About the Owners

Meet Chris Ochs

The car bug all started for me in the summer of 1981.   I was 17 years old and bought my first car, a 1968 Dodge Charger.   It was red with a black vinyl top, had a big block, bucket seats, and the automatic shifter on the floor. The car is still with me, 43 years now, and it is presently being restored along with a 1969 Dodge Super Bee. I also own a numbers-matching 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner that is finished.

I fell in love with the Mopars because I always wanted something different than what my friends were driving.   I love all cars, all the makes and models from various manufacturers, but there just weren’t as many Mopars around back then, they were unique and to a large degree, and remain somewhat rare in the general scheme of things.   They were also legendary performance leaders, which made them more interesting.

When I was a young man, I learned how to build motors from an old racer that lived in my neighborhood.   Out of necessity, I am self-taught in the art of restoration and all other aspects of the automobile.   I grew up in the construction industry as a carpenter, but also served as an aircraft mechanic for both the commercial airline industry and Northrop Grumman, helping to build the B-2 bomber.   I have always worked with my hands and learned a lot about fabrication while working on aircraft, skills which further fed my abilities to work on and restore cars.

 Meet Jim Ochs

My early memories of being immersed in car culture started with my older brothers – one of them being Chris.   Both of my brothers had Dodge Chargers and would cruise West Colfax (a suburb of Denver) on Friday and Saturday nights.   Think of the movie American Graffiti.   Every once in a while, my father would make my brothers take me with them and while they had other interests in mind (the ladies!) they decided to make me duck in the back seat and hide.   During these adventures, I saw so many cool cars and the smell of unburned fuel, from mis-tuned carburetors, and the unmistakable smell of burning rubber had me hooked.

Even as I ventured into my career as an engineer working in the field of semi-conductors and traveling the world, I was never far from tinkering on cars.   In my spare time I always found time to either work on my own car or one that belonged to a friend.

My favorite cars are the classics, especially muscle cars because it was what I grew up around and the style lines and raw power take me back to those days in the back seat of a ’68 or ’70 Charger.    I have restored and collected various classics in the past that include a 1965 Chevelle 300, a 1969 Roadrunner, and a 1979 Ford.   In my current collection, I have another 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner, 1969 Dodge Dart GTS, and a 1969 Dodge Charger.   The ’69 Charger is currently being restored and will be a restomod.   Chris and I are also working on a ’69 Coronet 500 convertible.   The journey of restoring never ends, but that’s what I love about it.