Below are examples of what we do and have accomplished with lots of photos and commentary about what is involved with restoring a vintage car for street driving use. Before you read about restoration works, 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. 

Here is some insight from three smart people whose points of view are worth thinking about in many ways before embarking on a restoration of anything. 

"The secret to getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one."  

                                                                                                                                                   Mark Twain

 "There's a reluctance to confront reality and a desire to soften unpleasant realities."                                                                                       George Carlin 

" If a person can afford to restore something properly and wants to, why not?" 

                                                                                MacClymondsvitzoupoulous II

If you do not have a car that you want to restore and are searching for just the right one or are wanting a restored car right now, take your time as these days many cars are advertised for sale with on-line auctions as being "restored" and are instead, junk metal. Sometimes after an owner makes a purchase and takes delivery, we get to closely examine them. Our consensus is that the mechanical condition of many  cars bought using on line auctions is shockingly bad. All too often we find that recent work done on such cars in order to sell them is superficial at best and outright incompetent and or fraudulent at worst. The internet has made it all too easy for unscrupulous sellers to construct webs of lies in order to sell a car and many buyers can't but should be bothered to do what it takes to have a car checked out before they spend their money unless they literally have piles of money to burn. 

 If you plan on purchasing a car to have restored by using an on line auction, if at all possible have the car checked out by a local shop in the area and do your homework as some sellers regularly and knowingly make broad and specific claims that are simply not factual. It is just the way of the world (think Goldman Sachs or BP) and probably has been since the cavemen mentally developed enough to conceptualize selling or trading something (some nice berries or arrowheads perhaps) to someone else. 

For example a sales ad about a 1986 Maserati came to our attention. The seller claimed the car was a "one-off". A "one-off" means the manufacturer made a single car to a certain specification, usually a unique body and such a car would be very rare and usually very expensive. In this instance, the seller claimed his car was the only five speed manual transmission Maserati manufactured that year. Interestingly, we had another 1986 Maserati five speed in our workshop at the time and know of many others. So, do your homework and trust but verify. 

Let's define restoring a car and what the process actually involves.

Typically an intensive mechanical and structural restoration involves  disassembling the entire car or assembly to the last nut and bolt and repairing whatever is encountered. Such an endeavor is a great deal of very organized work and requires many new parts to make happen. As we do a lot of work for owners that live an inconvenient driving distance from our workshops, we photograph the pleasant and unpleasant discoveries and e-mail them to our clients so an owner can make informed decisions and evaluate the visual reality of the condition of their car with the work and expenses involved. 

Cars with large rusted areas will cost considerably more to restore than cars with solid bodies. Cars with extensive rust can and should cost a great deal less than solid cars. Rust is very easy to hide in photographs especially on cars with white paintwork.  Restorations can and do 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. A common question we receive concerns the expense of restoring a car vs. the eventual 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 just as the purchase price of new cars exceed their resale values. 

So why do it at all? Why do anything? Why not have a boring little life like a jelly fish does? A simple answer is that car owners that bring their cars to us have very evolved brains and have attained discerning skills to choose refined mechanical contraptions (cars) that bring them great pleasure. Of course many fellow creatures on this planet also choose things that bring them pleasure but those creatures cannot drive cars. Yet. 

"No contraption has the thrill of driving a fine car other than perhaps flying the space shuttle."   

                  overheard from a conversation between  Leonardo Da Vinci and  Virgil "Gus" Grissom 

There are many reasons why car owners restore their cars. Such reasons 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 dream projects into reality. They plan to enjoy their car for many years to make the considerable investment sensible to them and we enjoy working for such owners that plan to continually enjoy what we have done for their 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 nor in high demand. Of course, buying a new car with the object of selling it for a profit seldom works out either except for car dealers. 

 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 soon to be boring object in their lives and we prefer to work for owners that have a real affection for their car and care about its future as well as their personal safely.  (They want good brakes.) 

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If you want to restore a car and don't want to do it yourself or don't want to pay for the hundreds or thousands of hours of work to have the work properly done, well then, use our Instant Restoration Spray! This product, when properly applied, will instantly restore any non-living thing and will also remove earwax buildups. It's great for selling cars using on line auctions! If you drink a bottle or two, you soon won't care about the quality of anything anyway. 

