00:000000 Master 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.
00:190000 On a daily basis, they work on some of the most desirable cars in the world.
00:24As much as 15 million for some of the top-end Ferraris.
00:28My own personal insurance should go up as I touch it.
00:31But 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, manufacturing panels, not crash repair.
00:44I worked at the Rolls-Royce coachbuilders called Mulliner Park Ward.
00:48So it's a tragedy that the skills have gone,
00:50and almost every metalworker that I know from there has either retired or got out of the trade.
00:55And I just kept going. That's all I really knew.
00:57So from being a dodo to being a go-to man for bespoke metalwork.
01:02Helping to manage the business is Lance's son Merlin,
01:05who also runs his own classic car dealership, Duke of London.
01:10And this is a Merlin.
01:12I've been around Dad's business since I was born.
01:14He used to babysit us while we were still in our cot and while he was at work.
01:19I started buying and selling cars when I was 11.
01:22I found a gap in the market with eBay.
01:24I was buying heaps of junk, getting them through an MOT and flogging them on.
01:28I went into the city for a while.
01:30Despite doing quite well, I decided that I had to come back and do something with cars again.
01:34And Merlin's modern approach perfectly complements Lance's traditional craftsmanship.
01:40I've sold three cars on Instagram.
01:41I've sold a couple of cars through Facebook.
01:43I've managed those pages as well as I managed my website.
01:47It's had its ups and downs over the years, but 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 combination is paying dividends.
02:00And now the pair have a two-year waiting list of customers.
02:03Their current projects include this amazing Ferrari.
02:08It's a very important, historic car.
02:10And this car, at some point in its life, would have been worth tens of thousands.
02:13Now we're talking about ten million plus.
02:18And they look at a rare Aston Martin with engine trouble.
02:29Yeah, I don't think this screwdriver is going to cure that.
02:32Looking slightly less glamorous at the moment is another Aston Martin project.
02:37This is an Aston Martin DB4 shell showing the principle of superleggera.
02:41This one's in for a hell of a lot of work.
02:44We're doing a Zagato replica on an original Aston chassis here.
02:48And this thing here has cost us a quarter of a million pounds.
02:51Our one finished would be just over a million pounds.
02:54It would be a faithful replica of a Zagato.
02:58Clearly, Lance and Merlin love the cars they have the chance to work on.
03:02At the end of the day, it's a piece of art as well.
03:04I've got a huge amount of responsibility when it's in my care.
03:08These race cars and one-offs, you may own them, but you're a custodian of them.
03:12And I'm sort of blessed to be able to be a day custodian, shall we say.
03:16I look after them for the day. I get to drive them.
03:18I get to smell them, recreate features that have been lost in them.
03:22The name I coined after a couple of drinks one night.
03:26My ex-wife used to work for Vogue.
03:28And as a result, I used to go to some very swanky parties
03:31with all these sort of dowager duchess types.
03:33And they would all ask, well, what do you do?
03:35And rather than just say, I work at Rolls-Royce.
03:38I'm a metal worker. I'm a restorer.
03:39I say, I'm with the Romance of Rust.
03:41Oh, really, dear?
03:42And they would often leave it at that.
03:44But it was just a little joke I had going on.
03:46Once I'd started up on my own, I was with the Romance of Rust.
03:50It applies, if you think about it, to these cars
03:53because there's a great romantic notion.
03:55They're often substitutes for children, wives, you name it, baby.
03:59With the current state of the market, things are looking good for Lance and Merlin.
04:03That's a car that's about done gold for the last two years,
04:06and they don't seem to be slowing down.
04:08The business is looking very rosy. We've never been busier.
04:10But with all this demand for restoration and sales,
04:13Lance and Merlin need to expand rapidly to keep up.
04:16And despite the pressures brought by success,
04:19the McCormacks are passionate about what they do.
04:22It doesn't seem like work.
04:23I sort of pinch myself sometimes that I'm being paid to do something that I love.
04:26Next time on Rust to Riches, the Ferrari's windscreen needs resealing.
04:31But work on such an expensive car is never without its worries.
04:35There's a big scratch here in the glass.
04:38If you took it out and broke it, we're in trouble here,
04:40and it's nightmarish if that happens.
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