Quick fixes
don't last.
Frame-up restorations and turn-key custom builds, out of our workshop on State Highway 1 at Kuku — just south of Levin. Panel, paint, fabrication, mechanical, electrical, trim, LVV and Cerakote, all under one roof since 2006.
Green Genesis
1983 VH Holden Commodore — full respray, custom trim, boot build.
See the build →4.8 from 31 Google reviews
Featured in NZV8 Magazine
Turning out builds since 2006
Nationwide — we help arrange transport
Green Genesis
A 1983 VH Holden Commodore that came through the workshop for the full treatment — bare-metal respray in candy green, cream diamond-stitch trim right through the cabin, a custom-built boot with the audio let into it, and the engine bay tidied to match.
- Panel & paint
- Fabrication
- Upholstery
- Mechanical
- Auto electrical
We don't sub it out.
Body, paint, fabrication, mechanical, wiring, trim and certification all happen here at Kuku. That's the whole point of the place — your car doesn't get shuffled between five different shops, and nobody gets to blame anybody else.
- 01 Restoration & custom builds Frame-up restorations and turn-key custom builds — from a rolling shell to a finished, certified, road-legal car.
- 02 Panel, paint & fabrication Panel and paint, rust cut out and replaced properly, sheet-metal and chassis fabrication, one-off parts made in-house.
- 03 Mechanical & auto electrical Engine, driveline, brakes and suspension, plus full rewires and looms so the electrics aren't the weak link.
- 04 Upholstery & Cerakote Custom trim — seats, door cards, headlining, boot builds — and Cerakote high-temp ceramic coating for the hot parts.
- 05 LVV certification & compliance We build to the standards from day one and see the car through LVV certification and vehicle compliance at the end of it.
Twenty years
on the same road.
We're on State Highway 1 at Kuku, a few minutes south of Levin. We've been here since 2006 doing restorations, custom builds and the panel, paint and fabrication work that goes with them.
We're not a mobile outfit and we're not a quick-turnaround panel shop. Cars come to us, they get done properly, and they leave finished.
Every car that leaves here is a reflection of the work we put into it.
Kohl Customs, Kuku
- Established2006
- WorkshopKuku, Levin
- Shop rate$100 / hour
- Most workQuoted per project
- CoverageNationwide
We'll help get it here
Plenty of the cars in the shop didn't drive in. If yours is in Auckland, Christchurch or sitting in a shed somewhere in between, tell us where it is and we'll help sort transport both ways.
Photos beat descriptions
Rust and panel work are almost impossible to price off a phone call. Send us photos when you enquire — underneath, in the guards, wherever you're worried — and you'll get a far more honest answer.
Certified at the end
If your build needs LVV certification or the car needs complying, we plan for it from the start rather than finding out at the end that something has to come apart again.
The usual questions.
We're at 654 State Highway 1, Kuku — a few minutes south of Levin, about an hour north of Wellington. We're not a mobile operation. The spray booth, the fabrication gear and the trim shop are all here, so every car comes to the workshop.
No. We take work from all over New Zealand — the lower North Island is our doorstep, but cars come to us from a lot further afield than that. If yours isn't drivable or you're nowhere near us, tell us where it is and we'll help arrange transport in and back out again.
Our shop rate is $100 an hour. Most restoration and custom build work is quoted per project instead, because the variation between one car and the next is enormous — two cars that look identical in photos can be twenty grand apart once the panels come off. Send photos with your enquiry and you'll get a far more useful answer.
It depends entirely on the car and the scope. A specific repair might be weeks; a frame-up restoration is measured in many months and sometimes years. We'd rather give you a realistic answer once we've seen the car than a comfortable one now.
Yes. Plenty of work through here is a single thing — rust and paint, a rewire, a retrim, Cerakote on a set of headers, or certification on a car somebody else built. You don't have to be committing to a full build.
Yes, and we plan for it from the start rather than discovering at the end that something has to come apart again. We also do vehicle compliance for imports and re-registrations.
Cerakote is a high-temperature ceramic coating for parts that live hot and hard — headers, exhausts, engine and driveline components. It handles heat, resists corrosion and holds its finish far longer than paint would on the same part. It's worth it where heat and salt would otherwise win.
You're welcome to. We're open Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 4:00pm. Give us a ring first so somebody's free to talk to you properly.
Tell us about the car.
Send through what you've got, what you want done and a few photos. We'll come back to you with a straight answer on whether it's a job for us and roughly what it looks like.