The Roadster Shop had been an industry main stay for over 20 years.
The Roadster Shop has been owned and operated by Neal, Phillip, and Jeremy Gerber since 2004 when it was purchased from the original owner. The Roadster Shop had been an industry main stay for over 20 years in the street rod chassis and fabrication market. The goal was to start with the solid chassis production foundation and grow that into the leader in the street rod chassis market. Many changes were made to improve the quality and ease the installation for the customer as well as adding several new models to the chassis line up.
Being in the hot rod industry turned out to be the perfect excuse to build a custom hot rod. The first car under the new ownership (A red and silver 1932 Dearborn Deuce) was built as a company display vehicle to showcase the chassis as well as the custom fabrication and build quality possessed by the Roadster Shop. That car marked the beginning of the new wave of Roadster Shop turn key car builds. Over the next few years a growing collection of award winning turn key hot rods were built by the Roadster Shop for customers across the US. The business model had changed into both a production chassis manufacture and turn key car builder.
Along the way, new opportunities presented themselves when the muscle car market turned from numbers matching restorations, into performance based pro-touring cars. The Roadster Shop branched out to form a new division, RS Performance Concepts, which began the muscle car line. This again started with a display vehicle (An orange 1966 Chevelle) that was designed to show the performance of the chassis as well as the styling and attention to detail. Performance testing numbers and the styling awards and recognition again put RS at the top of the industry in this new and fast growing market. With the success of this first vehicle, many more award winning customer turn key cars followed.
In 2006, the increase in turn key car builds and chassis sales overwhelmed the current 12,000 sq. ft. facility in Elgin, IL. Plans were made to move to the current 30,000 sq. ft. location in Mundelein, IL in January of 2007. A complete renovation to the building was done prior to the move in January of 2007. Along with the new facility came the room to expand and take on more builds and up the chassis production. New machinery and equipment was purchased including a state of the art down draft paint booth and 20ft CNC plasma cutting table, among others. The retail parts show room was replaced with a luxurious showcase area for recently completed cars, cars for sale, and to display various chassis.
