Andy Tullis / The BulletinGordon Aram, founder of A-Team Racing LLC. The Bend shop builds custom high-performance cars.

Gordon Aram deals primarily with two types of clients. The first, “these are in a league by themselves,” said Aram, builder of high-performance automobiles, otherwise known as muscle cars. “These are people that dreamed of owning a car in high school and now they are in a financial situation to do what they wanted to do. ”

Circumstances, however, may put the job beyond their mechanical capabilities.

That’s were Aram and his crew at The A-Team Racing LLC, in Bend, come in. Their motto: “Don’t Dream It — Drive It.”

They’ve built from the bottom up or restored about 10 classic cars since 2010, Aram said. He said his shop will fabricate just about any component, except transmissions, to create one-of-a-kind show cars that can cost as much as $250,000.

The second type of client wants his or her car restored to its original condition. That job typically runs between $10,000 and $30,000, Aram said.

“Some people have the ultimate dream of a car but don’t know how to do it,” he said. “On the other side are people who know what they’re doing but they’re too old to do it anymore.”

Aram knows what to do and how to do it.

He placed in the top 10, out of more than 125 entries, last year in the Battle of the Builders competition held by the Specialty Equipment Market Association, a nationwide trade association. Aram entered a client’s 1978 Ford Mustang II with a Triton V-10 engine. The car took two years and $250,000 to build, he said.

“We were actually the first to go all-out stupid with a V-10,” he said Thursday.

Aram, 45, earned a mechanic’s certificate in his native Canada. He grew up in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit. In Canada, prospective mechanics must complete four years of study after high school and thousands of hours of practical experience before they can take the certifying exam, according to the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities website.

Aram worked as a mechanic but became disillusioned with an auto industry he described as lackluster at the time. He did a turn as a flight engineer on C-130s for the Canadian Air Force then left the service and became a truck driver. That’s how he found Bend, he said. Part of his regular route took him to Culver, where he delivered plastic water bottles to Earth2o Water Co.

He settled here in the 1990s and pretty soon found his niche as a dependable mechanic, he said. The custom building and restoration part followed naturally.

“A classic car would come in; ‘Can you look at it?’” he said. “‘Sure, bring it by.’”

Aram said he interrupted his trade to work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a civilian contractor retrieving vehicles from battlefields in Iraq. The experience left him with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said. He said he felt obliged to go, although he took months afterward to return to work.

“I live here, therefore I need to do something,” he said, “for my right to be here.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com

Q: What do you drive?

A: Gordon Aram: My everyday is a 2003 (Chevrolet) Suburban. My other car is a 2014 ZL1 (Chevrolet) Camaro. It’s the fastest one you can buy.

Q: What’s your dream car?

A: A (Plymouth) Superbird (with a huge tail wing, 440 cubic-inch engine and four-speed transmission). It’s a godawful ugly car. It’s just bada–.