Custom and Performance Shop Insurance in California
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If your bays hold six-figure builds for weeks at a time, your insurance was probably priced for a shop that turns daily drivers around in a day. That mismatch is the whole problem.
Redline Insurance Agency is an independent brokerage in North Hollywood writing custom, performance, and restoration shop insurance across California. We quote multiple markets on every account, we work in English and Spanish, and the owner builds engines and restores cars himself, so when you describe a bare-metal respray or a cage build, nobody on this end is googling it.
We write performance and tuning shops, fabrication operations, restoration shops, wrap and PPF studios, tint and detail operations, and the shops that do all of it under one roof. Not as a line item on a general commercial menu, and not as a risk to be talked out of.
Call or text (818) 823-5778 with your current declarations page in front of you, and we can tell you in one call whether your garagekeepers limit matches what is actually sitting in your bays.
The garagekeepers limit that stopped matching the cars
Here is the pattern on almost every custom shop policy we review: the garagekeepers limit was set when the policy was first written, the shop's clientele got more expensive every year since, and nobody moved the number. A $150,000 limit over a shop holding a GT3, two restomods, and a customer's freshly wrapped TRX is not coverage, it is a down payment on a lawsuit.
Custom and restoration work makes it worse in three specific ways. The cars stay longer, so your peak exposure is weeks of accumulating vehicles instead of a daily churn. The values are lumpy, so one incoming build can double what is on the floor. And a half-finished project is a nightmare to value after a loss: the agreed scope, the parts invested, and the labor already in the car all have to be reconstructed for an adjuster who has never seen a body in primer.
What we do about it: we size the garagekeepers limit to your real peak, including stored projects and cars waiting on parts. We talk through how the form values a vehicle at a loss before you bind, not after. And we put your project documentation habits, photos, build sheets, signed scopes, to work in the submission, because a shop that documents its builds is a better risk and should be priced like one.
What a custom shop program actually includes
Garage liability with completed operations
The core policy: bodily injury and property damage arising from your operations, including the work after it leaves. On a performance build, completed operations is the coverage that answers for the tune, the turbo kit, and the suspension work months down the road.
Garagekeepers at real limits
Physical damage to customer vehicles in your care, custody, or control, with the limit sized to the fullest day of your year: every build in progress, everything stored, everything waiting on parts. The form matters as much as the number, and we walk you through what the issued form says before you bind.
Long-term projects and storage
Restoration and build projects live in your shop for months, and many shops store finished or waiting vehicles on top of active work. Stored and in-progress vehicles both count against your peak, and a policy written for quick-turn repair work has to be told that is not your operation.
Test drives of serious cars
Somebody has to verify the tune, the alignment, and the brakes, and on your clientele that somebody is driving a very expensive car. Test drive exposure has to be structured in the garage program with drivers the carrier accepts, with MVRs on file for everyone who does it.
Spray booth, paint, and pollution
Booth operations, paint storage, and the pollution liability that refinish work carries. Restoration shops doing bare-metal work and color have the same booth exposure as a collision shop and often less of the paperwork, which underwriters notice.
Parts, materials, and customer property
The rare parts shelf, the customer-supplied components, the wheels and the interior out of the car during the build. Parts for a numbers-matching restoration are not replaceable at a catalog price, and where coverage can be structured for that, it has to be asked for explicitly.
Property, tools, workers comp, and commercial auto
Commercial property whether you own or lease, the lifts and welders and alignment rack, workers compensation the moment you have one employee, and commercial auto for the shop truck and trailer. Quoted as one program instead of four orphan policies.
Shops we write
- Performance and tuning shops. Bolt-ons to full builds, dyno work, and completed operations that get exercised hard.
- Restoration shops. Multi-month projects, irreplaceable parts, and half-finished vehicles that are hard to value after a loss.
- Fabrication operations. Cages, chassis work, and one-off parts, where the welding is both the product and the underwriting question.
- Wrap, PPF, and tint studios. Six-figure cars in your care for days, material inventory, and the customer who expects the car back flawless.
- Detail and ceramic coating. High-value vehicles, keys in hand, and garagekeepers exposure most BOPs were never built for.
- Race and kart shops. If competition vehicles are your specialty, we built a page for exactly that: race shop insurance. Racing-use work has its own market question.
What we do not place
Shops outside California; we are licensed in California only and will tell you on the first call. Operations that are primarily salvage rebuild; that is a different risk and most garage markets will not write it. Track events, race teams, and driving schools; those are motorsports placements and live on our motorsports insurance page. Shops with a significant lapse in prior coverage should tell us up front.
