I had been restoring dashboards and wooden trims, along with all types of Antique furniture since my antique restoration business was set up in 1991.
Some of my customers asked me to restore their dashboards after using my services on their furniture. People also came to me saying that they couldn't find somewhere to have their dashboards restored.
So taking my extensive knowledge and experience from Antique Restoration I decided to create a website dedicated to the needs of clients with classic and vintage cars. Thus Classic Dashboards was created.
I was based in Shere near Guildford in Surrey (England) for 13 years. In June 2004 we moved our home, business and family to Normandy in northern France.
Me and my 'helpers' taking a break for lunch on a very hot day in August 2003
Tel: 00 33 2 33 90 99 41
Email: simon@classidashboards.com
Why France?
Sabina (my wife) and I decided to move to give us the opportunity of having our home and workshop together. It had always been our long term dream.
It means that I no longer have the daily commute of at least 50 miles and we can enjoy lunches together. Our sons are loving having Daddy working from home and are now settled in French school.
We managed to buy a house with two barns and eight acres of land. My new workshop is seperate from the house and houses all my tools on the ground floor and upstairs there is storage room and another room to work in.
We have a large barn that we are going to be (gradually!) converting into a large family home and then the house we are living in can be rented out as a gite for holiday makers.
Whereabouts in Normandy? We're about an hour and a half away from Cherbourg in a small village called Montbray. The two main towns nearest to us are Villedieu-les-Poeles and Vire. Our farm is situated on the side of a valley with views reaching for miles.
