“IF IT'S GREEN YOU CAN TAKE IT OUT OF MY WORKSHOP!"

been mixing up a purple, but there are a lot of purple two-door Valiants out there. "If it’s green, you can take it out of my workshop!" he said. But he gave the Poison Ivy a test under the boot lid and rang back to say "This is the colour – I take it back".

I have to admit the stripe at the rear took a while to grow on me. It’s a sticker, rather than paint, so we could remove it if it didn’t look right. We initially tried all black, but that didn’t work. I like the red highlight as it complements the red in the grille.

Just about all the chrome was with the car when I bought it. Big pieces like the front and rear bumpers were sent off to be redone. With the smaller strips of brightwork, I’d spend an hour or two at the body shop whenever I could, gradually buffing each piece and then wrapping it in plastic until we were ready to fit it. It took a lot of hours, but was worth the effort.

When it came to the cabin, that was a fairly straightforward job. A previous owner had changed the front seats for a pair out of an XY Ford. We got them repadded and recovered, matched as closely as possible with the rears.

Probably the biggest hassle was refitting the windows. Looking at it, you’d think it would take a couple of hours at most. Nope. Think more like two days by the time you get them working and set up perfectly!

The whole project took just 14 months from start to finish, but we were working to a tight deadline. My sister-in-law had asked for the car to be at her wedding and I’d just decided to restore it – she was pretty worried. It really helps to have some good mates who can come along and assist in putting it together. With some jobs you need more than one set of hands.

In any case, I’m happy with the way it turned out, and it made it to the wedding on time!