The Thrill of the Chase! Uncovering an Automotive Legend! 🔍🏎️
#ClassicCarRestoration #BarnFinds #ChasingClassics #VintageFerrari #AutomotiveHeritage #WayneCariniStyle #CarHunting #HistoryOnWheels
#ClassicCarRestoration #BarnFinds #ChasingClassics #VintageFerrari #AutomotiveHeritage #WayneCariniStyle #CarHunting #HistoryOnWheels
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00:05On the edge of the Lake District in Barrow-in-Furness is a family business with a reputation
00:12for bringing classic cars back from the dead. It's absolutely knackered.
00:18It's your wheelbase 911. I mean, where'd you find them? To find a project band or deluxe. Very,
00:24very rare. From Beatles to Daimlers, Escorts to Porsches, nothing is beyond repair for the 30
00:31strong team of mechanics, fabricators, panel beaters and painters. To leave this car here,
00:36you'll be criminal. It's a chicken like that. Oh, there's a spine there, isn't there, look?
00:45The head of the family and the genius restorer is Big Irv. I've got a convertible patina car and
00:52live in the Lake District. Sons Aaron, Lee and Harvey are classic car royalty-in-waiting.
00:59You cannot turn up when you feel like it. This is a family who live and breathe restoration.
01:08They're on a mission to save the classic cars no one else can. It doesn't matter how bad it is,
01:14I can always fix it. Hi-ho. What was your best car, man? My first car was a Mark 1
01:35Astor.
01:36He stayed all souped up. Then I had, what was that? You had an Escort. A Mark 3 Escort. Yeah.
01:45With XR3i engine in. Bit of a playboy type person, weren't you?
01:50Irv and his team work with some extraordinary cars, but sometimes they land something extra special.
01:57Good to see you. Yeah, good to see you as well. You all right? Yeah, good mate.
02:00Bloody cold up here. Yeah, well, I'm not used to this cold weather where you've been living. Oh, God.
02:06Adam, a client of Irv's, has flown in from Dubai with an exciting proposition. Have you got enough
02:13bandwidth for another project? I've been offered an old Lamborghini. Okay. It's an Espada. It's been
02:21owned by this guy for, like, literally from new. Right. The pile of documents with it is like this.
02:26It's got absolutely everything. Right, okay. It's not the fashionable Lamborghini. It's not a
02:30Countach around. Yeah, it's a quirky car. It's a chalk and cheese car. Yeah, totally. You're going to
02:34love it or hate it. I mean, I'm up for doing anything. I mean, I'm up for doing anything. Gold.
02:38Gold. All right. Yeah, yeah, gold. Okay. And that's the original paint. So, obviously,
02:42in true form, we want to keep it as is. Well, with you and you like to do stuff. Yeah,
02:46keep it original. I'm up for it, absolutely. It's a big old beast. What sort of conditions is it in
02:50now,
02:50then? It's in good condition. Okay. On the surface, yeah. But that's me saying that as a layperson,
02:55yeah, for me as a collector. Yeah, I'm interested. Cool. It's a journey when you take a car through
03:00a restoration because it takes a long time. It's quite costly, as you can imagine. And you need to
03:06be putting that investment into a safe pair of hands. This car is going to be restored to concourse
03:10as it would have come out of the Lamborghini showroom back in the 70s. And it will be literally
03:17pristine. So, it's a full nut and bolt. Everything is as it would have been to perfection. I think I'm
03:24on
03:24the money with this one. I think this could be, in the next five years, the dream ticket. I think
03:29it could be the car. Brilliant. Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it. Countach after that. Cool.
03:35Sounds like a plan. Yeah.
03:39It's something a little bit out of our wheelhouse, to be fair. Very, very rarely see them. The Lamborghini
03:43Espada is, it was Lamborghini's idea of doing a four-seater. You know, they wanted a big touring road
03:49car. Three weeks later, Adam's Lamborghini Espada arrives. It's a first for Irv, as it's very rare.
03:58Despite a 10-year production run ending in 1978, there are just five roadworthy Espadas in the UK
04:05today. For me, I'm pretty excited about the project, and I think a lot of the lads will be.
04:12I've never seen one before, until today. I can't really work out what it is. Is it a super car
04:18of
04:18its day? It's a bit of a funny one, really, because it's a hell of a lump of a machine.
04:24It's certainly going to be interesting to work on.
04:30Normally it takes three people to push that.
04:33I can do it by himself. He's so ugly.
04:36Are we allowed to say that? So ugly.
04:39Performance-wise, I mean, you know, 350 horsepower area, 0-60 in six seconds. This is a fast car.