What actually drives your premium
Most California auto shops land between $4,500 and $15,000 a year for garage liability and garagekeepers together, and custom and performance operations price toward the upper half of that range on the strength of one number: the value of what is in your care. Workers compensation and commercial auto are quoted separately. Figures are California market ranges last updated October 2026.
- Peak value in your care. The maximum total value of customer vehicles at one time, builds and storage included. One incoming project can move this number more than a year of growth.
- Test drives. Whether employees drive customer vehicles, and whether MVRs are on file for everyone who does.
- The work itself. Booth and paint, welding and fabrication, dyno operations, and structural work all price differently than bolt-on service.
- Loss history. Frequency hurts more than severity. Three small claims in three years is harder to place than one large one.
- Building and protection. Construction, fire protection, security, and whether customer vehicles sit outside overnight.
Send us your current declarations page and five years of loss runs and we will give you a real number instead of a range.
A broker who has a project car of his own
I am Michael Canepa, the owner. I have been building, welding, and restoring since I was 16, and I know what it feels like to have someone else's pride and joy on my lift. That is the exposure your whole business sits on, and it deserves better than a limit nobody has looked at since the policy was written.
What I see most on incoming custom shop accounts is exactly that: a garagekeepers number from three years ago under a floor full of cars worth triple it. Nobody moved it because nobody asked. That is a five-minute conversation at renewal, and it is the difference between a covered loss and a lawsuit with your name on it.
If you want someone to actually read your current policy before quoting it, send it over. I will tell you what is wrong with it whether or not you move the account. You deal with me directly, in English or Spanish, not a call center.
Common questions
How much garagekeepers coverage does a custom shop need?
Enough to cover the maximum total value of customer vehicles in your care at one time, counting builds in progress, stored vehicles, and cars waiting on parts. Custom and restoration shops are underinsured more often than other trades because projects accumulate: the limit was set for a normal month, and the floor has not had a normal month in years. Count the peak, then re-count it every renewal.
Is a half-finished restoration covered if something happens to it?
It depends on the form and on your documentation. A vehicle mid-restoration has a value made up of the car, the parts invested, and the labor already performed, and after a loss that number gets reconstructed by an adjuster. Build sheets, photos, signed scopes of work, and parts invoices are what make that reconstruction land in your favor. We talk through how the form values vehicles before you bind, and we tell underwriters about your documentation habits, because they price them.
Does my policy cover customer-supplied parts?
Often not automatically. Customer-supplied components and parts removed from the vehicle during a build sit in a gray zone between your property coverage and your garagekeepers, and rare or numbers-matching parts are not replaceable at a catalog price. If customers bring you parts, or your builds involve components that cannot simply be reordered, that has to be raised at quote so the program can be structured for it.
Are test drives of customer cars covered?
Test drives are generally addressed within the garage program rather than a separate auto policy, but the coverage has to be structured for it and your drivers have to be acceptable to the carrier. On a performance clientele the cars being driven are expensive, so carriers ask who drives and want MVRs on file for everyone who does. Shop-owned vehicles need commercial auto separately.
Does a wrap or PPF studio really need a garage program?
Yes. A wrap studio takes custody of customer vehicles the same as a repair shop does, and the vehicles are often exactly the expensive ones. A BOP does not cover damage to customer vehicles in your care; garagekeepers does. A studio holding a few six-figure cars at a time with no garagekeepers, or a token limit, is carrying its biggest exposure uninsured.
Do you write shops that also do race car work?
Yes, and it matters that you say so up front. Racing-use work raises a separate market question, because many standard garage forms restrict or exclude losses connected to racing, and the right answer is a market that contemplates it. We write race and kart shops as their own class, and a shop doing both gets a program built for both. See our race shop insurance page.
¿Atienden en español?
Sí. Atendemos en español directamente con el corredor, no con un intérprete. Llame al (818) 823-5778.
Get your shop quoted
Tell us what you build, what you store, and what a full floor looks like, and we size the program to what is actually in your care. The intake takes a few minutes and quotes nothing automatically; a licensed broker reviews everything.
Start your shop quoteOr call or text Michael direct at (818) 823-5778.
Hablamos español. Le atendemos directamente, no con un call center.
Redline Insurance Agency, North Hollywood, CA. Independent brokerage writing custom, performance, and restoration shop insurance across California. Call or text Michael at (818) 823-5778 or email michael@redlineinsurance.com. CA License 0H75788 | Entity License 6015449. California only.