Inside London's Most Exclusive Classic Car Restoration Garage - Rust To Riches - Episode 1
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;17;00 00;01;22;00 On a daily basis they work on some of the
00:22 most desirable cars in the world.
00:24 00;01;23;00 00;01;26;00 As much as 15 million for some of the
00:27 top end Ferraris, my own personal insurance should go up as I touch it.
00:32 But Lance had a more humble start to his career.
00:34 00;01;30;00 00;01;37;00 Give it another try.
00:37 They stopped making idiots like me about 30 years ago. Now I'm a traditional panel beater,
00:42 manufacturing panels, not crash repair.
00:44 00;01;38;00 00;01;42;00 I worked at the Rolls Royce coachbuilder
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;01;52;00 00;01;56;00 Helping to manage the business is Lance's
01:05 son Merlin, who also runs his own classic car dealership, Duke of London.
01:10 00;02;00;00 00;02;04;00 And this is a Merlin.
01:12 00;02;05;00 00;02;08;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.
01:19 00;02;10;00 00;02;14;00 I started buying and selling cars when I was 11. I found a gap
01:23 in the market with eBay. I was buying heaps of junk, getting them through an MOT and flogging
01:27 them on.
01:28 00;02;14;00 00;02;21;00 I went into the city for a while, despite doing quite well, I decided
01:32 that I had to come back and do something with cars again.
01:35 00;02;21;00 00;02;26;00 And Merlin's modern approach perfectly compliments Lance's traditional
01:39 craftsmanship.
01:40 00;02;26;00 00;02;30;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 salesman
01:53 salary job to something like this if I didn't have the confidence in our relationship.
01:57 00;02;30;00 00;02;37;00 The father and son combinations pay in 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.
02:17 00;02;45;00 00;02;50;00 And they look at a rare Aston Martin with engine trouble.
02:24 00;02;50;00 00;03;00;00 Yeah, I don't think this screwdriver's going to cure that.
02:32 00;03;00;00 00;03;04;00 Looking slightly less glamorous at the moment is another Aston Martin
02:37 project.
02:38 00;03;04;00 00;03;08;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. And this thing here has cost us a quarter of a million pounds. Our
02:52 one finished would be just over a million pounds. It would be a faithful replica of
02:57 a Zagato.
02:58 00;03;08;00 00;03;22;00 Clearly Lance and Merlin love the cars they have the chance to work
03:02 on.
03:02 00;03;22;00 00;03;29;00 At the end of the day it's a piece of art as well. I've got a huge
03:06 amount of responsibility when it's in my care.
03:08 00;03;29;00 00;03;35;00 These race cars and one-offs, you may own them but you're a custodian
03:12 of them. And I'm sort of blessed to be able to be a day custodian, shall we say. I look
03:16 after them for the day. I get to drive them. I get to smell them, recreate features that
03:21 have been lost in them.
03:23 00;03;35;00 00;03;40;00 The name I coined after a couple of drinks one night. My ex-wife used
03:28 to work for Vogue and as a result I used to go to some very swanky parties with all these
03:32 sort of dowager duchess types. And they would all ask, "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." "Oh, really, dear?" And they would often leave it at that. But
03:45 it was just a little joke I had going on.
03:47 00;03;40;00 00;03;50;00 Once I'd started up on my own, I was with the Romance of Rust.
03:50 It applies if you think about it to these cars because there's a great romantic notion.
03:55 They're often substitutes for children, wives, you name it, baby.
03:59 00;03;50;00 00;04;00;00 With the current state of the market, things are looking good for
04:03 Lance and Merlin.
04:04 00;04;00;00 00;04;05;00 That's a car that's about done gold for the last two years, and
04:07 they don't seem to be slowing down.
04:08 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;05;00 00;04;10;00 It doesn't seem like work. I sort of pinch myself sometimes. I'm
04:25 being paid to do something that I love.
04:32 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;10;00 00;04;22;00 There's a big scratch here in the glass.
04:42 If you took it out and broke it, we're in trouble here. It's nightmarish if that happens.
04:47 00;04;22;00 00;04;30;00
04:48 [Music]
04:48 (upbeat music)
04:50 (dramatic music)