BUYING GUIDE Prices trends and buying advice from our experts
MARKET NEWS: What a brilliant resto!
REMEMBER Trigger, the Only Fools And
Horses roadsweeper who boasted that he’d had the same brush all his career (during which it had had 17 new heads and 14 new handles)? Well there was a time when Series I restorations were just like that. They’d turn up at auction with few – if any – original parts and wearing a flawless paint job far better than anything Solihull had ever applied. But that was the fashion back then – and those gleaming SIS attracted winning bids of tens of thousands of pounds.
But times and tastes change and today originality and patina are the buzzwords. The big money is going to Series Is that look like they’ve just been discovered after sitting in the corner of a field for the last 50 years. Paintwork often consists of the few flecks of original green still adhering to bare Birmabright panels.
If you think that sounds a bit extreme, you’re possibly right. Like I said, it’s all down to personal taste. But old Land Rovers don’t have to look like they’ve just been for a long drive through a giant sand-blaster, as this star of the Brightwells classics auction on April 1 demonstrates.
This 1953 86-inch model left Lode Land in October 1953 and started its working career in Manchester and eventually ended up in a garage in Gloucestershire, where it remained for 27 years until a friend of the owner bought it for restoration.
The chassis was badly-rusted, but rather than fit a new replacement, the restorer painstakingly cut out the corroded bits and welded in new metal, retaining as much of
the original as possible. He then did the same to the bulkhead.
The rolling project was displayed at a local classic car show, where the overwhelming view from the crowd was to put the unrestored body, complete with its lovely patina, back on the restored running gear. “The panels are pretty straight but retain a well-worn paint finish that looks in keeping with the vehicle,” opines Brightwells’ experts.
The 2-litre petrol engine is original, but it has been updated with an alternator and negative-earth electrics, plus five new tyres, a new canvas tilt, side windows and runners, battery, exhaust and brakes. The interior has been treated to replacement seat backs. The
steering wheel is non-original, coming from a Riley 2.5, but it does look right, somehow.
The story does have a sad ending, though. The owner who had done so much to restore this beautiful vehicle passed away just before its completion and the widow asked a friend of the family to finish the project.
It’s now up for auction and besides buying a great Series I, the new owner will get a BMIHET authenticity certificate and a memory stick full of images taken during the restoration process.
Interested? If you want to own this tasty slice of history, the guide price at auction is estimated at £11,000 to £13,000.
Go to: brightwellslive.com