About Us

The Shoebox Shop is a family-owned classic car and street rod restoration/service center, located on the original family farm, 5 miles from Elizabethtown, Kentucky at Exit 91 off of I-65.

Owned and operated by the husband and wife team, Jim and Patty Hornback have enjoyed 40 plus years of drag racing, tractor pulling and flying. We are extremely fortunate to have gathered a great group of skilled individuals who enjoy their work and help produce superb products in our speciality one-stop restoration business.  We are small enough to give our customers and their vehicles the personal attention they deserve and yet large enough to accommodate several restoration projects at the same time.  Everything is accomplished in-house with the exception of re-chroming which we out-source to another family-owned business in Kentucky.

What started as Jim's Repair Shop in the '60s followed by Hornback Engineering in the '70s and '80s making horsepower and set-ups for competition, has evolved into the Shoebox Shop, restoring and showing award-winning classic cars and street rods.

As early as high school days (1960s), Jim expressed he would love to own a 1957 Chevy Sedan Delivery.  A friend found one in a tobacco barn, less than 50 miles from our home in 1991.  We began the frame-off restoration and started driving it in May 1995.  Our '57 generated others wanting restoration work that has brought us where we are today.

Jim's background and experience is impeccable.  He started with a small 2-bay shop on a part-time basis while holding full-time positions as a certified automotive instructor and a supervisory training specialist as a civilian for the US Army requiring and in-depth knowledge of automotive technology and teaching the "Why and How It Works."  His personal goal for perfection coupled with his natural ability to design, fabricate and engineer his unique ideas and all placed into his restorations which produces award-winning street machines and enables him to enjoy the success of his fast-growing restoration business.

We specialize in a one-stop restoration and full-service center fully capable of upgrading your classic car or street rod including power windows, air conditioning, state-of-the-art audio systems, remote mechanisms, etc.  We encourage everyone to visit our facility and see first hand our equipment and examples and/or demonstrations of our work!

We're located five miles from I-65, at exit 91, in central Kentucky with a 15,000 square foot facility.  This operation has individual shops with specialized functions conducted in each area.