However beautiful a car, it must stop, ride and steer properly to be safely enjoyed — and on a classic that has covered decades, the running gear is often where the most important work lies. Tired dampers, worn bushes, sloppy steering and marginal brakes rob a car of the very feel that made it special when new. We overhaul the chassis systems of the cars we look after so that they handle and stop with the precision and confidence their makers built in.
This is unglamorous work that nobody admires at a show, and it is among the most worthwhile we do. A car that rides flat, steers true and stops straight is transformed to drive, and it is safe to use as it was meant to be used — on real roads, at real speeds, for real distances.
Brakes you can rely on
We overhaul braking systems completely rather than patching them. Drums or discs are skimmed or renewed, cylinders and calipers are rebuilt or replaced, flexible hoses are renewed without exception, and the whole system is bled and balanced. Where an owner wants the reassurance of better stopping for modern traffic, sympathetic and reversible improvements are possible — but the first priority is always a standard system restored to work exactly as designed.
What the chassis work covers
- Full brake overhaul — drums, discs, cylinders, calipers, hoses and fluid
- Suspension rebuilds — springs, dampers, bushes, kingpins and trunnions
- Steering box or rack overhaul to remove play and restore feel
- Wheel bearings, hubs and wire-wheel splines serviced or renewed
- Geometry — camber, castor and tracking — set to factory specification
- Road testing to confirm the car stops straight and rides true
Steering that talks to you
The delight of a classic is the conversation between car and driver, and most of that conversation happens through the steering. We remove the slack from boxes and racks, renew worn joints and bushes, and set the geometry correctly so the car tracks straight, returns to centre and tells you what the front wheels are doing. A well-sorted classic steers with a directness that puts many modern cars to shame.
Set up as a whole
Brakes, suspension and steering are one system, and they are best set up together. We do not simply replace worn parts; we corner-weight where appropriate, set the geometry, and road-test until the car feels right. The result is a classic that rides comfortably, steers sweetly and stops with confidence — ready for a Sunday lane or a thousand-mile tour.