It became as though Kelly Berger of Epic Motorsports in Kenosha was born with magical palms and a mechanically-minded brain.
He already knew he wanted to create and fix whatever with a motor lengthy earlier than he thought of a career at an early age.
Berger becomes in the 2d grade whilst he rebuilt a garden mower that he bought rapidly later on. He rebuilt it using no schematic nor parental assistance.
“I even have restless arms,” he defined. He constantly has to have something to do. And any assignment related to some car brings a unique pleasure, a venture that he is inclined to take on.
From then on, Berger has rebuilt, repaired, fabricated, and custom-designed limitless motors, including bikes, golf carts, automobiles, and vans. He has even customized motors that have been used in films.
“I love being able to build something out of not anything,” defined Berger.
Also quite of a trainer, he’s passing his ardor for designing, fabricating, and restoring to his crew.
“I love coaching; these are top-notch men,” he defined. He welcomes folks who want to examine and become a part of a crew that may perform on many of the hardest initiatives.
Epic Motorsports, 6208 28th Ave., normally restore five to ten vehicles a yr. The team is presently running on 8 bikes.
Movie magic
In 2008, a year packed with several primary initiatives, Berger and his team carried out some custom magic on a 2008 Plymouth Barracuda that turned into at the end-users inside the film “Fast and the Furious 6.” The car turned into, at the beginning, designed for the creator of Paintball, who loaned and later bought it to the team of “Fast & Furious,” according to Berger.
In 2009, Epic Motorsports became lower back at it customizing and converting 4 Harley Davidson Crossbones into World War II bikes for a Captain America film. While it took 12 months, it serves as an iconic mission.
International initiatives
Berger is a Ford Motor Co. Senior grasp technician, a designation he earned in 1993. He also is one of one hundred senior grasp technicians in the World. Such designations have earned him appreciation globally. He entertains inquiries about future initiatives from car owners who’ve heard of his work and want his services.
Each year in view that 2008, he has been invited to Bahrain and Dubai to paintings at the motors owned through Sheik Mohammed and Sheik Ali. He turned into there this past spring, where he had 35 automobiles to paintings on.
Berger remembers being a little bit fearful on that first journey. He should convey no one, now not even his spouse. Aides met him at the airport and whisked him off to a royal plaza courtyard area. He needed to order parts he thought he wished and turned them into organized to manufacture.
Though the paintings became acquainted, he wasn’t organized for the extreme warmness. “When I was given there, I felt sick. I stated I desire I didn’t come all this way to have a coronary heart attack. After downing a few Gatorade, I changed into excellent,” he recalled.
Moving truck recuperation
One of Berger’s maximum latest challenges has been to restore a 1925 International shifting truck for Otto Nelson Moving & Storage.
The venture became an enticing venture for Berger and his group. It was a love blend that realized a dream of George Follansbee, the Otto Nelson president, to recreate that truck as it has been at some stage in its generation. Follansbee said he found the truck in Nebraska. It had been a long-distance moving truck out to California.
He said he’ll use it for advertising and marketing and promotional functions. “It’s a chunk of history,” he explained.
The restoration, which becomes a finished ultimate month, becomes completed in time for the Otto Nelson Moving & Storage organization’s 100th anniversary.
“It becomes cool; I’ve never visible whatever like this,” Berger stated.
It becomes tough to locate a number of the parts he needed. It turned into a task that had him the use of metallic and wooden elements. He needed to do loads of fabricating and, for the reason that truck has a timber floor in both the cab and in the shipment bay, he had to perform a little woodwork refinishing.
