Below are examples of what we do and have done with lots of photos and commentary about what is involved with restoring a vintage car for street driving use. Before you read about restoration work, read some commentary about common pitfalls of car restoration. It's good to be excited about a restoration but its better to be excited and well briefed. 

Typically an intensive mechanical and structural restoration involves  disassembling the entire car to the last nut and bolt. This sort of job can involve many hundreds or thousands of hours of labor depending on factors such as the age, condition, complexity of the car, availability of quality properly fitting parts and of course, the sum of an owners desire. We do lots of restoration work that is less than a complete restoration though.  A common question we receive concerns the expense of restoring a car vs. the resale value. The simple answer is the extensive labors and high cost of quality parts used in restoring a car will greatly exceed most resale values. So why do it at all? 

There are many reasons why owners choose to restore their cars. Such as they really like the car or perhaps the car belonged to someone they loved very much like their grandparents, parents, family member or friend. These enthusiastic owners appreciate the hard work that goes into making their projects a reality, plan to enjoy the car for many years to make the considerable investment sensible to them and we enjoy working for such owners that enjoy what we have done for the car. 

 Properly restoring most cars with the object of selling them for a profit seldom makes financial sense as every car is not super rare or in high demand. Of course, buying a new car with the object of selling it for a profit seldom works out either.  We have found that owners without an emotional attachment about their vintage car or that lack a real sense of excitement from owning and driving a particular car do not make the best of clients as the car means little or nothing to them. The car is just another object in their lives and we prefer to work for owners that have an real attachment about their car and care about its future as well as their personal safely.  

Another questions we often receive are;

 How long does a typical restoration take and what does such cost? These are the hardest questions to definitely answer as there are no typical restorations. Factors such as condition, age, availability of quality parts and owners desires make huge differences in costs and time.  We suggest watching the movie," The Money Pit", as an introduction to restoring vintage cars. It's a very funny movie yet some of the truths about the pitfalls of restoring cars, houses, boats and aeroplanes and such that are in poor condition are ever so true. 

Again, why restore anything? A good reason is that great and worthy things were made in the past that had lasting character and beauty. 

We try to make sure that owners understand the cost of automobile restoration as well as we can as we want to make sure they have the financial means to finish the project. We end up finishing many restoration attempts that other shops began and never finished on an all too regular basis. The reasons for an uncompleted restoration can range from:

1. The car in question may have been in far worse condition than the owner knew. This is a common problem as many cars have been "worked over" many times during their long lives and really bad, i.e. expensive,  problems can be well hidden only to surface after much work has been expended. ( See the " Money Pit".) Thus some jobs grow extensively as discoveries are made and an owner wants the newly discovered problems solved. ( See the Money Pit.) The end result can be great but getting there takes stamina and considerable fuel. i.e. funding. Thus it's always better to start with a car in relatively good condition. Restoring a car that is rusted out, worn out, trashed, abandoned for years in a swamp, used for target practice or dropped out of a bomber over Baghdad during "Shock and Awe", is not a good place to start unless the car in question has emotional significance to the owner or the car is highly desirable. 

2. The shop entrusted to do the work did not manage the job properly or lacked the experience to handle the job in a proper manner. #2 can probably be avoided by properly vetting a potential shop to find out how long they have been in business and what sort of business they do. A paint and body shop that only does late model crashes may not be the best place to have a classic car body done as such work is too time consuming for their business model. Look into how well organized a shop appears to be keeping in mind that vintage car shops usually have a lot of vintage parts around that they are working on at all times so clutter can mean a busy shop. Clutter does not mean cars are sitting around covered in layers of dust with parts and boxes piled on top of them. These cars have become a part of the scenery. You don't want your car to become a part of the scenery.  How enthusiastic about the cars and work are the employees?  If an car owner gives the shop $5K or $10K or more to work with at a time, does the shop have the integrity and organizational ability to manage the funds properly so the work moves along? We have found this last part to be a real problem that results in many unfinished projects. 

3. The car owner encountered financial or personal problems mid stream in the work that caused the job to stop. These problems can happen to anyone at anytime. Divorces, stock market crashes, family or health problems can create a lack of funds. Life is hard sometimes and we do our best to work with our clients while they sort out the vicissitudes of life that hit us all upon occasion. 