Better hurry! Only one of each left! However if you buy twenty two, we will throw in another one for free!  These products are guaranteed for the life of a microbe and are unavailable anywhere but here.

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Back to car restoration the real way:

 So how much time does a typical restoration take and what does such work 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. You should watch the movie," The Money Pit", as an introduction of sorts to restoring vintage cars. It's a very funny movie yet some of the truths about the pitfalls of restoring cars, houses, boats. aeroplanes and such that are in poor condition are ever so true. 

Again, why restore anything? A good reason is that many great and worthy things were made in the past like Hammond organs, Klipschorn speakers, Harmon Karden tube equipment, The Gibson guitars, Fender tube amps, Sunbeam T-9 toasters, Genelex KT-88 tubes and many cars that had wonderful character and enduring beauty. Besides, after tomorrow, everything was made in the past sooner or later!

We try to make sure that owners understand the costs of automobile restoration work as well as we can as we want to make sure they have the financial means to finish the project. It does not serve anyone well to have an owner get part way into a restoration and run out of funds to finish it. We have ended up finishing many restoration attempts that other shops and individuals began and did not finish for the below reasons all too frequently. 

It is unseemly that all may not be what it seems to be when it comes to restoring cars. 

or 

To restore or not to restore, 

that is the question.

                                                                              Horatio to MacClymonds XVI

The concept of what a proper restoration involves can certainly be broad thus we like to have good meaningful discussions with the car owner on what we want to do with a car and why. Here are photos of the under chassis on a Frogeye Sprite that was purchased as being restored. The new owner of the Sprite brought it to us to replace the interior and told us the car had been restored by a master Sprite restorer. The paint work was very nice but the rest of the car was not very nice. We don't know what was under the new paint. 

  In this photo, those happy fingers waving at you are poking through a rust hole in the drivers floor. The floor and hole were covered by a piece of shaped plywood laid under the old carpet. Perhaps the fellow restoring the car thought that laying some 1/4 inch plywood over the hole rather than replacing the rotten floor was a good way to restore the car. Or perhaps the restorer left it that way as a water drain? 

In this photo of the front suspension the parts do not appear to have had much genuine restoration work. See the shiny triangular thing inserted into the lower coils of the front spring? This wedge is called a "spring helper"  and it is a horrible device. When we encounter these, we know the car has been in the wrong hands. As a road spring ages and sags, "some people" will jam a spring helper into the spring and it will push the sagging spring up somewhat so the car does not appear to have bad springs. This is an old trick and does nothing for the suspension but it does enable a car to be sold to an unsuspecting buyer. 

Here we see the old rotten 50 year old wiring. The rest of the cars mechanicals appear to be pretty much just an old car. 

Reasons for an uncompleted restoration vary.

1. The car in question may have been in far more pitiable 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 most owners want newly discovered problems solved as well. ( See the Money Pit again.) The end result can be great but getting there takes stamina and considerable fuel. i.e. funding. 

Thus it's financially but not necessarily emotionally better to start out 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. Cars bought from on line auctions can and many times are especially risky purchases. It's best to carefully examine all such purchases beforehand. 

2. Perhaps 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 and many restorationists are packrats. It's in the blood.  Clutter does not mean cars are sitting around covered in layers of dust with parts, old boxes and beer cans 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 shop scenery. 

 How enthusiastic about the cars and work are the employees?  If an car owner gives a 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. It is not a bad thing to "trust but verify."  We provide photos of works in progress via e-mail for owners that are a distance away and are always happy to show owners the work in progress. It is all part of the enjoyment of having a car restored. 

3. The car owner or shop encountered financial or personal problems mid stream in the work that caused the job to slow down or stop. These problems can happen to anyone at anytime. Divorces, cyclical stock market crashes, family or health problems can create a lack of funds or focus. 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. Perhaps the car owner had unreasonable expectations on costs or time to complete the work. #4 results in many uncompleted cars.  Once upon a time, we had a client with a car in the workshop, a car that we were well into restoring. This client had placed a bet with a pal of his without telling us beforehand. The bet was that we would restore the car for him by a date certain. The car was in much worse condition than the time frame would allow (lots of rust covered with bondo and heavy paint kind of thing) 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 game. Working people are not playthings and people should not treat people as pawns in their games. 

