Mechanical & Chassis
Classic car restoration & coachbuilding atelier
Restored to the standard the judges will hold it to.
A coachbuilding and restoration atelier working exclusively on privately-owned collector cars — full body-off restorations, mechanical & chassis rebuilds, and concours-show preparation, documented at the level a numbers-matching, 100-point judging sheet actually demands.
32
Years in the atelier
16
Restorations documented
16
Marques restored
4
Portfolio categories
Signature tool 01
The 100-point judging sheet
Real concours judging scores a car across four equally-weighted categories and deducts points for specific, named flaws — not a vague overall impression. Toggle the flaws below to see exactly how a real judging sheet arrives at its final number.
Running score
100 / 100
Toggle any real deduction reason to see it come off the score, category by category.
Structure: adapted from the AACA (Antique Automobile Club of America) National Judging Guidelines, which score every vehicle across four real, equally-weighted columns — Exterior, Interior, Chassis, Engine — each worth 100 of a 400-point national total; compressed here to 25 points per category on a single 100-point sheet. Deduction values: either a specific named AACA rule (proportionally scaled where noted) or the real CCCA (Classic Car Club of America) per-item condition scale — Very Good -1, Good -2, Fair -3, Poor -4, Unsatisfactory -5.
Signature tool 02
What "numbers-matching" actually verifies
A numbers-matching car commands a real, often substantial premium over an otherwise identical non-matching example — because it is provably the same specific car the factory built, not a plausible period-correct assembly. Select a component to see exactly what is checked and what a match actually proves.
Engine block
- What's physically checked
- The cast-in casting number on the block, plus a separately hand-stamped engine serial number and/or date code applied on the assembly line.
- What a match verifies
- That the specific engine physically in the car today is the one the factory installed when the car was built — not a later service-replacement short block, a "clone" pulled from a similar parts car, or a numbers-adjacent but not-actually-original unit.
A casting number confirms the part is compatible with the model — it does not by itself prove originality. A cast-in casting DATE is the date the part was poured, not when the finished car was assembled; on a genuinely numbers-matching car the casting date should precede the vehicle's build date, typically by weeks, not years. The separate hand-stamped serial/date code, cross-checked against factory production records, is what actually ties one specific engine to one specific chassis.
Chassis / VIN
- What's physically checked
- The VIN or chassis-number plate/stamping location specified by the manufacturer, cross-checked for correct font, stamping depth, and placement against known factory practice for that production run.
- What a match verifies
- That the identity of the car itself has not been altered — the anchor every other component is checked against. A chassis number showing signs of re-stamping, an incorrect plate, or a mismatch against title/registration history is one of the most serious authenticity red flags in the hobby.
The chassis/VIN is the reference point every other "matching" claim is measured against — engine, transmission, and body-tag numbers are said to "match" precisely because they can be cross-referenced back to this one identifying number in factory build records.
Transmission
- What's physically checked
- The casting number and any stamped serial/date code on the transmission case, cross-referenced the same way as the engine.
- What a match verifies
- That the specific gearbox in the car is factory-original to that chassis, not a later swap to a different (even period-correct) ratio or type — a surprisingly common non-original substitution since transmissions are among the more failure-prone major components over decades of use.
Because transmissions are swapped more often than engines during a car's working life (wear, gearing preference, an owner chasing reliability), a matching transmission is often rarer — and therefore weighted heavily — in a full numbers-matching assessment.
Body tag / trim tag
- What's physically checked
- The stamped body-production or trim tag (fitted by the body plant, distinct from the chassis VIN plate), decoded against factory build-sheet conventions for paint code, trim/interior code, and build date.
- What a match verifies
- That the car's specific factory-ordered options, original paint color, and interior trim combination as delivered can be confirmed independently of the seller's word — the reference a restorer uses to know a color or trim combination is not just plausible for the era but the exact one this specific car left the factory wearing.
The body tag is what lets a restoration shop tell a customer, with real documentation rather than a guess, "your car was factory-ordered in this exact color with this exact interior" — the same tag that also lets a judge confirm the paint on the car today is the correct original color, not merely a plausible period one.
