Now that the 1970 Bristol 411 has been converted to a left-hand drive, our classic car technicians have repositioned the steering arm. Doing this improves
After a trip to the blasters, our 1959 Jensen 541R has made its way back to the workshop. Once the newly blasted shell has been
The 1958 Jensen 541R has already come a long way since its arrival at the Bridge Classic Cars workshop in Suffolk. With recent work being
East Coast Retros are hosting the all day October meet to celebrate their 10th Birthday. The Rose Pub, The Street, Shotley, IP9 1NL The pre-2001
Join us at the workshops for an evening of entertainment and our Live triple draw. Molly and the team will be finding new homes for
Dave is now looking into possible reasons for why the engine on our Vauxhall Omega is leaking. He is currently in the process of replacing
Mary who we have known a few years loves her Triumph Spitfire and we have looked after it ever since our first encounter. Unfortunately for
In the workshops right now, we have 6x Jensen 541’s in various states of repair or restoration. We have 3x Jensen 541’s and 3x Jensen
Lydia has now started work on the rear squabs on our 1958 Jensen 541R. the same techniques used on the front seats will be used
Monty and Christian are working together on our Daimler project. We are hoping that the body repairs will be completed within the next week or
Scott has now freshened up the carbs and refitted them. He has successfully run up the car and fitted in new spark plugs. He has
Spotted at Helmingham Hall Festival of Classic & Sports Cars by the Jensen Owners’ Club, our Jensen 541S, affectionately known as Peony, has made an
Our beautiful Mini Cooper 1.3 has now arrived to Bridge Classic Cars HQ. This very special little car comes with the higher compression engine 10:1:1.
A new arrival this morning to the Bridge Classic Cars workshops. Working in conjunction with our good friend Lee at Autoshack. The 1972 Jaguar E-Type
Little Eva is the name given to our charming 1961 Morris Mini Deluxe. Since its restoration, Little Eva has joined our personal collection of classic
Time for Lydia to move on to the rear squab as she has now completed the front base cushions.
The roof bars have now been removed to make way for the new foam to be glued and fitted. The bars, covered in the correct
Areas of corrosion are being dealt with on the offside of our 1969 Morris Minor convertible. The area of interest has been cut out, the
Ahead of tonight’s double draw night, Dave has been finishing off a couple of small tasks on our 1968 Mini 850. We have replaced the
Having had the steering rack refitted last week following it’s recent rebuild the car had developed a slight creaking sound whilst driving slowly over bumps.
Mauro spent the afternoon in the booth preparing parts for a number of our Jensen projects. Blasted parts have been prepared and painted and will
The vinyl interior section are now being templated, cut out, glued and shaped into position on our 1958 Jensen 541R. The dash, A posts and
On testing Dave noticed that the brakes on our 1968 Mini 850 were locking. Upon closer inspection we can see that the offside was made
Another lovely classic car has been sold through our new classic car sales platform, MyClassics.co.uk . MyClassics is a completely free sales platform designed for
As I am sure many of you know, Bridge Classic Cars are based in the beautiful county of Suffolk. A county filled with natural beauty
Jon has replaced the nearside front wheel bearing on our 1969 Morris Minor convertible.
Some of the peripheral parts belonging to our 1959 Jensen 541R are currently being cleaned up and prepared for refit. Once they are ready to
Lots of progress has been made on our 1978 MG B GT (Blaze). As you can see, the rear brakes have now been stripped, serviced
The metal fabrication work continues on the body of our Daimler DS420. Old, corroded metal is being cut out and replaced by brand new panels
Brian spent the day outside the trim shop fitting up the headlining bars to our 1958 Jensen 541R in preparation for the new headlining to
Now that the 1970 Bristol 411 has been converted to a left-hand drive, our classic car technicians have repositioned the steering arm.
Doing this improves the steering geometry, which can make a big difference in how the finished car will drive when it is returned to its owner.
After a trip to the blasters, our 1959 Jensen 541R has made its way back to the workshop.
Once the newly blasted shell has been inspected by our classic car technicians, the next stage of restoration can begin.
The 1958 Jensen 541R has already come a long way since its arrival at the Bridge Classic Cars workshop in Suffolk. With recent work being completed on the front and rear seats, attention turned to the leather that would be covering the interior bodywork.
