OUR Process: Keeping with the Spirit of Stuttgart

We believe building German classics the right way is the only way.

The placement of a Banyan badge is the final step in a months-long process that takes thousands of man-hours and involves no less than five different teams of highly skilled craftsmen. Sure, we could restore a car faster and cheaper, but then it wouldn’t be a Banyan.

PROCUREMENT: THE DONOR VEHICLE

Finding the right donor is the foundation of every great restoration. Our acquisition specialists locate, inspect, and secure the finest examples available throughout Europe and the United States. We handle verification, documentation, importation logistics, and delivery to our restoration facility.

If you already own a vehicle, we proudly restore customer-supplied cars to the highest standard. Many clients bring us long-owned vehicles, family heirlooms, or special finds that deserve a full rebirth.

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Several beige military vehicles with angular designs and large front grilles are parked indoors. Each vehicle has a number on the windshield, such as 110, 213, and 233.
Interior of a military or utility vehicle showing metal benches with worn green cushions and seat belts, with a plain metal floor and some exposed wires.
Close-up of a gray utility vehicle with a covered cargo area, showing the side panel, wheel, and a small sticker indicating 4.0 bar tire pressure.
The interior of a vehicle showing a green seat, a black door panel with scratches, and part of a black steering wheel. A window reveals another vehicle outside.
A partially disassembled grey vehicle, possibly an off-road or military-type vehicle, is raised on a hydraulic lift in a workshop or repair shop. The front bumper, headlights, and other parts are visible, but the wheels and some components are missin
Close-up of a stack of black tires next to a gray industrial machine or equipment, with a green and white sticker and a beige fabric bag attached to the equipment.

BODY WORK

The individual body panels are delivered to Stuttgart’s finest bodyworkers. This is the go-to shop for multi-million dollar, concours-winning restorations, and that process is the same one all Banyan German Classics receive. Every metal bit is baked for hours at extremely high heat to separate any impurities and then dipped in a chemical peel to return the metal to its bare state. It’s then subject to a second bath to remove any traces of the chemical peel and coated in a zinc phosphate solution to ensure that the anti-corrosive solution applied next achieves maximum adhesion.

All panels are then “e-coated”- a process that involves submerging them in an electrophoretic bath that has been positively charged, which allows every single element - including the internal layers - to receive an even coating, providing superior smoothness, better protection from rust, and none of the loss in strength or structure as experienced with traditional blasting methods. To our knowledge, Banyan is the only producer of restored vintage utility vehicles that uses this electrophoretic coating as a standard part of our process.

An old, rusty car frame without wheels in a workshop or factory.
Unfinished Mercedes-Benz 280SL car body in a paint booth.
A person wearing a black cap, glasses, gloves, a dark jacket, and black pants welding a metal pipe, emitting bright sparks inside an industrial workshop.
Large metal shipping container filled with bent and damaged metallic car parts, with a person in yellow protective gear in the background, in an industrial or manufacturing environment.
Close-up of an unfinished metal vehicle frame in a factory or workshop.
A warehouse filled with disassembled and partially assembled car parts, with several car bodies and frames in various stages of completion. A red pallet jack is positioned on the floor, and an emergency exit sign is visible on the ceiling.

PERFORMANCE, ASSEMBLY & TUNING

Once the right car has been acquired, it’s brought to our expert builders, who have been specializing in further improving brilliant German cars for 95 years. They give every car a thorough mechanical and physical inspection and catalog everything it could possibly need, and then they get to work completely disassembling it.

The engines are sent straight to a team led by an AMG master tech with more than 35 years of experience, where he was responsible for the engine work on iconic creations such as the original “Red Pig”. Utilizing only period-correct tuning techniques, each engine is meticulously rebuilt for optimum power and reliability. In the case of our Puch 230 GE builds, the original 2.3-liter engine - the same block used in the 190 EVO - is rebored to 2.8 liters as standard, improving its power output from 125hp to 250hp.

Suspension components, brakes, and transmissions are completely rebuilt using only parts manufactured by suppliers that Porsche and Mercedes-Benz use directly - if it’s not good enough for them, it’s not good enough for us. The freshly painted and chromed body components are then reunited with the interiors and internals back at the workshop, where the cars are reassembled using all-new hardware. Some eight months after the process begins, a thorough series of final tests are performed to make sure everything is working perfectly, the only then is a vehicle approved to be christened a Banyan and provide its lucky new owner with an unparalleled experience in contemporary classic motoring.

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A close-up of a person's dirty hand holding a magnetic pick-up tool with a black handle, used for retrieving small metal objects, against a blurred background of workshop tools and equipment.
Close-up of a car engine, likely in a workshop or garage, with parts and tools attached or nearby.
A person wearing orange gloves working on a car engine in a garage or workshop.
An automotive engine cylinder head on a workbench in a garage or workshop, with tools and car parts around.
Close-up of a person's hand holding a metal component, possibly part of a robotic or mechanical device, with a wooden surface in the background.
Close-up of a vintage car engine with various hoses and components in a garage with other classic cars in the background.
A man repairs an old vehicle's dashboard, which has exposed wiring and missing panels.

UPHOLSTERY

Our interiors are taken a few miles down the road to a small atelier which is also hired by the Porsche and Mercedes-Benz museums to upholster the cars in their permanent collections. Brand-new leathers, vinyl, and carpeting from the original mills are hand sewn onto repolished frames. Wood accents are stripped, sanded, and relacquered if found to still be perfectly intact, but if there's even a single crack, every piece is replaced to ensure continuity.

Vintage brown leather and plaid fabric airplane passenger seats with headrest cushions.
A person working at a table in a workshop filled with roll of fabrics and materials, with large windows and a black racing-style seat on the table.
Rows of spools of thread in various colors including gray, black, tan, and red, arranged on a table.
Close-up of a stethoscope with brown and gray tubing resting on a gray doctor's bag.
Multiple rolls of fabric in various colors and textures hanging on a rack at a fabric store.
Disassembled brown and tan plastic furniture parts on a table, including a large curved piece, rectangular containers, and smaller components, possibly for a chair or sofa. The table has a green cloth.
Inside a workshop with two vehicles being repaired. A black off-road vehicle with open doors is in the foreground, and a green vehicle is lifted in the background with a mechanic working underneath.
A large industrial water tank or basin with a mechanism for water treatment or filtration, featuring black and orange safety railings.
Multiple vintage brown chairs with plaid fabric upholstery stacked together.
Car chassis and parts in a manufacturing or assembly workshop
Three people working on a vehicle with a black and beige exterior in a workshop, one man crouching inside the vehicle and two others standing outside.
A dark, abandoned-looking warehouse with a partially assembled or damaged black car in the background and metallic cargo containers in the foreground.
View of an empty car's metal interior chassis, showing the floor, side panels, and various mounting points, with no seats or interior components installed.
A classic Mercedes-Benz 280SL Pagoda car body in the process of restoration or assembly in a workshop. The car is painted in primer and appears to be a convertible or roadster model.
Disassembled vintage car bodies in an auto salvage or repair shop, some with visible rust, and other car parts in the background.
A vintage car with a shiny dark exterior, parked inside a garage near windows, with some items stored on a cart to the side.