The workshop
Metal, ash framing and paint specialists working side by side on pre-war motorcars, on a secure farm on the Ashdown Forest.
Conserve wherever possible, repair if required, restore if necessary.The Julian Parker Ltd approach
We will always seek to preserve the authenticity of a vehicle or object. We are rigorous about the detail that tells you the car is just as it should be, and we use traditional coachbuilding techniques to present your vehicle in its finest form.
The combination of skills in our workshop earned us the RAC Historic Award for Restoration in 2024. Alongside our three core disciplines, the team offers mechanical engineering, trimming and wiring, and we work with trusted outside specialists where a car needs them, such as the marque engine specialist who rebuilt the Bentley’s engine and gearbox.
Julian has more than 40 years’ experience restoring and conserving pre-war cars of many marques with traditional metalworking tools and techniques. He can 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 needed. His work has been selected three times for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and he has lectured on vehicle conservation at West Dean College.
More about metal
We are one of the last remaining workshops with our own dedicated wood specialist, capable of exemplary ash-frame and veneer work. Antony understands the properties of different timbers and the right joint for each job, and helps owners keep the integrity of their car by splicing in new wood while retaining as much of the original frame as possible.
More about wood
Our award-winning paint specialist works in a dedicated spray booth with an unsurpassed attention to detail. We offer correct cellulose finishes and polishing, traditional brush painting, signwriting, hand-painted numbers, traditional number plates and professional pinstriping, as well as stabilising and reviving original paint.
More about paintOur thinking
We support, and refer to, Historic England’s way of thinking about the values that make a building significant, and we apply them to the motorcars we work on. In advising any client about the best options for their vehicle, we will always consider:
How the vehicle reveals evidence about past human activity.
The stories these vehicles tell, connecting people and their lives, past, present and future.
The sensory and intellectual stimulation that a vehicle or object can evoke.
All that a car, bicycle or piece of automobilia means to those for whom it features in experience and memory.
How a project runs
Talk to Julian about your car and what you hope for. Ideally, bring it or come to see the workshop.
We look at the car’s history, its surviving original fabric and any period photographs or records.
We agree together what to conserve, what to repair and what, if anything, must be restored.
Our specialists work side by side, and we document what we find and what we do.
The team
Founder, historical and fabrication specialist
Jules trained as a coachbuilder and has more than 40 years’ experience. He leads from the front, always in the workshop alongside the team, and is fanatical about originality; he has travelled across Europe simply to study rare forms of transport. Away from cars he will often return to the workshop to make sculpture of his own, and has exhibited at the Royal Academy and at Goodwood’s Festival of Speed.
Specialist metal fabricator
Ricky joined in 2017 after 17 years with a specialist vehicle restoration company. A highly skilled fabricator, he works hand in hand with Jules on the metalwork and is involved in most of our projects.
Specialist carpenter, ash frames
Antony trained as a toolmaker before moving from metal to wood: sixteen years of bespoke architectural joinery, then cabinet making. At Julian Parker Ltd he combines that craft with his hobby of restoring old cars. Most cars built before the 1940s have an ash frame, so his skills are needed on almost every project.
Paint and ageing specialist
Kevin’s knowledge of paint and patination is second to none. Like Jules, he is a detail man: stabilising old paint and bringing it back to life is his particular skill. He has worked with classic and vintage cars all his working life and restores his own in his spare time.
Visit the workshop
Our workshop is in a secure rural farm setting on the Ashdown Forest in Sussex. We are delighted to welcome visitors by appointment.