04:47Do you know, when you get in it and you get the feel of it, it's like,
04:49it does feel very sporty. You know what I mean? Like, you can imagine the next day.
04:58While the guys at Irv's garage can fix almost anything,
05:01they do occasionally call in experts for some of the more specialist tasks.
05:10So, obviously...
05:11Yeah, it's a big lump, isn't it?
05:12It's a big old bit of kit. Yeah, it is, isn't it?
05:15With a certain area, for example, the engine, I get the right guy on it, because I wouldn't
05:20attempt to do something I'm not confident with, so I'm going to ruin it.
05:23Just have a look in, just to see what the condition's like in there.
05:27Just to see if there's any horrible burning smells.
05:30The chance to work on a Lamborghini engine has lured mechanic Lloyd out of retirement
05:35for one last job. He's been building engines for me for forever, so it sort of made sense
05:40to give the engine to him while we deal with the bodywork on the car.
05:43I mean, I'm not so much bothered about running, just to hear it turn over, really.
05:46You can get some jump leads on that battery, then. Let's just see if... get it cranking over.
05:50But you're going right through it, are you?
05:51You're going to go right through your engine, get it all absolutely tidy under your head,
05:54we're going to bare metal the car, getting reupholstered, new carpets, you know, dashboard
05:59redone, it'll be absolutely mint. All the suspension stripped, blasted, repainted, new
06:03bushes, shockers, whatever it needs, really.
06:05Right. And obviously doors, it's getting doors in it.
06:08The doors are actually with it, but that's the story, this is a weird one. So the car,
06:11the guy took the doors off it, the previous owner, to redo the rusting, the bottoms of the doors,
06:1620 odd years ago, did them, repaired them, put them in primer, that's it, never ever touched it again.
06:21That's it. And it sat like that with no doors on for over 20 years, which is bananas.
06:26It's not a... A bit more lively.
06:28Hey!
06:31Right, great. You OK, Tar? Yeah? Well, it seems normal, lights turn over, so...
06:37OK. Yeah. Right, so we'll get this pulled out, and you can work your way through it.
06:40OK, great, yeah. I'll give it a go.
06:47The Lake District is the wettest place in the UK, with 200 days of rain a year.
06:55While owner Adam thinks that he's found a great investment, Irv's eldest son, Lee, is less impressed.
07:02What do you think? It's like a Volvo.
07:06This is a Lamborghini that nobody knows about. Are they rare?
07:09They are rare. I have seen these restored. Right.
07:13And I'm not kidding, they look absolutely amazing.
07:16They weren't very valuable at all. Let's go back 10 years, you know, you were 10 grand.
07:22You know, they were so cheap. And it's like anything that's this era, you know,
07:27people have all of a sudden taken note, because you can't afford them, you know, you're into the millions.
07:33And the same with other early cars, account ashes, you know, they were half a million,
07:37now they're a million or a million plus. And that's what's going to happen with this car.
07:40So what's Adam wanting us to do to it?
07:42It's been sat like this for about over 20 years. It's as bad as it could possibly look at the
07:46moment.
07:48But it's a 70s Lamborghini. And at the end of the day, it's going to look mega when it's restored.
07:54It's going to be hard.
07:57Yeah. To fully understand just what they're dealing with.
08:02Whoo! Pretty light, isn't it?
08:05That's all right. The car needs to be stripped down.
08:07Right. C's over.
08:09And taken back to bare metal. The thing is, you never know what you're going to find.
08:17All right, let's have a look at this then, Lee.
08:21Right up. Hang on a minute.
08:23That had a few pain jobs, didn't it?
08:25Jesus.
08:26Help.
08:27Roots were on.
08:28There was some blistering over here, but I didn't expect that.
08:32That's a nightmare. That's an absolute...
08:34Oh, never.
08:35We've stripped the paint off on the roof, and we've found some holes in the back of the roof.
08:40No one wants to find that.
08:41Any big panel, say, in the middle of a door, anything like that, and you see holes, it's like, oh
08:46my God.
08:47It's tricky welding panels anyway, without getting distortion.
08:51When you get it on a roof, that's a disaster. Absolute disaster.
08:55It's going to be a full-blown nightmare to try to sort that out.
08:58This roof?
08:58I just felt that, yeah.
08:59Look at that.
08:59I've seen that, yeah.
09:01It's going to be an absolute nightmare.
09:07Yeah, it's had a right wallop or something on this back end.
09:10I knew it was going to be hiding a few gremlins, but that's just like...
09:13Oh, dear. That's a bodge repair, that, innit?
09:14That's a bodge repair.
09:15Yeah. That whole bit there, innit?
