If your idea of heaven is a weekend in a cold damp garage wrestling with rusted crankcases and stripped threads, this is just the program for you.

Restoration Manager aims to help bring car restoration enthusiasts into the computer age by giving them an indispensable aid for complex projects. And, we must admit, it does a pretty good job.

Don’t worry if all you have is an old PC you found in a skip – this is one of the few new programs we’ve seen that positively thrives on old PC hardware that would itself be suitable for a restoration job.

The minimum spec is a 350MHz Pentium II, 64MB of Ram and Windows 98 with an 800 x 600 display.

The program itself is very easy to use – although novices should read the comprehensive manual thoroughly – and employs wizards to good advantage. The level of detail it allows you to record is suitably obsessive: part numbers, supplier details, components, zoomable photographs, notes.

There’s even a label printing facility, but it only works with a Dymo Labelwriter. The program generates IDs and unique label codes for each part. As you strip down the parts and place them in bags, you can print these labels or write the information on the bag.

The software is organised logically from strip down through restoration and assembly. You can track any job by adding tasks (predefined or custom) to each part.

The standard template can be modified to suit the individual foibles of your current pile of rust. Reports of suppliers, components or tasks can be viewed or printed at any time.

Even the most nitpicking restorer would be hard pressed to find something this excellent little package can’t do – apart from tracking costs, but perhaps that’s deliberate…

Download the free trial.

System requirements:
350MHz Pentium II 
64MB Ram 
CD-Rom drive 
5MB hard disk space 
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP