Eleanor and Mike met in February of 2016. Eleanor was nearing her 50th birthday at that point, and while the outlines of her former beauty still hung about her frame, it was clear to anyone that her best days were behind her. Her body was a wreck. Her insides, frankly, were even worse: shed lost all her old get-up-and-go; she just sort of sat there, a shell of her former self.
But a cure was waiting, and his name was Mike Schwindt.
After a dedicated program of tough love during which time he lavished expert attention upon her body during the daylight hours and kept her locked in a metal building at night Schwindt coaxed from Eleanors tired bones something of her original luster.
By the time she and Mike had ended their two-year fling, she Eleanor, this late-bloomer, this silver fox would have been unrecognizable to her old acquaintances.
She wasnt merely the hotrod she was always meant to be. She was better.
ON FRIDAY, Schwindt, the owner-operator of Iolabased Motor Sport Restoration, pressed the keys for Eleanor a 1967 Mustang Fastback with a 428 Super Cobra Jet motor into the hands of its rightful owner, Terry Graves.
Yes, its my car, said Graves, who smiled brightly through his big, straw-colored beard as he climbed behind the wheel of his Eleanor- style Mustang for the first time since Schwindt had applied the finishing touches. But its all of them, Mike and his guys theyre the ones that did the real work.
IN EARLY JUNE of 2000, one movie led all others at the box office. Gone in 60 Seconds, starring Nicolas Cage, Giovanni Ribisi and Angelina Jolie, is a brassy heist movie, in which a band of premier car thieves is tasked with stealing 50 cars in a space of 12 hours. The biggest coin in their eventual purse? A modified 1967 Ford Shelby GT500, nicknamed Eleanor.
The popular movie was a loose reboot of a 1974 film of the same name. The original Gone in 60 seconds was directed by actor and stunt driver Toby Halicki, and was one of those quintessential 1970s films awash in mustaches and velveteen shirts. It is, however, reputed to be the first movie in which a car, Eleanor, received star billing in the title credits.
Halicki, who was no stranger to injury during his years as a stunt driver, was killed in an accident while filming Gone in 60 Seconds 2. But it wasnt before his film the original 1974 film as well as the later Nicolas Cage remake had managed to fan a minor flame in the hearts of a select group of Mustang enthusiasts around the country who decided they wanted an Eleanor of their own.
Graves stood beside his new, pearly silver Mustang on Friday. Its got all Eleanor-specific parts on it, he said. Its got the Eleanor body kit on it and its got Eleanor-specific wheels.
He did it the right way, said Schwindt. There were no corners cut. We just made what was an Eleanor a little bit better.
Graves is from Lawrence, and while there are dozens of restorers within short driving distance of that burg, there was never any doubt in Gravess mind who would be in charge of building his Ellie.
Schwindt, whose reputation in car-educated collector circles reaches far and wide, had painted a replica Shelby Cobra for Graves a few years earlier. Graves loved the results and became in that instant, like so many collectors that first encounter Schwindts expert handiwork, a repeat customer.
SCHWINDT set upon his career in restoration while still in his early twenties when he completed a successful, if exacting, overhaul of a 1955 Chevy.
