CASE STUDY
HELPING JAY LENO RESTORE CLASSICS
Jay Leno’s love for vehicles is far from subtle. Throughout his life, Leno has been a collector of exotic and classic automobiles and motorcycles. Today, Leno can lay claim to a collection upwards of 300 vehicles.
After retiring from The Tonight Show, Leno channeled his love for vehicles into a new endeavor, Jay Leno’s Garage. Airing on CNBC, Jay Leno’s Garage explores Leno’s car collection, dubbed one of the country’s best.
Leno’s Garage is located in Burbank, California. At the garage, a team of seven people repair and restore all of Leno’s vehicles. Heading the team is general manager Bernard Juchli, who says that working on just Leno’s fleet is more than enough to keep the entire team busy.
“He drives everything, and they all need maintenance or restoration,” said Juchli. “It’s all in a day’s work for us.”
RADIATOR SOLUTIONS FOR THE RARE
As one could imagine, repairing and restoring exotic and classic makes and models of vehicles can prove difficult. Parts can be nearly impossible to find, and specifications can be outdated. One vehicle component not immune to this challenge isengine radiators.
In multiple restoration projects, they’ve relied onL&M Radiator, Inc.toprovide unique custom solutions.
“Around 15 years ago, we worked with L&M on our 1961 Flexible Starliner,” said Juchli. “We put a large Detroit Diesel engine in it that required a larger radiator.”
Juchli was introduced to L&M Radiator, Inc. while working with Detroit Diesel on an engine for the bus. From there, he worked with L&M Radiator, Inc. to create a custom radiator roughly the size of a refrigerator door for the engine. The radiator’s individual tubes and rubber seals have proven an effective heat transfer solution for the bus.
“On a 100-degree day, you can drive that bus up to Vegas without it overheating,” said Juchli. “Those heat exchange tubes work really well.”
The most recent project Juchli has partnered with L&M Radiator, Inc. on was the restoration of a 1911 Christie Fire Engine. The fire engine’s original copper radiator was consistently leaking, so Juchli engaged L&M Radiator, Inc. to build a new radiator with MESABI® Replacement Radiator tubes and seals.
“We were able to provide them the specs we needed, and they designed everything for us,” said Juchli. “We built the header tanks ourselves and were able to simply place the tubes in. It turned out perfect.”
A SIMPLE PROCESS FOR UNIQUE RESTORATION
Throughout his 15 years working with L&M Radiator, Inc., Juchli has been appreciative of how seamless the repair and restoration projects have been. For the 1911 Christie Fire Engine, Juchli and his team simply told L&M Radiator, Inc. the size they needed for the finished radiator. From there, the replacement tube length was quickly determined.
“For both our projects, we had an overall dimension that we could use, and in both cases, they made the radiator fit,” said Juchli.
WithMESABI® solutions, both the bus and fire engine have experienced zero heating problems. Juchli says if a problem were to arise, it would be simple to replace.
“I love the idea of replacing a tube rather than disassembling the whole lot,” Juchli said. “It makes it quicker to be back in business, and that’s an important thing for Jay. When one of his children is sick, he wants them fixed.”