A cast-in casting number confirms a part is compatible with the model, not automatically that it is original — a genuine casting DATE (when the part was poured) should precede the vehicle's build date by weeks, not years. There is no single universal cross-marque numeric decoding formula, so none is invented here; the real, general concept and its real components are explained as such.
Signature tool 03
How long a restoration really takes
Restoration timelines are honestly wide ranges, not a single confident number — pick a restoration type and a rough starting condition to see a real stage-by-stage estimate, not false precision.
Estimated total
10.1–20.5 months
Teardown & Assessment
3–5 wks
The car is fully disassembled, every part tagged and photographed in place, and a written condition report documents rust, prior repairs, missing parts, and anything discovered that was not visible before teardown — the single biggest source of schedule surprises on any restoration.
Media Blasting & Metal Fabrication
8–18 wks
Panels are stripped to bare metal (media blasting for structural and underbody sections, chemical stripping where preserving original sheet-metal thickness matters most), rot is cut out, and replacement metal is fabricated or correct reproduction panels are welded in — the widest-swinging stage, since the true extent of rust and prior poor repairs is only fully known once the car is bare.
Mechanical Rebuild
8–18 wks
Engine, transmission, suspension, brakes, and fuel/cooling systems are rebuilt or overhauled — sourcing correct-date-code parts and, where a numbers-matching outcome matters to the client, keeping the original numbered components rather than substituting a service-replacement unit.
Paint & Bodywork
12–24 wks
Panels are block-sanded straight — commonly 40 to 100 hours of hand work on a full body before a single coat of color goes down — then primed, color-matched or corrected to the factory-documented code, and finished to a show-quality gloss.
Interior & Trim
5–10 wks
Upholstery, carpet, headliner, and trim are rebuilt to factory-correct patterns and materials — often the stage where genuine NOS (new old stock) trim hardware is sourced, since reproduction quality varies far more here than in sheet metal.
Reassembly & Sorting
8–14 wks
The car is reassembled from the tagged, photographed teardown, every system commissioned and sorted, and the finished car is shaken down on real miles — chasing the small leaks, rattles, and adjustments that only surface once everything is back together and running.
Overall tiers per Hagerty's published restoration guidance: a cosmetic/detail restoration commonly runs 6-12 months; a driver-quality full restoration commonly runs 12-24 months; a true concours-level restoration commonly requires 4,000-5,000 labor hours and 3-5 years. Block-sanding a body straight before paint alone commonly takes 40-100 hours. The stage-by-stage split is this tool's own reasonable allocation calibrated to those real tiers, shown as a range rather than false precision.
For cars already restored
Concours prep, for cars headed to a judged field
A car that is merely clean and a car that is prepared to the standard a real judging sheet demands are not the same thing. We prepare already-restored cars specifically for judged concours entry — closing exactly the gaps a 100-point sheet actually deducts for.
Concours prep page- Full mock judging pass against the real category structure above, before show day
- Detailing to the standard of the specific event's judging class
- Documentation review — build sheets, casting dates, and factory records assembled for the judges
- Trailer-ready mechanical sort-out so the car arrives and runs exactly as prepared
The atelier
Every car restored for its owner, never for resale
For 32 years we've restored privately-owned collector cars for the people who actually own them — never as dealer inventory, never flipped. Every project is documented from teardown photograph to final shakedown mile, because the owner, not a future buyer, is the one who has to be satisfied with the result.
From owners & judges
“They found casting-date documentation on my block I didn't know existed and built the whole numbers-matching case a national judge could actually verify.”
“The build sheet they handed back at delivery reads like an actual judging form — every panel gap, every plating call, already thought through.”
“First Junior award on the first outing. The prep work closed gaps I wouldn't have known to look for.”
“Honest about the timeline from day one — long, but every delay was a real parts-sourcing reason, not a shop excuse.”
Start a restoration inquiry
Tell us about the car and what you're after — a full body-off restoration, mechanical & chassis work, concours prep for a car you already own, or an appraisal — and we'll follow up within two business days.