NEW SERIES: BODYWORK RESTORATION PART 1

By its very nature, ‘preservation’ means extending the life of something past that intended by whoever made it. When it comes to motor vehicles, most from the classic era were designed for a typical service life of 10, 15 or at most (Volvo...) 20 years, and bodywork was basically designed, manufactured and rust proofed to last that long and no longer.

It therefore follows that, sooner or later, anyone seeking to preserve a car will need to think about bodywork restoration. Some people are happy to pay others to do this for them. Many, however, want to tackle it themselves, either for financial reasons or because they see it as a hobby in itself, something in which to take pride. And that is where this series comes in. While we clearly cannot cover everything there is to know about car bodywork restoration in six episodes, we can give you a pretty good introduction.

One thing, however, needs to be made clear right away. You can no more become a skilled car restorer by reading magazine articles than Manuel in Fawlty Towers could learn to speak English from a book. The techniques and processes that we will be showing have to be practised to make you competent. How long will that