 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. Actually, car restoration is a lot of hard physical work that takes considerable planning, thought, parts and funding to accomplish. The work we do is not done by a computer program and is certainly no video game. Working with the hands and mind in a time honored manner completes a restoration. Nothing else will make it happen. 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 rusted exhaust pipe! So, the wand stays hidden away with our other secret stuff.  No, it is not for sale. 

We no longer respray cars, yet are involved with the process as we frequently disassemble and reassemble a car to be painted and supply many parts for such work.  Once a car is re-sprayed and the body looks great, it is time to replace all the body rubber and sometimes the lenses. Over the years, the plastic in lenses darkens and gets sandblasted by air borne dirt. The sun deteriorates the plastic and it eventually cracks. New lenses not only make the car look crisp again but they allow more light to shine through as well. yes, we stock many lenses for the works we work with as we change them a lot. 

We are now offering Vredestein tires for many of the cars we work with. Check our tire section here. 

 For parts orders call 281.448.5165 or Send us an e-mail!

Indulgences...

Here is a photo of a six cylinder 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.  This one is not for sale but they are out there. 

  Or perhaps an MG like this 1966 MGB would be more 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. The ground looked great as well. 

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 a while back.

Some 18 years before we were engaged to restore this MG, 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. We rebuilt the car and these days, the owner drives the car whenever she wants to. 

Here is a photo of the MGTD interior in leather. 

Secret Sins of the Ages

This 1956 Jaguar XK140 was poorly restored some 20 years ago.  

 Check out the horrible structural condition. Lots of old rust and sins here. 

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 steel exhaust was fitted once the structural work was completed.

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

 reconstruction. 

This 1962 Bentley S2 Continental 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. 

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.

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. 

MGA Coupe Restoration

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.

Nash Metropolitan Restoration

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 restored it to a daily driving condition. At some point in it's long life, it was brush painted with a broom and allowed to slowly rot away. 

In this photo, we were stripping the car to it's basic shell, cutting out all the rust we could find and welded in new steel, replacing about half the floorboards, discovering that the left front fender had been in a collision and the "repair" included about three inches of thick 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.

1968 Jaguar E-Type 2+2 Mechanical Restoration for a street driver

This 1968 Jaguar E sat up for several decades and is about to begin a major mechanical and electrical restoration. Here is the engine and bay bay as we began. 

  Actually, this gross photo is not the anal sphincter of the Jaguar, it shows the bottom of the old fuel tank with the debris and crud that build up in these tanks from the many decades of old fuel evaporating in the tank. 

In this photo, we have removed the mummified rear end assembly for rebuilding. 

  This photo shows some of the components now ready for reassembly. 

Here is the inside of the Pow-R-Lok differential after we replaced the clutches and bearings. 

This photo shows the rear brake calipers ready to fit. We replaced the caliper halves with new assembles and made new pipes. 

Here you can see the original engine, suspension and so forth just before we stripped it down. 

  In this photo, we have removed the engine and transmission, stripped the engine bay of components and removed the space frame. We will be repainting the engine bay the original Primrose yellow before refitting the rebuilt steering and suspension. 

  This photo shows the newly painted bulkhead. We previously repaired some rust damage by cutting out the rusty areas and welding in new steel. The entire bulkhead was ground down to the metal. 

  Here the engine bay assembly work is moving right along and we re-wired the entire car with new fuse boxes, switches as required. 

In these photos the newly rebuilt engine is being fitted. You can see the newly fitted electronic ignition in the distributor. 

       The engine is now settled into it's nest and is mated to a new stainless exhaust.  The 1968 2+2 model featured the across the top of the engine polished mixture crossover manifold as seen near the rear of the engine.  On later cars, Jaguar did away with this manifold part but kept the cutaway in the cam covers for many years. 

MG Midget Restoration 

Here is the as found underbody of a 1964 MG Midget about to enjoy 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. That is sort of a repetitively redundant sentence isn't it.

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.     

 Jensen Healey Restoration

The owner of this 1972 Jensen Healey completely disassembled his car 20 years or so before we received it. 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.