09:17I think the whole back corner's a mess.
09:18Yeah, so do I. It's a cooler there, innit?
09:20Everything here's just not looking clever, to be honest.
09:26There are botched repairs, hidden under layers of paint.
09:31Can we order panels for this at all? Has it called or got to be made?
09:33I really don't know. I wouldn't have thought so.
09:36We'll just make a section.
09:37Yeah.
09:38Right.
09:38What's the rest of the car like?
09:41Well...
09:41No, that's been bodging in.
09:42Yeah, so...
09:43Look at the hole in that.
09:46Same there.
09:48We're definitely finding more problems than I anticipated.
09:52You know, I was like, yeah, have a quick look round the car.
09:55Now I have a job.
09:55This was soon get this fixed.
09:57You know, what was everyone panicking about?
09:59Then you take the paint off and it's like, oh, the back archers are gone.
10:02It's had a crash on the back wing.
10:04The roof's rusty.
10:05You know, we're not even fully bare-metalled yet.
10:07And I'm thinking, oh my God, the alarm bells are ringing here.
10:09So, yeah, the job's doubling in size straight away.
10:23Irv and his team are restoring a 1973 Lamborghini Espada,
10:28taking it back to bare metal has revealed some nasty surprises.
10:34The massive V12 engine is heading to a specialist.
10:38They just have to get it out.
10:40Right, lads, should I have a bit of a chat about this?
10:43Yeah.
10:44So, it comes out through the front, right?
10:47And it's real tight down here from what I've looked at.
10:49From the front pulley.
10:50And then it comes all the way out and off, all right?
10:52Right.
10:52It should be fairly straightforward.
10:55I don't really know what else to say about it, but...
10:56Good luck.
10:58Needs to be out today.
10:59In the next half hour.
11:02Right.
11:04Look at that, lads.
11:05Lovely.
11:06Lovely.
11:06I keep playing it right down, saying that,
11:09oh, yeah, we'll just get this engine out, take us five minutes.
11:13This is a big old engine.
11:15And it's a little, old gap that it's in.
11:18This car has a monocoque body, meaning the base is part of the chassis.
11:22So, they can't just take the shell off to make this job easier.
11:26I think we might need a shoe on.
11:31There's a couple of lads pulling this engine out at the moment.
11:34One of them's a joiner.
11:36I'm joking.
11:39They're well tuned into pulling stuff apart.
11:42It's just, we've never done one of these.
11:43But I think once you've done a million cars like we have over the years,
11:47they're all the same.
11:48Once you get going on them, get your head round it,
11:51forget that it's a Lamborghini,
11:52and just treat it like any other vehicle and get it done.
11:57This is the oil filter.
11:59Look at the water coming out of it.
12:00Looks horrible, doesn't it?
12:03Water in the engine oil can be a sign of a cracked cylinder head.
12:10See now, jammed up nowhere near as bad as that.
12:14It's absolutely blocked solid.
12:16That's a big issue, that light.
12:18And there's another unwelcome surprise.
12:22The actual water pump's seized up.
12:25Seized solid.
12:28Not even turning.
12:31Just as well this engine will end up in the hands of a specialist,
12:34it's just a case of getting it out now.
12:37Look at the size of that, there's not a lot of room in there.
12:39You've probably got about two inch each side.
12:43It's all alloy as well.
12:44If it smashes on the floor now, it's going to crack everything open.
12:47You know, it's a lot of hiding on it.
12:49I sure will do it.
12:50We always do, don't we?
12:53There you go.
12:54It's out.
12:54Here we go.
12:58Yeah, that's it out pretty much.
13:02All right?
13:03No.
13:05We're going to go back up with that, yeah?
13:06After a challenging removal, the engine is on its five-mile journey to Lloyd's garage.
13:13It's like Nigel Mansell's pit team, isn't it?
13:15It's all right, Lloyd?
13:18Thanks very much, mate.
13:20Yeah, let's go and get a pie.
13:24If I'm like, two pies, I might get a steak and a meat and potato.
13:28How long's the pie shop been here for, ladies?
13:32Sixty years.
13:33Sixty years.
13:33Sixty years.
13:34The oven's the same oven.
13:36It's like, you know when you cook out of a wok?
13:39You just get that taste and it's legendary, isn't it?
13:42You're very, very, very nice.
13:44Beautiful pies.
13:46Thank you very much.
13:47Cheers.
13:48Thanks.
13:48Cheers.
13:51Oh, look what's the eagle.
13:53Look at it.
13:58Welder Craig has his work cut out, repairing the Lambos rusted through rear wheel arch.