4. The car owner had unreasonable expectations on costs or time to complete the work. #4 results in many uncompleted cars. We had a client that placed a bet with a pal of his. The bet was that we would restore a 50 year old Rolls Royce for him by a date certain. The car was in much worse condition than the time frame would allow and no doubt the person that placed the bet had restored a car before and  knew they had suckered their friend. The car owner made this bet without consulting us beforehand and lost as restoring a car is not a football game. The car does not care what people think about it.

 Some owners think we or other shops have a magic wand that we can wave over their cars and poof! The work is all done and the cost is whatever they command. Unfortunately, car restoration is a lot of hard physical work that takes considerable planning, thought and money to accomplish. The work we do is not done by a computer program and is no video game. Working with the hands and mind in a time honored manner completes a restoration. However. 

Let's go back to that magic wand. Truth be told, we do have a magic wand. The wand can only be used three times and the third time it turns the user into a fuel pump! So, the wand stays hidden away with our other secret stuff.  

Indulgences...

Here is a photo of a 1955 Rolls Royce engine being disassembled for a complete rebuild. 

   Here is the finished engine fitted into the restored rolling chassis. (My that was quick wasn't it? No, we did not use our magic wand.)

Our intent is to return the various systems to like new or better functionality and appearance.  During these jobs, we may offer a client subtle improvements like electronic ignition, stainless exhaust systems, body soundproofing, state of the art sound systems which are carefully hidden and more.

You may own or would like to own a Jaguar such as this 1956 XK140 roadster.   

  Or perhaps an MG like this 1966 MGB would be to your liking. 

We converted this MGB from L.H.D. to R.H.D. as it will be returning to England. We also performed a total ground up restoration including new leather cockpit, canvas top, ANSA exhaust, total rewire and all mechanicals rebuilt.

How about a 1962 Bentley Park Ward Continental  Convertible? In for transmission rebuilding, differential work, replacement of the top wood parts, total rebuild on front and rear suspension and steering,  upgrading the air conditioning system and various improvements. 

Everyone looks good in this great Mercedes Benz 1967 250SE Convertible? In for brakes, steering, front and rear suspension rebuild, stainless exhaust, general road work and freshening up on the mechanicals before a cross country road trip to Florida.

We totally restored this 1952 MGTD several years ago.

  Some 18 years before we were engaged to restore it, the car was totally disassembled by the owners son. After he had parts scattered all over, he took off and left the car in pieces. The owner moved several times in the interim and many critical parts were lost. Parts like the crankshaft, main caps, oil pump and connecting rods among others were gone. This MGTD was brought to us in several truck loads. These days, the owner drives the car when she wants to. 

Here is a photo of the MGTD interior we did in leather. 

This 1956 Jaguar XK140   was poorly restored some 15 years ago.  

 Check out the horrible structural condition. 

The car has a nice looking paint job over who knows what lurking underneath and the owner did not want to find out. He asked us to solve the structural problems without damaging the paint, a difficult assignment. We found during the discovery inspection that the right structural door sill was repaired in the past by grafting two pieces of galvanized sheet metal together with pop rivets. This "repair " provided no strength to the chassis. 

  A thick layer of plastic filler was applied with some paint on top of the junk metal and that was that. It's very disappointing to find such scary work on these great cars. The car also suffered from shake, rattle and roll from worn out suspension and dubious brakes. We sliced out both sills and cleaned and chemically treated all accessible rusty areas.

  We made a removable jig to hold the body in place and fitted new structural pieces that were welded into place.

  We replaced the door hinges as this car had the typical door sag from badly worn and seized hinges. This is a difficult job as the hinges are not designed to be replaced without removing the nicely painted welded on fenders. 

 We saved the expensive paintwork by "surgically" removing the hinges from the inside in a  manner not envisioned by the original designer.  The car is structurally solid once again and the owner can enjoy the car as it was intended. We rebuilt the rear suspension , front suspension, steering and brakes on the car as well. The original column push horn was also rebuilt and now the cockpit works as intended.

  A fresh stainless exhaust was fitted once the structural work was completed.

  Here is this great XK140 driving off to Florida after it's

 reconstruction. 

This 1962 Bentley S2 convertible was treated to a major "pit stop". 

We completely rebuilt the front suspension and steering on this Bentley. All good parts were removed, cleaned, bead blasted and repainted.

