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It all started with a car.

Specifically, a Ford Shelby GT 500 called Eleanor. In the movie Gone in 60 Seconds, Nicholas Cage’s character, Memphis Raines, wants to get his hands on Eleanor so badly he steals her. Ever since then, a lot of people have wanted to get their hands on Eleanor, and two Baton Rouge car restoration experts have dedicated their lives to her the past couple of years.

“Our whole business started because of that movie and that car,” says Brandon Weldon, owner of Commercial Automotive Enterprises of Baton Rouge. “The car was the star of the movie. I fell in love with it just like everyone else.”

Unlike everyone else, however, Weldon knew how to build one.

In late 2004, he bought a rustbucket 1968 Mustang fastback from eBay and dragged it into his garage.

Then he told his friend, Shane Rachal, he thought he could build an Eleanor for about $25,000, and just in time to sell her through Barrett-Jackson Auction Company’s collector car show and auction in Palm Beach, Fla., the following April. Rachal said he was crazy. Weldon ignored him.

“He doesn’t listen to anybody,” Rachal says. “He just does what he wants.”

Weldon sold his lawn-care business and went to work on the car, pounding out brutal seven-day work weeks. “It was make or break,” Weldon says. “The car business is all about deadlines.”

Rachal helped on nights and weekends. Three months and $65,000 later, the pair rolled a completely rebuilt classic American muscle car out of Weldon’s garage. They built Eleanor exactly like the one Nicolas Cage steals in the movie. In April 2005, they hauled her on a flatbed trailer to Florida and sold her for $108,000.

Word is out that rebuilding classic muscle cars is a lucrative business. Barrett-Jackson raked in $22 million at the Palm Beach auction and another $100 million at a big auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., according to

BusinessWeek Online.

The business of rebuilding American muscle cars is a world dominated by the ultra wealthy. “Everyone there is a billionaire except us,” Rachal says.

A month after selling that first car, which ended up in singer Shakira’s music video “Don’t Bother,” Weldon decided he’d build cars for a living. He leased a 3,000-square-foot shop off North Sherwood Forest Drive.

In November 2005, Rachal quit his job as a big truck mechanic and signed on as Weldon’s partner, giving up 40-hour weeks and a steady paycheck in exchange for 70-hour weeks and two paychecks a year.

“I just like building cars, and he needs some help,” Rachal says.

They rebuild their cars from scratch. Everything—brakes, engine, electrical system, transmission, air-conditioning, audio system—is brand new. Everything except for the all-important muscle car body.

Their rebuilt cars feel new, run new and drive new. But they are so authentic you wouldn’t be surprised to see Steve McQueen step out of the driver’s seat.

Weldon is the body man. Rachal is the nuts-and-bolts man.

“He does the more creative stuff,” Rachal says. “I do the engines and the wiring.”

This year, Weldon and Rachal sold two cars at the Scottsdale auction: a 1967 Mustang fastback for $141,000, and a 1968 Mustang Super Snake convertible for $99,600. They also sold a 1967 Shelby GT in Palm Beach that went for $109,000.

For next year’s auctions, they’re building four cars. They’re also expanding their business to include custom orders. custom-musclecars.com.