What have you done today

[Roscobbc]

I think I remember that one, a black car. They butchered the front wings to fix the birdcage I seem to remember.

You got it Nassau - sad thing was that a really high quality paint job was done on the car in black with tiny multi-colour 'flake - it really 'popped' in sunlight......but a couple of year down the line 'sink-back' where the fenders had been cut-out to repair the lower birdcage and a few the star/stress cracks were reportedly visible.

 

[Roscobbc]

I must admit I've often wondered just what you get back after consigning your (potential) pride and joy to one of the car resto shows. Having sought shelter indoors today from my freezing garage I was idly watching an episode of 'Car SOS' presented by Tim Shaw and Fuzz Townshend. The duo rescue and restore cars whose owners have suffered some health crisis preventing them from carrying out the work themselves. The programme hinges on the fact that the owner is totally unaware that the work is being carried out, friends or family having contacted the show in secret .
It's a worthy enough concept but I always have a slight unease over quite how pleased the owner really is when presented with his car restored to apparently pristine condition after a resto over which he - or she - has had absolutely no control or even input.

A few years ago I was restoring a 1948 MG TC and coincidentally just prior to this there had been an episode of the TV programme "For the Love of Cars" doing exactly the same thing. As in all these programs the success of the concept hinges on the personality of the presenters , in this case Philip Glenister and Ant Anstead, rather than the detail of the restoration. As part of my resto I bought a complete new metal clad wooden framed 'tub' for the car at a cost of around £6k from the same company that had supplied bodies to the programme....
View attachment 29206
I was told the production company had actually ended up buying three such tubs before they managed to assemble something presentable. This resto was not done for a specific owner but the finished car was presumably sold afterwards. I hope the buyer gave it a comprehensive inspection.

I seem to recall one show a few years ago the same pair did - can't remember the car - Escort or something similar and one particular camera shot of the car and the pair jusy after the csr was handed over you got a momentary glipse of the owner......and he didn't look anywhere near as happy as whe the hand-over occurred.
Pete's car perhaps was a fluke one that didn't right to plan.........but was that more typical that we think. These people have a fairly large budget. I mentioned the hi-stall converter that didn't go back in the car......Pete had previously installed one of those trick 4 speed overdrive auto boxes. This was a totally rebuilt and upgraded tricked-out 200 series 'box with specific ratios as I remember, it even came with specific custom crossmember to fit the car, a superb bit of kit. It had admittedly been playing-up going into o/d 4 th gear when Pete had it. The resto team couldn't get it operating properly - and shipped the car out to someone else to fix - they were also unable/or didn't understand it and replaced it with a stock 400 'box and converter. That really 'blunted' the performance. There was something about the exhaust system that was cocked-up. And quite a few missing trim screws........

 

[CaptainK]

Thanks Roscobbc, ever since I'd heard about that car years back I'd been interested in more of the details. But quite rightly at the time, no on was speaking about it. I've seen the show, I like the show, but like you said, I'd have concerns over someone restoring my car without my input. Its that case of "mystery restore - BUT ITS FREE", or "controlled restore by me, BUT I PAY THROUGH THE NOSE".

To be fair though, my family all know me well enough by now that they wouldn't do anything really stupid with my cars.

 

[Chuffer]

I must admit I've often wondered just what you get back after consigning your (potential) pride and joy to one of the car resto shows. Having sought shelter indoors today from my freezing garage I was idly watching an episode of 'Car SOS' presented by Tim Shaw and Fuzz Townshend. The duo rescue and restore cars whose owners have suffered some health crisis preventing them from carrying out the work themselves. The programme hinges on the fact that the owner is totally unaware that the work is being carried out, friends or family having contacted the show in secret .
It's a worthy enough concept but I always have a slight unease over quite how pleased the owner really is when presented with his car restored to apparently pristine condition after a resto over which he - or she - has had absolutely no control or even input.

A few years ago I was restoring a 1948 MG TC and coincidentally just prior to this there had been an episode of the TV programme "For the Love of Cars" doing exactly the same thing. As in all these programs the success of the concept hinges on the personality of the presenters , in this case Philip Glenister and Ant Anstead, rather than the detail of the restoration. As part of my resto I bought a complete new metal clad wooden framed 'tub' for the car at a cost of around £6k from the same company that had supplied bodies to the programme....
View attachment 29206
I was told the production company had actually ended up buying three such tubs before they managed to assemble something presentable. This resto was not done for a specific owner but the finished car was presumably sold afterwards. I hope the buyer gave it a comprehensive inspection.

Moral of the story : have your car worked on by a trusted restoration specialist not a bunch of TV personalities with egos the size of a small country !!!

 

[Mr. Cricket]

Well just over 8 hours that didn't get off to the best start when they turned up 30 minutes late at 9:30. Wouldn't you think they would be on time early Sunday morning when you're going out of your way for them?

Still it went well and should make for some great photo's and a video. Bloody knackered now

Well they're back tomorrow but this time I insisted a 10:30 start at the earliest as I need my beauty sleep. Reason? They need more video to sort out some continuity issues....

