BROOKINGS – For 36 years, Robert “Bob” Algood has been living on an acreage in rural Brookings. In 2010, he built the spacious home there that he and his wife Brenda now occupy. For 35 of those 36 years he has been restoring cars – by his estimate “maybe a couple hundred.”

This weekend, two of those will be on display at the Annual Brookings Car Show.

The event kicks off Saturday with a Show-N-Shine from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Nick’s Hamburger Shop. A cruise will leave from Nick’s at 4 p.m.

Sunday starts with registration for the car show from 9 to 11:30 a.m. at Pioneer Park. There are 28 car and truck classes with three places per class and an overall Judge’s Choice award. The show runs from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with music, prizes and food.

Beyond redoing a few vehicles for himself in his spare time and on weekends, most of Algood’s work is done for paying customers. His cap logo reads: Bob’s Body Shop and Restoration. That’s as far as his advertising goes. You won’t find the name of his business online or in the phone book.

“I don’t advertise. I’m booked out five years,” he said, adding that there are not a lot of auto restorers in this area. “A few do fill-in work at some of the regular shops. Otherwise they send a lot of it to me.”

If there’s a tribute to the quality of Algood’s restoration work, it would be the number of satisfied customers who have referred others to him and the waiting list for those who want him to work on their cars.

Finding parts

Asked what kind of shape his customers’ cars arrive in for restoration, Algood smiled.

“Normally I get them in boxes. I do a lot of different cars. It doesn’t matter what it is, I repair it, fix it, paint it,” he said.

He does interior work and some work on brakes and suspension; but he sublets out much of the work on engines.

Like other car collectors and restorers in this year’s car show, Algood agrees that it’s not a cheap hobby.

“It’s a deep well to throw money into. It gets pretty expensive,” he said smiling.

Asked to name the most challenging car that he’s restored, he cited a 1937 Chevrolet two-door business coupe: “There’s nobody around that knows anything about them, because they’re gone.”

“It came all apart. I’ve got to figure it out. So it is a challenge,” Algood said, laughing,  

But the Internet has made auto restoration easier by providing a place to go in search of hard-to-find parts for long-dead cars. The parts are out there online or in catalogs made available by companies that specialize in parts.

“I can find normally about any part,” he added. As to the quality of parts, “You learn what company to buy from. They’re out there (original parts), but some times you have to pay more, probably five times (for what they would have cost just off the assembly line). But that’s the key: they fit.”

Two to show

While restoration of customers’ vehicles is full-time job No. 1, Algood found enough spare time over two years to restore a 1970 Chevy pickup and he took less time to restore a 1967 Chevy Camaro. He’ll be taking both to this year’s car show.

He’s the pickup’s second owner and the vehicle has never been outside Brookings County. When he bought the Camaro, “it was in pieces.” Both vehicles now look as good as or better than the day they rolled off the showroom floor.

Algood learned his auto restoration skills via both formal schooling and on-the-job training.

“I went to school for it, right after high school,” he said. “I went through the University of South Dakota at Springfield before they made it into a prison.”

In addition to a more traditional academic education, the school offered two-year technical and vocational training programs. Gov. Bill Janklow had the school closed in 1984.

“After that I went to Flandreau, Wittrock Chevrolet, and strictly did painting. I was the refinishing person. I worked there a couple years and then I moved back home to Brookings. Then I worked for Tribble Motors and then that shifted to Paula Motors. For five years I worked for both those employees,” he said.

“Then I went to 3M for 28 years; plus I was restoring cars besides. When I turned 55, I retired from 3M. I said, ‘No more shift work.’ So now all I do is restore cars.”

Algood can add one more element to his education and skill set.

“I grew up on a farm. You learn how to do things on your own,” he said.

Indeed he did.

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister com.