MyResto

The Silent Killer in Automotive Restoration Shops

Every automotive vehicle restoration shop across the country is dealing with this issue. It’s one of those problems that’s easy to identify but incredibly hard to fix. Yet, the consequences are serious enough to make or break a business.

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I’ve been in the automotive restoration and custom paint game for quite some time now. I was there when the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) hit and wiped out businesses left and right. I saw the post-COVID economy struggle to recover. And now, we’re all feeling the squeeze from inflation and the rising cost of living while wages remain stagnant and completely out of sync with today’s reality.

Honestly, I’d love to see a government-implemented gap system—something that steps in when inflation spikes but wages don’t. If the cost of living, particularly housing, rises and people’s earnings don’t follow, then the system should compensate for that gap. After all, everyone pays for housing whether they rent or own, and the government takes a significant cut in taxes and stamp duty every time a property changes hands.

But this isn’t about housing. Let’s get back to what’s happening in the shops.

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Let me ask—how many of you know someone with a classic car they love, who’s had some restoration or insurance work done, and it turned into a complete nightmare?

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I reckon 95% of you just nodded. Thought so.

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Talking about this issue isn’t just to help customers avoid heartache. It’s also to help business owners avoid bad blood, mismanaged jobs, unhappy clients, and potential legal action.

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Now, in most shops today, the highest-level skills are often found in a mix of Boomers and Gen Xers. And while they bring a wealth of experience, many are stubborn, set in their ways, and flat-out refuse to embrace the modern tools and systems that could make a real difference. I honestly struggle to understand if they know how much their resistance to change is hurting the business, or if their egos are so inflated they simply don’t care.

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These older tradesmen often set the tone in the workshop. You know the type—grumpy, short-tempered, throwing tools when things don’t go their way, turning every small issue into a massive ordeal. Every shop has one. And while their long-term experience might technically make them valuable, their behaviour can be absolutely toxic to the workplace.

These are the very individuals who, in reality, are holding the business back.

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In one of my recent roles, there were three Gen X/Boomer staff members who were highly skilled and knowledgeable—but managing them was a nightmare. Their egos led them to ignore the tiered systems that had been put in place to define the minimum and maximum scope for different types of builds. You simply can’t treat a basic restoration the same as a high-end show car or a full concours job—there’s a difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars in scope.

But these guys didn’t care. They worked at their own pace, did things their own way, and constantly ignored the client brief and project plan. That kind of disregard causes real problems.

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What’s worse is that management knew this. These individuals weren’t a team—they were a group of ego-driven solo acts who essentially ran the shop because the actual managers didn’t. And they were the root cause of countless projects going over budget and beyond scope, with work being carried out that the client never approved.

In my view, if you stripped back every court case in the classic car restoration sector (including my own), you’d find that most of them come down to one or two senior staff members who refused to follow structure—because they believed their experience made them above it.

So where does the liability fall?

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If your staff aren’t following protocols, ignoring project briefs, and going rogue on customer builds, the responsibility lands squarely with the management and ownership. It’s your job to create systems, enforce them, and ensure your staff are working in alignment with what the client signed up for. If you fail to do that, it’s your business—and your reputation—that will pay the price.

 

I also firmly believe that a dedicated Quality Control role should be factored into every single build. This person’s job is to go over all the work that’s been done and make sure everything aligns with the client’s expectations and the agreed scope of work. It’s not just a tick-and-flick job—they need to verify that all components are functioning properly, that the running gear is roadworthy, and that the vehicle has been thoroughly tested. A quick engine fire-up or a spin around the block isn’t enough.

The goal is to ensure the vehicle performs exactly as it should, based on what the customer is paying for. With a solid quality control process in place, vehicles won’t be leaving the shop with hidden issues or incomplete repairs. This not only protects the client but also shields the business from costly mistakes and potential court cases.

Quality control is not a luxury—it’s essential.

 

Who’s at Fault, here:

I’ve worked in a shop where an LX Torana came in for what was supposed to be a tidy-up and a set of flares. The initial estimate was somewhere between $52K and $72K. But once one of the fabricator got stuck into it, things escalated quickly. He spent a huge amount of time rebuilding the hatch, cutting into the roof sections, fine-tuning guard gaps, and even hand-making linkages. The craftsmanship was top-notch—no denying that. But the time clocked up was extreme, and it pushed the job way beyond what the customer had asked for or expected.

