Give The Jensen a Brake

September 4, 2020

Restoration work continues on the black 1960 Jensen 541R. This week the brakes have been given some special attention by our classic car expert technician Paul.

“I’ve refurbished the handbrake caliper,” explains Paul, “then fitted the repaired unit back into place.”

Next stop – the trim shop.

Boot Repair On The 500SL

September 4, 2020

After spending many years stored under a tree before arriving here at Bridge, we continue to uncover rust and corrosion throughout the 1987 Mercedes 500SL.

One of our welders Toby has completed welding work in the boot this week. “There was excessive corrosion all over the boot floor,” Toby described. “So I’ve welded a new piece into place.”

There’s still a way to go to get this classic into tip-top condition. Belonging to one of our Directors Craig, he’s enjoying seeing the progress so far.

Corr! What a Door!

September 4, 2020

Mauro, our master mechanic here at Bridge has been completing work on the doors of the 1973 Triumph TR6.

Along with getting all the mechanisms working on the handles and windows, Mauro had been busy finishing up other bits. “I’ve also finished the surrounds on the doors and windows,” Mauro explains. “So all the rubber seals are now in place to make the doors water tight.”

Damaged Driveshaft

September 4, 2020

Our classic car Technician Dave has repaired a couple of damaged driveshafts on our lovely 1947 MG TC.

“Originally, the car came in with differential problems” explains Dave, “but once the differential had a complete overhaul we realised then that the driveshafts were all twisted.”

Dave’s now replaced two of the four driveshafts and the car is back to full working order. Top work Dave!

Our Trim Shop Team are Diamonds!

September 4, 2020

Our trim shop duo Brian and Kath have been working wonders on the 1973 TR6 interior.

Brian started by making this centre console cover, pulling the leather around the edges and gluing it to the rear.

He’s then made the trimming and speaker panels in the same way. “I stapled the leather around the speaker panels,” explains Brian. “Seamlessly cutting and turning the holes for where the speakers will go.”

Meanwhile, superstar seamstress Kath has been marking out and stitching the stunning diamond design onto the leather. “This pattern will be featured on the cockpit panel, the wheel arch panels, door panels, seats and headrests,” she explains.

Kath uses much of the original interior as a guide to create the new pattern. She marks out the pattern on the new leather, cuts it to shape and clips it together, ready to be sewn.

Kath’s also made these headrests, they too share the diamond stitching. “This diamond pattern looks beautiful,” expresses Kath. “But it’s very tricky pattern to work with! Along with ensuring all the diamond lines themselves are exact, I also must ensure the diamonds line up nicely along the edges of each panel or section. It’s not so easy to get right!”

Brian then completes the headrests by fitting the foams into the leather covers. “I stapled the leather together around the metal poles of the headrest. Then screwed their newly covered metal plates back into place to hide away the staples.”

Here’s the rear cockpit and door panels Kath’s stitched with Brian then gluing them into their final position. “I trimmed back the foam here to reduce bulk,” Brian explains. “Then I stapled around the edges, trimmed off any excess and cut slots into the leather for the pockets to eventually go.”

It looks like these two have been very busy bees over the last few days! As the car itself is back home with it’s owner, we can’t see the interior back in position just yet. But, keep your eyes peeled for more updates as we hope to be showing off the final result very soon!

The Riley Merlin Exhaust Is Exhausted

September 4, 2020

The 1926 Riley Merlin Nine Briggs came to us with a rigid exhaust pipe. Eventually, the natural movement of the engine would lead it to break.

Our specialist classic car technician Dave has built her a new, more flexible, exhaust pipe. “A rigid exhaust pipe would eventually break the exhaust manifold,” explains Dave. “I’ve now built and welded together a new, flexible, stainless steel exhaust.”

This should tide her over for many more drives to come. Good job Dave!

The Rare Riley – British Motor Museum

September 4, 2020

Bridge Classic Car’s Directors, father and son team Gordon and Craig visited the British Motor Museum this week on one very specific mission – to learn all about their 1905 Riley 9HP.

