We are a family-run small business, providing engine rebuilding services to the collector car community for over 25 years. Our president, Frank Unrau, has over 60 years of experience in the field of automotive machining, having rebuilt a variety of engines of all types, including tractors and antique aircraft. We provide services across Canada, the United States, the Middle East and Europe, where there is a thriving Model T collector car base. We are set up to handle requests cross-border and internationally, and we will manage the shipping, paperwork and customs for you. Call us today, and let us help you get your collector car purring down the road!
Frank has been interested in classic cars and hot rods his whole life, and this interest guided him to his early career as an automotive machinist. He started as an employee then manager of an automotive machine shop in Grimsby, Ontario, then in St. Catharines, Ontario. In 1969 he was recruited to work as a sales rep for Sunnen Equipment in Canada, which manufactures automotive and other machining equipment (now Guspro). Frank first covered the territories of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and northern Ontario, then went on to cover Alberta and British Columbia. In 1982, Frank and his wife Diana started their own company in St. Albert, Alberta called KCR Valve. Frank was an innovator who developed the process of hard-chroming the valve stems of used engine valves, which were sold to wholesale automotive engine rebuilders in Western Canada, Washington, Missouri, Florida and other states. KCR Valve also sold automotive rebuilding parts lines including valve liners from K-Line Industries (Holland, Michigan) and valve seats from Alexander Industries (Culver City, California). Frank continued to buy/sell new and used automotive machining equipment in Western Canada, and represented a line of new crankshaft grinders from Taiwan. Frank and Diana sold this business in 1992, and Frank opened his own automotive engine rebuilding shop in St. Albert, called Star Engines. He specializes in rebuilding the engines for classic cars, learning the craft of babbitting from long-timers in the business. Frank and Diana relocated to southern Ontario in 2007, and Star Engines moved with them to the location it is today. Star Engines continues to grow, to meet the engine rebuilding needs of the classic car community!
In August 2017, Frank and Diana were invited to attend the summer meeting of the Model T Alpen Chapter of Bavaria and Austria, a branch of the Ford Model T club of America. This meet was held in the area of Stuttgart, Germany, over a three day period and included more than 50 Model Ts of varying years and styles, from many parts of Europe. Frank and Diana attended the summer meet again in 2019, and it was truly an honour to be a part of such wonderful events.
In 2000, Frank and Diana led the organization of the NAACC Cross Canada tour, which began in Victoria BC in July and ended in St. John’s Nfld, taking a total of 42 days to cross the country. Two hundred cars joined the tour, and 100 cars went the entire route across Canada. It was the trip of a lifetime, which was made possible by all of the incredible volunteers, organizations and individuals who gave so much of their time and effort.
Frank and Diana have owned a number of classic cars themselves over the past 45 years. They were an active part of the Alberta Post War Car Society (APWCS) in Edmonton for a number of years and were instrumental in organizing numerous events, including the Cross Canada tour in 2000. They also participated in “Hot August Nights” car shows in Reno, Nevada for several years in the 1990s, driving the 1951 Ford there and back.
1965 Pontiac Parisienne Convertible 
1956 Oldsmobile Holiday 88
And of course, Frank and Diana have a Ford Model T of their own – 1915. This car was used in the filming of a Netflix Original mini-series in 2019, called “Self-Made”. It is the true-life story of Madam C. J. Walker, an African-American washerwoman who rises from poverty at the turn of the century to build a beauty empire and become the first female self-made millionaire. The filming took place at multiple locations around Hamilton and St. Catharines in the summer of 2019.