Here is a 1973 vintage Jensen Healey Roadster. This great sports car was restored 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 with all rust removed and bad sections 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, reworked  and 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.  We hear from the owner every year and he has won many prizes with the car. He drives it all over the east coast of the USA. The owner and his machine are a great pair and we consider this Jensen the best example on the planet. The car has now been driven some 22,000 miles after the restoration and the only work the car has required has been oil changes. This sort of job is why we go to work everyday. 

MGC-GT Restoration

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 in this photo once we locate a few more missing parts that were lost on the journey here. 

Mercedes Benz 350SL Re-Restoration

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.

This Mercedes restoration was completed in 2007. In 2008,  the owners young son, while driving the car at high speed, lost control and drove over some major tree roots, knocking over a fire hydrant and abruptly stopping against a tree thus ripping the suspensions and steering into twisted pieces. The driver fought the tree and the tree definitely won. Much of the original restoration work we did was destroyed by the impact. The car sustained extensive damage to the body and mechanicals but did it's job as the young laddie came through without a scratch. The owner decided to have us repair and restore the damaged car back to it's former glory regardless of the damage and so it begins. In a different world than our company inhabits, such cars are considered totaled as the damage is massive and the eventual cost unknown. In this case the ingredients for a successful outcome are in place. The car is an old friend, the owner wants it fixed, has the means and has agreed to allow us to have full control over the work to make the determinations of what needs to be done to save the car so we will.

  This photo shows the differential. The large hole was made as the differential was partially ripped off the car by the impact. The rear trailing arms are both bent as are the axles and just about everything else to do with the steering, brakes and suspension.   In this photo, you can see the center tie rod bar bent into a "U" shape. It was straight before.

The right front tire was ripped right off the wheel. The wheel is a bit bent as well. Once we complete the mechanical rebuilding the car will go to the frame shop to make the body straight again. When the car hit the tree, it flipped up and then down so hard, it bent the frame upwards thus the door gaps are badly skewed. However, these old Mercs are tough and very well built cars. They can take a massive smash and be repaired well if there is enough mind over matter. 

For parts orders call 281.448.5165 or Send us an e-mail!

Triumph TR6 Restoration

Here are some photos of the car as delivered to us and just after separating the body from the frame. This 1969 TR6 was been in dry storage for some 20 years. 

For this job, we are doing no body or interior work unless this changes as we go along. The restoration will entail removing the body from the frame, repairing the frame for stress cracks and having the frame powder coated. We will be rebuilding the engine with performance enhancements, rebuilding the transmission, overdrive and differential. We will also be rebuilding the suspensions, steering, cooling, fuel system and brakes. Once the rolling frame is completed, we will refit the body, hook up the original wiring, get the car drivable and that is it. 

Bristol 409 Restoration

Here will be photos of a restoration on a 1966 Bristol 409. This very scarce hand built high performance all aluminum body English muscle car is one of 42 or so Bristol cars built that year ( Bristol Cars won't reveal what their production figures were or are. ) The car features a factory fitted 5.2 litre V8 Chrysler engine with push button shift automatic transmission. These V8 engines replaced the venerable six cylinder pre-war BMW based engine that were previously manufactured by the Bristol factory. Bristol Cars purchased new engines from Chrysler and would totally disassemble them. They would check the tolerances to make sure they were perfect enough for them as merely perfect was not deemed good enough.  Many bolts and fasteners on Bristol cars are wire tied or used Nyloc nuts like airplane construction. This is because Bristol Cars emerged from the old Bristol Airplane Company that manufactured war planes during WW2. The Bristol 409 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 brake systems available at the time. Considered by automotive enthusiasts then and now as one of the finest driving automobiles ever built, Bristol cars are still hand built in very limited numbers ( they won't say) for owners with plenty of cash and discretion. 