New front springs and specially rebuilt rear springs were fitted  with new leather wraps and many bushings and worn parts were replaced.

Now this Bentley steers like it should. We custom made and installed the convertible top tacking wood using a nice close grained mahogany. This allowed a new top to be properly fitted. 

The owner of this Jensen Healey completely disassembled his car 20 years or so ago. Eventually frustrated yet still enthusiastic,  he brought the car to us to complete his dream. Enhancements included Dellorto carburetion, Lotus 777 cams, burled walnut dash, canvas top and fancy stereo as well as a total rebuild on all mechanical and electrical systems. This is one of the finest Jensen's on the planet.

This 1972 Jaguar E-Type 2+2 was mechanically restored, off and on, mostly off over a period of nine years as we worked with the owner, a long time Houston Jaguar club member as he had us perform mechanical various aspects of the restoration to J.C.N.A. standards as his budget and time allowed. 

This 1977 MGB enjoyed a nine month restoration with tasteful customizations that include a total change of paint color to a 2001 BMW deep red metallic, custom tan leather seats and interior, tan canvas top, bolt on chrome 15" wire wheels with Michelin tires, detailed engine compartment, , upholstered trunk, rebuilt steering, suspension, new wiring and  stainless steel headers with an ANSA exhaust. This is a fine toy and it looks fabulous.

Here is a 1964 Jaguar Mark II restoration. 

We converted this Jaguar from right hand drive to left hand drive. We also converted the car from an automatic transmission to a four speed with overdrive transmission and changed wheel specification from steel wheel to original spline drive wire wheel specification. The enhancements included new paint work and body seals, fitting an electric aerial with a state of the art sound system, rebuilding the engine, brakes, suspension, steering, replacing all wiring,  and fitting additional insulation as well. The entire interior is fresh with new leather, carpers, panels, headliner etc. This car sports a set of original and rare recliner front seats and will have all the bells and whistles. 

This MGA Coupe was stripped and rebuilt. 

In this photo, the rebuilt engine is being re-fitted. 

We can completely strip down any mechanical system, clean and paint all components with high grade automotive enamel and rebuild the entire vehicle with whatever new parts are required to return the car to as new or better drivability and endurance.

This is a 1961 Nash Metropolitan that was once owned by Graham Nash of Crosby Still and Nash. The little car made it's way to Texas and we are restoring it to a daily driving condition. At some point in it's long life, it was brush painted with a broom and allowed to rot. It's new owner wants it right once again so here we go. On this job, we will be rebuilding the brakes and suspensions.

  Restoring the body, engine compartment and everything else on the

 list. It will be a fun little car again. 

In this photo, we stripped the car to it's basic shell, cut out all the rust we could find and welded in new steel, replaced about half the floorboards, discovered the left front fender had been in a collision and the "repair" included about three inches of bondo. 

We removed the filler, reshaped the steel properly and painted the shell with a catalyzed primer.   The car was then painted the original colors

  This last photo shows the car painted and ready to be assembled.

Here is the as found underbody of a 1964 MG Midget enjoying some restoration. This car is an old friend of it's owner and is being rewarded for many years of loyal service with an extensive pit stop. We removed the transmission and the original 1098cc engine for rebuilding. As many newly manufactured parts for this engine are of dubious quality these days, we supplied new old stock oversize Hepolite pistons, a "race" quality oil pump and lifters, re-ground cam and other new old stock parts to make the engine as nice as possible.  

This is an example of a main crankshaft bearing showing typical wear right into the copper under layers of the shell. The main cap above the bearing shows a badly worn thrust bearing also worn into the copper. An incorrect 1275cc cylinder head had been fitted in the past so we replaced it with a correct 1098 cc head so the engine is right once again. 

We cleaned and stripped the engine bay   and made and welded in a new battery box that was damaged from spilt acid. Acid had run into the car and throughout the fresh air venting so pieces of acid eaten metal were flying into the drivers face. We neutralized everything and clean and rust treated everywhere so no more of that!

 The engine bay was cleaned again, prepped, primed and painted

  to match the outside hot red color.   

All suspension and steering components   were cleaned, rebuilt, painted with automotive high impact paint. 

The entire brake system was replaced including the brake master cylinder and all metal pipes.