14:04Originally, I only thought it was just this little edge here, so I've made quite a big panel.
14:08It was originally bigger than this, just to go as far as I needed.
14:12When I've wire wheeled off the inside, I found that all the inside's a lot worse than we originally
14:17thought. I knew there'd be a little repair there, but it's a lot worse than what I thought.
14:22When this car was made, Lamborghini had to find a way to compensate for the weight of the engine.
14:27Their solution? A semi-monocoque unibody covered in two wafer-thin skins of pressed steel,
14:34each just millimetres thick.
14:38The hardest bit's going to be making the panels, because it's not one panel I have to make,
14:43it's three separate ones.
14:55Obviously, you can't buy parts for this car, so I had to make them. I made this one for the
14:59back,
15:00which goes there like that, and I've, again, put a piece in there. I've noticed that the inside's
15:06gone, so I've made an inside panel that'll go in there.
15:15Working around the car, Craig gets to the previously repaired back end.
15:22Hello there!
15:25Have a look at this.
15:28What's up?
15:29Go deep that is in there with lead.
15:31Oh, my God. That isn't good.
15:34Yeah, I'm going to have to make it all, aren't I?
15:35Yeah. Yeah, you have to make all that, mate.
15:39Before insurance companies approved the use of plastic putties,
15:43lead was seen as the best repair material, but there's a reason it was phased out.
15:48Now, when someone's been leaded, you have to get rid of it all, and you've got to cut right back,
15:53because it just doesn't like being welded. You know, the moment lead's been on it, it just flares up,
15:58and it just doesn't work. I mean, it's been leaded, and they haven't even leaded it the right shape.
16:03It's supposed to have a step in it here, and they just made it flat.
16:07Some people.
16:14While the bodywork team fixed botched repairs, Irv checks in with Lloyd on the engine.
16:23All right, lads. He's lied about.
16:26Ta.
16:31When I put that in there and plug this airline on, it'll pressurise coming out of there,
16:37and you can see that's got a massive leak, obviously.
16:40Yeah, obviously.
16:40So if I put my finger over it, there's no leak.
16:42Right.
16:43You'll see what it does when you put it in there, and if there is a leak, we'll hear it.
16:48Okay.
16:50So we've got 20% leak. The noise is coming through there.
16:54So the only way a noise can come in there is if it's passing the pistons.
16:59Oh, right.
17:00So it's going into the crankcase. It's not a massive problem, but it is leaking past the rings.
17:04Right.
17:04Somehow.
17:05All right.
17:06Do you just tear it all down?
17:07I'll strip it down as much as I can.
17:09And then bring it back to me.
17:10Yeah.
17:10All right, buddy.
17:11Get it cleaned up, yeah.
17:11I'll get it painted.
17:12Spot on.
17:12Thanks a lot, mate.
17:13Cheers for that.
17:14See you after Lloyd.
17:14All right, bye.
17:16Definitely got some leaks.
17:17It's kind of confirming what we thought.
17:19So I'm leaving it in Lloyd's capable hands to rebuild the engine now.
17:32Fabricator Craig is taking on one of the trickier jobs, fixing that paper-thin roof.
17:38What do you reckon then, Mallet? One piece or two?
17:41Two.
17:42Two?
17:42Two.
17:44I think I'll do this side in two.
17:45Is that in one?
17:47Yeah, that in one, because it's a lot closer.
17:49But a little bit of advice.
17:50Don't make them square.
17:52Why?
17:53Round the corners.
17:55Don't buckle the same.
17:57All right.
17:58When you get a square edge like that, it crumples the edge up.
18:02And then the heat travels weird.
18:05So you're best with a slight radius on the corners.
18:10But whatever way I do it, there's going to be a lot of filler in it, because...
18:12Oh yeah, it's already been bashed in though, Craig.
18:14Yeah, the previous, it's like that.
18:17At some point in the last 50 years, somebody tried to fix rust patches on the roof by bashing
18:22them in and filling over the top.
18:25There's not a lot of good metal in there.
18:30Yeah.
18:30Yeah, you have to just go very gentle with it.
18:43How are you going, Craig?
18:45Just finished.
18:48Nice and tight, isn't it?
18:49Yeah, I just need to, um, I'll just give it a bit of a hammer and dolly afterwards,
18:53once I've taken the...
18:54Yeah, you've done a good job there.
18:57Yeah, it's nice, that.
19:03Lloyd's had the engine two weeks and is struggling to get to the bottom of the problem.
19:08So what we need to do now is get both our heads off and, um, just see what we find
19:14inside.
19:15This 3.9 litre V12 engine should be able to produce an impressive 370 brake horsepower.
