(published July 20, 2018)
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 2010
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Vintage car restoration
THEN:
OWNER: Michael Mancini
LOCATION: 65 Foliage Drive, North Kingstown
EMPLOYEES: 17
ANNUAL SALES: $2 million
NOW:
OWNER: Michael Mancini
LOCATION: 65 Foliage Drive, North Kingstown
EMPLOYEES: 17, including 5 at Instrument Specialties
ANNUAL SALES: $2.2 million
Business at American Muscle Car Restorations Inc. was booming from the start, according to owner Michael Mancini. Over a decade later, the vintage care restoration service has only gotten busier.
The hobby-turned-business has attracted increasingly prestigious jobs in the past five years, Mancini said. Many of the cars the business works on are extremely rare, with only a few examples of that particular car in existence.
In recent years, the business restored a 1971 Plymouth Hemi ’Cuda, one of the rarest muscle cars in existence. The car restored by American Muscle Car Restorations earned a perfect score at the annual Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Chicago, which had only been achieved two other times in the show’s decade-plus history.
The business regularly works on cars featured at shows around the country, which Mancini said contributes to the business’s rising profile.
American Muscle Car Restorations has so far navigated the COVID-19 pandemic apparently unscathed, according to Mancini, with much of the business’s clientele seemingly avoiding the economic consequences of the coronavirus.
The business’s sister company, Instrument Specialties Inc., saw an influx of business, leading to an increase in demand for mail-order components. Mancini speculates that lockdown measures may have given clients more time to focus on delayed restorations.