Motive Auto Restorers

06/08/2026

There aren't many classics as iconic as the Mini, and this 1981 Mini City deserved to be brought back to its best.

When it arrived at our workshop, years of rust had taken their toll. What initially looked like a straightforward restoration quickly revealed itself to be far more extensive.

The boot floor wasn’t just tired — it had deteriorated all the way forward to the rear seat area, meaning a full structural replacement was required. To carry out the work properly, the entire rear subframe and suspension had to be removed to gain full access and ensure everything was rebuilt correctly from the ground up. Alongside this, the right-hand rear quarter panel also needed replacing.

Our team replaced the complete boot floor section up to the rear seat area, fitted a new RH rear quarter panel, installed four new wheel arch flares (after modifying the front guards to accommodate them), and refinished the Mini inside and out. The doors also required significant attention — we reconstructed the lower sections of the door frames and fitted new door skins to bring them back to a solid, factory-quality finish. To complete the exterior properly, we even recreated the original gold "City" decals, staying true to the character that made these cars so special.

While the body was being transformed, the mechanical side of the car was already sorted. A lively 1380cc engine, upgraded brakes and adjustable suspension mean this Mini now drives every bit as well as it looks.

It's always satisfying to see a project come together, especially when the finished result looks better than new while still respecting the car's original identity.

If you owned a classic Mini, would you keep it original or build it into a fast road car like this one? Let us know below!

Motive Auto Restorers - Classic Metal, Modern Standards.

09/07/2026

"Getting sideways" has a slightly different meaning in our workshop...

By using our rotisserie, we can attend to every inch of a vehicle with great detail. When it comes to doing a thorough job, it's difficult to get much more involved than this!

With a 2K epoxy primer to be applied next, we're able to ensure that the entire vehicle receives complete primer coverage to seal and protect the steel for decades to come. It's this sort of preparation that brings total peace of mind, no matter what sort of conditions the car faces in the future.

The vehicle pictured is coated with "Epiphos", a clear primer that protects steel from surface corrosion while allowing a certifier to inspect the overall condition and any repairs made to the vehicle.

It's all part of our philosophy of preserving these vehicles for future generations—not just making them look good today. After all, what's hidden beneath the paint is just as important as the finish everyone sees.

05/07/2026

What's hiding beneath the surface? Sometimes, more than you'd ever expect.

This bonnet from a 1976 Nissan Skyline looked to be in remarkably good condition from the outside. Even after blasting, it appeared to be a solid candidate for a straightforward restoration. But as is so often the case with classic cars, appearances can be deceiving.

To restore this panel to a standard that will truly stand the test of time, we made the decision to separate the outer skin from the inner frame. Once opened up, we discovered extensive hidden corrosion and previous repairs that simply couldn't have been properly addressed from the outside.

This is one of the realities of high-quality restoration work: sometimes the only way to repair a panel correctly is to completely disassemble it. While it adds additional time and labour to the process, it allows us to remove all corrosion, carry out proper metal repairs, protect the hidden internal surfaces, and reassemble the panel with confidence that the repair will last for decades.

At Motive Auto Restorers, we believe that a restoration should be judged not only by what you can see, but also by what you can't. Because when you're preserving automotive history, doing the job properly is always worth the extra effort.

02/07/2026

No two classic car projects are ever the same.

This 1969 Holden HT ute came to us after spending more than a decade off the road, requiring a range of repairs and recommissioning work to get it back to WOF standard and ready for its next chapter.

Projects like these are a great reminder that returning a classic to the road isn't always about a full restoration. Sometimes it's about addressing years of accumulated wear and age across multiple areas of the vehicle.

On this HT, our work included:
• Replacing all brake hard lines
• Removing, cleaning and reinstalling the fuel tank
• Replacing the front subframe bushes and engine mounts
• Refurbishing and painting the wheels
• Replacing the rear shackle bushes
• Repairing the washer system
• Replacing both front coil springs
• Carrying out repairs to the underbody and rectifying rear quarter panel rust
• Replacing the water pump & flushing the cooling system

From fabrication and rust repairs, to suspension, braking, and mechanical work, projects like this showcase the diversity of skills often required to safely return a classic vehicle to the road after years of storage. We do it all here at Motive.

It's always satisfying to see another Australian classic brought back into service and ready to be enjoyed once again, and we're proud to have played a part in this rare Holdens history.

28/06/2026

Anyone can appreciate a beautiful classic car. Anyone who has worked on one knows that the biggest achievements often happen where nobody will ever see them.

This 1966 Chevrolet El Camino is ready to leave our workshop after a substantial phase of restoration and recommissioning work. While this wasn't intended to be a full, ground-up restoration, it involved some of the most important work a classic vehicle can receive.

We began the recommissioning by separating the body from the chassis, allowing us to have the chassis blasted and painted & floorpan blasted (thanks to Dave @ Busy-Bee Blasting, Kumeū). From here, we carried out repairs to the underbody, applying epoxy primer and underbody sealer to ensure the foundations of the vehicle were sound for years to come. From this point, the body and chassis were reunited, engine and gearbox reinstalled after a check-over, the interior reassembled, and the vehicle brought back to running and driving condition, with some wiring work, exhaust fab and tuning taken care of down the driveway by C&M performance.

Perhaps the biggest milestone of all was successfully guiding the El Camino through compliance — a process that can often prove to be one of the most challenging parts of returning a classic vehicle to the road.

