Yes, many readers were aghast at the butchery which the "restorer" Terry Bramhall performed on the donor car.
P.C. excused it on the grounds that, as Zoey was of considerable historical interest and would be entered into gruelling rallies when her restoration was complete, the strength of her shell was of greater importance that the fate of the donor car.
Prompted by the articles in
P.C. it occurred to me that my own 1958 Mk1 would benefit from Mister Bramhall's attention once Zoey was complete. I was given his phone number and, to my surprise, he told me to take Gab over to his workshop in darkest Worcestershire. Zoey's restoration was finished in a great hurry in order to enter her in the Coronation Rally but for a short while both she and Gab shared Bramhall's workshop.
- © Keith Bennett 2021
Once Zoey was gone, several other customers deposited their cars for restoration. Time dragged by, phone calls and letters went unanswered, and eventually I and the other owners discovered Bramhall had gone bust and fled the scene. Despite my having zero engineering or body experience, I was so bloody furious at what he'd done to a perfectly roadworthy (if rather rusty by then) car that I had the wreck trailered home, bought a BMC workshop manual and began teaching myself how to fix the car. Finally, when Gab was roadworthy once more, I was determined to track Bramhall down and run the bugger over. Luckily for him, I never found him . . .
Knowledgeable purists will no doubt be stunned at my spectacularly ignorant method of "restoration", as this photo will attest.
The end result was a series of desperate bodges by me, all covered up by a beautiful paint job performed by a local classic car enthusiast. Technically Gab may be a very early car but she is a long way from being original. She is, however, my daily driver once again and she's proved to be a real survivor.
