Paul has been giving our 1967 Ford Mustang 350 a thorough check over and noting down any issues he does find. So far, he’s found that the wheels aren’t sitting quite right and there’s a leak coming from the underside that needs further investigation work.
New into us is this 2010 Citroen C6. It’s come in for a full valet and for all the wheels to be refurbished.
The 1968 Jaguar E-type Series 1.5 4.2, unfortunately, failed on its MOT test this week. The front brake piston and rear brakes weren’t working so it’s come back into the workshop to have these problems fixed.
Dave has been working on the red 1954 MG TF. The door wasn’t fitting properly, so he’s sorted adjusted that. The rubber seal around one of the dials on the dash had disintegrated so a new one was put in its place. And Dave’s put in a new engine solenoid.
We’ve found that the paint was flaking off the steering rack of the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona, so it was taken into the paint shop. There, Lydia blasted as much paint off as she could with an air gun and then took the rest off with a combination of a blade, a grinder attachment on a drill and thinners with a red scotch pad. The steering rack is now clean and masked up, ready to go in the spray booth.
Lydia has been helping Matt with the headlights for the 1978 Lancia Beta. After the paint was found to be flaking off them, they were taken into the paint shop, where Matt removed the existing paint completely and then primed them. Lydia then sanded down the primer to obtain a smooth finish for the final painting stage. They’re now all masked up again and ready for the spray booth!
Brian has been getting on with renewing the headlining in the 1990 BMW 750iL. He started off by removing all the panels and parts that went onto the headlining and were holding it in place. Once these were all taken off, the board with the headlining on could come out via the boot of the car. Brian could then start taking the original headlining fabric off the board.
Matt has been sanding and polishing the lacquer of the 1973 Jaguar E-Type Roadster Series 3 body shell after it got painted last week. This process will give the car its final finish.
Scott has been doing modifications and fittings on the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona. He’s fitted the rear bumpers, modified the number plate lamp because the car is made of fibreglass, whereas the number plate lamp is made to go on a metal car, the position of the headlamp mechanism has been adjusted and the headlamp motor has been fitted, he’s rewired the motor and checked that it functions properly, the horn has been fitted and it’s got new wiring, and the front grill has been fitted. Scott is now starting to modify the side lamp covers because they’re genuine Ferrari lenses and so they won’t fit in their original state.
The painting has started on the 1998 Honda Integra Type R. Now that all the different panels have been prepped with sanding, filler, priming and more sanding, they’re filtering through into the paint booth. They’re having a fresh new coat of white to revive the car to its former glory.
Another new arrival into us is this 1990 BMW 750iL. It’s come in to have a new headlining made and fitted in our trim shop, to get it looking tip-top again.
This 1954 red MG TF has arrived at our workshop today! It’s come in because of engine running issues, so Ady, our engine specialist, will be taking a look at it. Keep your eyes peeled for updates.
Our 1983 Ford Capri 1.6 LS that we bought last week has arrived! Unfortunately, it needs some TLC, so it’s going to be heading into the spray booth soon to get re-painted. It’s also going to get a full mechanical check and service in our workshop. Stay tuned for the progress!
We had a 1995 Mercedes E220 come into us today because the owner of it wanted the underneath of the car undersealed. Our technicians had a good look over it and assessed the area. Unfortunately, there was a lot of corrosion that was uncovered, meaning undersealing would be pretty much pointless. So we decided it would be best to leave putting any on and advised the customer not to go ahead.
Here’s a little story that’ll be sure to warm even the coldest of hearts! One of our recent competition winners, Coby Morton, has struck up a friendship with one of our mechanics, Mauro! Mauro delivered his 1979 MG Midget 1500 to the pub that Coby owns earlier this month and the pair got along swimmingly! So much so, Mauro went back to the pub on his way to vacation, where the two enjoyed some drinks together.
In the trim shop, Brian has been fitting the front squab seats of the 1960 Jensen 541R to their foams and frames. These seats were created and sewn by Lydia a little while back. You can read about the process here and here.
Brian started the fitting process by glueing and stapling the front squab “faces”/fronts to the frames, making sure the leather was nice and tight with no wrinkles. The staples went around the back of the wooden frame. The back of each seat was then attached with staples that went into the piping flange. 3mm plywood was cut out to the correct shape using a paper template for the bottom of each seat, this was wrapped in the white leather/glued onto the wood. This plywood was nailed onto the bottom of the seats with tacks and does the job of hiding the staples and raw edges of the leather.
Chris has recently put a layer of black protective coating on the underneath of the 1954 Jaguar MK VII. This does exactly what it says on the tin, helps protect the underneath of the car from the elements of the road.
