Fulton man finishes 20-year car restoration

Jun. 1—FULTON, Ill. — Twenty years ago, Stan Warren was working at a nuclear power plant in Knoxville, Tennessee. Needing to return to northwest Illinois when he'd started his own consulting business in the nuclear power industry and not wanting to make the trip by flight, he asked a friend if he could buy a 1953 Buick that Warren knew he had.

It had a straight-8 engine and a transmission that, Warren said, "took forever to get going." But he drove it the 670 miles from Knoxville, Tennessee, to rural Fulton, Illinois.

"And when I pulled into the driveway," he said, "my brakes were gone."

Warren started taking the transmission apart, a process interrupted by trips he'd have to take out of town in the Mercedes he drove for contracted work in various locations throughout the country for varying lengths of time, so he'd spend his time on the road ordering parts — challenges that would be waiting for him when he returned home.

"I had to interview for various positions going all around the country, and I had to get interviewed by all kinds of people," Warren said, recalling one man in particular who during an interview asked him what kind of engineering degree he had. "I said, 'Well, to be honest with you, sir, I don't feel like I've ever been limited by not having an engineering degree. My skills go beyond that.'"

"They hired me anyway," he laughs. "Do I have the education to do this? No. I get in there, I learn how to do it, apply what I know. If I don't know, I find somebody that does."

Underneath the 1959 Chevrolet dashboard on the passenger side is a fuse box that Warren installed according to his own diagrams by which he said he "hand-wired everything."

He found Bentley front and rear seats to fit the large interior of the car, both sets of which recline.

The front headlights are custom made as are the tail light brackets that frame three 1953 Cadillac taillights on each side that blink sequentially.

Warren made the door panels, but there are no door handles on the outside of the doors. They, instead, pop open with the push of a button on the key fob. The trunk opens in the same way, and a button on the inside of the car raises and lowers the hood.

The car now has a turbo 400 transmission within the front end that originally was five inches shorter but had to be extended to allow for enough room to install a bigger and rebuilt engine.

The original blue paint of the car has been replaced with a rich burgundy as well.

Sitting next to the 1953 Buick in Warren's garage is another car he's working on that's been stripped down to its frame. He also has a 1968 Chevelle in a Clinton body shop where it's currently getting paint work done.

The very first car Warren ever restored was a 1958 Chevrolet Impala, a project that he took on in 1965.

In between restoring that first car that he ever did and his current projects have been a number of others, including a 1985 Jaguar that he sold last fall to Jim Walters of Fulton.

In early 2019, around the same time that Warren retired, Walters went into cardiac arrest at the age of 44 when one of his arteries had become 95% blocked and caused him to have a heart attack.

Afterward, Walters was no longer able to drive a semi and had to find other forms of work to rely on which included working on a cattle farm, at a truck shop, then Mike's Transmission & Auto Repair in Fulton.

Walters met Warren when he'd come to the shop as a customer one day in the little Chevrolet pickup he regularly drives and saw him again a few times that followed.

"We had to come over here for something," Walters said from inside Warren's garage last week, "and I saw the Jaguar sitting there and I saw [the Buick], and he goes, 'hey, I'm looking for a little bit of help on this car,' because the engine had to be put in it and transmission."

Walters said that Warren saw how much he admired the Jaguar and offered to sell it to him for, Walters said, "a very good price."

Walters was able to produce a portion of the amount right away and has since formed a friendship with Warren as he's lended a hand with the 1953 Buick to work off the rest.

Eventually, the two were able to get the Buick to the point of being operational again.

"My friend that was living in Knoxville that sold me this car, I told him someday I'd give him a ride in it," Warren said. "Well, he passed away."

Warren's wife Cheryl, who happened to be Walter's teacher when he was in grade school in Albany, Illinois, would be the one to get the first ride — the only ride so far as Warren and Walters work out some final kinks, such as the engine timing.

"Stan's Buick has about four miles on it since everything is brand new," Walters said, but, "It's pretty loud."

Warren expects they'll have the car completely finished in a couple weeks.

At 77 years old, once the Buick and the other cars he's restoring have been finished, Warren said that's when he's finally "going to have to slow down."

1953 Buick components

Although not a complete list, these are parts Stan Warren used in restoring his 1953 Buick

1953 Chevrolet rear bumper

1954 Buick grill

1954 Buick Roadmaster front bumper

1959 Cadillac tail lights

1959 Chevrolet dashboard

1969 Chrysler connecting rods in motor

1969 Jaguar XKE air conditioning system

1971 Cadillac 551 cubic inch motor

1972 Cadillac brake pedal

1979 Jaguar power window mechanisms

1980 Chevrolet 700R4 transmission

1983 Buick finned aluminum rear brake drums

1984 Jaguar XJS V-12 radiator

1985 Corvette steering link

1985 Jaguar hood latches

1987 Corvette front suspension and shocks

1987 Olds Cutlass 3:88 rear end

1989 Mustang gas tank

1999 Chevrolet power steering pump

2000 Mercedes Benz CLK 430 wheels

2006 Bentley front and back seats

2006 Rolls Royce wiring for seats

2009 Wilwood brake cylinders

ACME intake manifold (Only two exist)