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Master Craftsman Lance McCormack owns one of Britain's best classic car restoration
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businesses, Romance of Rust. Helping him manage it is his son Merlin, the cutting-edge salesman
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who also runs his own classic car dealership. Together they turn rust to riches
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Today, Lance and Merlin look at two Aston Martins in very different conditions, demonstrating
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the extremes of work they do, from tweaks and tune-ups to full rebuilds
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In this first project we'll test Lance's skill as one of the country's leading metalwork experts
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Right, what we've got here is an Aston Martin DB4, or at least the platform chassis and
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the superstructure of one. We've removed all the aluminium panels. We're going to be creating
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a Zagato replica. What you've got here is, along with the roofline, is possibly the only
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identifiable piece. This is where the grille would be, the DB4 grille, in here and you
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you can see the classic Aston shape. All steel and it's called a platform chassis, so it's
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all folded box section and that's for lightness. Everything about this was lightness, lightness
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Launched in about 1958 the DB4 was an instant success It went through various guises you know series one two three four five Then the five came out which we know as the James Bond car
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This is where it all came from. And in fact, like this, there's very little to tell between that
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It's only the outer panels that really gave it the James Bond shape that we know and love
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Zagato were quite a flamboyant coachbuilder, very notable for making beautiful cars
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The DB4 Zagato was sanctioned by Aston Martin, who sent them these type of bodies
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and they converted them and put beautiful sculptural bodies on them. They clothed them in aluminium, even more flamboyant than this car was
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Those cars are worth about five million. Our one finished will be just over a million pounds, but it'll be a faithful replica of a Zagato
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I've even got the engine being built by Aston Martin at a cost of 100,000 and it was a GT
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twin plug head, so once I've completed the Zagato conversion it will be unrecognisable
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As exciting as the conversion process is, Lance has a lot of work ahead of him
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Now I do the metal work the panel work a friend of mine supplies me with the aluminium skins in a very crude form that the outer panels I have to be responsible for the augmentation of this body the closing up of the wheelbase by five inches so we about to make a fixture that allows for that to be measured
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once we put the cuts in exactly the right place. These here, this is like the ribcage, this is a sill section
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that would all come off and be replaced as a matter of course. It's not going to be like an absolute facsimile
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that's not the requirement of the customer. I mean, the rear axle would look correct from underneath
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will house a DB7 axle, a better axle. There'll be improvements along the way
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but essentially the silhouette, the general feel, the ride will be a bit better
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because obviously we progressed a bit on suspension technology. So there's a year and a half's work here for me
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Not solid year and a half, but this will be my friend, enemy, confidant for about a year and a half
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Outside, Lance joins Merlin to take a look at a rare Aston Martin
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in much more recognisable condition. This one's special. So this is an 89 V8 V8 X-Pack, 580X
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There's only a few under the mate. How many miles has this done? This is 30,000 miles from you. 30,000
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Isn't that colour? If this wasn't an X-Pack, we'd be looking at a value of about 90,000 to 100,000
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But in its current state as an X 240 to 250 Pop the bonnet and see if there something gone wrong with the actual linkage itself yeah But despite its low mileage the car is experiencing engine trouble
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If something idles, it's showing that not all is wrong, you know, if there's something
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seriously wrong, you won't get it idling. Idling is a delicate little phase, but on the acceleration
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there it could be that the points are just closed up as simple as that or it
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could be a diaphragm was gone on the fuel pump or the carburettor but what we
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do with that because we you know I'll go as far as I can with looking and if it's
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if it's something I can manually do but what we tend to do at this stage is give it to our rolling road man who is computer diagnostics he sticks probes up
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the exhaust and like sensors on the engine and the computers don't like
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generally speaking. I don't think this screwdriver is going to cure that
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It's not terminally ill but it needs diagnostics. Wednesday she will dance again
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Next time on Rust to Riches. This is a genuine 396 SS of which there really are only a handful in the country
