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Most restorations go wrong long before the welding starts. They go wrong at the point where somebody decides what the finished car is supposed to be, and never writes it down.
Updated 11 September 2026 · Editorial team Solpo
Decisions
The difference between preserving, recommissioning and restoring a classic car, and how to decide which one a particular car deserves.
Money
How restoration budgets are structured, why bodywork dominates, and how to read a workshop quotation without being surprised later.
Practical
What to look for when choosing a restoration workshop, what to ask, and which warning signs matter more than price.
Practical
The common reasons restoration projects stall and a practical route back to a running car when one has.
Booked directly, paid separately, and entirely advisory. We never see the car, we do not inspect and we do not quote for work.
For an owner deciding whether to start. We work out what the finished car is supposed to be and what that implies for scope and money.
€150€110 / 75 min
How to find and assess workshops for the kind of work your car needs, and what to ask them before committing anything.
€195€145 / 90 min
For a project that stopped. We go through where it is, what is missing, and what the shortest route back to a running car looks like.
€220€165 / 2 × 60 min
Rates include VAT. Everything happens by phone or video call. If a session would not be useful for your situation, we will say so before you book.
A car for long drives, a car for shows and a car kept as it is are three different projects. Choosing later costs money.
Almost every decision in a restoration is reversible except the one to remove original material.
Bodywork is quoted on what can be seen. What is under the paint decides the final figure, and nobody knows it yet.
Independent writing about restoration culture: how projects are planned, how workshops price them, and how owners decide between preserving and rebuilding.
It is not a technical manual. There are good ones already, written by people with the car on a ramp in front of them.
What is missing from most of that material is the part before the work: the decisions, the money and the expectations.
Owners looking at a project car and trying to work out whether to start, and owners part way through one who have lost the thread.
Also for people who have inherited a car and have no idea what they are holding.
No prior mechanical knowledge is assumed.
We do not restore cars, sell parts, or act as agents for any workshop.
We do not value vehicles or authenticate them.
We name no workshop as best; the right one depends entirely on the car and the owner.
Preservation keeps the car as it is and stabilises it. It is the cheapest option and increasingly the most respected.
Recommissioning makes a stored car usable again without changing its appearance. Brakes, fluids, fuel system, tyres.
Restoration rebuilds the car towards a chosen standard. It is the most expensive by a wide margin and the least reversible.
Bodywork and paint dominate almost every budget, frequently more than half of it. Mechanical work is comparatively predictable.
Trim and chrome are the quiet budget killers: small items, long lead times, specialist suppliers.
Labour is the largest single line. Parts feel expensive but rarely are, relative to hours.
Ask to see a car they finished three years ago rather than one they finished last month. Time is the honest test.
Ask how they document work. A workshop that photographs the process is one that expects to be asked questions.
A long waiting list is usually a better sign than immediate availability.
Projects die from loss of momentum rather than from money. A car in a thousand pieces with no written plan is how that starts.
Photograph and label everything before it comes apart. Future-you will not remember.
Set an order of work and finish each stage before opening the next.
General information only. Every car is different; work on a specific vehicle should be discussed with the person who can see it.
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