Here’s how this restaurateur spends his happy hours

BENGALURU: At the age of 10, Shreyas Patel wasn’t all that different from other children who spend all their free time playing with cars. The only difference was that instead of miniature toys,Patel tinkered with full-size vintage cars with his uncle. Over time, his love for cars only grew stronger and he still spends ample time modifying and restoring cars.

As the 34-year-old co-founder of Bootlegger, which was launched in 2013, Patel spends most of his time between the two outlets of the pub in the city. But come weekends or post work hours, he is more often than not found working on a car. “My interest in cars took off in 1994, when I helped my uncle restore a Citroen, a vintage car that had been in the family since 1951. There was no stopping me since,” says Patel.
By his late teens, Patel had already launched his own car workshop where he ran a modification and restoration business and has worked on more than 100 cars over time. “If you’re just modifying a car, it means you’re working on it to help the car adapt to off-roading or rally conditions. Restoration, however, is a longer process,applied mainly to vintage cars, where you work on the main body of the car or its mechanics and engine,” he explains.

If asked to pick between the two, Patel prefers restoration, since he finds the long-drawn process to be peaceful. However, it can also tend to be tedious and challenging at times. For example, restoring a Rolls Royce Silver Spur ii took him a year since fixing the hydraulics was more complicated than he thought it would be. Sourcing parts can also be tricky; if some parts aren’t available on the internet, Patel tries to look for them on his travels. “For the Rolls Royce, I travelled to the UK just to source some parts. They cost close to `1 lakh, so you could say it’s an expensive hobby,” he says with a laugh.Currently, Patel is working on his Citroen again, since the gear box has been stolen for the second time.

Besides sourcing parts from Amsterdam, he is also in the process of fixing the engine, radiator and electricals of the car and hopes to have it up and running within two months.

Though a time consuming process, the restaurateur doesn’t mind it and has definitely learned a thing or two about patience along the way. “A hobby like this comes with a lot of discipline, which definitely helps in my job as well. I can’t just jump straight into a problem to try to fix it. Sometimes, you have to have a better understanding of the working of something before you do that. And what better way than restoring cars to learn that?,” he says.