The material selected perfectly complements the dark blue interior that the finished 541R will have. This also pairs nicely with the metallic body and lobelia blue roof that the paint team gave the Jensen a few weeks ago.
Skilfully cutting out the templates to ensure the leather was ready to be installed before glueing them into position takes a bit of time and patience – something that our classic car technicians have in vast quantities.
The finished job has an impressive look and perfectly fits in with the work completed so far on this classic car.
East Coast Retros are hosting the all day October meet to celebrate their 10th Birthday.
The Rose Pub, The Street, Shotley, IP9 1NL
The pre-2001 classic and retro car meet continues to grow and is one of Suffolk’s most loved car meets. Saturday 8th October from 10:30am until 3pm. Free entry for all, including visitors. Display cars must be Y reg 2001 or older.
Autojumble pitches available from £5.
We will see you there!
Join us at the workshops for an evening of entertainment and our Live triple draw. Molly and the team will be finding new homes for 3 more amazing machines!
Bridge Classic Cars, The Nursery, Main Road, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP13 0HH
Our 1961 Mini Deluxe, 1970 MG C and our 1994 Ducati 750 Supersport are all guaranteed to be drawn on the night.
We’ll also have live music from Molly and her 1940’s vintage trio The Three Chordettes.
As well as food by The Miller’s Kitchen and coffee (and cake) by Carmello’s
Our gates open from 6:00pm and we’ll be live for the draw from 7pm. The event is free to attend and everyone welcome.
If you plan on joining us, simply send us your name and the number of people who will be coming with you to events@bridgeclassiccars.co.uk so we can make sure there’s enough food for everyone!
Dave is now looking into possible reasons for why the engine on our Vauxhall Omega is leaking. He is currently in the process of replacing the Dowty washers and seals on the oil cooler. There also appears to be a leak coming from the front pulley so this will also need investigating.
Mary who we have known a few years loves her Triumph Spitfire and we have looked after it ever since our first encounter.
Unfortunately for husband Bill she is not so keen on the Rover 80 that has been taking up valuable space in the wood store and coming up to another winter of non-restoration it was definitely on borrowed time.
Mary contacted me (Gordon) and said would I consider buying the car as they really wanted to see the car restored. How could I say no?
Tomas and myself had a mammoth task of releasing the Rover from its comfortable home and onto a trailer that we doubted we could remove from the their small cottage garden and driveway.
2 hours of loading and constantly telling Mary that we may fail in our quest and with the reply that the winter logs were being delivered it was never a doubt that Bills Rover was destined for departure.
We managed to get a few pictures between, swearing, turning wheels with flat tyres and desperately not trying to destroy the pergola. You can see the joy on Mary’s face and the not quite so happy Bill.
I even got a message from Mary the following day thanking us for all our efforts and tell us that the logs had arrived.
In the workshops right now, we have 6x Jensen 541’s in various states of repair or restoration. We have 3x Jensen 541’s and 3x Jensen 541R’s.
Sometimes, when fabricating parts it is much more time and cost effective for Clinton to produce more than one item. In this instance, Clinton has been working on re-producing the rear demisters and vents as well as bonnet stops and clamps.
With so many successful Jensen restorations now complete, we have the tooling for a lot of the parts that are required on the Jensen. If you are looking for Jensen parts for your own car or need assistance with fabricating certain parts for your classic car feel free to get in touch and we’d be more than happy to assist.
Lydia has now started work on the rear squabs on our 1958 Jensen 541R. the same techniques used on the front seats will be used on the rear so any existing leatherwork will be used to make up new templates or new templates will be drawn up by hand to help make the rear seats.
Lydia is now sewing up the leatherwork to make the shape required and the foams are also be cut and fitted to the base boards.
Monty and Christian are working together on our Daimler project. We are hoping that the body repairs will be completed within the next week or so. The front arch lips and rear bottom sections have now been shaped and welded into position.
Scott has now freshened up the carbs and refitted them. He has successfully run up the car and fitted in new spark plugs.
He has continued to work on building up the bonnet and now fitted it to the car. The doors are also now built up and all of the electrics have now been completed.
Spotted at Helmingham Hall Festival of Classic & Sports Cars by the Jensen Owners’ Club, our Jensen 541S, affectionately known as Peony, has made an appearance in this month’s ‘Journal for all Jensen Enthusiasts.’
