Quentin Willson He’s a hopeless romantic for a project, just like the rest of us
After telling us all to steer clear of nut-and-bolt restorations, Quentin has embarked upon a nut - and-bolt restoration. Explain yourself, Willson…
Like most people who make a career out of giving advice, I’m not very good at following it. I often warn you to avoid lifesentence rebuild projects and buy only immaculate classics but here I am embarking on another ground-up restoration. You’d really think I’d know better. The latest folly is yet another Daimler Dart. CUT 746B is the 28th from last SP250 built and has been hanging round my garage like a bad smell. Over the years there have been half-hearted attempts to progress the project – the chassis, gearbox and back axle were rebuilt by Phil Glennerster at Autotec but I’ve dithered for so long that he’s now retired. Robert Grinster in Essex, another SP250 guru, has bravely agreed to finish the enterprise and is now sifting through the sorry pile of bits.
The stripped and soda-blasted glassfibre shell was transported to Robert’s workshop where it was declared in decent nick but needing new GRP matting on the front chassis mounts and the usual prep and painting. A glimmering paint job will realistically take weeks of hand-sanding and multiple layers of primer and colour. The engine will need a total rebuild, the block dipped in acid to clear any rusted waterways, hardened valve guides fitted and the delicate alloy heads checked to see if they’re corroded.
Over the years I’ve bought-up any missing bits in alcohol-fuelled midnight sessions on ebay. Door glasses and gauges came from Canada, a hood frame from California, a speedo from Nebraska and a rev counter from France. The postman and I would chat cheerily about the latest parcel but he’s retired too, so I’ve lost my only ally. My wife’s thoughts are, as you’d expect, unprintable.
In a moment of uncharacteristic forward planning I’ve applied for the original registration number from the DVLA (CUT was last on the road in 1980) and helped by the forensic talents of Laurence Jones of the SP250 Club I now have a Heritage Certificate and await the V5C. Registered in Leicester in 1964 (where I was born and went to university) I have a dim recollection of seeing CUT on the road as a child as it was originally ordered, with body-coloured wire wheels – an odd feature my precocious sense of automotive order would have taken great offence at. I cling to this memory as a justification for the whole ridiculous endeavour, telling myself it’s shaped by some weird motoring divinity beyond my understanding.
In theory CUT’S restoration is halfway through and it’s only taken a decade. I tell you all this as a stern warning that nut-andbolt restorations demand the rigour and determination of one of Stalin’s five-year plans. And it’s not just the money, it’s the thousands of hours you spend organising stuff. I have a dusty bundle of CUT’S chrome bits that were re-plated six years ago – still to be opened and unwrapped. The single positive outcome of my lengthy prevarication is that SP250 values have quadrupled in the past ten years. I’d like to claim that this was a deliberate strategy, but of course you wouldn’t believe me. Keep reading for more thrilling installments on Tackling Trim and Rebuilding Your Heater. Now I’ve got the wind in my sails I might rush it all through in five years flat.