Santa Ana man keeps classic Packards rolling along

Robert Escalante’s Custom Auto Service in downtown Santa Ana has for decades been the go-to place for restoration and maintenance of vintage Packard automobiles — in part because he has taken the adage “do what you love” to heart when charting his career.

“I’ve turned my play into work and my work into play,” he says.

Escalante’s  shop is known nationwide for its workmanship and expertise in restoring the classic vehicles. And though the last autos bearing the Packard name were produced in 1958, the business  at 302 French St. is keeping the brand alive, one car at a time.

“They’re timeless, ageless,” he says of the luxurious autos.

A look at the cars in his shop  certainly bears that out. The massive vehicles display a distinctive elegance that never goes out of style.

During their pre-World War II heyday, Packards were coveted by heads of state and movie stars alike. Clark Gable owned a Packard, as did Gary Cooper. The brand was so prestigious that at one time it was considered the American Rolls-Royce.

“They’ve always been celebrated cars with celebrities,” Escalante says. “Those people tend to gravitate to the cars because they’re an art form. And then they find out it was a part of history and wind up collecting more than one.”

Today’s owners include Jay Leno and Johnny Depp, as well as local collectors such as entrepreneur Mike Harrah, developer Gen. William Lyon and auto dealer Donnie Crevier.

In some cases, Escalante sold them their cars; in others, he helped them solve a mechanical problem.

Leno, for instance, turned to Escalante when he needed a rare transmission for his 1955 Packard Caribbean. He spoke  enthusiastically about the shop in a video about the car posted on his Jay Leno’s Garage Web site.

“They are a Packard dealer just like a Packard dealership you would walk into in the ’40s or ’50s,” he says in the video. “They know everything about them.”

A visit shows that Leno wasn’t exaggerating.

The business occupies a restored building that housed an electric car dealership in the early days of the automobile, so it certainly has the right pedigree. In the showroom sit two impeccably restored 1930s Packards — as well one of the Batmobiles from “Batman Returns” owned by Harrah — plus an array of vintage items including a  gas pump, a wooden phone booth, automotive signs and other memorabilia.

In another part of the building, a conference room filled with Packard literature and more memorabilia is home to the Packards International Motor Car Club, which has members in all 50 states and 12 foreign countries. The club currently has an exhibit of Packard photos and accessories on display at John Wayne Airport through May 31.

Out back in the work area, Escalante’s brothers David and Sandy and his cousin Toby can be found working on a half-dozen rare Packards on any given day.

The business is a real family affair, as the staff also includes Escalante’s father, Al, and his wife, GeGe, who serves as vice president. Also on staff is Packard master mechanic Cal Soest, who has been there since the business opened in the late 1960s.

“Cal is probably one of the smartest mechanics in the country,” Escalante says, noting that he’s one of the few technicians around who knows how to rebuild a 12-cylinder Packard engine.

Shelves filled with rare parts allow Escalante to handle nearly any job a customer calls for. The shop’s restorations are done to a high standard of authenticity and have competed successfully at concours events in Pebble Beach and Newport Beach.

For Escalante, the love affair with all things Packard began when he was looking for his first car while in high school in the 1970s.

“A Packard became available for sale on Main Street in Santa Ana, and I fell in love with it,” he recalls. “I had no idea of the following Packard had at the time, I just knew that I really enjoyed the looks of the car. The rest is history.”

Escalante’s history with Custom Auto Service goes back to that 1941 Packard sedan he purchased as his first car. The car needed a taillight, which led him to the shop, opened in 1966 by Packards International founder Bill Lauer.

“I had a radio for the car, and I traded it to Bill for the taillight,” Escalante says. “The radio was worth more than the taillight, but I didn’t know that at the time.”

Soon he was working for Lauer, doing odd chores around the shop and learning more and more about the cars. Over time, he was able to move into body and fender work and eventually became a Packard expert.

But by 1983, the future of the business was in doubt. Lauer wanted out after the city started requiring that older buildings be retrofitted to meet seismic standards. Owners that didn’t comply could see their buildings demolished through eminent domain.

“The city wanted (to put in) a festival shopping center,” Escalante says. “I basically stepped up and bought the building from Bill. I knew only that we needed to save the building, we needed to move forward.”

Fortunately, the business survived that close call and today serves as an example of how an older building can be a useful commercial property as well as an architectural gem that lends historical flavor to a city’s business district.

Escalante says that many of his customers today look at their cars as investments, “almost like a stock portfolio.” As such, they keep him busy maintaining the vehicles by doing jobs ranging from convertible top replacements to tune-ups, valve jobs and other mechanical work.

Cars with older restorations that need to be put back into top condition to compete at car shows are another major part of the business.

“For the last year, it’s been people buying cars that were restored 20 years ago and having us re-prepare the cars,” Escalante says. “I’ve got about four cars like that in here right now.”

In addition, the shop does about two full restorations a year — a job that can take 12 months or more.

Escalante describes the business as steady, and works to promote it through car shows and events.

“It takes marketing, staying on top of your pride in who you are, what you do,” he says.

His efforts certainly seem to have paid off.

“The corner of Third and French is known throughout the world,” Escalante says. “It’s a 100-year-old building with 75-year-old cars. And customers from all over the country who … have a Packard.”

Tags: classic cars, Custom Auto Service, Packards, restoration, Santa Ana

This entry was posted on Friday, April 9th, 2010 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Business, Local News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.