September 2, 2020

The Engine’s Out!

The 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona has had her engine removed this morning by our expert technicians Ady, Mauro and Tom. “The engine is the heaviest

Read More »

Paint Work Gets Underway On The Morris Minor

The 1963 Morris Minor 1000 has already had a ton of improvements made including the engine restoration work having already started.

Our expert paint technician Chris is already making great progress with the entire respray of the car after all the welding work on the body is now complete.

“All the newly welded sections needed to be sealed” Chris explains. “I’ve then completed several stages of priming, sanding and priming again.”

The next stage is to have the car wrapped ready for a full body spray. We’re all looking forward to seeing the before and after.

One Of Our Own – Welcome To The 1954 Ford F100 Truck

Our classic car technician Mauro has got himself this wonderful 1954 Ford F100 Truck. It’s come into the workshop today for the team to start a full engine restoration project on it.

The truck was imported from the US in 2013. Mauro tells us “I’ve always had a passion for American cars. It needs a lot of engine work, including new brakes. I also want to upgrade the steering.”

He’s not sure yet if he’ll do a full restoration. But the plan is to keep it for some time and just enjoy it. We’re sure you will Mauro!

New Arrival – 1953 Ford Transit Van

An exciting delivery arrived at Bridge Classic Cars this afternoon. The team got to meet one of the first ever Ford Transit Vans, introduced originally in 1953 as an FK 1000 but later as a Taunus Transit from 1961.

It’s one of only three others in the world, one of which is at the Ford Heritage Centre in Essex. This one is particularly special because of it’s window surrounds, the only one of it’s type. It may remind you of the VW Transporter, which it was designed to rival.

It’s owner has tried everything from new carburettors to new coils, but it still just doesn’t run. “We’re going to take a closer look and find out what’s going on” explains our workshop manager John. “I predict the fault may be electrical.”

We’re hopeful that the Bridge Classic Car’s magic touch will have this special van on some great British road trips again very soon!

Bristol Cars Secret Stash

A predicted £1m worth of classic cars has been discovered in an old garage belonging to Bristol Cars Ltd, according to an article by The Daily Mail Online.

Amongst the discovery was a 1982 Bristol Fighter, a 1964 Bristol 409 Bullet Speeder and a 2016 Bristol bullet, all prototypes that never made it to market. A spokesperson for Bristol Cars referred to the stock as ‘junk’ but classic car valuers think the lot could bring up to £1m in total. What a find!

Since 2018, Bristol Cars had been working on a new prototype they called the ‘Bullet’ having not focused on automotive builds since their last liquidation in 2011. But faced another liquidation this year following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bristol Cars, who at their peak produced 100 hand-built cars a year, were the last independent hand-build car manufacturer left in the UK.

A predicted £1m worth of classic cars has been discovered in an old garage belonging to Bristol Cars Ltd, according to…

Posted by Bridge Classic Cars on Thursday, 3 September 2020

Here at Bridge Classic Cars we had the privilege of working on this 1971 Bristol 411 earlier this year. We just hope we’ll get the chance to see more of these beautiful cars in the future, maybe even some from their secret stash.

The Riley’s Getting Flashy

Classic Car Technician Tom has been rewiring the indicator relay on the 1936 Riley Merlin Nine Briggs.

“I had to remove the old indicator box as the wiring was unsafe” says Tom. “I’ve redone the wiring and restored the flashing indicator relay to get it back to it’s original look.”

There’s been clear blue skies over the Pettistree workshop today, so Tom and some of the team have been working out in the sunshine. Bright indicator lights, bright sunshine and what is sure to be a bright future ahead for the Riley Merlin!

The Engine’s Out!

The 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona has had her engine removed this morning by our expert technicians Ady, Mauro and Tom.

“The engine is the heaviest we’ve ever dealt with here” explained Ady, our engine specialist. “We’ve had to source a heavy duty crane especially to lift it out.”

The car came to us as a non-runner, the engine was completely blown. Ady diagnosed a water leak from the bottom hose, causing the engine to completely overheat. It’s sadly spent many years not being driven.

Ady and Mauro carefully remove the heaviest engine we’ve ever had at Bridge Classic Cars!

The spare Jaguar V12 engine is currently being worked on by our specialist engine partners. Now the old engines out, it’ll be stripped for parts and whatever that can be salvaged will be, ready to be used on the new engine.

One way or another, our talented team will get this baby back on the road. We can’t wait to hear that engine roar!

BMW M3 Before And After Paint Job

The Bridge paint team Darren and Chris were excited to get their hands on the beautiful 1989 BMW M3 E30 last week to give her a full body paint job.

“She was in for a tidy up” Darren described. “She had stress fractures at the front in the fiber glass, lots of dents and scratches and even golf ball dents in the roof”.

Finished in a stunning Diamond Schwartz, she’s had all her dents corrected and been fully primed, prepped and painted. Doesn’t she look awesome!

We can’t wait for our photography extraordinaire Freddie to capture her in all her glory. Keep your eyes peeled for the professional shots to follow…