Classic cars · Portugal · Restoration, advice & sales
Every classic comes with a story. Very few come with a file. We restore classics, tell you honestly which one you should be buying, and sell cars whose paperwork is as sorted as the engine.
The first conversation is free. If a car is a bad idea, we will tell you that.
What we do
Most people arrive with one of these. Nobody is required to take the other two.
01 — Advice
We are not steering you toward a car we happen to have. Advice is charged on its own so that it stays independent of what is in the workshop.
02 — Restoration
Scope runs from recommissioning a car that has been standing for years to a full rebuild. The assessment tells you which one you are actually looking at.
03 — Sales
No car leaves without a test drive and a list of what is still imperfect. There is always a list.
The advice service, in the open
This is most of what the first conversation covers. If you only read one section of this site, read this one — it will save you more money than we will ever charge you.
Sunday mornings, weekend touring, or something you genuinely drive during the week. The honest answer changes every other decision, and the honest answer is usually less often than people expect.
The purchase price is the deposit. A classic that has been sitting will ask for a first year of sorting, and that number belongs in the plan before you buy, not after.
For some models a part is a phone call and a week. For others it is a forum, a fabricator and six months. Both are fine — but only one of them is a surprise.
A car that needs work is cheaper for a reason. If that reason is a hobby you want, it is the best value on the market. If it is not, it is the most expensive car you will ever buy.
Some classics hold their value, some are a hobby with a bill at the end. Neither is wrong. Knowing which one you are buying is the whole point.
The difference
Ask anyone selling a classic for the documentation and watch what happens. Every car we restore or sell comes with these five things, and you can ask to see them before you commit to anything.
Photographed, and written to include the faults rather than only the highlights.
What was done, when, and by whom — with photographs taken as the work happened.
Every part and every receipt, so the next owner can see what is actually in the car.
Current, in order, and the ownership transfer handled rather than left to you.
What is still imperfect, stated before you buy. This is the page most sellers do not have.
How a restoration runs
The two ways a restoration goes wrong are an open-ended bill and a history nobody wrote down. These five steps exist to prevent exactly those.
Free for a car you own
Condition, history, and what it will genuinely take. Including, sometimes, that it is not worth doing.
In writing
What gets done, what deliberately does not, what it costs and how long it takes. No open-ended hourly work without a cap.
Photographed throughout
Mechanical in house, bodywork and paint coordinated and supervised. You get the photographs whether you visit or not.
As it happens
The file is assembled while the work is being done, not reconstructed from memory at the end.
Car, file, and the truth
The car, the documentation, and a straight account of what is still imperfect.
What you can hold us to
Some cars are not worth the money, and some are not worth the money to you. You hear that while it is still free to walk away.
A condition report with no bad news in it is not a condition report. If we found it, it is in the file and it is in the photographs.
We do not sell a car we would not drive home ourselves. If it is not finished, it is not listed, however keen the buyer is.
On some cars a marque specialist beats a careful generalist. When that is true we say so, and we name one.
Before you ask
There is no fixed list. We take on what we can do properly, and we say so plainly when a car really wants a marque specialist instead.
Yes — that is the advice service, and it is the cheapest money you will spend on the car. It is also the only money you get back if the answer is no.
Yes. And you get the photographs either way, so distance is not a reason to be left wondering.
Inspection, registration and transfer are handled in Portugal as standard. Export paperwork on request.
Advice is a fixed fee agreed up front. Restoration is quoted in writing after the assessment. Nothing runs open-ended without a cap you agreed to.
Portuguese or English, spoken and written — including the file itself.
Also from Código Descontraído
Security and IT consulting, project management across the software lifecycle, and AI and security training — the other half of the company, on its own site.
Next step
Whether you own it, want it, or want rid of it. Three things make the first conversation useful:
A reply within two business days. Enquiries in Portuguese or English.