We would be happy to meet with you in person to discuss restoration, but first we would like you to understand a little about the restoration process:

Our technicians do very professional, high quality restorations, generally in the following manner:

• The car is disassembled, meaning the interior, trim, bumpers, lights, etc. are all removed.
• All paint and body filler are usually removed by a bead blasting process.
• Then the condition of all metal parts/panels are assessed and plans for repairing, fabricating or replacing bad parts are determined.
• When all body parts are complete and in primer, the process of aligning body panels and trim is begun, including extensive (several stages) block sanding to get perfect body lines and very smooth paint.
• Then final paint prep and painting followed by reassembly.

This slow, tedious process produces a car that you will be proud of, will win trophies and last.  We have restored cars that were poorly restored a few years ago for $20K+ and needed to be redone.  Our goal is to make sure you will only have to pay for one restoration.

As you may have guessed, this process takes many months to complete. Many cars have come to us that spent many months and even several years parked in a Collision Shop that promised to do the restoration when time permits. We do not do collision work and only have space and resources to work on 3-4 cars at a time so we have to get cars through the process quickly without taking shortcuts that would affect the final product.

It is a costly process since many manhours are required to do all the detailed work involved.  We are constantly looking for ideas and equipment that will allow us to reduce labor hours needed to complete the car, which translates to less cost to you. Just the final steps of paint prep, painting and assembly can easily cost $10-15K.  Body work and metal fabrication are on a time and material basis.

We recommend that you set aside the money prior to the start of the restoration.  Running out of money, when your car is in pieces, creates a difficult situation that must be avoided since we have limited shop space and cannot store your vehicle and all the parts that have been removed from it.

We will ask you to pay a portion of the projected cost up front. Then we will invoice you on a weekly basis and ask that you come in weekly to review progress and pay for the work you see or provide a credit card # by phone for that week's invoice. 

In all honesty, you cannot accurately predict the manhours required to do a professional restoration.  The work load can change as you get under the paint and what looks minor from the outside may be a disaster inside or just the opposite could occur.

Here at Illiana, we promise your car will look just as you dreamed it would.  We take pride in our work and we'll treat your car as we would treat our own.  Let us restore your classic and help you create memories (and a car) that will last a lifetime.