For this Bristol restoration,  we rebuilt the entire brake, steering and suspension systems with great attention to details like replacing the copper wire used to wire tie the differential cover bolts.  The vintage KONI shocks were rebuilt, up-graded with improved valving and restored for this job by the KONI factory.  The exquisite interior wood trim was restored and all aspects of the mechanicals will be refreshed. We rebuilt the Marles steering box, replaced the ball joints, bushings, tie rod ends and we installed Royal Purple synthetic lubricants.  ANSA tuned exhaust tips are fitted. We installed a Pertronix electronic ignition of course. The brake system was rebuilt with all the calipers having new pistons fitted and all new steel brake pipes as well as the flexible hoses were replaced. The front subframe has been removed, disassembled, sandblasted and repainted with epoxy primer and black paint. There was not much rust in the steel body sections and these areas we cut away and welded in new steel. The original carburetor and alternator were also rebuilt. The engine received a new timing chain with new sprockets and we replaced the oil pump for good measure. The heater box was removed and restored. The radiator was rebuilt with a high efficiency core and the original Kenlowe radiator cooling fans were restored. The front and rear windshield seals were replaced and soon the car will be roadworthy for the first time since 1980. 

Triumph Spitfire Restoration

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. This car is now completed and on the road again. 

Austin Healey 3000 Restoration and Modification

    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. 

In this photo are the remnants of aTR3's 47 year old rear transmission mount. The rubber sections of the mount had long disintegrated.  Behind the old mount is a 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 have burst at any time and the result would have been 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 see the right front brake and rusted brake rotor as discovered. We rebuilt the calipers, replaced rotors and rear brakes as well.

MGB-GT Restoration

Here we have a 1973 MGB-GT in for rust repairs, mechanical renovations and a new cockpit after a long storage. The car now belongs to the son of the original owner. 

This photo shows window screen and bondo used to "repair" rust damage on this 1973 MGB-GT.  It's classical trash bodywork. We sliced open the car here and there so as to observe the extent of the rust and do a proper repair plan. We will be replacing extensive body sections on this MGB-GT and photos of this work will follow as it moves along. 

The car lived in Michigan and became quite rusty. Here you see large chunks of rust that have cracked off inside the rocker panel.

  A few photos of the rusty under carriage.

Here are photos of the front subframe and suspension and soon will be another photo with the work on it well under weigh. 

This photo is a section of the MGB-GT lower chassis where the section has collapsed from rust weakening the structure. This is a difficult repair that requires substantial preparation involving sandblasting, grinding, fabrication and welding to accomplish in a long lasting manner. Yes, it's easier to slap screen and bondo on and send it down the road. The people that did this work should be banished from "repairing" automobiles. Perhaps they have more skill drinking beer. Perhaps not.  

  In these photos, we are cutting out the rusty areas, grinding away rotting metal in preparation for welding in new steel sections. This car will be strong once again and the rust will be laid low. 

Here the car is right after painting by a local body shop to a color of the owners choosing. Our re-assembly work has just begun. The car body was customized by a little  "smoothie" inspiration of the owners by removing the side moldings and repainting the car with a non original metallic. The interior will be leather with lots of enhancements to be fitted as we go along. An earlier all chrome grill will be fitted. ANSA exhaust with stainless headers, new chrome wire wheels and Vredestein tires. Leather interior, wood Moto-Lita wheel. Instead of replacing the bumpers with the el cheapo reproduction bumpers, we had these original bumpers replated to a superior standard. This car will be a great toy. 

Odds and Bobs

This photo shows a 1958 Austin Healey 100/6 transmission brought to us in a wheel barrow. No, this is not a rare Austin Healey wheel barrow as AH did not make wheel barrows. The transmission is resting after a failed attempt was made to replace the bearings. After a lot of no doubt frustrating time, the owner decided to bring the transmission to us to "get it back together again." 

This photo shows the very dirty inside of the overdrive unit. All that black stuff is a combination of burned clutch material and ancient lubricant. This is not what you want to see in a Laycock de Normanville overdrive. What you want to see is a very clean assembly. This sort of basket case job is not exactly our favorite to undertake but it has to be done and as we know how to do this sort of rebuilding, the job has landed here. 

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, Bentley 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.

These photos show a brace of Lotus engines being rebuilt. 

This is an MGA 1500 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 or primed with a high grade catalyzed primer. All dings and body flaws are repaired and the entire body shell is laboriously 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, expensive and very time consuming process as perfection is not possible on this world but humans still try to get close. 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. Always tell your body shop NOT to cut the wiring to remove an electrical part and always call us to buy your parts of course. 

For parts orders call 281.448.5165 or Send us an e-mail!