The final bill came in over $92K, and even then, costs were still rising. The customer—like so many others—went into it thinking, “Buy the car, inject X amount into it, and end up with a usable, appreciating asset worth around $125K.” That’s the logic. The build budget was meant to stay within $52K–$72K. Full stop.

In the end, the project was pulled. Last I heard, the car was being sold off as a half-finished build. So not only did that customer lose their ‘family dream car,’ but they also ended up in the red, with nothing but frustration to show for it.

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So where does the blame lie? It falls squarely on the tradespeople who didn’t follow the client brief—who chose to work outside the agreed scope instead of within it. Precision and passion are great, but when they ignore the customer’s direction and budget, it becomes a liability, not an asset.

 

I  want to make something clear—it’s wrong to single out and place blame on one individual in a business who’s doing their best to run things efficiently. The real responsibility lies with the business owners and upper management. When things go wrong—whether it’s a negligent repair, mismanaged job, or a serious client complaint—it usually traces back to a failure in leadership or not enforcing the people trying to manage the project. More specifically, it’s the inability or unwillingness to implement and enforce the systems needed to manage staff properly.

If there’s no structure, no accountability, and no clear alignment between staff and client expectations, then the business itself is setting everyone up to fail. That blame can’t just fall on one person—it rests on the shoulders of those who have the authority, but failed to lead.

The answer is: management and ownership are to blame—for failing to enforce systems and maintain control over their staff’s actions.

 

 

 

Who’s at Fault, here?

This one really tugs at my heartstrings. If you’ve read this far, you’ve probably gathered that I’m deeply influenced by the auto industry and have a real passion for old cars. I’m an auto painter by trade—trained in New Zealand and currently working through the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) process to get my Australian certification.

I started out in New Zealand, and when I moved to Australia, I was honestly taken aback by how far behind some of the auto shops here were in comparison. But this story? This one tops it. A real "cowboys and Indians" situation.

It started with a Holden panel van—a standard insurance job with a bit of private work added on. That’s pretty common. Sometimes, during insurance repairs, the customer gets offered a “remedial”—for example, we’re already working on the front guard, so would they like to pay to restore the neighbouring panels or matching components while we’re at it? Happens all the time.

But this shop had just been taken over. The previous owners had cashed out, and the new ones didn’t exactly step up or do what was right either.

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What happened next is something I’ve never seen before: the insurance claim payout had been sold to what I can only describe as a loan brokerage. That company paid out the claim amount (minus their cut) up front—essentially "buying" the claim—then later collected the full amount from the insurer.

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Here’s the catch: the brokerage cashed in the insurance claim… but the vehicle was never properly repaired. There was no money left to fix it. The customer had paid extra for some cosmetic work, and the externals were finished, but the structural damage—the chassis—was not completed. The vehicle was then prepped to be towed interstate for roadworthy inspection and return to the customer, even though the shop owners knew full well it would never pass due to the hidden damage...

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This job was the final straw for me.

Maybe it hit harder because, in 2022, I had an engine fire in my own car. I’m still in an ongoing court case with Allianz over negligent repairs—but that’s a story for another time. (Its the Beenleigh Magistrates Court, Queensland for any one interested - M77538/24)

The mix of my own experience and the empathy I felt for that customer genuinely made me sick to my stomach. He is in exactly the same boat I am in!

So who’s liable here?

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It’s the new owners. They failed to manage the vehicle handover and adopted repair process properly and didn’t hold the previous shop owners accountable. The Insurance company paid out and closed the claim with any quality control sign off, the client did not know about this.... And Well I guess, the owner like me is left with a dream destroyed, a vehicle that’s not roadworthy, and no proper recourse—because the system failed them from every angle.

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I have more than one experience with these issues and know of plenty more people in a similar situation. I’m currently involved in a court case over my own classic truck due to a Gold Coast Restoration shop’s “she’ll be right” attitude and the utterly shoddy work they provided.

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By Erika B Armstrong.​