Most auto geeks have a vintage car carcass in their garage that they're "someday" going to restore. Sure enough, someday that '60 Ford pickup, old Austin-Healey or MG Morgan is going to get the care and devotion it needs, and its owner will proudly cruise downtown on Sunday, getting envious stares from other classic car enthusiasts.

Except, it probably won't happen. We don't have statistics on hand which measure how high a percentage of vintage auto collectors actually finish the projects they say they're going to do, but if we did, it would probably be a very low number. One in ten, maybe.

Oh, there's no doubt that you have the mechanical expertise and ingenuity to perform the vintage car restoration yourself; it's not a lack of skill or ambition which prevent most auto geeks from ever completing their vintage car restoration projects. It's time. And energy. And lack of resources. Restoring a vintage or classic car is an extremely labor intensive process, and for hobbyists with full time jobs, it's simply not a practical project.

For those 10% of you auto enthusiasts who do finish your own car restoration projects, we applaud you! For the rest of you, however, we'd like to suggest an alternative to letting that old Sprite sit in your garage year after year.

Let a professional do the job. 

5 reasons you should let an auto body shop restore your vintage or classic car for you:

1) 100% completion rate. A professional auto body shop, like Tempe, AZ's Southwest Collision, doesn't ever just "run out of steam" or get too busy to finish restoring your vintage or classic car. It's our job to transform your hunk of junk into something beautiful, something you can be proud of, which means it will get done. Period.

2) You don't actually have the time. Let's take an honest assessment of exactly how long it's going to take to fully restore your vintage car from the frame up. For most hobbyists who work on restoring their vehicle (outside of a full time job) 4-5 nights each week and every weekend, car restoration takes an average of two years - and that may or may not include engine restoration. That's two years without relaxing evenings with the family, without weekend getaways, without vacation. Two years of all your spare time and energy poured into a vintage car. Unless you're a bachelor with boundless ambition and this appeals to you, you will likely be doing yourself - and your marriage - a huge favor by turning the project over to the hands of professionals.

3) Auto body shops have access to parts you don't. Auto body shops can get a wider selection of aftermarket parts for a lot less than the average consumer or hobbyist. It's one of the benefits of being...well, auto body specialists.

5) Enjoy your classic car sooner. At Southwest Collision, we have a shop full of auto body painters, technicians and mechanics who are trained to work quickly and efficiently. Letting our professional car restoration experts work on your project could reduce that four year vintage car restoration project to just a few months.