For Barber, he says that because his shop specializes in restorations, finding and getting parts isn't a problem. The biggest difficulty, he says, is when parts need to be sent out for repairs, specifically to get re-chromed.

"You're looking at six to eight weeks waiting on the chromers to get the components back," he says. Rumschlag says finding parts for vehicles from the 1950s and older is getting more difficult. It's even more difficult finding parts for convertibles. Often he'll have to modify parts to fit those vehicles.

"If you're doing a convertible, you can't find convertible back quarters or back pieces so you end up having to take sedan parts and modifying them to work in that application," he says. "We have a guy that's doing a quarter on a '63 Ford convertible and we can't find those parts, so we're going to take a quarter out of a real nice '60s hardtop and we'll have to modify that."

Because Rumschlag has been restoring vehicles for 30 years he says he has a good network to call on. He calls on three salvage yards that have "somewhat of a good selection."

Rumschlag and Girimonte say they also will try such places as Hemmings, Sherman & Associates and Goodmark Industries. Other places to find parts include swap meets, car shows and car clubs.

When it comes to paint, matching colors and blending, shops can have a difficult time. For some vehicles, paint might not be readily available. In the case of the 1961 Corvette CARS repaired, it had lacquer paint, which isn't manufactured anymore, and that posed a new challenge.

"We had a real struggle in getting the paint and materials for that car and then getting it to blend and match correctly," Barber says. "There was no way we were going to base coat and clear coat half of the car. It would actually diminish the value."

Barber says they take sanding and buffing to a higher level as well. "We're wet sanding to 2,000 and 3,000 [grit] and buffing them to a 4,000 or 5,000 scratch grit. A mirror, by definition, is 11,000 scratch grit."

Insurance coverage and rates

Similar to the collision repair industry, many shops involved with repairing antique, classic and custom vehicles deal with insurance companies. Like late-model vehicle collision repair, the claims process for collector cars is similar. While the values of collector cars often are substantially more than late-model vehicles, the Hagerty Insurance Company, which specializes in collector car insurance, sees average repair costs around $4,000. When it comes to the cost of repairs and coverage, insurance companies usually will cover the costs.

"We will pay the amount necessary to repair or replace the property, whichever is less, provided you actually repair or replace the property with kind and quality without regard to depreciation or betterment," said Hagerty Insurance Company CEO McKeel Hagerty.

Hagerty insures about 500,000 collector cars. About 6,000 body damage claims were filed in 2006. When parts aren't readily available, Hagerty says it will pay for fabrication of the parts.

"In the event parts are not available and repair is not an option, we would pay for fabricated parts and we would pay the cost to replace that part with one of like, kind and quality," he says. "To use an obscure example, let's say a windshield out of a one-of-a-kind rare Ferrari from 1959 had to be replaced. It might cost $20,000. Then that is what we would pay."