19:23There's a big dent, something is actually broken and dug into that.
19:28That is a problem, yeah.
19:29I'm going to have to check every bar for more marks like that because that is, um,
19:35could be a problem that one.
19:38Something has gouged a chunk out of the cylinder liner's side.
19:43Ooh, that's very sludgy.
19:45Right, so there we go.
19:48There's the piston and, uh, yeah, you can see that
19:52the ring's broken.
19:53We know that we're going to need new pistons and rings.
19:56Um, we're going to need at least a rebar on the, on the liner,
20:02so they'll, every one of them will have to be done.
20:04It's going to be a lot of work.
20:10We've just been talking to Lloyd about the engine on the Lamborghini and
20:15as he's taken the, the engine to pieces, we've noticed there's some serious sort of damage
20:19on the piston liners themselves.
20:21And it looks like they're going to need changing, um, one or two of them at least.
20:25So, um, I've contacted Ian Tyrrell, who's a Lamborghini specialist and he deals in all
20:30these older ones and he's happy to take a look for me and see if he can get it sorted.
20:35It's not something that, you know, anyone like me or Lloyd can do, you know,
20:39it's this real specialist thing, so we're going to ship it down there.
20:43Fixing this engine is turning into a much bigger, more expensive job than anyone imagined.
20:59Irv and his team have taken on a 1973 Lamborghini Espada.
21:04Grabbing the bull by the horns, they've already fixed the dented back end.
21:08Lovely!
21:11And sent the engine off to a second specialist for attention.
21:16Now, panel beater Dennis is tackling the roof.
21:20We've just got it back from the metal shop and obviously they've done their bits
21:25and welded patches here and there, but what I've noticed is
21:29we've got this problem with the roof, which is way too bouncy for us to be putting filler on.
21:35If you look under here, there's no strength bar across the roof.
21:39It's literally just a bit of metal sheet going right across.
21:44To fix the problem, Mala is going to add strengthening bars.
21:48I'll form it to the roof by putting some cuts in here and I'll just bend it round until it's
21:55somewhere near.
21:56And when I try it up inside, in a relaxed position, I'll tack where I'll split it and that'll hold
22:04it.
22:18The engine is now at Ian Tyrrell's garage. He's a world-renowned expert in these complex and demanding machines.
22:26We've done all sorts of measuring, we've done all sorts of checking over and we've found various things that aren't
22:32right.
22:33The interior of the water jacket, the cooling system, is pretty grotty. It's about the grottiest I've ever seen.
22:41Ian removes the cylinder liners from the block.
22:49There we go. Look at the coating of gunge on that. This is just over half a century of lime
22:57scale, sediment.
22:59Bad maintenance, dare I say it. Antifreeze contains a corrosion inhibitor, which obviously hasn't been used, so it's just been
23:08water.
23:09It's a bit grim, actually. It really is, but we can save it. So we can see all the gunge
23:16in here.
23:16It's pretty awful and that's all just dying to circulate around the cooling system and block the radiator up.
23:22The other thing we did notice, this is part of the camshaft drive chain mechanism and these should be nice
23:30and free to move, like those three.
23:34And this one here is absolutely red rusty.
23:39The reason for that rust is a fault with one of the seals on the water pump.
23:44It's supposed to stop the coolant coming through before it gets into the engine and wreaks havoc.
23:50And on the other water pump, I suspect that hole has got blocked with sludge.
23:56It could cost tens of thousands of pounds to make this heart pump again.
24:01Not exactly the investment the owner had in mind.
24:16This is my dad that's snoring.
24:18He said he's not sleeping very well.
24:24Lee's been in the bedroom at night like that with the camera.
24:27I thought it was George in bed with me, but it was Lee.
24:30It just sounds like he's not sleeping.
24:42The Lambo is now filled, primed and almost ready for the booth.
24:47They just need to get those doors back on.
24:49The problem we've come up against now with the doors is we're missing a bottom hinge adjuster.
24:57It's a thread that goes through the hinge and it has a ball cup on the bottom and you adjust
25:02it
25:02and that must lock the door in tight.
25:04It's not something I seem to be able to find online or anything.
25:07Long story short, we found something with the same thread.
25:10So we're going to make it.
25:12And by we, Irv means mala.
25:16Yeah, I need to cut it off here.
25:19So it's the same length as that one.
25:21Then put a mushroom like that on the end of here and grind it up so it's the same.
25:25Because that's the sitting at the bottom of the hinge.
25:27Now I know what I'm up against.
25:30I can go and get on with it, can I?
25:40How are we getting on?
25:41Done it.