New in the workshop is this 1999 Jaguar XJR. It’s come in for a valet, for an assessment to be carried out to get it through an MOT, a full service to be carried out with fluids being changed as well and there’s a knocking on the back of the vehicle which needs investigating.
James has been continuing his repair work on the corroded areas of the 1977 Daimler Double Six. The right-hand side front inner wing has been more work than the left-hand side. Keep up the good work James!
Kath has been starting on the carpet for the 1955 Aston Martin DB 2/4 this week.
The list of carpet pieces she’s made includes the front tunnel carpet, the rear under-seat carpets, the carpet that goes underneath the front of the gearbox, the top gearbox carpet, the gearbox tunnel carpets, the right-hand and left-hand foot well carpets, the carpet that goes around the throttle peddle, the rear foot well carpet and the rear boot-side panel carpet.
Each piece of carpet has got binding around some or all of the edges. This is made from the dark grey leather that was chosen, and is sewn on, right-side to right-side of the leather and carpet. It’s first stitched along the edge, and then the leather gets folded over to the under-side of the carpet and gets sewn again. The new carpet is grey to match the leather binding, whereas it was green and white carpet originally, with green binding.
We’ve welcomed back this 1933 maroon Austin 7 into our workshop this week. Paul has been working on it and he’s installed a new brake light switch and new wires for it too. He’s been looking at the front brakes and the fuel tank float as well because of trouble with them. The front brakes aren’t working quite right and the fuel tank float is getting stuck and ending up showing the fuel as full, when in fact, it’s empty. Now Paul’s just waiting for the parts to arrive to fix these problems.
Lydia has been continuing her prep work again for the 1998 Honda Integra Type R. This time around she’s been sanding down the primer on the various panel pieces for the wing mirrors and the fuel cap. They were all gone over with 500 grade gold soft pads, followed by grey scotch and then panel wipe to clean the sanding and paint dust off.
Our two most recent competition winners got united with their cars today. One of them was Andrew Oswold, who won the 1981 Rover 3500 SD1 Vanden Plas. He’s also pictured here with a 1976 Triumph Spitfire 1500, which he also won with our classic car competition, back in May! He’s clearly a very lucky man!
The other winner was Michael Wright, who won the 1983 VW Golf GTI.
We’ve recently been looking at the bumper on our 1973 Rolls Royce Corniche. It had been painted at some time in its life and so wasn’t looking fantastic. We took it to have the paint taken off but unfortunately, the bumper disintegrated in places. So we’ve decided to get a whole new chrome bumper in replacement.
You may have read about our recent purchases from yesterday’s blog posts, and here’s another one! This 1958 Triumph TR3, which was in the workshop recently for work, is now in our possession. The car has had a full service done in our workshop and it’s now ready for the paint shop to remedy the scuff to the front left wing. The question is, now that this stunning classic is ours, what should we do with it?
The 1971 Lotus Elan is now ready to leave our workshop! After a general check over was done on the suspension bushes underneath the car by John, no problems were found. You can read about the engine work that Ady did on this car by clicking here and here.
Another car which we have recently purchased is this 1976 Mercedes R107 350 SL. With the exterior of the car painted in Aztec Gold and the interior being Chocolate Tex colour, it screams the 1970s. The exterior of the car is in great condition and with the seats being made of vinyl, they’ve done extremely well with the age of the car. In terms of the engine, the vehicle has been kept very original but has had work done to it in the past couple of years. Watch this space to find out when it’s made its way to our workshop!
Here’s a car that a lot of people are fond of. Purchased by us today is this 1983 Ford Capri 1.6 LS! The bodywork on this car is fantastic, with no signs of corrosion underneath, the original cloth interior is in great condition for its age and it’s only had two other owners! Keep your eyes peeled on the happenings of this new purchase!
Scott has now finished re-assembling the front axle for the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona. The rear axle was re-assembled last week, which you can see a blog post about here. A blog post showing the front axle’s progress from yesterday can be accessed here. Now both axles are re-assembled, they were able to be fitted to the car!
The front and rear axles have both been rebuilt with all new bushings, bearings, shocks and springs. The brake calipers have been refurbished and Scott has replaced all the brake lines. The car was then lowered down onto the newly built axles and they were bolted on with new mountings.
Lydia has been continuing the prep work on the 1998 Honda Integra Type R. This time she’s been sanding down the original paintwork on the underneath/inside of the panel that goes around the boot of the car. She used 500-grade gold soft pads to get rid of the bulk of the shine, followed by grey scotch pads to get into the tricky places and to go over the whole thing as well. Lydia then cleaned off the sanding and paint dust with panel wipe.
