Retro Designs - Speed and Custom are an automotive design studio and shop based in the heart of Concord, North Carolina. The brainchild of Daniel Valjevac, Retro Designs started out as a fabrication shop back in ’09. Fast forward to today and they handle everything from period correct restorations to full-blown custom builds.

Run by a team of incredibly passionate individuals, the primary motive is to fulfill the needs of their clients and bring their dreams to fruition. Their portfolio includes several award-winning vehicles across the automotive spectrum from vintage classics to motorcycles, JDM cars, old-school 4x4s, and trucks.

Daniel’s fascination and enthusiasm for cars run deep, starting to tinker with them as early as high school. He knew early on that he wanted to pursue a career in some kind of automotive design. Eventually, it led him to pursue industrial design in college. But it wasn’t until he had the chance to go to Europe during one of his winter semesters did he really fall in love with the art of fabrication.

He spent that winter in Europe, interning with a coach builder where he learned how to weld and shape metal. You can’t get more hands-on than that, can you now? On his return to the States, he bought some fabrication equipment and started playing around with some stuff in his parent’s garage. These were the stepping stones to Dan becoming a master fabricator.

After college, Daniel moved to North Carolina and got a job at a restoration shop. Starting out as a fabricator, he quickly worked his way up the ranks and was running the shop towards the end of his time there. With enough experience under his belt, he started out on his own and established Retro Designs as an automotive fabrication shop. But Daniel knew that at some point, he wanted to build full cars.

As the team grew, Retro Designs ventured beyond fabrication and got themselves a paint booth. They began doing paint, bodywork, and assembly of cars. Now they’re a full-blown turnkey restoration custom shop. Today Retro Designs’ team comprises of 15 highly skilled professionals, across various departments who handle a whole suite of services that includes:

1954 Chevy Bel-Air by Retro Designs

North Carolina of course is a Mecca for the nation’s Stock car and NASCAR Racing scene. The HAAS Formula One team, Hendrik Motorsports, and U.S. Legend Cars are not too far away from Retro Designs.

Daniel says that one of the advantages of having their base in Concord is that there is an unlimited amount of resources available in the area from Carbon fiber shops, CNC shops, shops that sell raw materials, and restoration parts, all located within a stone’s throw away. This definitely makes restoring cars super easy.

The combination of having access to the highly-skilled workforce along with available on-site facilities allows Retro Designs to ensure the highest quality standards and workmanship.

1965 Corvette C2 by Retro Designs

While some of Retro Designs’ early project cars were Vintage beauties and hotrods including 30s Plymouths and Fords. The shop soon became associated with cars that represent classic Americana of the 50s and 60s. Models like the Chevy Bel Air and Chevrolet Corvette C2 perfectly fit that bill.

However, the clientele has evolved significantly and now Retro Designs handles a wide variety of cars from different time periods. More recently, working on 90s Import cars made up of models like the MK4 Toyota Supra, and Nissan GT-Rs also represents a big part of their business. Today, they oversee builds on stuff like Gen-5 Camaro’s, Porsche’s and everything in between.

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One of the most challenging builds that Retro Designs has ever undertaken was a 50’s Chevy for the 2015 SEMA show. Everything had to come together on a tight schedule. The team had to cut out the floor, and rockers, build the firewall, four links, a lot of custom sheet metal under the hood, and add a full interior, all in just seven weeks.

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One of Retro Design’s most special builds was another SEMA build back in 2017. The Mobil1 Chevrolet Performance Project Stingray C7CR. They’ve previously done a lot of work with Mobil 1 and Performance Chevrolet. Performance improvements to the C7 included a supercharger, tuning, wheels, tires, upgraded suspension, roll cage, and wide body. It was the sort of car that was right at home on the track as much as it was at a car show.

70th Anniversary Land Cruiser by Retro Designs

Coming to the pricing, most restorations start at $150,000 and go up from there. According to Daniel, the cost really comes down to the project and the car itself. Some projects can also involve period correct restoration and rack up thousands of man hours, all in a bid to capture a customer’s dream and turn it into reality. As for custom cars, you could easily be looking at anywhere between $250,000 to $300,000.

There are a lot of people out there who grew up around some really special cars back in the day. Today they have the means to bring those cars back to life and relive their youth. This is where Retro Designs comes in.

With these custom builds and restorations, not only do you get to enjoy the old-school styling, but you also get modern-day tech and performance upgrades thrown in for good measure. Daniel and his team possess the know-how and have what it takes to pull off these bespoke builds, which are nothing short of Automotive Masterpieces.

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