Classicarco

What’s your history?

When my toxic waste business acquired new premises it allowed me a lot more space for my car hobby, which included buying, selling, collecting and restoring. Soon I had what most would regard as a small workshop where we restored a ’50s Nota special and a Morris 1000 convertible. I was soon approached by Chris Maitland, who has a wealth of experience with TR sports cars going back to when these were new. Between us we started Classicarco with the aim of providing quality restoration and rebuilds with traditional skills, and handing back cars we are proud of. We currently have five employees and operate on a wide range of cars.

What’s your range of skills?

Between the current staff we have nearly a century of expertise. We have good storage capability for vehicles, and tooling to complete servicing, repairs, upgrades and finishing, including full rebuilds and timber framing, bodywork, mechanical fixes and builds. We don’t take any shortcuts and offer a friendly, honest service to customers.

Do you have a specialisation?

We would happily turn our hand to most jobs and have previously completed some very challenging restorations indeed. We have a lot of experience with Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Triumph, Austin-Healeys, Jaguars, MGs and Maseratis and other classic cars in this vein.

What’s in the workshop now?

An Audi Quattro, Alfa Romeo 2600 Sprint, Alfa Sprint 1600GT, Alfa 1750 Spider and a 1600GT Junior, a Triumph Roadster, TR6, BMW 3.0CSA and 635CSI, an AC Aceca, Maserati Indy, a Frogeye Sprite and an MGB. The level of work on each varies, but most are major restorations.

What projects are you proud of?

We’re proud of all our work, whether a minor restoration or a full rebuild, but I suppose one that particularly stands out is the Fiat Topolino that we rebuilt from a complete basket case, and which gave rise to our company logo!