00:0002. Thegement
00:03Master craftsman Lance McCormack owns one of Britain's best classic car restoration
00:08businesses, Romance of Rust. Helping him manage it is his son Merlin, the cutting edge salesman
00:14who also runs his own classic car dealership. Together they turn rust to riches.
00:1902. Thegoing
00:21On a daily basis they work on some of the most desirable cars in the world.
00:24Lance McCormack
00:25as much as 15 million for some of the top-end Ferraris.
00:28My own personal insurance should go up as I touch it.
00:32But Lance had a more humble start to his career.
00:37They stopped making idiots like me about 30 years ago.
00:40Now I'm a traditional panel beater,
00:42manufacturing panels, not crash repair.
00:45I worked at the Rolls-Royce coachbuilders
00:47called Mulliner Park Ward.
00:48So it's a tragedy that the skills have gone
00:51and almost every metal worker that I know from there
00:53has either retired or got out of the trade
00:55and I just kept going.
00:56That's all I really knew.
00:58So from being a dodo to being a go-to man
01:00for bespoke metal work.
01:03Helping to manage the business is Lance's son Merlin,
01:06who also runs his own classic car dealership,
01:09Duke of London.
01:10And this is a Merlin.
01:13I've been around dad's business since I was born.
01:15He used to sort of babysit us while we were still
01:17in our cots and while he was at work.
01:20I started buying and selling cars when I was 11.
01:22I found a gap in the market with eBay.
01:24I was sort of buying heaps of junk,
01:26getting them through an MOT and flogging them on.
01:29I went into the city for a while,
01:30despite doing quite well,
01:32I decided that I had to come back
01:33and do something with cars again.
01:35And Merlin's modern approach perfectly complements
01:38Lance's traditional craftsmanship.
01:40I've sold three cars on Instagram.
01:42I've sold a couple of cars through Facebook.
01:44I've managed those pages as well as I managed my website.
01:47It's had its ups and downs over the years,
01:49but I think I wouldn't have taken the leap
01:51from a full-time salaried job to something like this
01:55if I didn't have the confidence in our relationship.
01:57The father and son combinations pay in dividends.
02:01And now the pair have a two-year waiting list of customers.
02:04Their current projects include this amazing Ferrari.
02:08It's a very important historic car.
02:10And this car, at some point in its life,
02:12would have been worth tens of thousands.
02:14Now we're talking about 10 million plus.
02:17And they look at a rare Aston Martin with engine trouble.
02:26Yeah, I don't think this screwdriver's going to cure that.
02:29Looking slightly less glamorous at the moment
02:31is another Aston Martin project.
02:33This is an Aston Martin DB4 shell
02:35showing the principle of superleggera.
02:37This one's in for a hell of a lot of work
02:40with a Zagato.
02:42Clearly, Lance and Merlin love the cars
02:44they have the chance to work on.
02:46At the end of the day, it's a piece of art as well.
02:48I've got a huge amount of responsibility
02:50when it's in my care.
02:52These race cars and the one-offs,
02:54you may own them, but you're a part of it.
02:56It's a piece of art.
02:58It's a piece of art.
03:00It's a piece of art.
03:02It's a piece of art.
03:04It's a piece of art.
03:06It's a piece of art.
03:08It's a piece of art.
03:10These race cars and the one-offs,
03:12you may own them, but you're a custodian of them.
03:14I'm sort of blessed to be able to be a day custodian,
03:16shall we say.
03:18I look after them for the day.
03:20I get to drive them.
03:22I get to smell them, recreate features
03:24that have been lost in them.
03:26The name I coined after a couple of drinks one night.
03:28My ex-wife used to work for Vogue,
03:30and as a result, I used to go to some very swanky parties
03:32with all these sort of dowager duchess types,
03:34and they would all ask,
03:36well, what do you do?
03:38I was always a metal worker or a restorer.
03:40I'd say, I'm with the Romance of Rust.
03:42Oh, really, dear?
03:44And they would often leave it at that,
03:46but it was just a little joke I had going on.
03:48Once I'd started up on my own,
03:50I was with the Romance of Rust.
03:52It applies, if you think about it,
03:54to these cars, because there's a great romantic notion
03:56they're often substitutes for children,
03:58wives, you name it, baby.
04:00With the current state of the market,
04:02things are looking good for Lance and Merlin.
04:04Classic cars have outdone gold for the last two years.
04:06They don't seem to be slowing down.
04:08The business is looking very rosy.
04:10We've never been busier.
04:12But with all this demand for restoration and sales,
04:14Lance and Merlin need to expand rapidly
04:16to keep up,
04:18and despite the pressures brought by success,
04:20the McCormacks are passionate about what they do.
04:22It doesn't seem like work.
04:24I sort of pinch myself sometimes that I'm being paid
04:26to do something that I love.
04:32Next time on Rust to Riches,
04:34Murray's windscreen needs resealing.
04:36But work on such an expensive car
04:38is never without its worries.
04:40There's a big scratch here in the glass.
04:42If you took it out and broke it,
04:44we're in trouble here,
04:46and it's nightmarish if that happens.