The paint may wear the character of its past, but underneath is a vehicle that's been given a solid new chapter. It's always rewarding to see another classic back where it belongs: on the road. This big block, four speed pickup is ready to hit the streets.

Is a compliance check looming over your classic car? Chat with us today to see how we can help to get your project over the line.

25/03/2026

As usual, there's a variety of vehicles from all corners of the world that have been keeping us nice and busy since our last post! I'll detail a few below, with more to share soon.

It's not just the vehicles that vary, the repair and restoration work has varied too. From complete boot floor replacements, quarter repairs, sill rust repair, engine installations, suspension work and body-off chassis tidy up work, we've had all sorts on the go.

In the pictures below, you'll see a 1975 XB Falcon that came to us in a pretty sad state. Missing a host of parts and having suffered a prang in the front, we worked to straighten things up before moving on to some in-depth pillar repair. Following this, we painted the engine & engine bay before bringing it all together with brand new suspension, a NOS exhaust system and even a brand new fuel tank. For the first time in nearly two decades, she looks like a Falcon again and is almost ready to hit the road. There will be a more detailed post on this old girl, down the track.

Making its statement next to the XB, is an orange, big block '66 El Camino. The full manual steeingr, manual brakes' muscle truck deal. Having been imported years ago and never put on the road, we've been tasked with tidying it up and running it through the compliance process. We were pleasantly surprised when we split the body & chassis, having only minor issues to rectify. Once the freshly epoxied & painted chassis was remarried to the body with new mounts, the engine went in, followed by a fresh interior. Today's job was to fabricate some missing rear tray panels, blending them back into the rear tray by mimicking the GM chip style coating that was already present.

Having come and gone from the workshop earlier this year was a sharp looking Pontiac Firebird, of which had some rust rearing its ugly head at the bottoms of the rear quarter panels. While the supplied patch panels were a help to the repair, some pretty involved "re-shaping" was needed here to get them to fit correctly. Nevertheless, once the inner boot floor drop panels had been tidied up and the new patches welded in, the car was nice and solid again.

They say rust never sleeps, and they're right. If your pride and joy (or your day to day driver) is showing signs of rust, don't hesitate to send us a DM, give us a call, or drop by the workshop to see what we can do for you!

18/11/2025

The MK5 Ford Cortina, a true kiwi classic alongside its smaller Es**rt counterpart! This golden example was recently dropped down to us for some rust repair work around the front windscreen area.

Once our team pulled the windscreen out, it was evident that some past repairs had failed. As is often the case, we revealed more corrosion than what was initially expected. When the car came in, there was only some rust bubbling visible on the cowl panel.

We cut out all affected areas around the windscreen area, fabbed' up some new patch panels in house, and welded them in place. The result? A smooth, steel finish, of which we promptly sealed off with an epoxy primer.

During some interior disassembly when preparing to weld, it became apparent that the heater core had sprung a leak. We sourced and installed a brand new replacement while the car was in with us, preventing a really inconvenient problem down the road.

The owner of the Cortina also asked if we could put a bit more life back into the bonnet, as the paintwork had chipped and faded, letting the rest of the car down. No worries! After some sanding and chip repair, we had it matched and refinished in the correct shade of gold, seamlessly blending it back in with the rest of the car.

To top things off, once we re-installed the windscreen, we installed a new "mylar" chrome locking strip. This is a plastic/chrome trim that surrounds the windscreen. Our NZ sun had well and truly baked the old one, so it only made sense to replace it once the windscreen was back in.

The results speak for themselves. Summer is a fantastic time to sort that rust around your windscreen before the weather sets back in. Come and see us, or give us a call to see how we can help you!

Don't forget to drop by our site at the Kumeu Hot Rod Festival, from the 16th through the 18th of January, 2026!

17/10/2025

What a way to finish the week! We're wrapping up our complete rebuild on the 1966 Pontiac Laurentian project.

This old girl came to us for a total refresh. Stripping it down, we found it to be surprisingly solid for a 59 year old car! She'd worn a few different colours in her lifetime, so we opted to have the body and chassis blasted, with the body retuning in Epoxy primer and the chassis coming back wearing some fresh 2K black over epoxy.

Once the repairs were taken care of, we moved forward with the bodywork. After much deliberation, the colour was chosen, one which we think highlights the unique body lines of this full size Pontiac, and ties in nicely with the original light blue interior.

As standard, the dash, steering wheel and all interior pillar trims were gold in colour, something we considered to clash with the predominantly blue colour scheme. The decision was made to bring the dark blue exterior colour through to meet the light blue interior, which gives the car a bit more "flow", reducing the number of colours for a cleaner look. On top of this, we chose to roll with a satin finish on the interior parts, bringing just the right contrast to the exterior paintwork. We're stoked with how that plan turned out!

We also made the decision to "black out" the inner grille sections and the rear taillight panel, giving this Pontiac a unique touch and breaking the blue up nicely.

We're thrilled with the results, our team worked hard to turn this once weathered classic into a stand out build. Keep an eye out for it this Summer!

12/10/2025

What a day! Saturday brought on The Howick Village Hop, an awesome event that takes place in the Main Street of Howick, showcasing all kinds of classic and unique vehicles. We did something a little different this year, by bringing along some smaller projects that we built out of odds and ends to commemorate hot rodding. Great to catch up with some familiar faces and meet some new folks!

19/09/2025