Published April 2001

Shop owner: Restoration
is all in the details

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

Walking through D&L Restoration in Everett is like “walking through history,” owner Louis Cohn Sr. says.

On any given day, Cohn and his staff of three are hard at work bringing new life to old classics. Since the auto-restoration shop opened more than four years ago, there have been a number of Bentleys from the 1920s and ’30s, a 1938 Buick and a 1931 Delage, among others.

“I have a lot of people come in, older people come in, and they just go nuts,” said Cohn, whose company also restores muscle cars such as Firebirds, Mustangs and Camaros, as well as pickup trucks.

And restoration — not collision repair — is D&L’s niche, Cohn is quick to point out.

“We’re not a body shop, and that’s where the difference comes in,” he said. “We do fix older cars like this if they’ve been in an accident, (but) we’re not equipped as a collision shop. We’re not ‘in the door, speed them out the door.’ We just can’t do it. We’re not geared for that.”

What D&L is geared for is body restoration and chassis work. To that end, the company has invested in state-of-the-art equipment such as a semi-downdraft spray booth suitable for the largest automobiles, a car cradle rotisserie, gas welders, a plasma cutter, two different types of sheet-metal brakes, a sheet-metal shear, a lathe and milling machines.

“We’re totally quality-controlled here,” Cohn said about his shop. “We look for every little defect to make sure it looks right, as good, if not better, than when the car was built new.”

For customers needing upholstery, glass or mechanical work, Cohn supplies a list of service providers, allowing customers to choose who they want to work with when the time comes to repair a seat cover or fix a cracked windshield.

D&L attracts customers from all over the state, Cohn said, adding that the majority of his clientele reside in Seattle and the Eastside.

How do they hear about D&L?

“The Web seems to be the best, and word of mouth,” said Cohn, whose online site includes photos of D&L’s restoration work and customer comments. Then there are car clubs that know about D&L and a few advertisements placed in select magazines.

Cohn, who says he’s “over 50” but “not 60,” does most of the heavy work — “the machining work and stuff” — putting in long hours at a craft that requires one to be “extremely meticulous.” But it’s work that makes him happy.

“It’s very tedious, and you’ve got to enjoy what you’re doing to do this kind of work, plain and simple,” said Cohn, who has worked on cars since he was a kid growing up in the Lynnwood area.

“I’ve been doing this all my life,” he said. “It’s all I know.”

And since opening D&L in 1997, Cohn has combined that knowledge with the challenges of the business world, striving to maintain a good reputation, grow and produce a positive bottom line. So far, things have “been good,” but Cohn said he expects the slowing economy to bite “a little bit.”

“But I have no complaints,” Cohn said. “Starting with nothing to something is a good feeling.”

For more information on D&L Restoration, call Cohn at 425-259-8151 or visit the company’s Web site, www.restoreyourcar.com.

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