Classic & Collector Car Service

Gasoline vehicles of model year 1975 and older are exempt from the biennial smog check in California. Diesel vehicles of model year 1997 and older are also exempt, as are motorcycles. A 1976 or later gasoline car is not exempt no matter how rarely it is driven, and it has to meet the standards for its year. Separately, California offers Historical Vehicle plates for vehicles at least 25 years old that are used as collector items rather than daily transportation, which carries its own usage restrictions. Your DMV renewal notice is the authority on what your specific vehicle owes.

Yes. Carburetor service, rebuild, and tuning is regular work here, along with the mechanical fuel pumps, points ignition, and vacuum-operated accessories that go with them. A carburetor that runs badly is often not the carburetor: a vacuum leak, a worn distributor, a collapsed fuel line, or a float set wrong all produce the same complaint. We measure before we tear one apart.

It can. Ethanol is a solvent that degrades the rubber, cork, and neoprene used in fuel systems built before it was common, and it loosens decades of varnish inside a tank so the debris ends up in the carburetor. It also absorbs moisture, which is why a car that sits for months on ethanol fuel often will not start in the spring. Ethanol-resistant fuel line, a fresh filter, and either ethanol-free fuel or a stabilizer for anything stored more than a month solves most of it.

At speed, air moves through the radiator whether or not the fan works. In traffic the fan is all you have, so an overheat that only happens when you stop points at airflow: a failed fan clutch, a missing or damaged fan shroud, or an electric fan that is not switching on. If it runs hot everywhere, the problem is heat rejection instead, meaning a clogged radiator core, a weak water pump, a stuck thermostat, or a mixture and timing setting that is dumping extra heat into the engine. We test to tell those apart rather than swapping the radiator and hoping.

Yes, and it is usually the practical choice, because R-12 has not been produced in the United States since the mid-1990s and what remains is expensive. A proper retrofit is more than a can of refrigerant: the system gets the correct oil for R-134a, new seals and o-rings, unique service fittings, and a retrofit label, which the EPA requires. Systems designed for R-12 also cool slightly less well on R-134a, so on a car that will live in desert heat we go through the condenser, airflow, and blower before calling it done.

No. We are a mechanical shop. We keep a classic running, stopping, steering, charging, and cooling properly, and we are happy to work alongside a restoration or body shop on a car that is in the middle of a longer project. If what you need is sheet metal, paint, chrome, or interior work, we will tell you that on the phone instead of taking the car in.

Yes. A pre-purchase mechanical inspection covers compression, fluid condition, cooling and brake systems, steering and suspension wear, electrical function, and evidence of past repair, and you get told what we found in plain language. It is an inspection of the mechanicals, not an appraisal of the car and not a judgment of numbers-matching originality, which is a different specialty.

Qualifying work carries the same 12-month, 12,000-mile warranty as anything else that leaves our bays. The usual caveat on older cars is customer-supplied parts: when you bring the part, we warranty our labor rather than a component we did not source. Ask which applies when you call and we will be specific about your job.

If it runs and stops reliably, drive it and tell us what it does on the way. Symptoms that appear at temperature or at speed are the hardest to reproduce in a bay, so your description of the drive is real diagnostic information. If it does not stop well, overheats, or has a fuel leak, trailer it. A car that arrives on a trailer is cheaper to fix than one that fails on the way here.