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Worth a quarter of a million pounds, incredibly this Aston Martin hasn't been seen
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for almost 50 years. Discovered in the Gloucestershire barn, this is just one of the exciting projects currently
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been undertaken by Jonathan Wills and his company, Cotswold Classic Car Restorations
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There's a company we're really excited and just it's a privilege to be involved with us
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Jonathan started restoring classic cars while he was still at school in the 1990s
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and set up Cotswold Classic Car Restorations around four years ago with the aim of working
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on mainly British models such as Aston Martins and Jaguars. The company currently has a full workload and Jonathan shows us some of their current restoration projects
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It's a 3-liter 6-sinder engine. Stored conditions were perfect. It was in a dry, open, airy building that was heated during the winter
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So the amount of corrosion that occurred within the car is remarkable What marks this car as absolutely unique is it an Assamarton D too far
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which the build numbers are only in a few hundreds anyway. The few that are left are absolutely cherished
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Command considerable values of ever rising. And for the Aston Collector, you're not going to find this again
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Potentially, that restoration typically, it's about a year's worth of... were. Here we have the Maserati Clotrapporte, 1970
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This is one of only two in the world. In this particular car is a special commission by the Aga Khan
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The other one was a special commission by the King of Spain. It took three years to build this car, Maserati themselves
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This car features one of the most opulent materials you will ever see
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The super soft calf leather that seats are trimmed in, the deep, willton style of carpet interior
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and you will not find on many, many burns before. wooden dashboard with a very full complemented dials. This car would be apparently a
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discrete saloon. Discrete isn't a word I would use with it. And propelling this beautiful
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saloon car is a Codcam V8 5 in excess of 350 horsepower It a variation on Masrouti race engines The design criteria from the Aragon is a car that we do not for 60 and to 6 seconds and 170
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miles an hour. It's really ahead of its time. It's in absolutely beautiful and original condition pretty much as it left the factory all those years ago
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Restoration projects are very time consuming and incredibly detailed. you actually break the car down into all its component pieces, we mark out any repairs that
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are required as well. We can either build the car as completely original or we may be able to modify it slightly
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to make the car actually more up to current speed of traffic
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The chassis and body would be acid dipped, where the actual body and chassis are put into an
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acid tank and left there for 48 hours and that removes all paint, it removes all the rust
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all the sealers and corrosion. And when the body is removed it is then put into a neutralising tank
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then a car will come back to us and we'll inspect it for any cracks or perforation or where
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the panels will become thin through corrosion. Then we go through the various processes of the
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restoration which include body paint chassis rebuild and the ret of the leather and the high and even down to the glass if the glass is marked or damaged we be looking at replacing the glass if the customer requires The main challenge is in a restoration of a vehicle is getting the originality correct and working closely with the customer to ensure that the refinish article is exactly what he wants
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Despite all the beautiful vehicles Jonathan has worked on, he still has a wish list
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A car were yet to restore that we would absolutely love to be commissioned to restore would
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be an ex-Fourn one car owned by Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, James Hunt
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The history with those cars, the battles that they were involved with is just second to none
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and it would be an absolute privilege if every one of those projects comes our way one day
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It would be a dream of mine to restore one of those cars and by one of those fantastic drivers
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And it seems Jonathan has no plans to stop working on these classic cars anytime soon
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Working on classic cars absolute joy. It's something that I see me doing to the day I die and being involved with them
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When the cars are actually completed and leaving your workshop and you've seen them progress over one or two years
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it's good to see them out there being used again and the customers enjoying them