00:01 COMM: Master craftsman Lance McCormack owns
one of Britain's best classic car restoration businesses, 'Romance of Rust'.
Helping him manage it is his son Merlin, the cutting edge sales man who also runs his own
classic car dealership together they turn 'Rust To Riches'.
00:21 COMM: Today's project is a very special ferrari,
which is delivered by Merlin.
00:26 MERLIN: The car we've got here is a 1956 Ferrari
250 GT, long wheel base Tour de France 14 Louvre its a bit of a mouthful.
This car was actually part of Disney at one point you might recognise it from the love
bug, um where it was sadly defeated by Herbie, its a very important, historic car, the flamboyant
Italian stallion.
00:48 LANCE: this would have looked very grubby
at some point in its life and this car at some point in its life would have been tens
of thousands now we are talking about ten million plus, my own personal insurance would
go up if I touch it.
01:03 LANCE: Its quite basic there is a bucket seat
aspect to it.
We got the 14 Louvres here and its alluminium to get that line in the middle double curved
panel is quite difficult these are real crafts mans these guys, Borrani they are like the
Gucci of wheels, they are painted in silver but you could have the shiny but it just shows
the competition history its more about fresher and delivery of the power, look at this little
device here, the leather is worn to almost the point of a tear but that there shows you
what lies beneath in the soul of this car and its nice that someone's preserved this
so the leather hasn't got a single drop of lamening left in it, in fact a few more times
open and closed in there is going to be history
01:44 COMM: Now that the car is being driven in
British weather, its been discovered that the windscreen is letting in the rain.
01:50 LANCE: Its been in America for a while, probably
California so probably no issue with it being a water tight and its not good for the car,
not good for the business.
01:58 COMM: As Lance's main expertise lies in metal
work, he has called in some help for this job, windscreen expert Phil who's noticed
something concerning
02:07 PHIL: There is a big scratch in the glass
that has been polished out so its got a little bit of a weak point so I'm going to try desperately
hard not to take this out of the insitue, its extremely rare to take this apart.
02:18 COMM: Normally the team would carefully remove
the windscreen and clean up the metal work and remove the odd seal before re-fitting
and re-sealing it, but the particular potential weak point means Phil wont want to risk far
worse damage.
02:31 LANCE: If you took it out a broke it we are
in big trouble here and it will be a nightmare shift of that happens.
02:35 PHIL: You cant really talk and do, I mean
you can watch but I better carry on and not talk any more because I don't want to slip
and damage the paint.
02:45 COMM: Phil uses a range of tools to attack
the seal but one slip of his hand can cause damage of tens of thousands.
02:52 LANCE: A lot of care is taken here to remove
the old sealer that has been put in layer upon layer, we try to waterproof it.
02:59 COMM: Once the old seal is cut away, Phil
applies masking tape to protect the screen when the new seal is added.
03:04 LANCE: What we do here is a very careful even
bead that will go around here and when its finished it just looks like its a bead there
and thats what this man does very well.
03:17 COMM: And now for the moment of truth, Phil
carefully peals away the protected tape to reveal the newly sealed windscreen.
With the work successfully completed, the ferrari is now ready to be returned to its
owner.
03:30 LANCE: Its a very important, historic car
and its now in the hands of someone that does it proud.
03:42 COMM: Next time on Rust to Riches, business
is booming and Merlin has ambitious plans to expand.
03:48 MERLIN: Stuff coming in and selling faster
than I could even dream of is great for me but it means that I'm constantly searching
for new stock, which is a big struggle, everybody and their brother thinks they can be a classic
car dealer and the competition is fierce.