The museum is home to what is believed to be one of only three 1905 Riley’s in existence. Gordon and Craig were invited for a private viewing to get up close and personal with this unbelievable piece of history.

“The Riley 9HP we have here at Bridge needs a full build and restoration,” Gordon describes. “It arrived to us as little more than a truck full of loose parts, so to see the car as it should look is a real treat.”

The visit certainly got Gordon and Craig excited to see what their Riley should look like. They took an array of photo’s to bring back to Bridge HQ that will give our experts some valuable insight into the cars mechanics, electrics and aesthetics. There’s a long road ahead as the technical team start to piece together this extraordinary vehicle. But for now – here’s a flavour of the museums Riley in all it’s glory.

The British Motor Museum is a glorious day out. It’s home to the largest collection of historic British cars in the world and boasts over 300 classic and vintage cars dating right back to the beginning of the 20th century.

The enormous purpose built premises is nestled within 65 acres of Warwickshire countryside. The museum was awarded a Heritage Lottery grant of 1.3 million pounds in 2006, which was used to enhance the displays and build a stunning mezzanine viewing platform.

“I especially liked seeing Fab 1,” expressed Craig. Which is Lady Penelope’s iconic pink car, redesigned by Ford in 2002 from the original 1960’s Rolls Royce featured in Thunderbirds. Bridge Classics are proud to work with Project Plastics in Colchester, who produced the windscreen on Ford’s new Fab 1.

“The James Bond Landrover was also a great sight,” described Craig. “007 cars are always a firm favourite of ours.”

Working with classic cars every day is such a privilege. These cars bring back such special personal memories and nostalgia, it’s been brilliant for Craig and his Father Gordon to see some of the best examples around. Special thanks go to curator Cat Griffin for being such a wonderful host, we shall be back for sure!

She Lives!

September 3, 2020

The 1953 Ford Transit van that arrived with us yesterday has spent the morning with our expert classic car technician Pete.

After five years of back and forth trips to mechanics, this unique Taunus Transit still wouldn’t fire up.

But, after a thorough diagnosis and via process of elimination, the talented team here at Bridge have solved the mystery.

“The magic eye was not fitted correctly on the distributor,” explained Pete. “It needed pushing down further so the rotor arm could be fitted correctly. The firing order was also wrong, so we’ve sorted that”.

Pete and Tamas have since done several workshop tests, including taking her out for a test run and she’s now driving well. There’s only a few more final checks to make before we can give her the all clear, but what a amazing turnaround – great work team!

Daytona Gear Box Removal

September 3, 2020

Pete, one of our specialist technicians here at Bridge, has successfully removed the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona gear box ready for testing.

Once it’s restored, it will be married up with the new engine currently being worked on by our V12 engine restoration experts.

That sounds like a marriage made in heaven to us!

Vint-Tro – September 2020

September 3, 2020

Our 1989 BMW M3 E30 was left gleaming this week after a full valet by Viper Auto Valet, following the paint job we carried out on her recently.

So happy was her owner, he just had to share the news with our good friends at Vint-tro. Including some gleaming pictures of his pride and joy.

She’s looking as fierce as ever!

Paint Work Gets Underway On The Morris Minor

September 2, 2020

The 1963 Morris Minor 1000 has already had a ton of improvements made including the engine restoration work having already started.

Our expert paint technician Chris is already making great progress with the entire respray of the car after all the welding work on the body is now complete.

“All the newly welded sections needed to be sealed” Chris explains. “I’ve then completed several stages of priming, sanding and priming again.”

The next stage is to have the car wrapped ready for a full body spray. We’re all looking forward to seeing the before and after.

One Of Our Own – Welcome To The 1954 Ford F100 Truck

September 2, 2020

Our classic car technician Mauro has got himself this wonderful 1954 Ford F100 Truck. It’s come into the workshop today for the team to start a full engine restoration project on it.

