Project cars are supposed to be driven and enjoyed, not parked waiting on a problem nobody can solve. Bear Restorations exists to fix those problems so your car can be part of your life again.
My background
I’m Glenn Drzewicki, though most people call me Dr. G. It’s easier than spelling Drzewicki. I’ve been building cars for 20 years. I hold a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, have worked as a professional engineer for 15 years, and today I’m an aerospace engineer at NASA. My career has been designing and automating custom control systems, mainly in aerospace and heavy machinery.
Over time the hardest problems on my own builds stopped being mechanical and became electronic: engines and transmissions that didn’t want to talk to each other, wiring that had been patched one too many times, and modules nobody made anymore. The same engineering I use on aircraft and heavy equipment solves those problems. Bear Restorations is how I do that work for other people.
Why “Bear”
The story of Oso
Oso was my black lab and my copilot for 13 years. He rode in the front seat like a human friend, on road trips, to our favorite vacation spots, and on plenty of simple runs to Home Depot in the shop truck. If I was in the shop, he was in the shop, no exceptions. That meant a lot of late nights, and the time in between builds was for playing with Oso.
Oso passed on December 12, 2025. “Oso” is Spanish for bear, and Bear Restorations carries his name because so many of the memories in these cars are ours together.
That’s what I want for every customer: a car that runs right, so it can keep making memories with the people, and the dogs, who ride along.
How the shop works
Bear Restorations is a one-person shop. When you call, you talk to the engineer who designs, builds and tests your parts. Behind me is a network of trusted partners I’ve built over years in industry, who machine, make and source the parts that go into each build.
The custom TCU started with our own shop truck, a 2003 Toyota Tacoma with the 2RZ engine and an A44D four-speed automatic. Good rebuild kits for the A44D have become nearly impossible to find, and with only four gears the truck feels dated and cumbersome. A modern Aisin five-speed fixes both problems and adds features like electronic shifting, but it needs a controller to run it. Nothing on the market did the job the way I wanted, so I’m building one. That’s how every project here starts: a real problem, solved properly and tested on the bench before it goes in a vehicle.