The Ten Million Pound Ferrari - Rust To Riches - Rust To Riches - Episode 2 - video Dailymotion

Ridiculous Rides

MEET the father-and-son car restorers who are turning rust to riches by buying, selling and fixing some of the world's rarest cars. Lance, a former panel beater for Rolls-Royce, is the go-to guy for bespoke classic car restoration - while Merlin, specialises in sales and acquisition. Some of the rarest cars treated at their businesses in Brentford, west London, can be worth upwards of $19m. Lance and Merlin show us the features of a historic Ferrari, which has been brought into Romance of Rust to have its leaking windscreen resealed.

Transcript

00:00Master Craftsman Lance McCormack owns one of Britain's best classic car restoration

00:05businesses, Romance of Rust. Helping him manage it is his son Merlin, the cutting-edge salesman,

00:12who also runs his own classic car dealership. Together they turn Rust to riches.

00:20Today's project is a very special Ferrari, which is delivered by Merlin.

00:26The car we've got here is a 1956 Ferrari 250 GT long wheelbase Tour de France, 14 Louvre,

00:32it's a bit of a mouthful. This car was actually part of Disney at one point. Some of you might

00:38recognise it from the love bug, where it was sadly defeated by Herbie.

00:44It's a very important historic car, the flamboyant Italian Stallion. This would have looked very

00:48grubby at some point in its life and this car at some point in its life would have been worth

00:52tens of thousands. Now we're talking about ten million plus. My own personal insurance

00:57should go off as I touch it.

01:02It's quite basic, there's a bucket seat aspect to it.

01:06We've got the 14 louvres here and this is aluminium. To get that line in a double curvature panel

01:12is quite difficult. These were real craftsmen, these guys. Barani, they're like the Gucci of wheels.

01:17They're painted in silver. You could have them shiny but it shows its competition history. It's more

01:21about aggression and delivery of the power. Look at this little device here. The leather is worn

01:27to the point it's almost going to tear but that there shows you what lies beneath in the soul of

01:34this car and it's nice that someone's preserved these. The leather hasn't got a single drop of

01:38lanolin left in it. In fact, a few more times open and closing were those and there'd be history.

01:42Now that the car is being driven in British weather, it's been discovered that the windscreen

01:48is letting in the rain. It's been in America for a while, probably California,

01:52so there's probably no issue with it being watertight and it's not good for the car,

01:56not good for business. As Lance's main expertise lies in metalwork,

02:00he's called in some help for this job. Windscreen expert, Phil, who's noticed something concerning.

02:05There's a big scratch here in the glass that's been polished out so it's got a little bit of a weak

02:12point. I would try desperately not to take this out, just seal it in situ. It's too rare to take

02:17this apart. Normally, the team would carefully remove the windscreen to clean up the metalwork

02:22and remove the old seal before refitting and resealing it. But the potential weak point means

02:27Phil doesn't want to risk far worse damage. If you took it out and broke it, we're in trouble here.

02:32It's nightmarish if that happens. I can't really talk and do. I mean, you can watch,

02:38but I better carry on and not talk anymore because I really don't want to slip and damage the paint.

02:44Phil uses a range of tools to attack the seal, but one slip of his hand could cause damage in the

02:49tens of thousands. A lot of care has been taken here to remove the old sealer that's been put in

02:55layer upon layer to try to waterproof it. Once the old seal is cut away, Phil applies masking tape to

03:02protect the screen when the new seal is added. What we do here is a very careful, even bead

03:07will go around here and when it's finished, you just look like it's meant to be there. That's

03:12what this man does very well. And now for the moment of truth. Phil carefully peels away the

03:20protective tape to reveal the newly sealed windscreen. With the work successfully completed,

03:26the Ferrari is now ready to be returned to its owner.

03:28It's a very important historic car and it's now in the hands of someone that does it proud.

03:42Next time on Rust to Riches, business is booming and Merlin has ambitious plans to expand.

03:48Stuff's coming in and selling faster than I can even dream of, which is great for me, but it means

03:53that I'm constantly searching for new stock, which is a big struggle. Everybody and their brother

03:57thinks they can be a classic car dealer and the competition's fierce.

The Ten Million Pound Ferrari - Rust To Riches - Rust To Riches - Episode 2

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