Shop Tours

Story by: Richard Parks

We traveled out to Lake Mathews, California to visit with Jim Meyer and Al Simon and to see Meyer’s shop. As we drove down the 91 freeway, we passed Corona, California, site of many speed shops, boat works and car fabricating firms. We saw the new Eibach Springs plant not far from the intersection of the 15 and 91 freeways, a place that we will be visiting and reporting on in the future. When we reached Lake Mathews and the area where homes are allowed, we began a short climb from the main road, until we reached Meyer’s home, and then we looked back over a magnificent panorama of a beautiful lake. Meyer’s sprawling shop is next to his home on 2 ¼ acres with plenty of room to expand on. He built his own home, shop, walls and storage areas. He restores, builds, fabricates and designs some of the best and most respected hot rods and custom cars anywhere and we wanted to interview him in action. Roger, the dauntless and energetic photographer, needed to take photographs of Glen Kanos’ 1934 Ford 5-Window coupe in order to make up a flyer to pass out at car shows. Kanos tragically passed away from cancer and his dream car was being built by Meyer. A new owner is needed to take over and complete this hot rod. It has a Kugel front and rear suspension, an LS2 engine and a 4L56E transmission. The company is called Jim Meyer Enterprises. Meyer is also working on the following restorations; 1937 Ford Delivery Sedan, ’52 Chevy Fast Back, ’52 Ford Pick-up truck, ’32 Ford 3-Window Coupe, ’65 El Camino, and a ’50 Chevy Pick-up. Jim says that he turns out a finished car about every 18 months and he has 5 cars in the completion stage. He has ten customers that he is working with at the present, but his list of past customers is much larger and many of his clients come to him from past work that he has done for them or by word of mouth. Al Simon and Dennis McNeil help him out with fabrication, body work and mechanical work.

Meyer was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota in 1949 and in the late 1950’s, the family moved to the city of Norwalk in Southern California. Shortly after coming to California, the Meyer’s moved to Riverside, where Jim went to school at Norte Vista High School. He took all the normal shop classes that were offered then; wood shop, metal shop, auto shop and drafting. His love of cars started very early. When he was twelve years old he worked on his friends’ cars and joined a club in the Riverside area called the Seagrams Car Club. I asked him if the name had anything to do with the Whiskey Company and he nodded. He was involved in the normal street scene at the time, showing off their cars and going to the drag races in the area. Jim graduated from high school in 1967 and worked for various car dealers. He worked for Glenwood Motors in Riverside, starting as a lot boy, doing odds and ends, driving customers to and from the dealership and assisting the mechanics. Jim took what he knew about cars and learned from the other mechanics, gradually working his way up in his chosen field. He was also interested in drag racing and from the time he graduated in 1967 to around 1985, was committed to racing. As a teen he was involved in bracket racing, where different styles of cars raced against each other. Each car had a different time allotted to it and when cars had a time that was slower than another car, there was a handicap given and the slower car could start first, with the faster car having to catch up somewhere before the finish line.  Jim graduated to Super Stock drag cars and then raced Modifieds and Pro Stockers. In 1982 he drove John Bassett’s Dodge Charger Pro Stock car to the Division 6 points championship and finished 8^th overall in the nation.

Meyer left Glenwood and went to work for Ralph Williams Chrysler-Plymouth dealership in Downey, California, from 1969 until 1972, working as a full mechanic and learning even more about repairing cars. He has also worked at Majestic Chrysler-Plymouth in West Covina and Beach City Dodge. In 1977 he decided to open up his own business in Riverside, called RV Specialties, working on motor homes and recreational vehicles. Over the years he has cultivated a growing clientele of hot rodders who admired his work and he has found others who are skilled mechanics, electricians, upholsterers, painters and masters of many other crafts. So in 2004, he closed down RV Specialties and opened Jim Meyer Enterprises on his large property, where he restores and builds outstanding hot rods. He has some impressive equipment in his shop. There are two heavy lift hoists capable of lifting 10,000 pounds. Roger and I saw plasma cutters, bandsaws, mills, lathes, Finger break and sheet metal rollers, electric file machine, press break, disc sanders, plenishing hammer, punch machine, stomp shear cold saw, heli-arch welder and much more. Perhaps this is standard equipment for most shops, but they filled his clean and neat shop in an impressive display. Jim has been married since 1984 to Pam Meyer and they have no children, though he has a black lab by the name of Toby, who insists on getting into the photographs. To reach Jim, if you are interested in learning more about restoring or building your special hot rod, call him at 951-780-9814. He’s a very friendly and helpful person and he will answer all of your questions. June 6, 2008