Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Restoring a classic car sounds simple… until you actually try to do it.
In this clip from Cars & Culture, Kindred Motorworks founder Rob Howard pulls back the curtain on the real challenges behind classic car restoration—from disorganized parts and costly mistakes to the lack of systems that make most builds inefficient and expensive.
After experiencing the chaos firsthand—losing track of parts, ordering the wrong components, and juggling multiple vendors—Rob realized the biggest problem wasn’t the cars… it was the process.
That insight led to Kindred’s biggest innovation: a fully standardized, tech-driven approach to rebuilding classic vehicles. By digitizing the entire supply chain and creating a precise bill of materials for every build, Kindred can deliver consistent quality at a scale traditional shops simply can’t match.
Rob also explains how this approach allows them to grow while maintaining exclusivity—and why most restoration shops can only build a handful of cars each year.
🔑 Topics Covered:
- Why classic car restoration is so expensive
- The biggest mistakes people make restoring cars
- Supply chain problems in the automotive world
- How Kindred Motorworks scales production
- Why most shops can’t build more than one car per month
- Balancing growth with exclusivity
🔔 Subscribe for More
For more conversations with the people shaping the future of car culture, subscribe to Cars & Culture.
Restoring a classic car sounds simple… until you actually try to do it.
In this clip from Cars & Culture, Kindred Motorworks founder Rob Howard pulls back the curtain on the real challenges behind classic car restoration—from disorganized parts and costly mistakes to the lack of systems that make most builds inefficient and expensive.
After experiencing the chaos firsthand—losing track of parts, ordering the wrong components, and juggling multiple vendors—Rob realized the biggest problem wasn’t the cars… it was the process.
That insight led to Kindred’s biggest innovation: a fully standardized, tech-driven approach to rebuilding classic vehicles. By digitizing the entire supply chain and creating a precise bill of materials for every build, Kindred can deliver consistent quality at a scale traditional shops simply can’t match.
Rob also explains how this approach allows them to grow while maintaining exclusivity—and why most restoration shops can only build a handful of cars each year.
🔑 Topics Covered:
- Why classic car restoration is so expensive
- The biggest mistakes people make restoring cars
- Supply chain problems in the automotive world
- How Kindred Motorworks scales production
- Why most shops can’t build more than one car per month
- Balancing growth with exclusivity
🔔 Subscribe for More
For more conversations with the people shaping the future of car culture, subscribe to Cars & Culture.