25:42Looking good, mate.
25:43Brilliant.
25:44It's awkward to get in, isn't it?
25:46It's not a lot of room for work, is there?
25:48I'm going to put the doors on now, then?
25:49No, I'm not.
25:53That's what it's called, teamwork.
25:59Now it wants to go up, doesn't it?
26:03Will it open right up?
26:04But fitting the door is easier said than done.
26:07God, are you supposed to even tighten that thing down?
26:10If you're having a bit of an issue trying to get the doors back on the car...
26:13There's no access.
26:15What do you need access for?
26:16To knock a pin in.
26:17Oh, right.
26:18It's really bad, Paul.
26:20I've never come across out like it.
26:22You know, you need to be there to get hammering to knock that pin in.
26:25But it only opens to about there.
26:27The top pin to keep the door in place should just slide easily into position.
26:33Time for plan B.
26:35Creating some more room to work and using a little friendly persuasion.
26:41That top pin's nowhere near in.
26:44Oh, it's slightly off the ball.
26:47Yeah, somewhere's out.
26:50Why the hell did I end up getting involved with this?
26:53Why don't we just cut the top hinge off?
26:55Just cut the top hinge off and put it back on.
26:57Could cause a whole heap of problems, though.
27:01Can't cause us any more than we've already got.
27:04Whichever one you can get to, chop it.
27:06But at least then it'll go on and off nice.
27:08Things aren't much better with the other door.
27:10There's no clearance back off from.
27:13Well, we're going to have to do a bit of a tweaky-tweaky.
27:16Is that supposed to have that twist on it like that?
27:17You told me these doors fit.
27:20It kind of does.
27:21It just goes on and on and on.
27:23It happens all the time, but it's particularly stressful.
27:26Not stressful.
27:28A night in.
27:29A night in some words.
27:30Oh, it's all over the place.
27:32Oh, a flipping nightmare.
27:33No wonder the guy never carried on with a project.
27:34Well, he'd never tried the door, had he?
27:36Well, he probably did and thought, argh!
27:38You get to the point where you've tried everything you can try.
27:42I'd like to do something a bit more extreme.
27:46To get the door to fit, Mala cuts the hinge off.
27:52Why did it all go on?
27:53That is.
27:54Is it?
27:54Yeah, it's touching.
27:57Now, we've cut the bottom lug off, and the pin is going in quite easy now.
28:01We've got it right to the top.
28:03So, now it's in a relaxed position, we'll get a weld on this, remove the door again,
28:09and put a tack on the other side.
28:11Then we'll try the door on again.
28:23Oh, Matt.
28:24Beautiful.
28:25Beautiful.
28:28Right.
28:30We're on the other side.
28:41The American replacement liners have arrived at Ian's workshop.
28:45There's a bit of a process to this.
28:47The cylinder block itself is a lump of cast alloy.
28:51The cylinder liners are steel that are a tight fit, these liners, in the block.
28:56So, we have to heat the block up and actually freeze the liners in the freezer.
29:02So that the liners are as small as possible and the block is as big as possible.
29:12Then, cold liners are hammered into the hot engine block.
29:16There you go.
29:19Yeah, that is good.
29:22Right, next one.
29:25When both parts return to room temperature, this engine will have an airtight fit.
29:42Oh, man, that looks good.
29:44Are we still doing the lower spoiler as well?
29:46If you want me to.
29:47We've not done that one yet.
29:48No.
29:49We've been doing.
29:54With the bodywork filled and sanded smooth,
29:56the Lambo is ready for a coat of period-perfect metallic gold paint.
30:04Mixing paints from scratch involves complicated equations to get the exact amount of each pigment,
30:10so the colour remains consistent across the car.
30:13Luckily, they've got a machine for that.
30:15You can mix up literally any colour.
30:18You've just got to have the code or even the name of the colour.
30:20You just type it in and it will give you a mix of all different colours.
30:24My dad told me it's Oro Metallizaro, which is a bit hard to pronounce, but hopefully it comes up with
30:31a code.
30:33This one's one, two, three, four, five, six different colours and then I'll have my gold.
30:43Harvey has to be careful as he works his alchemy, because this gold doesn't come cheap.
30:50It's saying on the computer this will be £730 for this two litres.
30:56And of course, when you're mixing it up for the car that's going to need six litres of colours,
30:59you're looking at like 2,181.
31:04That's that one all ready to go now, so.
31:10Just a big old car to do.
31:11You can see the span of that roof, it's massive.
31:14I mean, if I stand here, I can barely even reach the middle, you know.
31:20So that's one of the big things we've got to work out.
