A PAIR of father-and-son car restorers are turning rust to riches by buying, selling and fixing some of the world's rarest cars. Among the classics Lance and Merlin McCormack, have worked on included John Lennon's iconic white 1965 Rolls-Royce Phantom and motor's worth $18.5m plus. Testing their mechanical know-how, Lance and Merlin have found themselves the go-to guys for bespoke classic car restoration. Other rarities to have been treated at their garage in Brentford, West London, include Captain America's shield used in the 2011 blockbuster, and a scratched windscreen of a 1950s Ferrari. Their current project is one for Merlin - pulling his dad and their business into the 21st Century and getting themselves on social networks around the world.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 00;01;10;12 00;01;14;22 Master craftsman Lance McCormack owns
00:05 one of Britain's best classic car restoration businesses, Romance of Rust. Helping him manage
00:11 it is his son Merlin, the cutting edge salesman, who also runs his own classic car dealership.
00:17 Together they turn rust to riches.
00:19 00;01;20;22 00;01;27;22 On a daily basis they work on some of the
00:22 most desirable cars in the world.
00:24 00;01;29;22 00;01;31;22 As much as 15 million for some of
00:26 the top end Ferraris. My own personal insurance should go up as I touch it.
00:31 00;01;33;03 00;01;38;03 But Lance had a more humble start to
00:33 his career.
00:34 00;01;40;03 00;01;44;03 Give it another try.
00:36 00;01;45;03 00;01;48;03 They stopped making idiots like me about 30 years ago. Now I'm
00:40 a traditional panel beater, manufacturing panels, not crash repair.
00:43 00;01;49;03 00;01;52;03 I worked at the Rolls Royce coachbuilder's
00:47 called Mulliner Park Ward. So it's a tragedy that the skills have gone and almost every
00:52 metal worker that I know from there has either retired or got out of the trade and I just
00:56 kept going. That's all I really knew. So from being a dodo to being a go-to man for bespoke
01:01 metal work.
01:02 00;02;00;00 00;02;05;00 Helping to manage the business is Lance's
01:04 son Merlin, who also runs his own classic car dealership, Duke of London.
01:09 00;02;07;00 00;02;10;00 And this is a Merlin.
01:12 00;02;11;00 00;02;14;00 I've been around dad's business since I was born. He used to babysit
01:16 us while we were still in our cot and while he was at work. I started buying and selling
01:20 cars when I was 11. I found a gap in the market with eBay. I was sort of buying heaps of junk
01:26 and getting them through an MOT and flogging them on. I went into the city for a while
01:30 despite doing quite well. I decided that I had to come back and do something with cars
01:34 again.
01:35 00;02;14;00 00;02;21;00 And Merlin's modern approach perfectly complements Lance's traditional
01:39 craftsmanship.
01:40 00;02;21;00 00;02;26;00 I've sold three cars on Instagram. I've sold a couple of cars through
01:43 Facebook. I've managed those pages as well as I managed my website. It's had its ups
01:48 and downs over the years but I think I wouldn't have taken the leap from a full-time salaried
01:53 job to something like this if I didn't have the confidence in our relationship.
01:57 00;02;26;00 00;02;37;00 The father and son combination is paying dividends and now the
02:01 pair have a two-year waiting list of customers. Their current projects include this amazing
02:06 Ferrari.
02:07 00;02;37;00 00;02;45;00 It's a very important historic car and this car at some point in
02:11 its life would have been worth tens of thousands. Now we're talking about ten million plus.
02:16 00;02;45;00 00;02;50;00 And they look at a rare Aston Martin with engine trouble.
02:23 00;02;50;00 00;03;00;00 Yep, I don't think this screwdriver's going to cure that.
02:34 Looking slightly less glamorous at the moment is another Aston Martin project.
02:37 00;03;00;00 00;03;05;00 This is an Aston Martin DB4 shell showing the principle of superleggera.
02:42 This one's in for a hell of a lot of work. We're doing a Zagato replica on an original
02:48 Aston chassis here.
02:49 00;03;05;00 00;03;10;00 And this thing here has cost us a quarter of a million pounds.
02:52 Our one finished would be just over a million pounds. It would be a faithful replica of
02:56 a Zagato.
02:57 00;03;10;00 00;03;17;00 Clearly, Lance and Merlin love the cars they have the chance to work
03:02 on.
03:03 00;03;17;00 00;03;21;00 At the end of the day, it's a piece of art as well. I've got a huge
03:04 amount of responsibility when it's in my care.
03:05 00;03;21;00 00;03;25;00 These race cars and one-offs, you may own them, but you're a custodian
03:06 of them.
03:07 00;03;25;00 00;03;29;00 And I'm sort of blessed to be able to be a day custodian, shall we
03:16 say.
03:17 00;03;29;00 00;03;33;00 I look after them for the day. I get to drive them. I get to smell
03:19 them, recreate features that have been lost in them.
03:22 00;03;33;00 00;03;37;00 The name I coined after a couple of drinks one night.
03:26 00;03;37;00 00;03;41;00 My ex-wife used to work for Vogue, and as a result, I used to go to
03:30 some very swanky parties with all these sort of dowager duchess types.
03:33 00;03;41;00 00;03;45;00 And they would all ask, "Well, what do you do?" And rather than
03:36 just say, "I work at Rolls-Royce. I'm a metal worker," or a restorer, I'd say, "I'm with
03:40 the Romance of Rust."
03:41 00;03;45;00 00;03;50;00 "Oh, really, dear?" You know, and they would often leave it at
03:44 that, but it was just a little joke I had going on.
03:46 00;03;50;00 00;03;54;00 Once I'd started up on my own, I was with the Romance of Rust,
03:50 you know. It applies, if you think about it, to these cars, because there's a great romantic
03:54 notion.
03:55 00;03;54;00 00;03;57;00 They're often substitutes for children, wives, you name it, baby.
03:59 00;03;57;00 00;04;00;00 With the current state of the market, things are looking good for
04:02 Lance and Merlin.
04:03 00;04;00;00 00;04;05;00 "That's a car that's about done gold for the last two years, and
04:06 they don't seem to be slowing down."
04:08 00;04;05;00 00;04;08;00 "The business is looking very rosy. We've never been busier."
04:11 But with all this demand for restoration and sales, Lance and Merlin need to expand rapidly
04:16 to keep up. And despite the pressures brought by success, the McCormacks are passionate
04:21 about what they do.
04:22 00;04;08;00 00;04;15;00 "It doesn't seem like work. I sort of pinch myself sometimes, that
04:25 I'm being paid to do something that I love."
04:31 With time on raster itches, the Ferrari's windscreen needs resealing. But work on such
04:37 an expensive car is never without its worries.
04:39 00;04;15;00 00;04;21;00 "There's a big scratch here in the glass."
04:42 00;04;21;00 00;04;25;00 "If you took it out and broke it, we're in trouble here. It's
04:45 nightmarish if that happens."
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