The brake box as shown in this photo was disassembled, blasted,  painted and serviced so it will work well. The MG was fitted with a new correct wiring loom as well as new air horns , electronic ignition and many other enhancements like state of the art insulation, new carpets and panels and fresh red door wind lace. This photo is of the cockpit in the middle of refurbishment. 

  A power aerial was tastefully fitted with a cd player and speakers.  This next photo show the stripped cockpit with the new wiring just being pulled through. The rusty floorboards were cut out and replaced.

  The cockpit will next receive insulation after the new wiring is set.     

Here is a 1973 vintage Jensen Healey Roadster. This great sports car was done for a State of Maine owner that embarked on a large scale restoration involving rebuilding the chassis with new rockers and various rust repairs.

  The chassis was sandblasted and all rust removed and replaced with fresh steel. 

The entire front and rear suspension, steering and rusty brakes were restored. This photo shows the state of the brakes before the work began. 

  We fitted new brake rotors, rebuilt the brake calipers, replaced the road springs, bushings, ball joints, bearings, shocks etc. All parts were blasted and painted with high quality black paint. 

Here is a photo of the renovated differential with a very rare set of KONI rear shocks fitted.

The body was rebuilt and reworked   painted 2005 Jaguar Racing Green, a color chosen by it's owner. The new paint is receiving it's first sunshine in this last photo. A fresh cockpit will be fitted fitted with newly done wood to replace the cracked original wood. 

  We sandblasted and painted the seat frames.

   Here is a photo of the rebuilt seats. Our upholsterer rebuilt the seats with high grade hand sculpted foam and a nice material of a color to the owners liking to make these seats comfortable and very attractive.

   Custom made Wilton wool carpets of RR quality bound in the seat material were fitted. This quality of design detail is like that of Rolls Royce cars.  This Jensen Healey received new Dellorto carbs, high performance Lotus cam shafts, canvas top and matching boot and much more. The owner supplied an original Jensen Healey 8 track and the car will be great to cruise the beautiful Maine coast and find some fresh lobster rolls with Shipyard Ale from the brewery in Kennebunkport.

  This last photo is the car on delivery day soon to head out on a nice drive to Maine with the owner and his dad sharing the wheel.  

This photo of a rare MGC-GT shows the dash being fitted and wiring being completed. We installed a new leather interior. The car was brought to us about 1/3 finished from a shop in Florida. The workmanship was mostly good but the shop lost interest in the job. The owner shipped the car with the remainder of the parts for us to complete. 

The car is nearing delivery once we locate a few more missing parts that were lost on the journey here. 

Here are photos of a scarce 1972 Mercedes Benz 350SL that is enjoying a nice restoration. This car was bought new by the owners father and is a family pet. 

We fitted a remanufactured engine  and rebuilt transmission.  The entire brake system was replaced and the suspensions totally rebuilt. We stripped out the interior and replaced some of the floors. We removed the dash and sorted out the climate system and vacuum systems while upgrading the air conditioning system. We repaired and carefully serviced the unavailable original wiring. We replaced the old brittle fuel  injector harness with a fresh new harness , replaced the fuel injectors, all mounts and rubber parts. 

The interior has been done with new leather  and all seat pads and chrome parts replaced as well as original style carpets with original Mercedes floor mats. We supplied new red rubber door treads so the entrance looks nice again. A period Becker radio/cassette player was installed with an I-pod jack modification that makes the vintage unit much more useable. 

A new canvas top was fitted and of course the car was repainted  to a fine appearance with the engine bay detailed  and painted as well. 

Here will be photos of a restoration on a 1966 Bristol 409. This rare hand built high performance English muscle car is one of 42 or so Bristol cars built that year and features a factory installed 318 Chrysler engine with solid lifters. These engines replaced the venerable six cylinder pre-war BMW based engine that were previously fitted by the Bristol factory. Bristol would purchase engines from Chrysler and totally disassemble the new engine. They would check them to make sure they were perfect. Just about all the bolts and fasteners on Bristol cars are wire tied or they used Nyloc nuts like airplane construction. This is because Bristol Cars were formed by the old Bristol Airplane Company that manufactured war planes during WW2. The Bristol car body is an all aluminum body construction mounted on a very stable steel frame using four wheel multi piston disc brakes. These were the most advanced braked in the world at the time. Considered one of the finest automobiles ever built, Bristol cars are still manufactured in very limited numbers for owners with plenty of cash and discretion. 

