Classic Car Restoration, Done Right, in Sioux Falls

A classic car restoration isn't a service you buy — it's a relationship you start. The shop you pick is going to spend the next year, two years, sometimes three years with your car in pieces on their floor. That's a long time to find out you picked the wrong one. So before we tell you what we do, we want to tell you how we think about doing it.

Frankman Motor Company has been a family business in Sioux Falls, South Dakota since 1988. We started as a classic car dealership and grew into a full restoration shop because customers kept asking us to build the cars they were buying from us. Today we're one of the only operations in the Midwest where a buyer can find a classic in our inventory, route it through our restoration department for a full frame-off rebuild or resto-mod conversion, and have it shipped to their driveway anywhere in the lower 48 — without ever changing shops. Buy. Build. Deliver. One roof.

What Frame-Off Restoration Actually Means

A lot of shops use "frame-off" loosely. We don't. A real frame-off restoration starts with the body lifted off the chassis and the chassis stripped to bare metal — every bolt, every bracket, every line. From there we media-blast or chemically strip the frame, inspect for cracks and rust-through, and either repair what's salvageable or replace what isn't. Suspension, brakes, fuel system, brake lines, fuel lines, wiring, exhaust — everything comes off and goes back on new or rebuilt. The body gets the same treatment: bare metal, panel-by-panel inspection, rust remediation, and only then primer and paint.

That level of teardown is the only honest way to deliver a restoration that holds up for the next thirty years. It's also why a real frame-off takes the time it takes. Most builds run 12 months to 3 years. The range is real. It depends on build complexity, whether the chassis is being kept or replaced, drivetrain swap scope, the condition of the paint and body once we get it down to bare metal, parts availability for factory-correct work, and how many scope changes happen mid-build (they always happen). Joey will walk you through the variables on the first call. We don't quote tighter timelines than that because we don't want to lie to you and we don't want to rush your car.

Numbers-Matching and Factory-Original Restorations

If you're bringing us a survivor — a numbers-matching muscle car, a documented one-of-some-thousand classic, a factory-correct piece of automotive history — we treat it like a relic. The block, the heads, the trans, the rear, the carburetor: every casting number gets verified, every date code documented, every part either preserved or rebuilt to factory spec. For trim, glass, weatherstripping, and interior pieces, we source NOS (new old stock) where it exists and reproduction parts only where it doesn't.

This is patient work. Hunting an original AC bracket for a 1967 Camaro can take months. We do it because the alternative — slapping in something that "looks close" — is the difference between a $40,000 driver and a $90,000 documented restoration at auction. If your car deserves the real treatment, that's what it gets.

Resto-Mod Builds: Classic Looks, Modern Driving

The other path is the resto-mod, and it's the path most of our customers actually pick. A resto-mod keeps the body lines, the stance, and the soul of the original — and gives you the engine, the brakes, the suspension, the climate control, and the reliability of a 2026 vehicle. Our most common resto-mod recipe on a Chevy or GMC classic: an LS or LT swap with electronic fuel injection, a modern overdrive transmission (4L65E, 4L80E, 6L80E, or a Tremec manual depending on what you want to drive), four-wheel disc brakes, a coilover or air-ride suspension, a complete modern wiring harness, and a Vintage Air climate setup so the cabin actually gets cold in July.

The result is a car that looks like 1969 and drives like 2026. You can put it through a 600-mile road trip without praying the points hold and the radiator behaves. You can park it at Cars & Coffee and not worry about whether it'll start when it's time to go home. That's what a real resto-mod gets you, and that's the build we know best.

Patina Drivers and Mechanical-Only Restomods Welcome

Not every customer wants show-quality paint, and not every classic deserves to be hidden under fresh color. Some cars wear their history better than any paint job ever could — sun-faded original paint, honest patina, character earned over decades. We build patina drivers all day, and we build mechanical-only restomods where the drivetrain, suspension, brakes, and wiring all get modernized but the body and paint stay as-found. If your truck looks the way you want and just needs to drive the way you want, that's a real Frankman build too. We match the project to the vehicle — not push you into a tier you didn't ask for.

Why People Across the Midwest (and Beyond) Choose Frankman

Our restoration department serves customers across South Dakota — Sioux Falls, Tea, Brandon, Harrisburg, Mitchell, Watertown — and well beyond. We regularly take in cars from Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and points further out. We've shipped finished builds to buyers in California, Texas, Florida, the Carolinas, and the Pacific Northwest. We ship anywhere in the lower 48.

What sets us apart from the typical regional restoration shop is the dealership-backed sourcing. If you don't have a car yet, we can help you find one. Our classic inventory turns over weekly, and even when the right car isn't on our lot, our network of consigners, auction connections, and longtime customers gives us reach that a stand-alone restoration shop just doesn't have. We've sourced K5 Blazers in Wyoming, square-body C10s in Texas, and concours-grade muscle cars from collections we've known for thirty years. If your dream car exists, we can probably help you find it — and then we can build it.

One Team, One Shop, One Vision

Every phase of your restoration happens under one roof at our facility on SD-11. Frame work, engine and drivetrain, paint and bodywork, interior, electrical, suspension, glass, trim — all in-house, all by Joey's team. We don't job out the paint to one shop and the interior to another and the wiring to a guy in his garage. That kind of split-shop arrangement is how restorations stretch from two years to five, why parts get lost, and why nobody can give you a straight answer when something goes wrong.

When you start a build with us, Joey Bergjord is your single point of contact from the day the trailer drops your car off until the day the trailer leaves with it finished. He sends photo updates at every milestone. He picks up the phone. He has the answers because he's the one running the build. That's the Frankman promise: one shop, one team, one Joey, one finished car you'll keep for the rest of your life.