A man has spent 15-years transforming a rusty wreck into the vintage car of his dreams. Terrence Cleife, a retired motor engineer, bought the wreck of a 1916 American LaFrance saloon car in 1998. The pre-war vehicle had been dismantled and was lying as a pile of scrap on the floor of a barn. The car’s missing parts were welded by Terry out of bronze and cast iron to match the vehicles original chassis and the engine completely re-assembled. Now 71, Terry has the car of his dreams and has completed the painstaking piece-by-piece restoration.
00:38It was completely dismantled, it was basically a heap of scrap metal on a barn floor. When I first saw it and then I came into the garage for the winter and started on the engine and other bits and pieces that were missing.
00:53Well on the top here we've got the priming taps. You have to prime the cylinders with
01:03fuel before it will go. Ignition on. Neutral. Retard. Hand throttle. And that stuntman hasn't
01:16turned up yet has he? It's a four-cylinder 10-litre T-head design. The valves are exposed. You
01:24can see them going up and down when it's running. Looking at the dash we've got the speedometer.
01:33Here is the ignition switch for the coil and distributor operated by foot when driving.
01:40Then we've got the ammeter, the horn. Here is the magneto switch. Oil pressure gauge.
01:49It reads very low actually because they didn't use very much oil pressure in those days.
01:54When out on the road a lot of modern car drivers flash their lights and a few wave. It's actually
02:05very pleasant. It's a bit like riding a motorbike or flying a plane. I don't normally go more
02:10than 60 miles an hour which is fairly uncomfortable for the passenger. I'm okay because I've got
02:16the monocle screen. Would I ever sell it? Well I'm getting on a bit now so one day I will
02:29but I'm not ready yet. Not ready to put my feet up yet and put the slippers on.
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