Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Alonzo.
Greg, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
In 2014, I found myself in a deep depression that was brought on by the sudden passing of my mother. Soon after that my father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and passed 5 months later. Around that time my wife and I went through a miscarriage. All of this happening in just over a 2 year period.
At the time I was working from home with my wife. She owns a pet sitting and dog walking business. Only I was not much help. I was drinking a lot and sleeping all day and not doing much of anything.
I woke up one morning and was really mad at myself and I knew I had to make a change. The one thing I did do right was I watched a lot of car shows. Pretty much everything I watched, and I watched a lot, was about cars. I decided that was what I wanted to do, I wanted to build cars.
There are not any restoration schools in the Chicago area so I got involved with a mentoring program that uses classic cars to mentor youths, I started to learn there everything I could about restoring them. I started with some basic body work and then a few months later I took a welding class and that was it, I was hooked! A year later I decided to go back to school and enrolled in the automotive program at Morton College, where I have completed 22 credit hours of a 63 credit degree and have a 4.0 GPA. Now my specialty is welding and metal fabrication, however I can also do bodywork, paint and I know a lot of basic mechanics as well.
Today, I am the shop manager for Mando’s Customs, a lowrider shop near Midway Airport. Mando is also working with me to help me start my own shop called Speakeasy Customs & Classics with a different kind of style from the lowriders he builds, and we hope to one day work together building two very different types of classic cars in one shop.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
At first it was not easy, I had spent so much time on the couch that I wasn’t in the best shape, so physically it was a struggle. Working on classic cars is demanding work. There is a lot of sanding, I’m mean a LOT of sanding. There is also the constant rearranging of cars and hammering out dents. With all of the metal shaping it’s just very physical work, I have since lost over 30 pounds and am heathier than I have been in a long time.
Then there was the challenge of going back to school. I had just turned 40 when I took my 1st class. It was quite an adjustment after not going to school for 22 years. I was old enough to be the father of most of the students! I didn’t think I would be comfortable with the whole experience, but after my 1st class I got an “A” and I knew that I wanted to keep moving forward. I didn’t take any classes this year but I am really looking forward to going back in the spring.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Speakeasy Customs & Clasics – what should we know?
Speakeasy Customs & Classics is a custom car shop that specializes in the restoration and customization of classic cars. I am working with a designer named Mike Herbert who went to Columbia College and did his thesis on Cadillac design. I began working with him on my 1947 Cadillac Series 60 Fleetwood Special. I asked him to help me design some special custom work that would still have the classic Cadillac feel to it, and boy did he deliver! His drawings are exactly what I had envisioned for it.
Shortly after that we gained access to three 1949 Cadillacs, two Coupe Deville’s and a convertible, and we decided to try to base a shop on them. From there Speakeasy was born!
I currently don’t have the funding to afford my own space yet but my boss Mando has a 10,000 sq. ft. shop and has been unbelievably supportive of my vision so he has been working with me to share some of his space until I can grow into my own. This is why I went with the name Speakeasy-we we are starting off as the shop in the back.
Mike has designed a bare metal version of the Coupe that we have started to build already and is for sale. It will have a bare metal body, air ride suspension and a custom interior designed and built by Mike himself. The other Coupe Deville is for sale to a client that will have us design and build it to their own liking. We are of course looking for clients with their own projects as well. With the sale of one or both of these vehicles Speakeasy will then have the funds necessary to expand into their own space.
Speakeasy is also building a 1966 Chevy Corvair Monza custom that we will be entering in the 2018 World of Wheels. It will be on an air ride suspension with custom paint and interior work and knock off wire wheels! I am really excited about this one since it will be the first car that I built from start to finish that I will have in a show of that size.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
There are a lot of people that deserve credit for helping me be where I am today. First I would like to thank everyone at the Automotive Mentoring Group, the mentoring program that I began this journey with, It’s the place where I learned half of what I know today and where I was able to practice a lot of my new found skills.
I also owe a thanks to Don Sykora at Morton College and the rest of the staff there for their support and their encouragement, especially when I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue going.
And most importantly my wife Carolyn for putting up with me when I was down and at my worst and for helping me find a way out, if it were not for her extra push in the first place I would never have started down this path.
Contact Info:
- Address: 5235 W. 65th Street
Bedford Park, IL 60638 - Website: www.speakeasycustomsclassics.com
- Phone: 312-253-7464
- Email: speakeasycars@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagrams.com/speakeasycustoms
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpeakeasyCustomsClassics/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/speakeasy-customs-and-classics-bedford-park
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