The truck was imported from the US in 2013. Mauro tells us “I’ve always had a passion for American cars. It needs a lot of engine work, including new brakes. I also want to upgrade the steering.”

He’s not sure yet if he’ll do a full restoration. But the plan is to keep it for some time and just enjoy it. We’re sure you will Mauro!

Bristol Cars Secret Stash

September 2, 2020

A predicted £1m worth of classic cars has been discovered in an old garage belonging to Bristol Cars Ltd, according to an article by The Daily Mail Online.

Amongst the discovery was a 1982 Bristol Fighter, a 1964 Bristol 409 Bullet Speeder and a 2016 Bristol bullet, all prototypes that never made it to market. A spokesperson for Bristol Cars referred to the stock as ‘junk’ but classic car valuers think the lot could bring up to £1m in total. What a find!

Since 2018, Bristol Cars had been working on a new prototype they called the ‘Bullet’ having not focused on automotive builds since their last liquidation in 2011. But faced another liquidation this year following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bristol Cars, who at their peak produced 100 hand-built cars a year, were the last independent hand-build car manufacturer left in the UK.

https://www.facebook.com/BridgeClassicCars/posts/3045316352258224

Here at Bridge Classic Cars we had the privilege of working on this 1971 Bristol 411 earlier this year. We just hope we’ll get the chance to see more of these beautiful cars in the future, maybe even some from their secret stash.

The Riley’s Getting Flashy

September 2, 2020

Classic Car Technician Tom has been rewiring the indicator relay on the 1936 Riley Merlin Nine Briggs.

“I had to remove the old indicator box as the wiring was unsafe” says Tom. “I’ve redone the wiring and restored the flashing indicator relay to get it back to it’s original look.”

There’s been clear blue skies over the Pettistree workshop today, so Tom and some of the team have been working out in the sunshine. Bright indicator lights, bright sunshine and what is sure to be a bright future ahead for the Riley Merlin!

The Engine’s Out!

September 2, 2020

The 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona has had her engine removed this morning by our expert technicians Ady, Mauro and Tom.

“The engine is the heaviest we’ve ever dealt with here” explained Ady, our engine specialist. “We’ve had to source a heavy duty crane especially to lift it out.”

The car came to us as a non-runner, the engine was completely blown. Ady diagnosed a water leak from the bottom hose, causing the engine to completely overheat. It’s sadly spent many years not being driven.

_{^{Ady and Mauro carefully remove the heaviest engine we’ve ever had at Bridge Classic Cars!}}

The spare Jaguar V12 engine is currently being worked on by our specialist engine partners. Now the old engines out, it’ll be stripped for parts and whatever that can be salvaged will be, ready to be used on the new engine.

One way or another, our talented team will get this baby back on the road. We can’t wait to hear that engine roar!

BMW M3 Before And After Paint Job

September 2, 2020

The Bridge paint team Darren and Chris were excited to get their hands on the beautiful 1989 BMW M3 E30 last week to give her a full body paint job.

“She was in for a tidy up” Darren described. “She had stress fractures at the front in the fiber glass, lots of dents and scratches and even golf ball dents in the roof”.

Finished in a stunning Diamond Schwartz, she’s had all her dents corrected and been fully primed, prepped and painted. Doesn’t she look awesome!

We can’t wait for our photography extraordinaire Freddie to capture her in all her glory. Keep your eyes peeled for the professional shots to follow…

The E-Type’s Getting In Gear

September 1, 2020

The very special 1967 Jaguar E-Type Series 1 race car has had Kath’s magic touch today receiving a bespoke leather gear shift gaiter.

“There was no original gaiter there for me to go by” explained Kath “I had to design a completely new pattern”.

A bold orange leather has been used to compliment the cars exterior paint work, while grey cotton stitching has been used in contrast but also to be in keeping with the newly painted centre piece also in grey.

Looking superb so far!

