If you are swinging for the fences there are 2 shops on the East Coast the are top notch. Hatch and Sons and Aaron Householder at Das Auto Shoppe in Knoxville. Either will deliver a show winning restoration. Both will empty your wallet.
ANY restoration will empty your wallet. The cost of parts is just too high, and labor (regardless of rate) is fairly extensive on a restoration.
But, seriously, those are the two you came up with?
I've been here since the inception and never heard of any reference to Das Auto Shoppe. Oh, AaronH was a "guest" on the forum a couple of times (like a million others passing in the night) but couldn't find anyone talking about the shop. Not to say he isn't good...and Knoxville is 8 hours "from the coast".
Hatch was shut down for a while when Bob Hatch senior retired and then stopped doing any restorations, concentrating mostly on consignment sales. Are they back restoring cars?
There's always Paul Russel in Massachusetts, too.
What about Gernold and SL Tech? People send him cars from all over, even though he's in southern Maine.
Bud's Benz is in Georgia, and they've done plenty.
Pierre Hedary has been known to orchestrate restorations, he's in Florida.
The Foreign Service is in Raleigh, NC.
Silver Star Restorations is in Topton, NC, 90 miles west of Asheville in the mountains.
Tony Labella in New Jersey
Bob Platz in New Jersey
...the list goes on...how many did I leave out?
My own car was restored by someone off the radar screen, (now gone) back in 1999-2000.
More recently there's been a lot of solid work done by Motorwerks Group in Commerce Michigan, and they know the W113 very well.
So, seek and you shall find. Do your homework and talk to the restorers, and choose one you feel comfortable with.
I chose mine based upon his ability to allow me to take an active role, and also not just someone who would want periodic checks $$$ but also one who would welcome visits and interactive work. I specifically rejected a restorer because they wanted to spend an enormous amount of money/time just documenting everything, and restoring everything instead of making sensible decisions. For example, this guy showed me the bills for another W113 he did, and I remember specifically a couple of
pages of detail (along with something like 4 hours labor each) on the teardown and restoration of the starter and alternator. I knew this was silly;
just take the cores to an auto parts store and get Bosch factory rebuilts. So there's a lot to choosing a shop to restore your car. Unless you have a bottomless pocket, you'll need to do some research.
Good luck!
