MILK RUN; from dairy barn to restoration shop.

Byline: ROGER HART

Red dairy barns dot the southern Michigan landscape the way Starbucks populate Seattle--they're everywhere you look. But one dairy barn near the little hamlet of Manchester, southwest of Ann Arbor, is a bit different from the others. The cows and the milking equipment are long gone, replaced by a state-of-the-art paint booth and chests filled with tools that, under the direction of several craftsmen, help create concours-winning restorations.

Bob Anzalone moved his shop, R&A Engineering, to the once-bustling dairy barn 10 years ago. Early in his career, Anzalone had spent 15 years working as an engineer for a Detroit automotive supplier.

While he worked on electromechanical devices for Kelsey-Hayes during the day, at night he was working on cars, primarily hot rods.

In 1978, an Altered T Road-ster hot rod he created was shown at Detroit's Autorama and won the coveted Ridler Award.

"I had always done cars for other people after hours working for Kelsey. I finally built one for myself. Winning the award was my 15 minutes of fame,'' Anzalone jokes.

But winning the Ridler reinforced in Anzalone that his real passion wasn't designing and testing widgets but building and restoring cars. So he left the security of a big company to strike out on his own.