What we do.
Everything a restoration or a custom build needs, done in the one workshop at Kuku — body and paint, rust and fabrication, mechanical, auto electrical, trim, coatings and certification. Below is the full list, grouped the way the work actually happens.
- Shop rate$100 an hour
- Restoration & build workQuoted per project
- Where the work happensOur Kuku workshop
- Who we work forAll of New Zealand
Most restoration and custom work is quoted per project rather than run on the clock — there's too much variation between one car and the next for an hourly figure to mean much on its own. Smaller jobs run at the shop rate.
Restoration &
custom builds
This is the core of the shop. A car comes in — sometimes driving, often on a trailer — and it gets taken as far back as it needs to go before anything gets put back on it.
A frame-up restoration means the body comes off or the shell gets stripped right out, everything gets assessed honestly, and the rust and previous repairs get dealt with before a drop of colour goes near it. A custom build is the same discipline pointed at something different: a car built to what you actually want it to be, and built so it still works as a car afterwards.
We'll tell you early if a shell isn't worth the money. That conversation is cheaper than finding out halfway through.
- Full auto restorationFrame-up and body-off restorations of classics, muscle and vintage tin.
- Custom buildsBuilt to a brief — engine, driveline, stance, trim and finish, planned together rather than bolted on.
- Turn-key buildsYou get the keys to a finished, certified, road-legal car rather than a project that still needs sorting.
- Restoration assessmentsAn honest read on what a shell needs and what it's going to take before you commit.
Panel, paint &
fabrication
Paint is the part everybody sees and the part that shows up every shortcut taken underneath it. We'd rather spend the time in the metal.
Rust gets cut out and replaced with fabricated steel, not filled and hoped over. Where a panel doesn't exist any more, we make one. Chassis and body fabrication, floors, sills, guards, one-off brackets and mounts — it's all made here.
Then it goes into the booth and gets colour that matches what the rest of the car deserves.
- Panel & paintPanel beating and full resprays, including colour changes and custom finishes.
- Rust repairsCut out, replaced and sealed properly — floors, sills, guards, screen surrounds, structural sections.
- Sheet-metal fabricationHand-formed replacement panels and sections where nothing is available off a shelf.
- Auto fabricationChassis and body fabrication, mounts, brackets and one-off components.
Mechanical &
auto electrical
A beautifully painted car that won't start, won't stop or cooks itself in traffic isn't finished. The mechanical and electrical side gets the same attention as the paint.
We do full mechanical work — engine, driveline, brakes, suspension, cooling — and full auto electrical, which on an older car usually means the loom. Forty-year-old wiring that's been hacked into by six previous owners is the single most common thing we end up replacing outright, and it's the thing most likely to cause grief later.
- Full mechanicalEngine and driveline work, brakes, suspension, steering and cooling.
- Engine bay detailingBays stripped, painted and reassembled so what's under the bonnet matches the outside.
- Auto electricalFull rewires, new looms, gauges, lighting and accessory wiring done neatly and labelled.
- Sorting other people's workUn-picking previous repairs and wiring so the car is reliable rather than merely running.
Upholstery &
Cerakote
The finishing work is where a build stops looking like a restoration and starts looking like a car somebody built on purpose.
We do custom upholstery in-house — seats, door cards, headlining, carpet and full boot builds, in whatever material and stitch pattern suits the car. And we apply Cerakote, a high-temperature ceramic coating for the 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 on the same part.
- Custom upholsterySeats, door cards, headlining, carpet and boot trim, cut and stitched to the car.
- Boot buildsTrimmed boot floors and panels, including audio let into the build rather than bolted on top of it.
- Cerakote ceramic coatingHigh-temperature protection and corrosion resistance for exhaust, engine and driveline parts.
- Colour and finish matchingTrim, coatings and paint chosen together so the whole car reads as one thing.
LVV certification
& compliance
Modify a car in New Zealand and at some point it has to satisfy somebody other than you. We build with that in mind from the first cut.
LVV certification is what makes a modified vehicle legal to be on the road — suspension, brakes, seats and belts, engine swaps, chassis and body modifications all fall under it. Getting it wrong at the build stage means pulling work apart later, which is why we plan it in rather than bolt it on.
Vehicle compliance is the other side of it: getting an imported or re-registered vehicle through the process so it can be legally driven here.
- LVV certificationModified vehicles taken through certification, with the build documented as it goes.
- Vehicle complianceImports and re-registrations taken through the compliance process.
- Built to certifyModifications planned against the standards from the start, not retro-fitted to them.
Things worth knowing.
For smaller, clearly-defined jobs, yes. For restoration and custom build work we quote per project, because an hourly figure on its own tells you almost nothing about what a job will come to.
Yes — and we'd rather do it in the first conversation than three months in. Some shells cost more to make right than the finished car will ever be worth. That's your money, and you should get to decide with the real numbers in front of you.
Cut out and replaced with fabricated steel. Filling rust buys you a year or two and then it comes back worse, usually under fresh paint, which is the most expensive place for it to reappear.
That's what the sheet-metal and fabrication side is for. Floors, sills, guards, screen surrounds and structural sections get hand-formed here when nothing exists off a shelf.
Often, on an older car. Forty-year-old wiring that's been added to by several owners is the single most common thing we end up replacing outright, and it's the most likely thing to cause grief after the car is finished. We'll tell you honestly once we've had a look.
Yes. Seats, door cards, headlining, carpet and boot builds are all done in-house, in whatever material and stitch pattern suits the car.
Not sure which bit you need?
Most jobs are a few of these at once. Describe the car and what you want out of it and we'll tell you what it actually involves.