A motor for a 1911 Flying Merkel motorcycle being restored at Red Star Auto Works of Richmond.

The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski

RICHMOND Sean Brayton’s Red Star Auto Works may be tucked away along a leafy lane deep in South County, but he restores some of the oldest and rarest cars around for some very distinguished clients.

Among his current projects is the restoration of a 1906 Reo owned by former Secretary of the Navy and local classic car enthusiast William Mittendorf.

At the same time, Brayton is also into early American motorcycles and nostalgic hot rods, or vehicles from the 1930s that have been styled into 1950s hot rods.

Indeed, the front of his main workshop is dominated by a maroon 1932 Ford Deuce (as in 32) Coupe pickup with a flathead V8 that he is restoring.

“He’s basically buying the truck he wanted when he was 16,” he said of the owner.

He said it was the sight of the yellow-green Ford 5-window Deuce Coupe hot rod with open engine in the 1973 George Lucas movie American Graffiti — ‘(John) Milner’s Coupe’ — that got him into nostalgic rods.

“I was 13 (years old) and once I saw it I thought it was the coolest car I’d ever seen,” he said.

He said he had replaced lower sections of the cab, fenders and doors which had rusted and added a brand new bed.

The other workshop in his building is given over to a couple of nostalgic rods he and his full-time assistant Matt Ryans and part time assistant Scott Lamb are working on.

Behind the Deuce Coupe in the main workshop sits Mittendorf’s reddish Reo, which is in full working order.

Brayton said he bought it out of a barn in Pennsylvania where it “had not seen the light of day since 1946,” and subsequently sold it to Mittendorf.

He said two brothers had stored a bunch of cars in “a barn in the middle of the woods,” and then apparently forgotten about them. When they died, the family put the cars up for auction.

He said the car was completely covered in white paint when he bought it, body, wheels, brass work, everything. It took two months to patiently scrape off all the paint with a razor blade and reveal the original paintwork preserved beneath.

The Reo was developed by Ransom Eli Olds (R.E.O.), who had previously sold his Olds Motor Vehicle Company (later Oldsmobile). It has one massive 4-inch cylinder with a deep 4 inch stroke, and two gears, “one very low and one very high,” Brayton said, noting that changing gear was like going from “first to fifth.”

Brayton started the motor with a handle set in the side of the body that turned an enormous flywheel attached to the engine below the seat. The wheels are chain driven.

The motor coughed out smoke and turned over at about 45 rpm, sporadically firing every second or so.

How fast does it go? “Maybe 35 mph,” he said, adding, “More than you want to go in it, that’s for sure.”

Brayton said he got into very old cars through his interest in motorcycles.

“I was always interested in motorcars and motorcycles and goofed around racing dirt bikes,” he said. “Brass era cars are very much like motorcycles, the machines are exposed and raw. It got me.”

Brayton, 33, grew up in West Kingston and worked as a mechanic for a couple of Wakefield dealerships while doing restoration work on the side. Self-taught, he established his own business five years ago, moving into his current location — the former Richmond Town Garage — about three years ago. Divorced with a daughter he sees half the time, he lives “up the road” from his shop in South Kingstown.

A number of old cars, including a 1979 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith II, a couple of old Saabs and Ford Model A and T frames, were distributed around the yard. A separate building houses the workshop of a taxidermist friend and neighbor.

Apart from the Deuce and the Reo, a one-cylinder 1904 Cameron made by the James Brown Machine Co. in Pawtucket is parked at the rear of the workshop. Brayton, who is well read in the history of automobiles and motorcycles, said the small company operated out of Pawtucket for a couple of years before relocating to New York and only lasted a total of 10 years or so.

He said there was a sense that “there was big money in building cars” at the time, somewhat like the dot-coms today, and everyone wanted to start a company, many of which did not survive.

The other car in the workshop is perhaps the most remarkable. It’s also in pieces.

“I got a car spread all around the shop,” he said, gesturing toward the body of an 1898 Hay Hotchkiss “horseless carriage” that he restored to working condition for Mittendorf a number of years ago and he is now further rehabbing for a new owner.

Actually, make that ‘the’ 1898 Hay Hotchkiss. As far as anyone knows, only three of the cars, which were America’s first four-cylinder car, were ever built and this is the only survivor.

The body was on its end leaning against the wall. Behind it rested two enormous wooden-spoked wheels. Other parts of the historic car were distributed around the shop.

Brayton said the Hay Hotchkiss, with its heavy wheels, was built like a farm wagon with only the body sprung above the frame. As a result the ride is heavy as the machine bangs itself along uneven surfaces with the body bouncing along on top. (By contrast, he showed how the entire frame and body of the Reo are sprung, resulting in a smoother, more integrated ride.)

Brayton said Mittendorf subsequently sold the Hay Hotchkiss and the new owner wants it restored to show condition.

“I already worked on it to make it a touring car,” he said. “The new owner wants it to be a concours show car, which means changing it from a classic and functional to a piece of jewelry.”

He said everything on the car has been taken apart, sometimes three or four times, to get it exactly right.

“One thing wrong and you literally start over,” he said, adding that “a nine or ten level (i.e., perfect) is very difficult” to attain. “It’s got to be painted, polished and fluffed.”

For more information, go to:

www.redstarauto.com