31:23I just have to get my go-go gadget hands on.
31:30It'll take most of the day to spray this car.
31:43Call number one.
31:46200 to go.
31:50First coat done, Irv heads back to the paint station for a refill.
31:55Joke.
32:04I don't even know what to say.
32:08It's supposed to do with it or a week to answer this.
32:12It doesn't look like there's enough of one of the pigments to paint the whole car.
32:16Keeping the paint restocked is son Harvey's job.
32:20If you ordered it, it's there.
32:23How the f*** am I supposed to do this?
32:28Honest to God, mate.
32:29I don't even know there's not enough paint.
32:30You've managed to put on.
32:31I've got the roof, though.
32:32I've got both back wings, the back panel, the sills, the full front end.
32:35It's not too late to come back.
32:37It's not too late to come back.
32:37It's not too late to come back.
32:38It's not too late to come back.
32:38I haven't built.
32:41I thought I dropped on the whole car after I've got the second coat on.
32:45And then if I manage to do that, I need to paint the wings and the doors tonight.
32:49The bonnet and the doors.
32:50You're not going to paint the wings and the doors tonight.
32:51Well, when are we going to do them then?
32:52Tomorrow.
32:53I need to get them done.
32:55You're not going to do them tonight.
32:57That's exactly what we said we were going to do.
33:00We'd best get on the phone to someone and get the rest of the gear here.
33:07They need to spray the car in one go, so Irv has to start on his second coat
33:11and hope that the pigment arrives in time.
33:27Irv and the team have been restoring a 1973 Lamborghini Espada,
33:32transforming it from faded glory to pristine supercar.
33:36But halfway through painting, Irv had a moment.
33:41My dad's been panicking, thinking there wasn't going to be enough paint,
33:44because when he started and he asked for more, but now we've nearly finished,
33:49he's decided there is enough paint, so panic over.
33:53Yes, I probably should have all done a tiny bit more,
33:55but I like to work with fine margins and my mind's a bit too fine for him,
33:59I guess, but panic over anyway.
34:05Looks lovely.
34:06Yeah, we're done.
34:09So, I'm happy with that.
34:11Looks like a different car, to be honest.
34:13Looks absolutely stunning.
34:14Yeah, well happy with that, mate.
34:31Two weeks later, and the Lambo has returned from a trip to the trimmers.
34:35Although I said I hate this car, I'm starting to like it a bit more now.
34:38It's, they always come together towards the end.
34:44All new headlining.
34:47Re-strimmed all the seats where it needed.
34:49We've done the outside edges and the middles have just been re-conalised.
34:52It looks really, really good, actually.
34:54All the centre bolsters.
34:56Just cleaned the dashboard up.
34:57Yeah, it looks mega.
34:58Headlining is lovely.
35:01We're just going to get it on the ramp now.
35:04We've just got the engine and gearbox back from Ian Tyrrell's last night,
35:06so it's all falling into place.
35:09Getting the massive 3.9 litre V12 back into the car won't be easy.
35:17And they have to be careful.
35:19The full rebuild with new liners means this engine represents a £50,000 investment.
35:30We're going to take the alternators off because it's just easy clearance,
35:33a bit more clearance for us to get in and out and a bit more manoeuvrability.
35:45We've got to get it over here and down into there without doing any damage.
35:50With a freshly painted body,
35:52getting this engine in will be even harder than it was to get out.
35:58Lead forward.
36:04Look at this.
36:05Marriage made in heaven.
36:07Come on.
36:07It's quite a bit of catch.
36:08You're stuck here.
36:09Don't put any more weight on that.
36:10I bet he doesn't even help his wife out of the car like that.
36:17Right, right.
36:18Go on in.
36:19We'll do it with the front end going down a bit more on the back end coming up a bit.
36:29Inch by inch, the engine is eased back into place.
36:36This side's lined up.
36:38Got to tighten these up.
36:46That's in.
36:47It was a bit of a struggle, but it got there in the end.
36:57Adam is flying back to see his beloved Lambo, and there's just time for a quick polish before he arrives.
37:07It's a big old lump to polish, isn't it?
37:08It's a big lump, right. It's a big lump.
37:09You're going to have to get some tubing hanging from the roof to do the bonnet and the roof.
37:13Feel like Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible, won't it?
37:16It's not as good looking.
37:19This is Ozzy's room where this is all he does.
37:21He manages to make all of us look good.
37:32Espada is Italian for a bullfighter's sword, and you can see how it got its name.
37:38It's a big deal.
37:38With time short, everyone in the garage pulls together to make the last few hours count.
37:45Just giving it a final clean-off, and the customer gets here.