Triumph TR6 Trim Transformation

September 1, 2020

Our trim shop team were in for a real treat last week when we received a request for a full interior transformation on a 1973 Triumph TR6.

“We’ve stripped it all off” explained Brian. “The seats had lost their spring too, so we’ve not only done new upholstery, they’ve also got new foam inside”.

“I’m also doing some bespoke stitching work” Kath explains. It’s a distinctive double diamond pattern and so far, it looks absolutely stunning. Be sure to keep an eye out for more pictures in our next update!

Bonnet And Bodywork On The Jensen’s

September 1, 2020

The 1957 and 1960 Jensen 541R’s were treated to custom made bonnet supports last week. Along with this, they had their recently restored wings and sills re-fitted.

“Both cars have had their sills and wings completely restored, including a fresh paint job.” Our talented technician Paul explains. “I’ve fitted the restored parts back onto the car and built and fitted their new bonnet supports too, to keep the bonnet steady”.

Both Jensen’s are really starting to return to their former glory now, it’s great progress from the Bridge team.

The Jensen 541R Can Breathe Again

September 1, 2020

Work continues on the full nut and bolt restoration of the 1960’s Jensen 541R.

Replacement air filters were fitted by expert technician Paul last week. “The original inlet manifold and carburettor didn’t fit” he described. “I’ve replaced them, so she should now have more torque and perform better”.

Paul also replaced the top coolant hose and the bottom hose, both needed cutting to the correct size.

She should sound even sweeter now – good work Paul!

Unusual Cars UK – September 2020

September 1, 2020

Thank you to Unusual Cars UK for sharing our 1962 Jensen 541S to their 144,000 followers.

Temperatures Are Soaring For The Scimitar

September 1, 2020

Dave, one of our expert technicians, discovered a faulty temperature gauge on the 1966 Reliant Scimitar last week.

“The sender unit needed replacing” he describes, “and the wiring was a mess, there were lots of splits and poor joins”. So, along with a replacement sender unit, the wiring has also been redone and thus the temperature gauge is working once more.

The Jensen 541R Has Clutch Trouble

September 1, 2020

The clutch on the 1960 Jensen 541R hasn’t been working properly. So, our expert technician Dave has built his very own easy-bleed component to get it back up and running.

“You can buy these parts online.” Dave explains, “but I’ve made my own so I can do the work sooner and not wait for parts to arrive”. A great example of the proactive attitude our team have here at Bridge – awesome job Dave!

The Jensen’s Get New Grilles

September 1, 2020

Both the 1957 Jensen 541R and the 1961 Jensen 541S have been treated to fully repaired bonnet grilles this week, courtesy of our expert technician Dave.

“These aluminium hooks can be flimsy and snap off”, Dave explains, snapping one of them off with ease. “So, I’ve custom built stronger ones to replace them”. Dave then welded the new hooks onto each grille to keep them snug and secure in the centre of the bonnet.

One of many finishing touches that will contribute to the final look of the Jensen’s iconic bonnet.

Derek Spec’s His Jensen

August 29, 2020

Derek, the proud owner of the 1961 Jensen 541S came along to our workshop this week to choose the colour scheme for the restoration.

After some careful deliberation, Derek finally decided on peony red coupled with kelvin grey for the exterior with a mushroom leather interior.

We think she’ll look excellent!

Pull Up A Chair

August 29, 2020

Brian in the trim shop here at Bridge has started rebuilding the seats on our 1961 Morris Mini Deluxe.

“I started by fitting new rubber straps” Brian explains, “then added foam around the bottom edge”.

“I added hessian to the base, glued foam on top and marked out the middle.”

The finished cover was then glued to the foam lining, along with the calico flap, then the bolster foam was glued on top with the cover pulled over everything nice and snugly.

Horse hair was then glued to the rear of the seat, pulled around the frame and fixed into place. Wadding was also added to the top and sides of the chair to add extra padding.

