Amherst Firefighter Knows His Luxury Cars

Dan Barton is the kind of guy you want to know if you happen to own a luxury car.

He specializes in working on Houdaille Shocks, which are shock absorbers found in 1949-1960 Ferrari and Maserati models. Barton has been with the Amherst Fire Department for about 21 years, but has been working on these cars since he was a teenager.

It all started when he started mowing the lawn for now-deceased automotive expert Sherman Wolf of Amherst, who also happened to be a collector of Ferrari cars. Barton began to learn about this side of the automotive industry at 11-years-old first by washing the cars, then by working on them.

“He was a self-made person who was never afraid to get his hands dirty,” said Barton. “He showed me all of the tricks of the trade.”

Wolf became a mentor to the young Barton and he showed him the ropes both inside the vehicles and outside at racing events. He was hired at 20-years-old to work at KTR European Motorsports in Ayer, Massachusetts, which was owned by Wolf and J. Geils, to work on ground-up restorations of vintage race cars.

Barton worked on a wide range of luxury cars including Jaguars, Porsche, Ferrari and other high-end vehicles. Over the years, he has acquired a broad range of skills to repair and restore these vehicles, but became specialized in working on a very important part that many others cannot.

Houdaille Shocks are unique to Ferraris and Maseratis during the mid-nineties and is an important part for owners who want to race these cars or maintain them to perfection. It is a very unique part that requires a good amount of skill and finesse to work on.

Of course, Dan Barton likes it that way.

“It is the challenge of doing what no one else could do,” he said. “I just want to do things that nobody else does and this is a very unique specific kind of shock that I do a thorough job on.”

Barton said that these parts are often overlooked when luxury car owners go to the automotive repair shop, and many of them are worked on incorrectly. This can be a huge problem, especially since these cars are usually restored several times in their life.

Wolf and Barton would work on these parts for friends that owned shops and never meant for it to be a business. Since his friend’s passing this year, Barton has taken on the job as a serious business to local and international customers with the founding of Houdaille Shock Restoration and Refurbishing.

He completely disassembles the part and inspects that the shock has the correct orientation for its location on that car, all rubber components are custom fabricated and replaced, and the final products are assembled and are tested on a dynamometer for 30 minutes to test for extreme use.

“There is definitely a need for this,” he said. “They just send me the parts and I work on them.”

His will also repair and run generators for the luxury cars, as well as provide machine shop service.

While the market is limited due to the rarity of these specific vehicles, Barton is confident that his specialized skillset can bring in business from serious luxury car owners.

His job as captain of the Amherst Fire Department is a completely different world than his work on these luxury vehicles. Barton was initially drawn by the fun of the job, and the fire vehicles used, but is now much more interested in the management of different personalities within the department.

For more information on Houdaille Shock Restoration and Refurbishing, please visit the website at houdailleshocks.com.