Carmen Vera is dedicated to the purchase and restoration of classic cars. He stands out when he takes his new builds to places like the Pomona Swap Meet, where gearheads, lowriders, and hot rodders have gathered to show off their cars since the 1970s.
“This arrogant man came up to me with a cigarette and said, 'Let me guess, this is your old man's car,'” Vera said. “He was stunned when I told him it was mine.”
Vera, who was born and raised in Northeast Los Angeles, grew up watching her father and cousins fix their cars in the Los Angeles lowrider scene of the 1990s. “Everything I know, I learned from my dad or playing with my own cars,” Vera said. “And as a single mom, I needed to learn how to rotate a tire or change the oil on my own.”
Over the past seven years, Vera built her own restoration company while working full time, one of four businesses she owns, and later became a partner with Sal Rivas at Pasadena Classic Car. Her customer base now stretches from Los Angeles to Mexico, Arizona, Hawaii and Texas. Her young daughter also loves being in the shop and watching her mother transform junk cars into treasures.
Sal Rivas, left, and Carmen Vera, co-owners of Pasadena Classic Car, look at Vera's restored 1972 Chevy C10 short bed in the shop.
For Vera, restoring old cars is not just a job, it is an art. “For me, these cars have a family history that I fall in love with,” Vera said.
So when a trio of burned and smoke-damaged Chevrolets pulled from a garage that collapsed during the Eaton Fire, including an original 1972 C10 pickup, arrived at the shop, Vera had a vision.
“I built that completely restored truck in seven months with original parts,” said Vera, whose goal, which he achieved, was to display it in October at the Specialty Equipment Market Association Show, an exclusive annual auto industry trade show held in Las Vegas.
“The question was to recover what was burned,” Vera said.
For seven months, he worked from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. every day with his team restoring the truck. “My team is the best,” Vera said. “They are professionals…they believe in my dream.”
“I started this business 19 years ago and I think this is one of the best builds we've ever done,” said Rivas, who grew up in Altadena. For him, this construction was different. “Man, that thing went from the ashes to a new life,” Rivas said.
A photo of the burned-out 1972 Chevy C10 short bed, burned in the Eaton Fire in Altadena and now restored by Vera.
The restored 1972 Chevy C10 features a burnt orange exterior finish, paired with a pearlescent white leather interior. The build was completed as a complete off-frame body restoration, a process that separates the truck's body from its chassis to rebuild each component from the ground up, with original components carefully sourced and preserved wherever possible. Almost all of the work was done in-house, including fabrication and a hand-crafted interior through Vera's own upholstery department, reflecting an emphasis on craftsmanship and historical continuity rather than a cosmetic overhaul. Rebuilds of this caliber often cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Vera paid for everything out of pocket, although she wouldn't say how much it actually ended up costing. Once Vera was done, the C10 was ready for the SEMA Show, where it received nothing but good feedback.
Rivas noted, however, that at SEMA, 80% of the people who came to his booth couldn't believe it was Vera's car. “They thought it was just a model car or something,” said Vera, who reports that men's behavior changes the instant she starts talking about her car.
Vera is sitting in the 1972 Chevy C10 short bed that she spent seven months (5 a.m. to 11 a.m. daily) restoring with her team.
A view of the new LS engine conversion in the 1972 Chevy C10 short bed.
“[Vera] is definitely in a category of its own,” said Crystal Avila, marketing and media manager for FiTech Fuel Injection, a fuel injection manufacturer, who met Vera at last year's SEMA, where it displayed the C10. Avila recognized the C10 on social media: a video of the original owner drinking a beer and crying over his Chevy collection that was nearly destroyed in the Eaton fires. She was instantly impressed with Vera's work. Avila noted that because SEMA operates primarily as a manufacturer showcase, it was especially significant that several suppliers chose to feature Vera cars, a rare distinction that underlined industry recognition of their work.
Elaborate builds typically require multiple specialized teams at all levels, from fuel injection and bodywork to upholstery, while Vera does all its work in-house with its own team, handling interior, fabrication and installation.
Vera describes herself as a “Chevy girl.” In addition to the C10, he restored a blue 1964 Chevy Impala bubble top. “When these cars come in, I have relationships with them and I hate to see them go,” Vera said.
But her favorite car to drive is her first: a pink 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass that she saved up and bought on OfferUp for $4,000. “This is how I learned to repair classic cars and how the market works,” says Vera. He said he fell in love with the car during the time he spent bringing it back to life. “She saw my struggle, she knows the pain I was going through while I was helping her,” said Vera, who explains that she was going through a difficult time with her family while working at the Oldsmobile. “She's my number one baby.”
“We are a comprehensive restoration shop,” said Rivas. “[Cars] They go in like trash and come out like works of art.” But the C10 is special as a reconstruction and as part of personal history, not only for Rivas and Vera and their team, but also for Angelenos and the survivors of the fire.
“We haven't taken it to Altadena yet,” Rivas said, but it's on the schedule. “First we will take it to the big shows and then to the streets to see what the response is,” Rivas said, noting that the truck's story from the fire to the end has already been made. has had good circulation online.
“I see the beauty in these cars,” Vera said. “I want to put a classic car back on the streets, one at a time, every day if I can.”
