Vintage cars live on as furniture in Alpharetta

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Ask a vintage car owner what's the best thing about owning a piece of history and some will tell you it's driving it, others report it's showing it off that makes it fun.

But in the life of every car, at some point, it becomes too costly too repair, parts too hard to find or the years of wear and tear finally catch up.

Enter Black Lab Automotive. The shop in Alpharetta has started saving many of these type vehicles from the junkyard.

"We wanted to, in essence, reclaim cars that were past restoration and cut them up and make them into cool pieces of furniture," owner Michael Bernstein told Nelson's News on wsbtv.com.

Bernstein runs a hospital supply business, but in his spare time, he hangs out at his pet project, Black Lab Automotive, and scours the Internet for old, iconic cars and brings them back to Georgia to take on a new life.

"If (Bernstein) can find a majority complete car for $500 or $600, we'll cut it up with a plasma cutter," Ethan Ferguson from Black Lab Automotive said. "Usually we get a bar, a couch, a table and a desk out of the random parts."

The company opened about six months ago and its original intent was to restore old cars. But when the idea to take a piece of an old car and make it into a desk popped up, they stumbled onto the company's future.

The company's creations include Cadillac couches, a 1948 Ford bar, fan tables and a 1948 Chevy Fleetmaster Grill.

Customers can find the pieces inside the Cool Beanz store in the Amsterdam Walk shopping center near Piedmont Park. Black Lab Automotive will have several pieces on display at the Atlanta Auto Show this week at the Georgia World Congress Center, too.

WSBTV