Our beautiful Mini Cooper 1.3 has now arrived to Bridge Classic Cars HQ. This very special little car comes with the higher compression engine 10:1:1. Packed with bundles of history, the car has taken part in the Shetland Islands to MSC Sernatingen Oldtimertreffen in 2019.
Coming soon to Bridge Classic Cars Competitions, I think this will be a very popular choice.
Watch this space, more news to follow!
A new arrival this morning to the Bridge Classic Cars workshops. Working in conjunction with our good friend Lee at Autoshack. The 1972 Jaguar E-Type V12 you see below belongs to a customer of Lee’s having very recently been purchased from the The Classic Sale at Silverstone 2022 hosted by Silverstone Auctions.
The description reads as follows:
A decade after the original Jaguar E-Type arrived, the design progressively matured through 1971 with the introduction of the Series 3. Designed to showcase the new smooth and torquey 5.3-litre engine, originally developed for Le Mans, the Series 3 cars were available as a Roadster or a 2+2 Coupé. The Series 3 is easily identifiable by its large cross-slatted front grille, flared wheel arches, wider tyres, a larger bonnet bulge, updated bumpers, four exhaust tips, and a badge on the rear that proclaims it to be a V12. It also featured uprated brakes, power steering as standard and a large horizontal scoop added to the underside of the bonnet to assist with cooling. The interior was entirely new in the V12, with more comfortable seating, stylish new door panels and a smaller, dished and leather-rimmed steering wheel. Being slightly larger and altogether much softer in nature, the E-Type in Series 3 form had lost the wildness of its youth but gained the long-legged touring profile to which it was arguably better suited.
The United States was always the target market for the E-Type and the model evolved over a decade to cater for the needs of the American driver, a fact that has always been downplayed this side of the pond. The ‘Jagwar’ has always been held in high regard by the American enthusiast-driver that considered the homegrown muscle cars as too blue-collar and the precocious exotica of Italy as too expensive. The Series 3 had now evolved into a sports coupé that offered a smooth automatic gearbox and rear seats. The iconic lines of the early car is still unashamedly British but capable of outperforming bloated V8 rivals with its smooth V12. According to the Heritage Certificate, this Coupé, with automatic gearbox and air conditioning, was dispatched to British Leyland, New York on 10th April 1972 in Primrose Yellow with a Cinnamon interior. Our vendor informs us it was owned by one family from new in Louisiana, and it was imported to the UK and registered on the 1st December 2019.
Buying the car on the 1st December 2021 with the intention of reliving his E-Type owning youth as a racing engineer with the Le Mans winning Group 44 Race Team, our vendor’s ill-health sees the car regretfully offered to auction. The odometer reading of 23,393 miles, at the time of cataloguing is assumed to be genuine, although not warranted, whilst our vendor asserts that the family ownership prior to the 2019 registration in the UK is certainly persuasive. The colour was changed during restoration whilst the delightfully original Cinnamon leather shows lovely patina. Recently a new braking system was fitted to the front and new pads fitted to the rear. Our vendor, having worked on Jaguar V12 racing engines changed the oil himself, and the car will have a fresh MOT for the sale. The history file contains receipts, Heritage Certificate, importation documentation, handbook and V5C.
Residing overseas, the customer would like the car fully assessed and for a full service to be carried out. There also seems to be some issues with the cooling system and air conditioning which we would also like to look at.
Keep up to date with our progress as we get the car prepared and ready for it’s trip back home to Europe.
Little Eva is the name given to our charming 1961 Morris Mini Deluxe.
Since its restoration, Little Eva has joined our personal collection of classic cars. As this lovely little classic has not had the use we had anticipated, we have decided to let her go for someone else to enjoy.
Restored in collaboration with Team C Racing, our Mini was restored to the very highest of standards. To read our full write-up and for your chance of winning Little Eva, enter the draw here.
Time for Lydia to move on to the rear squab as she has now completed the front base cushions.
The roof bars have now been removed to make way for the new foam to be glued and fitted. The bars, covered in the correct material are then screwed back into position. The headlining is then positioned and carefully glued around the edges before being tightened and secured. Finally, access is gained in the new material for the interior light wiring.
Areas of corrosion are being dealt with on the offside of our 1969 Morris Minor convertible. The area of interest has been cut out, the underseal has been removed and a brand new repair panel has been fabricated and welded back in to position.
Ahead of tonight’s double draw night, Dave has been finishing off a couple of small tasks on our 1968 Mini 850.
