Classic car mechanic’s weekly motoring – Minor Restoration

‘In the corner of the workshop, Olli Ragbin sits watching events unfold before him’

At last, project Jaguar XJ is off and underway. A couple of months back Eric & I purchased a 1986 Jaguar 4.2 Sovereign at auction with the intention of giving it a little love and attention and creating a useable ‘turnkey’ classic to float around in during the summer months.

The man-maths added up perfectly (it always seems to in my experience) and we’d convinced ourselves that cheap/free classic motoring was on the cards.

The car had been subject to a full glass-out respray in 1997 (ok, a while back now) and an engine rebuild in 2013. It looked in good shape. Any sensible purchaser of an auction car would, as you’d expect, make sure they’d seen the car and had it up on a ramp pre-bidding. Eric & I, new better than that though. Our expert eye can spot a bargain and the solidness of a purchase from photos alone.

And so it went.

We got the car back to the workshop and the techs gave it a good and proper inspection.

Without going in to too much unnecessary detail, our spreadsheet pointed to a car that we could purchase, transport, restore and sell at a breakeven. Let’s call that point ‘100%’ for arguments sake.

The 100% figure was sailed past once our expert paint shop man, Chris, looked over the car to assess quality of paint.

I’d assumed it needed the odd splash of red ‘here and there’…. Closer inspection revealed that the paint job completed in the 90’s wasn’t quite up to the standard Eric & I had hoped for and was way way short of the standard of excellence demanded by Chris. Bugger. We’re going to have to do a complete respray. This was further underlined when we saw that there were areas of corrosion that were going to need our CCM fabrication supremo, Duncan, to help us out with.

Eric has re-run the official CCM estimate (this car is being restored at full cost, no discounts – we’re a growing business and this has to be treated as work) and things are not looking the 100% we expected. I think we’re more likely at 175%...possibly more….

To try and keep costs down, I’ve been rolling my sleeves up to help with the prep-for paint and body work and have this week been stripping and sanding, along with Eric’s oversight and help (I can just about be trusted with sandpaper….. power tools still make people feel uneasy whenever I threaten to connect something to an airline).

On Monday Duncan will be back in (the Jag is parked up near his work space) and he’ll be checking my homework. I’m genuinely nervous. He’s already shouted at Eric for using his foam pads to prop the bonnet up on (an accusation which Eric immediately blamed me for. I don’t think I’ve ever been hurled under a bus quite so quickly).

There is a lesson being very actively leant here, and it’s a lesson that many of our customers also learn. Buying a classic is as much about love as anything. Hoping to make a buck or two is a nice outcome, but really, unless you’ve managed to unearth an utter gem, it’s unlikely to be a short-term outcome. This all underlines the importance of the old saying ‘buy the best one you can’. Doing a full re-build on a vintage Ferrari is very expensive, but likely worth it. Doing a full re-build on an old (but common) Jag will cost pretty much the same in terms of effort, but will never get close to returning your investment.

By far the best strategy is to buy something that has recently been restored. The seller will be taking a nose bleed and you will be saving an absolute fortune in most cases. Out there somewhere in the world, the next buyer of our lovely XJ Sov is going about their day whilst Eric and I (and shortly Duncan and Chris) re-store their future pride and joy which they are going to get for a song. Lucky sod.

Despite this likely scenario, I love the car and can’t wait to be wafting around in a beautiful and very very tidy Arthur Daley era XJ Series III. Whilst it makes little economic sense, it will be special and I’ll love it for what it is. And so, I’ve found myself victim to excusing the non-sensical nature of classic ownership…. and I love it.

Work is really progressing on the business side of CCM. We are nearly at the MOT accreditation stage having had the ‘man from the ministry’ round this week as part of the final sign-off process. Watch out for the usual social media announcements when we are ready to go-live.

Recruitment is in full swing and we’ll hopefully be announcing new tech expertise landing in the coming days. Much needed too, as on Friday we said goodbye to Will ‘I am’ who is moving on to start his own business. Will has been an absolute super star and has been an integral part of CCM for a good while. We’re all going to miss him, so I’ll sign off this week by wishing Will all the very best for the future. As always Will, you’ll be welcome back anytime, even if it’s just popping in for a brew.

Right, the sun is shining, time to get out and about and enjoy it before I get my school report from Duncan tomorrow.

Olli

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