As a child growing up in Duncan, Oklahoma, Al Wiseman was always surrounded by cars. Both his father and later his stepfather were mechanics, and at a young age Al was in the garage learning to turn wrenches and developing a passion for things automotive.
After graduating from Oklahoma State University in 1958 with a degree in aeronautical engineering, Al was hired by Hayes Aircraft as an inspector and later moved to the West Coast to join Overseas National Airways as a maintenance supervisor. He worked his way up through the maintenance ranks and into management. From there he became the General Manager of a company that converted large jet liners from commercial to private executive use.
In 1980, Al joined the Airline division of Airborne Express as Vice President of Maintenance and Engineering. Six years later he was elevated to President of Airborne Express and held that position until 1991 when he left to become the managing partner of ABS Partnership. ABS designed and developed noise suppression devices for older jet aircraft than cannot meet new Federal noise regulations (DC-9 and B-737's). Instead of having to park the aircraft or replace them a cost of $25-30 million each, the airlines can install the ABS Hush Kit for less than $2 million per aircraft. It is no understatement that the ABS Hush Kit save the airline industry billions of dollars. In 1995, Al retired as managing partner of ABS to finally pursue his true passion.
All during his career in aviation, Al's love for old cars had continued to grow. "My success in aviation," Al said, "allowed me to have the money to achieve a life long dream of collecting cars." He moved from Ohio, where he still maintains a home on 22 acres and a small restoration facility, to Tarpon Springs, Florida. There he built a new home and three large buildings on 21 acres of property for his restoration shop and to house most of his car collection. All told, Al's collection numbers in the hundreds and ranges from vintage motorcycles and motor scooters, horse-drawn carriages to brass era cars to the classics and postwar collectibles. Al's collection has numerous rare one of a kind vehicles and a nice auto mascot collection.
Al soon chose to turn his old car hobby into a business, so he purchased and renovated a 16,000 square foot building in downtown Tarpon Springs and turned it into a showroom for his Classic Corvettes and Collectables dealership. Housed in this showroom were over 100 collectible cars from the early 50's to muscle cars of the 60's. Every car is a show quality automobile or a low mileage original in pristine condition. He is recently added an additional 13,000 square feet, making Classic Corvettes and Collectables one of the largest 150 car indoor, air-conditioned, collector car dealership in the South. His Classic Car Dealership deals only in museum and show quality cars and ships cars worldwide.
Al isn't just a collector; he's a restorer as well. His first restoration was a 1959 fuel-injected Corvette that he did in 1971. As he recalls, he built the Corvette to what he thought were proper restoration standards. "When I did the car," Al said, "I didn't do it for show but to make a nice driver out of it. I thought it came out pretty well. When I took it to my first car show, I found out how far off I was from being able to compete in concours." Disheartened but not beaten, he went home, took the car back apart and did it over to show perfection. "It was a process of learning on that car, Al recalled.
Over the years his restorations have earned him first place awards in AACA, NCCC and other concours judging events. "I appreciated a fine quality restoration when I see it", Al said, "because I know what it takes to get there". If Al knows the techniques and processes to do a concourse restoration, he also possesses the craftsmanship to build the perfect "beauty queen" as he calls it. "I'm not one for a (dead nuts original) restoration," Al said. "I prefer the craftsmanship and detail you can build into a Pebble Beach type restoration".
To that end he purchased a 25,000 square foot building that once housed a Chevrolet dealership on the next block from his collector car store. Once the 23 truck loads of trash was removed, the facility was totally renovated and expanded to 33,000 square feet and state of the art body, paint and mechanical equipment was installed. Under the supervision of Chris and Jim Brand, the new Classic Car Restoration and Service Center is the largest and most sophisticated restoration facility in the South. The facility has the latest state of the art in Paint Booths, Frame Straightening, Wheel Alignment and Media Blast Equipment. Not only do they perform Service and Restoration for Al's "car store" the center also handles all types of Restoration Services, Collision Repairs, Paint and Body and Mechanical work on all cars for customers as well. Ninety percent of work in the facility today is for outside customers. The Restoration facility has already produced numerous award-winning cars. Customers are bringing cars in for restoration from over 1500 miles away.
Al also for the past three years, owns and runs a machine shop located at the Industrial Park on Hwy 54, in Oldsmar, Florida. It is called Florida Manufacturing Group. Included in the many items being manufactured are such innovative items as, Passenger Boarding Devices, for the Handicap, Smart Lift (jetport elevators), Luggage Valet Carts that stop on a dime and bullet proof off-road equpment under the name OX
Al's latest venture, "The IDLEBUSTER", is specifically designed with no the idle rules, hours of service and the high cost of diesel fuel in mind. The IDLEBUSTER is a fully integrated, self contained system that provides heating and air conditioning to the sleeper area of the truck as well as power for driver amenities, an engine block heater and main truck battery charging. This is all accomplished without idling the main truck engine. The system complies with "no idle" rules and burns a fraction of the fuel used to idle the main truck engine. The system also reduces wear and tear. on the main truck engine and puts money in the driver/owners pocket.