Practical
How to judge a restoration workshop
You are choosing a relationship that may last three years. The criteria are not the ones most people apply.
Published 4 July 2026 · Updated 11 September 2026
Specialists and generalists
Some workshops are marque specialists, some are process specialists in bodywork, trim or mechanicals, and some do everything to a moderate standard.
Most projects need more than one, coordinated by somebody. Decide early whether that somebody is the main workshop or you.
A generalist who says honestly that they will subcontract the trim is more trustworthy than one who claims to do it all.
The three-year test
Ask to see a car they finished three years ago and has been used since. Fresh paint hides everything; three winters hide nothing.
Ask the owner of that car what went well and what did not. Most will tell you plainly.
A workshop that cannot point you at a finished car in use is a workshop to think hard about.
Documentation
Ask how they record work. Photographs at each stage, itemised time, and parts invoices passed through are the marks of a workshop used to being questioned.
This documentation is also what gives the finished car its provenance, which matters both for judging and for eventual sale.
A workshop that finds the question irritating will find later questions irritating too.
Money and stage payments
Stage payments tied to defined milestones protect both sides. Open-ended monthly billing against unspecified progress does not.
Agree what happens if the work stops: who owns the parts, where the car goes, what is owed.
Never pay for parts you have not seen, in a workshop you have not visited.
Waiting lists
A twelve-month wait for a good workshop is normal and is a positive signal.
Immediate capacity in a busy specialism deserves a question, asked politely.
Use the waiting time to finish sourcing parts and to write the brief.
Warning signs
Reluctance to give references, unwillingness to itemise, and pressure to decide quickly.
A yard full of half-finished cars that have obviously not moved in years.
Any suggestion that paperwork can be tidied up later.
Your side of the bargain
Turn up occasionally, but not weekly. Answer questions quickly; a project stalls waiting for owner decisions more often than for parts.
Do not change the brief mid-stage. If you must, accept that it costs money and say so first.
Pay on time. Workshops remember.
General information only. Every car is different; work on a specific vehicle should be discussed with the person who can see it.