Aston Martin Restoration - Prestige Paintworks Ltd

How Prestige Paintworks can help you...

Restoration

Prestige Paintworks can undertake a full or partial restoration of any automotive vehicle.

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Paintwork

With a choice of over 40,000 colour options including solid colours and metallic base coats.

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Bodywork

Panel alignment issues, fabrication and replacement of chassis and body parts.

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Maintenance

From general servicing to diagnostic and carb tuning, there's very little we can't take on

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Inspection

Pre or Post purchase inspections, domestic and international.

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Practitioners of Automotive Restoration

Concours winning restoration specialists.

"Prestige is more than just a name, it's a standard.."

Sussex based Specialists for Restoration of Vintage and Classic Cars

Prestige Paintworks have quietly and steadily created a superb reputation for classic car restoration, especially related to Aston Martin, Jaguar and Ferrari.
As one of our clients said "Prestige Paintworks are known for consistently delivering excellence and for producing some of the best paintwork in the industry". We proudly feel that just about sums it up-but over time we’ve also grown to become a one-stop shop for all classic car restoration needs where quality counts.

Transparency

With so many companies claiming to be restoration specialists, sometimes the reality is quite the opposite.

While many offer a full restoration service and claim that they do everything themselves in house, is simply not the case. What you will find is quite often they are, in fact, only covering the mechanical overhaul or rebuild element themselves. Most outsource what is widely considered the most integral and most restorative part of the process - ‘the body and paint'. This is where the heart of any restoration is and of course the first thing you see! So, when some companies claim the restoration as one of their own, it’s worth noting that, at best, some are nothing more than project managers of the build with the real restorer getting little to no credit.

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 classic car restoration process from start to finish and is a synergy between ourselves and our carefully chosen work partners. Being experts in classic car restoration we accept we can't be experts in everything, nor do we need to be. Engine and transmission rebuilds - upholstery and chrome plating are the few elements we outsource. To our carefully chosen and trusted marque specialist partners who share our work ethic.

Every other element is dealt with in our purpose built restoration facility. Housed with all the necessary specialist equipment and knowledge to carry the restoration out. This also includes all general routine maintenance, upgrades, servicing and mot requirements. To assure your restoration is an enjoyable experience rather than an arduous one.

Our target demographic

We offer our clients and discerning private car collectors a personal tailored service. After discussions on what is exactly the client envisions or expects, whatever their budget may be. then carrying out the restoration once and correctly.

We solely focus on providing the serious discerning collector - those who appreciate the value in a top quality product and service, our main commodity is labour sales so being smart and not using up our time on budget restorations and low quality repaints is vitally important.

Choosing the right clients to work with and their schedule of works is instrumental in supporting the market we serve best.
With one aim, to help strengthen and protect their investment.

So that said, we feel we have made it easier for those who are at the point of deciding which company to trust their classic car restoration with. A company to give their cars past a brighter, much longer lasting future.

The simple fact is it makes no difference where you are in the world, we can help you.

The reality of most serious car collectors being successful businessmen and/or women naturally dictates they often travel the world on business, so why shouldn't their car be restored by a company they have trust in albeit in a different country to the one in which they reside?

Makes perfect sense right??

With this in mind we welcome both UK and overseas collectors who appreciate the difference, it's that simple.

Knowledge and passion that is clearly evident in our work.

We are a small team of experts.
Well, we prefer artisan's, where artisinal craftsmanship is clearly evident in everything we do dedicated to providing high-end classic car restoration to a select target audience, proudly building a reputation that's being recognised and utilised by discerning collectors and 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 we have restored 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. Thus eliminating any minor snags it may have had.
If it isn't ready to handover to the client, it won't leave until it is.

When good enough for some isn’t for those that seek perfection.

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 both 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.

A zero compromise full restoration can sometimes take in excess of 4000 man hours to complete. Of course not every classic car we restore is in need of a full restoration, far from it and so it all depends on what the long term goal is for each project..
How good the condition of the project is to begin with is of course also hugely important to what the long term goal will end up being.

Things to consider are things like powder coating a chassis or suspension parts for example. These will not receive the same attention when being prepared for powder coat as they would be if they were being prepared for painting. They will not have had the same level of labour input into getting them prepared because they are different processes.
Quite honestly this cannot be compared in a monetary sense.
Is powder coating as good as wet painting?

That's down to each individual but we don't believe it is. It can of course save money but only because of the labour disparity between the processes which will inevitably produce a job with less longevity,
So one has to be careful and take everything into consideration though quite naturally this does appeal to those looking for a cheaper alternative where there are strict budget caps but - it does come at a price...

We can only give our experienced opinion and advice because it's all down to what the customer wants as a finished product. Moreso what the budget is for the project at the end of the day. This does explain why some restorers can come in cheaper on cost though.

Our comfort zone, niche if you like.

Classic car restoration is what we do and Aston Martin Restoration is the core of our business. 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. This is because 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.
Whilst Aston Martin Restoration is the core of our business, Jaguar restoration, or more specifically Jaguar E-type restoration is fairly high on our workload for a local E-type specialist. These cars can be seen regularly in our workshop and on occasion Ferrari restoration on the heritage models feature too.

Respected by our peers.

Well respected world class historic race car experts Crosthwaite and Gardiner have entrusted our paint services too, for well over 10 years now with their special projects. 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 the late Simon Diffey, although that sadly now resides in the USA.

Provenance.

All our restoration projects are recorded photographically from start to finish so the journey of the vehicle is always well documented for future reference. We are also fortunate enough to have Gun Hill Studios, one of Europe’s leading infinity cove studios on the same site as our restoration facility,this makes it possible to provide clients with some truly stunning high definition imagery of their vehicle once the restoration is complete.

Valuable experience

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. Whether that is to add to an existing collection or because it's their first time experiencing the classic car market.
For overseas purchases we inspect outside of the UK too.

If you would like more information or to discuss a particular project that requires something special, something well beyond a good job then feel free to get in touch via email or by telephone and we will be happy to talk.