The owner of a classic automobile restoration shop in Tennants Harbor is creating mechanical art. Phil Reinhardt spends his days working on classical cars. “Most of the stuff I work on is between the 30s and 60s,” Reinhardt said. Only cars made before 1980 are seen inside his workshop. “I think I know about old cars. What I love is just the beauty of their designs and I think it has simple beauty too,” Reinhardt said. Reinhardt opened Mechanical Arts in 2020. He added that he’s drawn to both the beauty and the challenge of restoring an auto. Parts of which haven’t been made for decades. While older cars were often simpler than they are today, they’re rarely easy to remodel. Creativity replaces any service manual that was lost decades ago. Reinhardt said, “You see just about every problem they might have there but you slowly start filling your arsenal with different ways to solve these problems.” Reinhardt got the job done. likes to show off cars. He says one of the perks is being able to test drive them around town. ha and essentially talking about his latest project. “If you go to the gas station or anything like that you have to be prepared to stop. Eight out of 10 times someone comes up with, ‘Oh my grandpa has one of these,'” Reinhardt said. Reinhardt says it’s surprising how many antique autos are scattered across Maine in various stages of repair, humming his shop. It keeps Reinhardt constantly searching for and adding to his personal arsenal to keep the classics on the road. “Every company, every engineer had their own way of doing the things they liked best, they had their own way of solving the problem related to cars at the time and it really made each of them a unique piece of mechanical art.” piece made,” Reinhardt said. His work is so in demand that he currently has a nearly 30-car waiting list.
The owner of a classic automobile restoration shop in Tennants Harbor is creating mechanical art.
Phil Reinhardt spends his days working on classical cars.
“The stuff I work on is from the ’30s and ’60s,” Reinhardt said. Only cars made before 1980 are seen inside his workshop.
“I think what I love about older cars is just the beauty of their design and I think the simple beauty of it too,” Reinhardt said.
Reinhardt opened Mechanical Arts in 2020. He said he was attracted by both the beauty and the challenge of restoring an auto that parts haven’t been made in decades.
While older cars were often designed to be simpler than they are today, it is rarely that easy to remodel them.
Creativity replaces any service manual that was lost decades ago.
“You see just about every problem out there that they might have but you slowly start filling your arsenal with different ways to solve these problems,” Reinhardt said.
Reinhardt likes to show off cars when they’re done. He says one of the perks is being able to take him test drives around town and essentially chatting up about his latest project.
“If you go to the gas station or anything like that you have to be prepared to stop. Eight out of 10 times someone comes up with, ‘Oh my grandpa has one of these,'” Reinhardt said.
Reinhardt says it’s surprising how many antique autos are scattered across Maine in various stages of repair, leaving his shop humming.
It keeps Reinhardt constantly searching for and adding to his personal arsenal of solutions to keep the classics on the road.
“Every company, every engineer had their own way of doing the things they liked best, they had their own way of solving the problem related to cars at the time and it really made each of them a unique piece of mechanical art.” piece made,” Reinhardt said. ,
His work is so in demand that he currently has a nearly 30-car waiting list.
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