I say bollocks they just forget to press record

 

[Forrest Gump]

I seem to recall one show a few years ago the same pair did - can't remember the car - Escort or something similar and one particular camera shot of the car and the pair jusy after the csr was handed over you got a momentary glipse of the owner......and he didn't look anywhere near as happy as whe the hand-over occurred.
Pete's car perhaps was a fluke one that didn't right to plan.........but was that more typical that we think. These people have a fairly large budget. I mentioned the hi-stall converter that didn't go back in the car......Pete had previously installed one of those trick 4 speed overdrive auto boxes. This was a totally rebuilt and upgraded tricked-out 200 series 'box with specific ratios as I remember, it even came with specific custom crossmember to fit the car, a superb bit of kit. It had admittedly been playing-up going into o/d 4 th gear when Pete had it. The resto team couldn't get it operating properly - and shipped the car out to someone else to fix - they were also unable/or didn't understand it and replaced it with a stock 400 'box and converter. That really 'blunted' the performance. There was something about the exhaust system that was cocked-up. And quite a few missing trim screws........

....but thing was, in the programme they made a big thing about how they had found and fixed the problem in the original gearbox. The truth was their repair hadn't worked either and the car was actually stuck in first gear as Pete drove it around Brands Hatch during the "reveal". The whole gearbox got replaced later. It makes you realise these TV programmes can be made to look how it suits their storyline, not reality.
Anyway, I got my moment of fame in that Car SOS episode - I was in shot for around two tenths of a second.

 

[Nassau65]

I remember that bit, they made a big deal that they have sorted the gearbox and the previous people were crap at gearboxes.
Anything’s possible on TV , always taken those shows with a pinch of salt.

 

[CaptainK]

Personally, I prefer it on these TV shows where they take a proper wreck of a car and restore it. That way there are no real ifs or buts - ultimately the car is now at least useable whereas previously it was a complete rusting wreck fit only for the scrapyard, that the owner was never gonna get around to doing. So a least the car is at least useable now even if it wasn't completely properly restored.

 

[Roscobbc]

Personally, I prefer it on these TV shows where they take a proper wreck of a car and restore it. That way there are no real ifs or buts - ultimately the car is now at least useable whereas previously it was a complete rusting wreck fit only for the scrapyard, that the owner was never gonna get around to doing. So a least the car is at least useable now even if it wasn't completely properly restored.

In Pete case his car certainly need attention - on the front end......the 'death' blow of doors jamming/not closing when jacking the car-up was certainly very apparent.....however they uneccessarily replaced the exhaust system with restrictive smaller bore tubing (bearing in mind this was a 454 with Edelbrck heads, headers, cam etc.), the swapping out of the trick overdrive transmission and torque converter........these expensive parts disappeared inbetween periods where the car was with outside 'supposed specialists'. In Petes own words, other than the chassis/body repair and paintwork "they took a car that was running quite well and F'd it up", the exhaust would continually fall off, electrics became and issue and trim kept falling-off with many missing screws and fixings!

 

[Chuffer]

Personally, I prefer it on these TV shows where they take a proper wreck of a car and restore it. That way there are no real ifs or buts - ultimately the car is now at least useable whereas previously it was a complete rusting wreck fit only for the scrapyard, that the owner was never gonna get around to doing. So a least the car is at least useable now even if it wasn't completely properly restored.

Talking of Rust Buckets , what have I done today ? Well yesterday actually ! Spent the day doing further restoration work on D6535 . With 8 cylinders and GRP roof panels the similarity with a Corvette ends there !
I will post an update our various locos progress on ` Different Train of Thought ` thread for those who follow it .

 

[Mr. Cricket]

Joined the dark side. Please forgive me 🫣

A C2 has to go to make room

 

[Chevrolet]

Joined the dark side. Please forgive me 🫣 A C2 has to go to make room

Wow! Lovely colour/machine. Congratulations! Cyber Gray metallic?

 

[Nassau65]

In Pete case his car certainly need attention - on the front end......the 'death' blow of doors jamming/not closing when jacking the car-up was certainly very apparent.....however they uneccessarily replaced the exhaust system with restrictive smaller bore tubing (bearing in mind this was a 454 with Edelbrck heads, headers, cam etc.), the swapping out of the trick overdrive transmission and torque converter........these expensive parts disappeared inbetween periods where the car was with outside 'supposed specialists'. In Petes own words, other than the chassis/body repair and paintwork "they took a car that was running quite well and F'd it up", the exhaust would continually fall off, electrics became and issue and trim kept falling-off with many missing screws and fixings!

And I suppose he had NO recourse on the production company at all. Very sad as the show portrays itself as a proper show helping owners get their cars fixed right.

 

[Mr. Cricket]

It was the colour that sucked me in. No plans of one 'till then

 

[Nassau65]

It was the colour that sucked me in. No plans of one 'till then

Looks real good in that Gray.

 

[Chevrolet]

It was the colour that sucked me in. No plans of one 'till then

Makes it look like a £200 grand car? Are we allowed to ask the spec? Think I can see the "Forged" wheels on there?

 

[Chuffer]

Joined the dark side. Please forgive me 🫣

A C2 has to go to make room

Oooooo ! Nice !

 

[Mr. Cricket]

Makes it look like a £200 grand car? Are we allowed to ask the spec? Think I can see the "Forged" wheels on there?

Grey, 4 wheels 3LT

 

[Roscobbc]

And I suppose he had NO recourse on the production company at all. Very sad as the show portrays itself as a proper show helping owners get their cars fixed right.

In fairness to the production company they did 'cough-up' for a number of the issues that occured after hand over.

 

[CaptainK]

And I suppose he had NO recourse on the production company at all. Very sad as the show portrays itself as a proper show helping owners get their cars fixed right.

That's why I prefer the ones where its a right wreck, rusted away in a barn, not been used in donkey's years and its pretty obvious the owner has no ability or money to fix it. At least afterwards they have a useable running car at least, even if it might not be perfect.