The problem with most restoration and detailing websites

Restoration and detailing sell completely differently, yet most shop sites cover both with one generic page.

  • Restoration needs trust built over months. A frame-off restoration is a long, expensive commitment. Prospects often spend weeks looking at your past work before they call. A gallery of six glossy finished photos doesn't show them how you handle rust, sourcing or wiring.
  • Detailing needs booking in minutes. A detailing customer comparing three shops on a Tuesday night will book whichever one lets them pick a time and package without calling.
  • Packages are a mystery. "Gold, Silver, Bronze" means nothing. Buyers comparing ceramic coatings or PPF want to know the prep, the coverage and the aftercare.
  • No-shows and tire-kickers fill the bay calendar. Without deposits on big jobs, a cancelled coating appointment leaves a bay empty for a day or more.
  • Social does the selling, the site does nothing. Many shops post incredible builds on Instagram, then send people to a website that doesn't show any of it.

What we build for restoration and detailing shops

  1. Project pages for restoration builds. One page per car with the story: what came in, what was found, the work done, and photos at each stage. Organized so a visitor can browse by era, make or type of work.
  2. Service pages that split the business. Restoration, rust and metal work, paint, mechanical and electrical, paint correction, ceramic coating, PPF, and interior detailing each get their own page, written for the buyer of that service.
  3. Package pages for coatings and film. Clear breakdowns of what each tier includes and who it suits, with real photos from your bay.
  4. Online booking with deposits. A booking flow that lets detailing clients choose a package and time, with an optional deposit on larger services and automatic confirmations.
  5. Restoration inquiry form. A longer form for build inquiries that asks year, make, model, condition, goals and timeline, plus photo uploads, so your first conversation is a real one.
  6. Town pages for your detailing area. Detailing is a local service, so we build a page for each town you draw from, with mobile or drop-off details where relevant.
  7. Show and event section. A simple place to list car shows and meets you'll attend and feature cars you've worked on that are showing, which matters to an enthusiast audience.

How it works

  1. Discovery. We learn your mix of restoration and detailing, the builds you're proudest of, your packages and the kind of client you want more of.
  2. Design. We design around your photos and your shop's personality, not a template with a car silhouette on it.
  3. Build. We write and build every service, package, project and town page, with fast-loading galleries and clean code.
  4. Launch and grow. We connect booking and inquiry forms to your CRM and keep adding project pages as cars roll out of the shop.

What to look for (even if you don't hire us)

Use these questions with any designer:

  • Can you add a new project page yourself, or quickly through them? Your portfolio should grow with every car.
  • How are the galleries built? Large photo galleries need image compression and lazy loading, or the site crawls on a phone.
  • Can a detailing client book without calling? Try it on your own phone, start to finish.
  • Are deposits possible on high-value services? Ask how payments connect and where the money lands.
  • Is restoration separated from detailing? They're different buyers and need different pages.
  • Who writes the copy? Ask whether they'll interview you about your process or just fill in a template.

Show the work, book the bay

RGS builds portfolio-driven, mobile-first sites for shops like yours through our Web Design service. See our full approach for auto restoration and detailing businesses, and read how we think about a project gallery website for craft-driven trades.