37:51Because it looks as pristine as it can be.
37:55Adam has landed, and he's on his way to see his 70s supermodel.
38:00It's been a big job, this one.
38:02We've had a million and one hurdles to cover and cross.
38:06You know, it was bought as a complete project car, running, but it was running badly.
38:11When we got the engine out of the car and into pieces, we realised that it was in a really
38:15bad way.
38:16So, luckily, I got in touch with Ian Tyrrell's workshop, and they rebuilt the engine for me, top to bottom.
38:23So, it's been a bit of a team effort on the build-up between us and them.
38:26I can't thank them enough, really.
38:28I mean, even one of the mechanics at Tyrrell said they'd restore all the multitudes of supercars.
38:33But they said doing one of these is like doing three Muras.
38:36That's what they actually compared it to.
38:37They said they're just so complicated.
38:39So, yeah, these Espadas, they really are rising in price.
38:43The current market on them, for a concourse car like this, you're looking at a couple hundred thousand pounds.
39:01Okay, here we go, mate.
39:03Wow, this looks like something out of space from the 70s.
39:06Look at that, doesn't it?
39:07Yeah, wow.
39:09I'll tell you what, the colour looks incredible in the sun, yeah.
39:13Who would have thought that gold would be cool like that?
39:14Oh, my God, yeah. I mean, look at the size of the thing.
39:18It's massive.
39:19I think we said they're 15 feet long, six feet wide.
39:23It is quite a crazy thing, to be honest.
39:27Just lift up there, all the way up, but look at the size of that.
39:31Oh, my God. That is unreal.
39:34It's massive, isn't it?
39:35Yeah. Now I know why it's six foot wide.
39:38There's not a single area left for anything.
39:42There isn't a pocket of space.
39:44No. And it's the same under the dashboard, in the doors, and under here again.
39:49I mean, we've had every single part of this out, as you know, everything's been refurbished.
39:52Absolutely everything has been gone through.
39:54And I guess the upside for me as a collector is that because the parts are limited,
39:58and they are quite expensive, there aren't that many people that are going to go out and refurb one of
40:03these.
40:03Oh, no, no. Very limited.
40:05The right-hand drive, I think there's like 35, 40 others.
40:09Very, very rare, isn't it?
40:10Yeah, very rare.
40:12The car has absolutely blown me away, if I'm honest with you.
40:16It wasn't a car that I was extremely passionate about in the beginning, and then as the project has
40:23unfolded, it's just become just a massive kind of story from beginning to end.
40:27And to see it now in the flesh on this beautiful day, it looks absolutely incredible.
40:33And I really, really, really love the car now.
40:36The car on the outside is incredible, but the interior, I mean, wow.
40:40You know, when they say it looks like a spaceship, it really does.
40:43It does, of its era.
40:45My friend Austin, who did the trim for us, has obviously completely saved the day here,
40:49because it was really tired.
40:51Oh, it's knackered.
40:51And now we've got all new headlining, even like the dash top, carpets, the seats.
40:56It looks beautiful.
40:58I mean, they've done a stunning job.
40:59Shall we go for a drive, innit?
41:00Let's do it.
41:03Okay.
41:24Listen to that.
41:27The strong V12 engine, that costs so much to fix, is now purring.
41:36With a top speed of 150 miles an hour, this is the embodiment of the Italian Gran Turismo.
41:45Yeah, but it sounds unbelievable, doesn't it?
41:47It sounds incredible.
41:49And it's driving like a car that's only done 24,000 miles.
41:52You would never have thought it, would you?
41:53It feels so firm and just, yeah, almost exactly the thing, and the noise of it.
41:59You could drive it in Wales, wouldn't you?
42:01It's hard.
42:02Incredible.
42:06This is a four-seater luxury car made for grand tours, so it handles the corners with ease.
42:13Very impressive.
42:16I mean, you can't deny the artistry and the craftsmanship.
42:20It's been such a lot of blood, sweat and tears going into this.
42:24It feels like it just wants to go, doesn't it?
42:26Yeah.
42:27Probably a car that will go better, even at faster speeds as well.
42:31Yeah, I'd say so.
42:32Built for cruising.
42:33Yeah.
42:34You probably couldn't call it beautiful, but it is undeniably cool.
42:39They've just rolled on and on, doesn't it?
42:41Yeah, it actually doesn't feel that big when you're inside it.
42:44It's actually not as impractical as you think, is it?
42:48You could drive it all the time.
42:51Thank you, mate, for delivering my beautiful project, and I think she's going to be coming with me.
42:56Absolutely.
43:32We'll see you next time.
44:00Bye-bye.
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