Sherry's 69 Camaro

Sherry Kelly loves her 1969 Camaro. It wasn’t the first one she fell for; the first one was the Camaro her husband owned when they met. She jokes that it’s the reason she married him. But just as many of us baby boomers experienced, a muscle car wasn’t practical when raising a family, and it was sold.

Sherry was teaching dance lessons when she mentioned to one of her students that she was looking for another Camaro. Her student, Quentin, just happened to be a paint and body guy who knew of one for sale. She bought the car even though it needed some paint and body work. So Sherry taught Quentin to dance and Quentin taught Sherry how to fix up her car.

Sherry enjoyed working on her car so much she went to work for a collision repair shop to learn the trade. After 6 years, Sherry realized that doing custom work on cars, like she did to her Camaro, was really her passion. She and Quentin started to do custom work together in her barn until they were able to open their own shop, Q & S Custom Rides in Prescott Valley, Arizona.

In the last two years Sherry has built a reputation for doing the job right the first time. She calls herself “nit picky” on every detail of paint, bodywork and fabrication and when a car leaves their shop, it won’t need to be re-done for 20 years. She considers each car a piece of history and actually names the cars they work on because they have a personality. “Some cars fight us all the way and some want to be pretty and make it easy”.

Being a woman in Sherry's line of work hasn’t been easy because she’s had to be twice as good as her male counter parts to get respect. This and her love for classic cars have won many “Best in Show” trophies for her Camaro and for her customers.