Workshop
“The combination of our skills within the workshop earned us the R.A.C. Restoration award for 2024’
'Conserve wherever possible, repair if required, restore if necessary.'
At Julian Parker Ltd we will always seek to preserve the authenticity of a vehicle or object; we delight in the detail that tells you the car is just as it should be and we are the people who know. We use traditional coachbuilding techniques to ensure that your vehicle is presented in its finest form.
Metal
Julian has over 40 years experience restoring and conserving pre-war cars of many marques using traditional metalworking tools and techniques. His skills are almost without parallel and have led to his work having been selected three times for the Royal Academy’s summer exhibition, as well as receiving invitations to lecture on vehicle conservation at East Dean College. Julian has the very rare expertise required to create almost any form, by hand, from metal. All panel work is gas-welded and the English Wheel is used to shape whatever form is required. Julian’s workshop team offer exemplary complementary skills in ash-framing and traditional paint finishes, as well as mechanical engineering, trimming, & wiring.
Wood
Julian Parker Ltd is one of the last remaining workshops with our own dedicated in-house wood specialist capable of exemplary ash-frame and wood veneer work. He has a deep knowledge and understanding of the properties of different timbers and the perfect joints required for each function and can help clients to preserve the integrity of their vehicle by splicing-in appropriate wood whilst retaining as much as is possible of the original frame work. The fact that our in-house metal and wood specialists can liaise at any point throughout a project, creates the perfect environment for the best possible outcomes.
Paint
Julian Parker Ltd has an award-winning paint specialist with an unsurpassed attention to detail working in a dedicated spray booth. We offer many years of experience in the correct cellulose paint finishes and polishing, including traditional brush paint techniques, as well as signwriting and can include the manufacture of traditional number plates, the hand painting of numbers to bodywork and professional pinstriping.
We support, and refer to, Historic England’s way of thinking about the values that make a building 'significant' and we translate these values to the way that we consider the motorcars that we work with at Julian Parker Ltd.
In advising any client about the best options for their vehicle, we will always consider:
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Evidential value: how the vehicle reveals evidence about past human activity
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Historical value: the stories that these vehicles can tell - connecting people and their lives, past, present and future
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Aesthetic value: sensory and intellectual stimulation that a vehicle or object can evoke.
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Communal value: all that a car, bicycle or object of automobilia means to those for whom it features strongly in experience and memory.
Meet our Specialists.
Julian
Founder, CEO, Historical & Fabrication Specialist.
Jules has a rather maverick approach to life. He very much leads from the front, using his depth of knowledge mixed with infectious enthusiasm. He is always workshop-based and in this environment he works closely with all of his team using his extensive knowledge to ensure every detail is attended to. He is fanatical about originality and has travelled extensively through Europe simply to study rare forms of transport.
Away from cars and work his interests range from cycling & swimming to art and architecture, and he will often return to the workshop in his spare time to undertake a piece of sculptural work of his own. He has exhibited a number of times at the Royal Academy and at Goodwood’s Festival of Speed.
Ricky
Specialist Metal Fabricator
Ricky joined the JPL team in 2017 and brought with him a wealth of experience, gained with 17 years in a specialist vehicle restoration company. A highly skilled fabricator, Ricky often works hand in hand with Jules to undertake the metalwork processes and is involved with the majority of our projects.
Antony
Specialist Carpenter
Antony started his working life as a qualified toolmaker, but soon realised it wasn’t for him. He then moved from metal to wood and for the next 16 years was creating bespoke architectural joinery for outdoor spaces. He then went into cabinet making before returning to architectural joinery but this time for buildings. The move to Julian Parker Ltd as the in house wood specialist enabled him to combine his passion for woodwork with his hobby of restoring old cars. With the vast majority of cars built before the 1940’s having an Ash timber frame, Antony’s skills are always needed in the conservation process.
Kevin
Paint & Ageing Specialist
Kevin brings a unique skill to the business. His knowledge of paint and patination is second to none. Again, like Jules, Kevin is a detail man and his skills working with old paint, stabilising and generally breathing new life into it is truly amazing. He has worked with classic and vintage cars all his working life and he has his own projects progressing in his spare time restoring a couple of classic cars.