The Auto Barn

The Auto Barn Specialising in classic and sports cars, primarily British sports cars from TVR, Lotus and MG as well as Mazda MX5 and pre 2005 Porsche.

Specialists in MX5, German and British Sports Cars.

11/05/2026

A few bits going on at the barn, most importantly despite the variety of jobs, everything new coming in is what I'd term small stuff (you know like engine rebuilds 🤣) because it's fit in around work, it's nice to do bits like this around other jobs. My biggest mistake in this business was taking in too many restorations too quickly because I hate saying no.

But we're coming to the end of that, I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and hopefully there's a cold beer out there. 2 cars nearly done, a smaller job going out next week, just leaves 2 mx5 restorations to do/finish and one of those the bodies all done on and then we're clear!

Fancy an early morning run out? Come and get your coffee on, and it's for a good cause. Plan is to make this a monthly e...
08/05/2026

Fancy an early morning run out?

Come and get your coffee on, and it's for a good cause. Plan is to make this a monthly event including through the winter when weather puts most event organisers off. We've got the use of a decent car park, will have tea and coffee on the first event, once we've got a rough idea of numbers I'll lay on breakfast rolls for later events and if the weather does turn we've got a clubhouse to keep out of the elements.

It's been a gorgeous morning down here at the barn, I've been working on this lovely Elise (just a small job, fault find...
27/04/2026

It's been a gorgeous morning down here at the barn, I've been working on this lovely Elise (just a small job, fault find Speedo - needed a new sensor and oil change) I've been looking forward to getting it off the ramp so I can get a picture of the car in the sun, because I reckon there probably isn't a better colour in bright sunshine than Norfolk Mustard.

Where's the sun gone?!?!

Still a great car though!

14/04/2026

The fabled MK3 timing belt job .........

05/01/2026

Firstly Happy New Year!

Secondly challenging weather down at the workshop this week, could really have done with decent weather to catch back up after Christmas, but it is what it is!

So on to the video, this will (hopefully!) be the first of a few vids this week, I've got some restoration progress to get up, I've got a few cars that need finishing off for spring, but this MK3 got recovered in over New Year and needs a little surgery.

MK3 MX5s are great cars, they tend to be fairly low stress, but considering the newest MK3 is 10-11 years old now, it's not surprising some bits need catching, sadly being fairly new to the owner this one slipped through the net, I find there are a few bits that get neglected on these cars, diff and gearbox oil, sparkplugs (which have a long schedule in fairness), aux belt and tensioner/idler on top of the usual service items. Ultimately these bits are not front of mind for most people like brakes, suspension are, but just as cambelts and tensioners need replacement so do aux belts, it's not an expensive job, but it is necessary, fingers crossed in this cars case it's not done any lasting damage.

21/10/2025

Quick video on an MGB in for sill and rear wing repairs. Always said there are interesting similarities between MX-5s and MGBs, the sill structure is one of the best places to see that.

06/10/2025

Lovely 350z in for some minor welding and underbody treatment, quite interesting how it mirrors the NC for welding repairs, all being limited to under plastic skirts and inside wheel arches, which saves quite a lot of money on the repair as there is no paintwork to rectify afterwards. Also being single skin repairs makes jobs smaller and cheaper.

24/09/2025

Quick NC based video, all about ECU cages 😴 nothing if not niche!

Still incredibly busy here at the autobarn, hence the lack of recent posts, a mix of work in, a couple of full restorati...
24/09/2025

Still incredibly busy here at the autobarn, hence the lack of recent posts, a mix of work in, a couple of full restoration classic British cars, 3 MX5s still working their way through and then smaller jobs on a variety of cars.

Over the next 6 months the plan is to reduce the amount of restorations substantially as they work through the system and focus on smaller jobs generally.

I'll always do restorations but I've got a few stock cars/our cars I want to feed in and they haven't been getting done, I also want to start doing more posts and videos both on here and YouTube, but that does take time.

But starting next week I'm aiming for a weekly post on whatever I'm working on at the time (I tend to work on multiple cars a week so it's just potluck, but I'll try to avoid repeating cars too often!). It might be a couple of pictures like here, but hopefully will be a video generally.

As a bonus while writing this I've decided to do a quick video just now. So will post that next.

Nearly got the full house this morning!
14/07/2025

Nearly got the full house this morning!

Address

Foston Lane, Beeford
Driffield
YO258BQ

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 3pm
Tuesday 8am - 3pm
Wednesday 8am - 3pm
Thursday 8am - 3pm
Friday 8am - 3pm

Telephone

+447455398914

Website

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