A few years ago I sent a car to the right coast for general refurbishment. I chose this shop because their name is a stamp of approval in the market and the cars they work on sell for a premium. This was not a Porsche.
After 13 months I got the car back. No restoration, no engine rebuild, no repaint. Just their expertise at sorting it out. 13 months.
This got me thinking about TIME and what it is worth. If you are young and have many years of enjoyment ahead of you a year or two means nothing. If you are 78 and expect to drive your baby for another five years then a two year service abyss means more. I am somewhere in the middle.
I am fascinated by the current service back up. It is certainly an imbalance of too many cars and too few capable shops. No knock on the shops who are backed up nor the car owners in a hurry. The best are backed up for very good reasons. It will be interesting to see if more owners decide to delay a restoration for now or rebuild the engine instead of the whole car.
Imbalances in supply and demand have a way of working themselves out over time.