OUR STORY
ABOUT DAVID
David Charles Grainger is the principle character on the hit TV series Restoration Garage which is seen around the world on various channels. In the USA you can find it on Motor Trend and Velocity, and on Velocity in Canada (where the show is named Guild Garage).
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The show is currently airing its 8th season and is currently filming season 9.
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Grainger has been a columnist with the National Post and the Globe and Mail. Both newspapers are prestigious national financial dailies. He has also been a regular contributor with many other publications, in Canada, the US, and the UK.
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Grainger is the President and co-founder of The Guild of Automotive Restorers, one of the larger classic and antique car restoration companies in North America. David counts amongst his international client base individuals ranging from film and television stars, to captains of industry and famous financiers -- and of course, the beating heart of the classic car world, just plain old car nuts.
He premiered a Bugatti he built in Kuwait at the request of His Highness Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Saba in 2013. That car went on to win International Historical Car of the Year that year, at a very special awards show in London, England. Currently he is working on restoring vehicles ranging from old Ford pickup trucks to lavish vintage Ferraris.
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His day-to-day duties still require him to spend a lot of time on the shop floor, where the Guild is restoring, servicing and maintaining up to fifty cars at a time.
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Along with his duties at the Guild of Automotive Restorers, David is currently involved in launching a multi-faceted media company. Current projects there involve producing a YouTube Channel called Guilds Classics, an ongoing series of podcasts, and in developing several new TV shows.
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Amongst his newest endeavors, Grainger has founded an online enterprise involved with the sale of personally curated antiques, collector watches and fine jewellery. These items will be of high quality and exemplary design or perhaps, just plain fun.
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Grainger started writing in the 1970s where his columns dealt with wildlife and the environment. He wrote for papers in the Kitchener Waterloo area including the Kitchener Waterloo Record and he was a well-known wildlife artist with many successful one-man shows to his credit. His works still hang in corporate and private collections to this day.
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He also worked for zoos and wildlife sanctuaries, and founded and operated his own sanctuary specializing in injured birds.
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In the late seventies, he wrote his first book, Animals in Peril, a chronicle of endangered species in North America. Published by Pagurian Press and distributed in the US by Dutton, it did quite well, with sales of over 5000 copies in Canada and over 35,000 in the United States. Grainger also illustrated wildlife for numerous magazines and other publications and worked with Ian Ballantine of Ballantine Books on a special project in the early eighties.
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In the 1980s and early 90s Grainger turned to working in the film and television industries, where he specialized in special effects and gradually made his way into script-writing and producing.
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His founding of the Guild in the mid nineties gave rise to a company that is known and, respected around the world and has turned out everything from magnificently restored Brass Era cars from the early 1900s, to custom-designed $500,000 hot rods. Grainger is well-known as a designer of what the industry calls High Buck Hot Rods, and designs on average one a year for clients internationally.
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Recently he had the honour of restoring the Alfa Romeo that originally appeared in the 1946 Paris Salon and established Batista (Pinin) Farina as a major designer. Grainger and this lost Alpha 6c 2500 Speciale were guests of Pinin Farina on its 85th anniversary celebrations in Turin, Italy.
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Grainger also completed a 26-part television show in which he restored, on camera, the famous George Barris Supervan. That show ran repeatedly for over two years on Speed in the US.
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Grainger has also made innumerable television appearances over the years and was involved in a special one-hour documentary filmed at The Concours D”Elegance in Pebble Beach California.
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Grainger lives on a 35-acre farm in the rolling highlands north west of Toronto, Ontario. He and his partner Janice Stone share the land with six draft horses, three donkeys, a very stubborn mini-mule, large Irish Wolfhounds and Great Danes, and a collection of exotic cars.
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As if that is not enough to do, Grainger is also an enthusiastic War Bird pilot and owns two World War 2 aircraft. He is often to be seen winging over the countryside in his open cockpit Meyers OTW biplane -- white scarf, goggles and all.
Other accomplishments
-Wildlife artist once nominated to the Royal Canadian Academy.
-Commercial Diver
-Reptile handler including poisonous snakes up to and including King Cobras
-Zoo keeper - wolves, elephants, giraffe, assorted monkeys, rhino and more
-Professional aquarist (salt water) and designer of several saltwater filtration systems
-Wildlife handler and sanctuary owner
-Big cat trainer
-Falconer
-Environmental activist (starting long before it was trendy)