EV classic Broncos? Inside the California factory reinventing classic car 'restomods'
Plans to hire 50 to 60 more as sales of 'restomods' expected to double in 2026
In a long-vacant industrial building on Mare Island, once a vital cog in the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding machine, a very different kind of manufacturing hum has taken hold. Where trains once rolled inside carrying steel and supplies for submarines and ships, technicians now strip, rebuild and re-engineer classic vehicles, many of them reborn as electric cars designed to meet modern expectations of performance, safety and reliability.
Kindred Motorsports is a restorer and modifier, or “restomod,” founded by technology and supply chain veteran Rob Howard. Its mission is to do something traditional restoration shops have struggled to achieve at scale: deliver fully rebuilt, turnkey classic vehicles using standardized processes, proprietary technology and factory-like quality control. And all that while preserving the emotional pull that made the originals iconic.
For Howard, the Vallejo company is the culmination of decades spent restoring cars one painstaking evening at a time.
Read or listen to the full SiliconValley.com article by Jeff Quakenbush, December 30th, here:
Workers work on a gasoline engine for a restored and modified classic Bronco inside Kindred Motorworks’ 105,000-square-foot “restomod” facility on Vallejo’s Mare Island on May 16, 2024. (Courtesy: Kindred Motorworks)