We have replaced the oil seals around the gearbox to the driveshafts. We’ve also replaced the rocker cover gaskets. We also noticed that the exhaust bracket was touching the handbrake cable guide so we have flipped the exhaust bracket around the other way so this is now far enough away so that it is no longer touching.
See you tonight for the live draw of this and our 1991 Mercedes 300 SL. There are still a few tickets remaining on our Mercedes, grab your last minute tickets now! Good luck
Having had the steering rack refitted last week following it’s recent rebuild the car had developed a slight creaking sound whilst driving slowly over bumps.
Back in the workshops for further investigation showed one of the bolts had loosened itself so this has now been tightened and is awaiting a test drive. We hope this has resolved the issue.
Whilst in, we took the opportunity to remove the wiper blade and arm to have it blasted and painted.
The reason for this was that a slight dink in the original paint had started to progress into a bit of peeling.
Rather than it getting any worse, we have stripped it, repainted the arm to tidy up and prevent any further wear from happening.
Mauro spent the afternoon in the booth preparing parts for a number of our Jensen projects. Blasted parts have been prepared and painted and will now be wrapped up ready for reassembly.
The vinyl interior section are now being templated, cut out, glued and shaped into position on our 1958 Jensen 541R.
The dash, A posts and parcel shelf are now all in position.
On testing Dave noticed that the brakes on our 1968 Mini 850 were locking. Upon closer inspection we can see that the offside was made up of a different compound so we have replaced all brake shoes to give an even consistency and compound.
Another lovely classic car has been sold through our new classic car sales platform, MyClassics.co.uk . MyClassics is a completely free sales platform designed for the classic car enthusiast by classic car enthusiasts.
It’s easy to see why this classic Land Rover sold so quickly. The chassis is in amazing condition and the vehicle has a warm, charming patina fitting for that of the original go-anywhere, do-anything workhorse.
If you are in the market to either buy or sell a classic car, be sure to head to MyClassics.co.uk .
As I am sure many of you know, Bridge Classic Cars are based in the beautiful county of Suffolk. A county filled with natural beauty situated on the east coast of England, bordered by 50 miles of glorious coastline.
Our main workshops and competition studios can be found in the town of Woodbridge, Suffolk where we often host many a classic car event for everyone to come and enjoy.
Just 10 minutes up the road is the Bridge Classic Cars Hangar, situated within a former RAF station and home to a beautiful collection of vintage and classic vehicles.
But did you know….
Tucked away in the heart of Suffolk is what Toyota themselves describe as the largest and best privately owned collection of the the world’s most trusted and reliable commercial vehicles, the Toyota Hilux.
In recent years, the Toyota Hilux celebrated its 50th anniversary which proves just how respected and successful this vehicle has been for the brand.
Bridge Classic Cars have been fortune to have experienced the amazing collection first hand and as these images show, what a wonderful collection it is.
You can read the full story of when Toyota People met Guy to view his Hilux collection here…
Jon has replaced the nearside front wheel bearing on our 1969 Morris Minor convertible.
Some of the peripheral parts belonging to our 1959 Jensen 541R are currently being cleaned up and prepared for refit. Once they are ready to go back on the car they will get packaged and stored away and await refit.
Lots of progress has been made on our 1978 MG B GT (Blaze).
As you can see, the rear brakes have now been stripped, serviced and refitted. The handbrake lever and gear lever have both been overhauled and refitted. The prop-shaft has been sandblasted, the U/J’s have been replaced and painted and the cooling fan has been overhauled and refitted.
The metal fabrication work continues on the body of our Daimler DS420. Old, corroded metal is being cut out and replaced by brand new panels that have been meticulously produced by our skilled technicians Christian and Monty.
It is vital that no corrosion is left untouched in a restoration project as any areas that have not been addressed, rust will continue to grow and will eventually get hold of the new metalwork.
Monty and Christian are hoping that they are now on the final straight in the time consuming task of the treating the rust areas. Once this part of the project is done the car will be handed over to the paint team for paint preparation.
Brian spent the day outside the trim shop fitting up the headlining bars to our 1958 Jensen 541R in preparation for the new headlining to be installed.
Bridge Classic Cars are award winning Classic Car Restoration and Maintenance specialists. Your pride and joy is in safe hands with our expert Classic Car Technicians. Take a look at our awards here.
