January 6, 2021

Lada On The Road Back Home

Our lovely 1984 Lada 1200 is leaving today! We’ve completed all the work which included repairing and respraying the rusty floors, replacing the exhaust silencer,

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Paint corrections for the Triumph TR6

We’ve been focusing on perfecting the paintwork for our Triumph TR6, making sure the metal bodywork sits perfectly.

Currently its sitting in a filler spray awaiting a high build primer before its painted for the final time.

Peugeot 504 Is All Done

We’re delighted to announce our beautiful 1972 Peugeot 504 is ready to finally leave us! We just need to do a few final road checks but it’s otherwise completed and will be returned to its owner very soon.

Peony Red Jensen Developments

Our 1960 Peony red Jensen 541S is making good progress in the workshop. Here are the latest developments.

Fabrication Bay

Our technician Chris has been working on the Jensen body in the fabrication bay. He’s been ‘gapping’ the doors so they look and fit the same around the sides. He’s also cut and ground both sides, added fibreglass to the bonnet to close the gap up and made a boot catch plate. Finally, Chris has marked the holes and tapping them up to make sure all the bolts fitted.

Trim Shop

Brian has been making a new door panel board from hardboard in the trim shop. This has been done by removing the armrest from the pocket section, removing the metal trim and old cover from the armrest and then making a new pattern for the cover.

Once a pattern has been made, Brian can cut it out from leather, sew on the new cover and fit it to the armrest by glueing and stapling it in place. Brian has also added metal trim to the armrest and cut leather out to make a pocket section. This was then glued in place.

The edges have been turned around to neaten the cover and new piping has been sewn in. Brian then needed to glue the inner metal to the foam, and fit the metal in place. The next step was to then glue the rest of the foam to the inner side of the pocket and fit the armrest to the pocket section. Once fitted, the armrest has been secured with screws and riveting support bar to the back.

Kath has also been working on the Jensen. She’s taken off the old cover from the dashboard and removed the old glue as well, ready to the rub down the front and back in preparation for new material.

Once cleaned down, Kath can mark out the new material and glue both surfaces to stick the material in place. To neaten it up, the material is turned over the edges and the dash holes are trimmed around so that the new cover sits comfortably. Once both sides were done and had followed the same process, Kath then glued along where the two pieces of material meet.

The dash top also needed to be refurbished. For this, Kath removed the two old covers and cut out new material ready to cover the dash top element. Once the material had been marked around the top, it could then be glued along one edge, the material turned over and the corners neatened up.

Lydia has also been working on the Peony Red Jensen interior. She’s been focusing on rear squab by measuring out all the leather, assembling the pieces together and sewing it all up. Lydia then prepared for the fitting of the cover on to the foam and board. She marked out new plywood to replace old worn out original. The next step was to then add wadding to the original foam so it maintains a nice shape. After all this was done, it was time to fit the cover over the squab.

Lada On The Road Back Home

Our lovely 1984 Lada 1200 is leaving today! We’ve completed all the work which included repairing and respraying the rusty floors, replacing the exhaust silencer, fitting rear seatbelts, adjusting the rear brakes and adjusting the handbrake cable. This soviet classic is now ready to get back on the road.

It was another crisp and dreary morning this morning as our technicians loaded the Lada into our new lorry, ready to make its way back to its owner.

With fewer than 200 on the roads in the UK, the Lada is now a rare vehicle. Originally manufactured and popular in Russia, around 134,000 were licenced for UK roads in the 1990s. After a sharp decline over the years, you’d typically struggle to find a classic Lada in the UK however those figures are slowly rising as the value and rarity of these motors increase.

Here’s some photos of when the Lada first came in: