mosier) Hudson Hornet stock car of the 50s. One of the Harvey cars that Bob Mosier hopes to come his way for restoration is the Harvey Aluminum Mickey Thompson Indy car. That one would be a genuine labor of love.

One of the important lessons learned from Hill & Vaughn was that getting too big can be dangerous. Mosier Restoration has tried to remain consistent and to serve a limited number of customers and to serve them well. While this has been good for his reputation it has had a strange effect on the pure restoration side of his business.

The company is doing fewer total restorations because his ongoing customers are bringing cars back for tune ups, refreshing, etc. Rather than hire more people to do this work Bob Mosier feels that he can best serve his clients by always being personally available to them.

Additionally, he has found that many of his collector clients will buy a car that has been totally restored and it will wind up in his shop because some corners were skipped; that things were just not perfect.

One customer wise cracked that Mosier Restoration was like the place down the street from the barber shop that advertised “Hair Cuts – $2.00.” The Mosier sign would read “We Fix $2.00 Haircuts – $3.00.”

I saw a perfect example of that on my last visit. A valued customer had recently purchased a drop-dead gorgeous Duesenberg SJ cabriolet with a Murphy body.
It appeared to be perfect. However, there was some trouble with the clutch, it was hanging up. Bob and his crew put their attentions to the problem. They discovered that during the car’s restoration, the block had been align bored and that the boring was not perfectly executed. The clutch was binding on the misaligned shaft.

Mosier’s view is that things are changing. Many collectors are now taking the view that the project is an investment that must pay a return rather than a restoration for the love of the car. Therefore, many restoration decisions are based on whether the cost will bring a return on investment. If it is determined that going the extra mile will not pay out, corners are cut. Not so with either Mosier or his clients – do it right or don’t do it. Not so with either Mosier or his clients – do it right or don’t do it.

Recently a V16 Marmon that he had restored for Larry Harvey, was sold at auction to Bernie Ecclestone. After Ecclestone purchased the car, agents for Ecclestone visited Mosier Restoration. They wanted to determine if Bob had any spares that they might purchase for the almighty Bernie. Bob did and while the price was nominal, neither man had sufficient cash to pay at the time. They boxed up the pieces and departed with them under their arms.

“Don’t worry, old boy, Bernie is good for it and we will send you a check in a matter of weeks.” After a few months passed, Bob sent an email suggesting that they might have forgotten.

The response was classic. “You must send us an invoice in triplicate with a full description of the parts and an estimate of their worth. Mr. Ecclestone will never pay without such documentation.”

While it was only a few hundred dollars, it was worth great cocktail party conversation for Bob to say that the famous and fabulously wealthy Bernie Ecclestone owes him a few bucks.

Bob along with Greg and a small crew of four experts work their magic in a small shop on Hillcrest Boulevard in Inglewood, California. The opportunity to grow is there but the chance to lose the personal and hands on relationships has been deemed not worth the potential for expansion and the loss of that huge asset.

But there is a total restoration project currently underway at Mosier Restoration. It is a Mercer Raceabout. Look for it to be a serious contender at Pebble Beach in 2012.