00:0007.5 million pounds, incredibly this Aston Martin hasn't been seen for almost 50 years.
00:13Discovered in a Gloucestershire barn, this is just one of the exciting projects currently
00:18being undertaken by Jonathan Wills and his company, Cotswold Classic Car Restorations.
00:24As a company we're really excited and just it's a privilege to be involved with this.
00:3007.5 million pounds, Jonathan started restoring classic cars while he was still at school in
00:35the 1990s and set up Cotswold Classic Car Restorations around four years ago with the aim of working
00:42on mainly British models such as Aston Martins and Jaguars. The company currently has a full
00:48workload and Jonathan shows us some of their current restoration projects.
00:54It's a three litre, six cylinder engine. Its stored conditions were perfect. It was in
01:01a dry, open, airy building that was heated during the winter. So the amount of corrosion that's
01:07occurred within the car is remarkable.
01:13What marks this car as absolutely unique is it's an Aston Martin DB2 for which the build
01:19numbers are only in a few hundreds anyway. The few that are left are absolutely cherished,
01:26command considerable values ever rising and for the Aston Collector you're not going to
01:32find this again. Potentially that restoration typically is about a year's worth of work.
01:38Here we have the Maserati Cottercorte 1970. This is one of only two in the world and this particular
01:45car was a special commission by the Aga Khan. The other one was a special commission by the
01:49King of Spain. It took three years to build this car, Maserati themselves. This car features
01:55one of the most opulent interiors you'll ever see. The super soft calf leather that the seats
02:00are trimmed in, the deep Wilton style carpet interior you will not find on many many firms at all.
02:06A lovely wooden dashboard with a very full complement of dials. This car would be apparently a discreet
02:14saloon. Discreet isn't a word I would use with it. And propelling this beautiful saloon car is a
02:20Codcam V8. Five litre in excess of 350 horsepower. It's a variation of Maserati's race engines. The design
02:28criteria from the Aga Khan is a car that we do not 60 under 6 seconds at 170 miles an
02:34hour. It's really ahead of its
02:36time. It's in absolutely beautiful and original condition pretty much as it left the factory all those years ago.
02:43Restoration projects are very time consuming and incredibly detailed.
02:48We actually break the car down into all its component pieces. We mark out any repairs that are required as
02:54well. We can either build the car as completely original or we may be able to modify it slightly to
02:59make the car actually more up to current speed of traffic. The chassis and body would be acid dipped.
03:05It's where the actual body and chassis are put into an acid tank and left there for 48 hours. And
03:11that
03:11removes all paint. It removes all the rust, all the sealers and corrosion. And when the body's removed it is
03:17then put into a neutralizing tank. Then a car will come back to us and we'll inspect it for any
03:21cracks or
03:22you know perforation or where the panels have become thin through corrosion. Then we go through the
03:28various processes of the restoration which include body paint, chassis rebuild and the re-trimming of
03:34the leather and the high and even down to the glass. If the glass is marked or damaged we'll be
03:39looking
03:39at replacing the glass if the customer requires. The main challenges in a restoration of a vehicle
03:45is getting the originality correct and working closely with the customer to ensure that the refinish
03:52article is exactly what he wants. Despite all the beautiful vehicles Jonathan has worked on,
03:57he still has a wish list. A car we're yet to restore that we would absolutely love to be commissioned
04:03to restore would be an ex-Formula 1 car owned by Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, James Hunt.
04:11The history with those cars and the battles that they were involved with is just second to none and
04:17it would be an absolute privilege if everyone of those projects comes our way one day. It would be
04:22a dream of mine to restore one of those cars owned by one of those fantastic drivers.
04:27And it seems Jonathan has no plans to stop working on these classic cars any time soon.
04:33Working on a classic car is an absolute joy, something that I see me doing to the day I die
04:37and being involved with them. When the cars are actually completed and leaving your workshop and
04:41you've seen them progress over one or two years it's good to see them out there being used again and
04:46because I was enjoying them.
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