Car makers may be facing a perfect storm but, if my experience is anything to go by, car restorers are having a whale of a time. Stick a pin in a map of the UK and you won’t be far from one, or two, or three… I stuck a pin in the West Country – Weston-super-Mare, to be precise. I already knew there was an excellent car restorer near the town, but I wondered if he had any neighbours. It didn’t take long to unearth a couple more elsewhere along the M5 between Weston and Exeter. There were more, but there are only so many hours in the day. In any case, I was interested only in companies restoring bread-and-butter classics, as distinct from rarefied exotica. Let’s meet them.
Chris and Tina Boyer - Quantock Classics, Bridgwater
Times are good for Quantock Classics. The business, owned by husband and wife Chris and Tina Boyer, is about to move from their existing 1200sq ft premises to a new place measuring some 5000sq ft.
They clearly need the space. Surrounded by tools are a part-completed 1974 Land Rover Series 3, behind it a 1988 Land Rover Defender and to the side a stripped-down MGB roadster. The latter was its owner’s first car that, miraculously, he tracked down to Italy and brought home.
It means a customer’s 1977 Series 3 must stand outside as an example of Chris’s work. He treated it to a nuts-and-bolts restoration two years ago, and today it’s used as a daily driver and breakdown vehicle at nearby Hinkley Point power station. It’s worth around £20,000.
Chris, 54, has 30 years’ experience of restoring cars. Trained as a bodyshop technician, he honed his skills building replica Jaguar XK120s, XK140s and C-Types. His awards include Best Mini in the World at the 40th anniversary event at Silverstone in 1999. Today, his focus has part-shifted to restoring Land Rovers, which he describes as being like Meccano sets. “If we can’t find a part, we’ll make it,” he says.
Old Landies weren’t exactly known for their tight shutlines, which is why Chris trial-fits every panel and spends hours getting fit and finish just so. And get this: he makes sure the slots in screwheads are all perfectly aligned.
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It's because modern cars are engineered-to-fail nightmares to own. I've just got rid of my Panamera when it almost lunched its £10K gearbox - saved by an immobiliser fault shutting down the engine at the same time - and it was 10 years old. Will be replacing it with a tank-like W124 Mercedes E320 Estate, which will be comfier, more reliable and actually possible to work on myself.
Great choice RPF!
I have had many of these over the years when running a Mercedes-Benz Dealership (admittedly new then),. They were and still are, a great drive, beautifully built and uncomplicated to run. They dont feel old even today.
Enjoy.