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Practitioners of automotive restoration
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From general servicing to diagnostic and carb tuning, there's very little we can't take on
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Based in the fabulous Sussex countryside, Prestige Paintworks have quietly and steadily created a reputation for "consistently delivering excellence and for producing some of the best paintwork in the industry" those are our clients words not ours and although what started out as providing beautiful paintwork for clients has now grown into providing a one stop shop for all restoration needs.
We offer a tailored service, for discerning private collectors to help strengthen and protect their investment, so we offer far more than just great paint these days.a So that said, we feel we have made it easier for those who are at the point of deciding who restores their classic car and giving it's past a brighter, longer lasting future. The simple fact is it makes no difference where you are in the world, we can help you. With so many companies claiming to be restoration specialists, often the reality is really quite the opposite. Many offer a full restoration service and claim doing everything themselves "in house" when in fact that is simply not the case when many are only covering the mechanical element themselves and outsource the most integral and most restorative part of the process, the body and paint, which in truth is the where the heart of any restoration is then claim the merit for themselves, at best they are nothing more than project managers. We continually promote the core ethics of our business of transparency, honesty and passion for this craft, so knowing exactly what you are getting and from whom... We take care of the restoration process from start to finish and is a synergy between ourselves and our carefully chosen work partners, we accept we can't be experts in everything, nor do we need to be, so engine - gearbox - trans axle rebuilds - upholstery and chrome plating are the few elements we outsource to carefully chosen and trusted marque specialist partners who share our work ethic, whilst every other element is dealt with in our purpose built restoration facility housed with all the necessary specialist equipment and knowledge to carry that out including all general routine maintenance, upgrades, servicing and mot requirements, all so your restoration is an enjoyable experience rather than an arduous one. We are a small team of experts, artisan's if you like dedicated to providing high-end automotive restoration to a select target audience and have been building a reputation that's being recognised and utilised by some very well respected companies known the world over. We pride ourselves in constantly trying to improve our processes and with our meticulous attention to detail where the mantra for some companies of "that'll do" for us simply won't... When we hand over a car that has been restored by us you can be rest assured it is ready for collection. It will have been checked and double checked before going through a thorough quality control process eliminating any minor snags it may have, if it isn't ready to handover to the client it won't leave until it is. We have heard so many times from clients old and new that based on their experience, a high value car they had previously had restored had actually gone back several times for correction before they could even begin to enjoy it because it was never truly ready for handover, more common than you would realise with bigger companies pushing numbers rushing the releasing of cars too early, disappointingly that's from some marque specialists too. For those wanting something extra it can go beyond putting it back to original too, we improve it wherever possible with sympathetic upgrades, whether that's by using more modern techniques or using better materials etc, we simply want to achieve the best result we possibly can for the customer and of course the car.. We are fortunate enough that a large part of our workload is for private collectors where zero compromise is the objective with as much attention and time taken on the parts you don't see as the ones you do, so much effort goes into even the smallest detail to make these cars as close to perfect as one can possibly make them so they can be their absolute best. A zero compromise restoration depending on how good the condition of the project is to begin with can typically take in excess of 4000 man hours to complete so it doesn't take much to realise that doesn't fit with everyone's budget, we appreciate that and it's certainly not something remotely achievable on a 'fixed price restoration' offered by many other restorers where inherently compromises are made to make the restoration come in on said budget. Little things like powder coating a chassis and suspension parts for example will not receive the same attention when being prepared for powder coat as they would be if they were being prepared for painting. They just won't have had the same level of labour input into getting them ready so can't honestly be compared in a monetary sense. Is powder coating as good as wet painting ? Quite honestly that's down to the individual but we don't believe it is, but over time it can save lots of money, we can only give our experienced opinion and advice. It's all down to what the customer wants as a finished product and is prepared to pay for at the end of the day. Practically all our work is from recommendation as we rarely advertise our services but on the few occasions we do it will be in a marque specific publication for example 'Vantage' for the Aston Martin enthusiasts, the Aston Martin 'From Race to Road' publication from Motorsport Magazine and most recently 'The Concours Year' a great publication highlighting all the major concours events of 2020 by Hothouse Media, the guys behind the fantastic Magneto magazine. Our niche is predominantly the Heritage period Aston Martins with models ranging from the Feltham era DB2’s and 2/4's of the 50’s through the DB4's, DB5's and DB6’s and latterly the DBS 6/8's and AMV8's because in truth that is a market that we feel we are well suited to whilst finding a balance to continue looking after existing customers who's cars fall outside that market with 50's to 70's Jaguars featuring regularly and some Heritage model Ferrari's too. Well respected world class historic race car experts Crosthwaite and Gardiner have entrusted our paint services for well over 10 years now with their special projects too, with an A Type Auto Union, now in a museum in Germany,. Several Mercedes W125's and a Grand Prix winning Bugatti Type 51, raced in recent years by Simon Diffey although that sadly now resides in the USA. All our restoration projects are recorded photographically from start to finish so the journey of the vehicle is always well documented. We are fortunate enough to have Gun Hill Studios, one of Europe’s leading infinity cove studios on the same site as our restoration facility, making it possible to provide some truly stunning imagery of your vehicle once the restoration is complete. Being experienced restorers, identifying problems and spotting problem areas are all part of our job so it makes perfect sense that one of our services is to carry out inspections for clients wishing to purchase, either to add to a collection or maybe it's their first time experiencing the classic car market and for overseas purchases we inspect outside of the UK too. Now with over a decade under our belt of restoring some fantastic motor cars we capped off 2018 with a DB 2/4 Mk1 Drophead that scored 86 points at the AMOC Spring Concours at Englefield House taking 2nd place then after some detail changes scored 91 points and 1st at the AMOC Autumn Concours at Hoghton Tower. 2018 was our first year for any of our cars entering an AMOC Concours event and this year (2019) won two more 1st place AMOC Concours wins in the Feltham Class and has now been promoted to the Elite Class for 2020. If our work ethic and our results are something that interest you or feel you would like more information on or even to discuss a particular project that requires something special, something well beyond a good job then feel free to get in touch. |
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