Restoring Cheers & Gears

Cheers & Gears was founded in 2001 and has been covering the automotive world ever since. Over 25 years, we've built an archive of more than 7,000 articles and 2,000 image galleries. In internet years, we qualify for classic plates. 

But the internet doesn't sit still. Articles written for how search engines worked in 2006 don't perform the same way in 2026. Numerous server moves and software upgrades have broken article formatting and image links. The site is still here, but it's rusty and needs a frame-off restoration.  Luckily, the powertrain is good. We're on a solid and powerful server and the software itself is running well.

Because who's ever done a frame-off restoration of a website before? We're doing something a little different. We're documenting the restoration of Cheers & Gears in real time, the SEO modernization, the content infrastructure, the technology upgrades, all of it. Think of it like a garage build, except the project car is a 25-year-old website.

We're using AI tooling to help us work through a massive archive, building hub pages to organize coverage that spans two decades, upgrading our platform, and relaunching a newsletter. Our goal is to have Cheers & Gears in the best shape it's ever been by our 25th anniversary in August 2026.

Follow along below for updates, a roadmap of where we're headed, or head over to the Cheers & Gears Restoration discussion forum to ask questions and share your thoughts.