The back cover was then fitted over, pulling the flaps though to glue them to the frame then clipping the outer flap to the seat frame. “Any ends have then been turned underneath to make it neat” described Brian, “then simply glued and and clipped into place”.

The back seats on the 1961 Morris Mini also received some similar special treatment from Brian this week.

Brian fitted the foam around the back seat frame. Added calico, lining and the backseat foam and pieced it all together.

“I then marked where the cover sits,” explains Brian, “gluing the cover down centrally to the foam and finally gluing the calico flap down”.

A small piece of brown felt was added to the front of the foam, then a large piece of brown felt over the top then glued the foam over the top to make a front bolster.

Brian then began work on the back seat Squab. “I glued the horse hair padding to the refurbished metal frame” Brian describes. “I then added scrim foam to pad the seat out further and trimmed it up to match the shape of the frame”

Brian then pushed the foam into Kath’s custom-made cover, glued the flaps around the side and the bottom of the seat then glued the cover to the metal.

We’re often completing full interior restoration on anything from our 1961 Morris Mini you see here, to Jensens, Triumphs and everything in between. For more information on our trim shop services get in touch today! – 01473 742038

Behind The Scenes With Tomboy

August 28, 2020

Because of the launch of our 1963 BSA Trials Bike competition, we decided to invite self-proclaimed motorcycle addict Deimante (AKA Tomboy-A-Bit) over to our Bentwaters showroom and track to give the bike a little test ride.

After riding our BSA around with us all day, Tomboy said; “It is so hard not to fall in love with classics. There’s so much character in them!”

Company Director Craig also gave our BSA a ride. “I kind of wish I wasn’t giving it away,” he revealed, “as I’d love to keep it in the collection.”

But alas! Our fantastic 1963 BSA Trials Bike is in our current competition line up alongside some other pretty special classics. Head to www.bridgeclassiccars.co.uk/competitions to see what you could win!

1973 Triumph TR6 Restoration Update

August 27, 2020

As so often found when restoring classic cars, many components simply cannot be sourced and need to be fabricated in-house.

Mauro, one of Bridge Classic Cars vehicle technicians has today been fabricating a new window bracket on our Triumph TR6 restoration, in place of the original bracket that has rotted away. Fortunately, a matching bracket on the passengers side window was still in tact so Mauro was able to replicate the bracket’s design. It’s the little details that make all the difference to the final result. Superb work, Mauro!

Mauro has now also fitted the restored steering column into the vehicle.

The wiper engine, washer fluid reservoir and fuse box have also been fitted to the car.

Mauro then moved onto installing the heating ventilation system.

After completing the ventilation system, Mauro moved onto restoring the TR6’s windows. He’s cleaned up the glass and restored the metal brackets to beautiful condition. The windscreen surround has also now been fitted into the car, ready for the windscreen to be fitted.

Superb work, Mauro.

Teamwork On The TR6

August 27, 2020

We’ve got an interesting project underway here at Bridge Classic Cars. This gorgeous 1973 Triumph TR6 is having a full restoration but, we don’t actually have the car in the workshop…

The owner himself is working on the car at home. However, he’s requested to help of our tremendous trim shop team Kath and Brian to do a full interior restoration.

We’ve worked on a design for the seating and interior panels. Much of which will incorporate a diamond stitch design requested by the owner. The colour scheme will also compliment the exterior paint and continue the maroon theme but include some grey leather to contrast.

We can’t wait to see the two projects merged together. Team work makes the dream work!

TWO Competition Winners on Display at the Stonham Barns Car Show

August 27, 2020

Two, yes TWO of our lucky classic car winners took their new cars out to local car show at Stonham Barnes on the 16th August 2020.

We absolutely love being sent images like this. It’s wonderful to see these classics being loved and enjoyed. Our competitions give you the chance to win your dream classic car, for just a few pounds.

Rob Daines won our 1975 Vauxhall Viva GT and Courtney Barker won our 1990 Austin Mini 30 from www.bridgeclassiccarscompetitions.co.uk

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