For this Bristol,  we rebuilt the entire brake and suspension systems with great attention to details like replacing the copper wire used to wire tie the differential cover bolts.  The ancient KONI shocks were hand rebuilt and restored by the KONI factory.  The exquisite interior wood trim is being restored and refinished as a special job by our owner and all aspects of the mechanicals will be refreshed. The car was repainted at some point and will be returned to it's original colors. 

Here are photos of a completed transmission and differential  from a 1970 Spitfire. 

The car belonged to the owners father and we are restoring the mechanicals. Parts for these cars are really drying up but we were able to supply what was needed to rebuild these assemblies. All bearings and syncros were replaced and parts that are unavailable, made by us and fitted.    

  Here are photos of the almost completed Spitfire 1300cc engine we rebuilt, now mounted in the engine bay. We had previously rebuilt the front and rear suspensions, brake system, complete rewire, fuel system rebuild and so forth. 

    Here are photos of what we term a "basket case" 1965 Austin Healey 3000. "Basket case" means a car comes to us disassembled with degrees of organization ranging from parts just being tossed into baskets, boxes or just placed in the interior and trunk. This Healey is a mess but will be a car again. Off the road since 1983, the car was partially disassembled 15 years ago and well, not completed. The owner decided that he wanted us to complete the car so he can drive it during his lifetime. 

We started by removing the radiator and fuel tank for renovation.  The original wiring harness had been removed and a replacement was partly fitted. The entire cockpit had been removed. 

The brakes and suspension appear untouched. More as the story unfolds and work gets more involved. 

Here are photos of a 1960 Triumph TR-3 in for a clutch. The owner had been driving the car with all four wheels were locked up from brakes that were rusted solid. Forcing the car to move against the seized brakes soon burned out the clutch. No wonder the car was slow. 

In this photo are the remnants of theTR3s 47 year old rear transmission mount. The rubber sections of the mount had long disintegrated.  Behind the old mount is the new mount soon to be installed.  

Next is a near death photo of a rear steel brake pipe. Notice the rust and corrosion on the pipe. This fragile pipe could burst at any time and the result would be catastrophic brake failure.  Once we replace the clutch and reseal the transmission, we will make and fit all new brake pipes. 

In this photo you can see the right front brake and rusted brake rotor as discovered. Soon we will have rebuilt the calipers, replaced rotors and rear brakes as well. 

Lord of the Rings

If Frodo had owned a car (say a Mini) that we had restored, he and Samwise would have cruised to Mordor a lot sooner. We re-manufacture engines to a very high standard and of course they always receive new rings and pistons. As we rebuild engines by Rolls Royce, Lotus, MG, Jaguar, Triumph and Mercedes Benz, the specifics of the rebuilding process varies by engine type and owner desires.. Please contact us with your engine details for more information on costs and the many possibilities for performance.

This is a brace of Lotus engines being rebuilt. 

This is an MGA motor we rebuilt and is ready to be installed into an owners car. 

Specifics on engine work

2. All worn parts are either rebuilt or replaced or machined if available or possible.

3. Owners will be advised about enhancements or upgrades available to increase performance, reliability or drivability. 

4. Attention to detail. All parts are painted in original colors and all work is performed to keep the car as original as possible in appearance. Enhancements such as electronic ignition, modern style fuel pumps and accessories can be subtly fitted where possible for enhanced reliability. We offer many enhancements to improve reliability and drivability.

If your dash instruments need repair or restoration, send them to us.

Lord of the Dings            

For a proper restorative paint job, the car should have all chrome, lamps and trim removed. In many cases the interior is removed as well. The body is sanded down to the original primer, if it exists, and primed with a high grade catalyzed primer. All dings and body flaws are repaired and the entire body shell is hand block sanded to remove waves and body flaws. The result is a smooth finish able to show the top coats well. To achieve a "show car" paint job, the car usually has to be painted two or three times to achieve virtual perfection. This is a tedious, very expensive and very time consuming process as perfection is not possible on this world but humans still try to get there. We suggest that owners critically evaluate any paint shop for signs of how well they are organized as we regularly supply parts to body shops that have lost expensive and hard to obtain parts. Some shops throw parts away without regard for what they are dealing with. Thus its always good to take a lot of detailed photos of your car to document what was there.