A full nut-and-bolt restoration is the longest conversation we will ever have with a motor car. It begins with the car arriving on the back of a transporter — often tired, sometimes broken, occasionally heartbreaking — and ends, eighteen months or more later, with it leaving under its own power, finer than the day it left the factory. Nothing is glossed over and nothing is hidden. Every nut, every bolt, every washer is removed, catalogued, assessed and either restored or replaced with the correct original-pattern part.
We are not in the business of cosmetic shortcuts. The phrase "nut and bolt" is taken literally here. The body is separated from the chassis. The chassis is shot-blasted, examined for fatigue and corrosion, repaired where necessary by a coded fabricator, and protected. Running gear, wiring, glass, trim and brightwork are bagged, labelled and stored on dedicated shelving that belongs to your car and your car alone.
A restoration you can read
Throughout the project we keep a bound logbook and a photographic record of every stage. You receive regular updates with images, so the work is never a mystery happening behind closed doors. When the car is finished, that record travels with it — a provenance document that adds genuine value and tells the next custodian exactly what was done, and why.
This transparency matters most at the points you cannot see once the car is reassembled: the inside of a box section, the underside of a floor pan, the back of a bulkhead. We treat those surfaces with the same care as the bonnet, because we know they are there.
What the process involves
- Complete disassembly with component-by-component cataloguing and photography
- Chassis and monocoque assessment, blasting, repair and corrosion protection
- Panel restoration or fabrication, gap-setting and metal finishing
- Mechanical rebuild — engine, gearbox, axle, brakes, steering and suspension
- New or restored wiring loom, instruments and ancillaries
- Bare-metal refinishing and hand-finished paintwork
- Re-trimmed interior in correct materials, with restored woodwork and brightwork
- Final assembly, commissioning, road testing and sign-off
Originality, sympathetically judged
Every restoration carries a question of philosophy: how original is original enough? Some owners want a concours car, correct to the last cadmium-plated bracket. Others want to drive hard and far, and are happy to accept discreet, reversible improvements — an electronic ignition hidden inside a period distributor, a more durable bearing material, a cooling system that copes with modern traffic. We discuss this openly at the outset and agree a brief in writing, so the finished car is the car you actually wanted.
What never changes is the standard of the work itself. Whether your Aston, your Jaguar or your Alfa is destined for the lawn at a concours or the passes of the Alps, it will be assembled by people who have done it many times before and who treat your car as if it were their own. A nut-and-bolt restoration is not a quick thing or a cheap thing. It is, however, a permanent thing — and that is rather the point.