Automotive restoration is the process of returning an antique or classic car to essentially the same condition it was in when it left the factory. It is in this respect the opposite of hot-rodding, in which cars of stock specifications are souped-up and altered.

Given enough money or time, any car is restorable to factory condition. Not many, though, ever fetch more at auction than is spent on them, such that the best reason to restore a car is simply that you like the car, and would enjoy working on it. The level of restoration can be moderate or extreme, aimed toward producing a drivable classic car or an auto-show 'trailer queen.'

Restorers and hot-rodders have been at war since the 1940s, when 20s and 30s-vintage cars were being turned en masse into dragsters and street rods, and auto enthusiasts first began to cultivate a historical reverence for older automobiles. Supplies of cheap prewar cars dwindled over time (many had already fallen to scrap drives during the war), such that the preservationists eventually gained the upper hand, via the deeper wallet. Restoration in its modern form began at some point in the 1960s, when auto show judges began to look past the surface condition of a car and focus on originality. Concours prizes began to be awarded to restored automobiles which were not driven (or restored to be driveable), incensing hot-rodders further.

A full, frame-up concours restoration entails that the car be stripped of its powertrain, accessories, and all other parts including sheet metal. This alone is more work than many restorers are prepared for, and is the point at which many restorations are abandoned -- providing bargains for a scavenger subspecies of restorer, who will buy a car as parts packed into cardboard boxes. The process then entails cleaning, fixing, painting (or replacing) each part of the car that is dirty, broken, worn, or unoriginal, except the ones nobody is liable to notice. The rebuilding of the car is the opposite of disassembly, except for the increased prospect of scratching or denting something. If the car was bought as a project (i.e. in cardboard boxes), this is the stage at which it becomes obvious which parts are missing. Once finished, a concours-restored car will resemble a factory-new car in all respects, except usually for a number of bolts and screws that are mysteriously left over.