Two classic cars from the 1950s are now "as good as new" after being lovingly restored by John Senior, Works Engineer at Wedge company Metaltreat Ltd of Bradford.
John, 52, who has spent the past 34 years at Metaltreat Ltd, first as a specialist motor engineer looking after the company's fleet of lorries and more recently maintaining the firm's extensive steel galvanizing facilities, put his experience to good use to completely rebuild a 1954 Austin Somerset and latterly a 1955 Ford Mark 1 Consul Convertible.
John, from Leeds, bought the Austin in 1991 and spent five years stripping it down to the body shell and then restoring it to its former glory. He acquired the Consul in 2000 and has spent a similar amount of his spare time on this latest project. The car is now ready for its first MoT inspection and the open road.
As a long-term employee of Metaltreat Ltd, one of the UK's leading steel galvanizing specialists, John naturally looked at the idea of galvanizing some of the underbody parts for his cars, especially the Austin Somerset which has a separate chassis, in order to give them maximum protection for many years to come: 'I was extremely tempted to have the chassis galvanized but I also wanted to the car to be as original as possible so in the end I decided just to galvanize some of the small parts such as the bumper brackets,' he said.
'Somebody told me a long time ago not to work out how many hours or how much money I have spent on the cars because it would get me down and I could never hope to get my money back. But I have spent a couple of nights a week on them over that time - I suppose you could say it's a labour of love.'
'I have been taking the Austin to shows and rallies for a few years and I will be doing the same with the Consul, as soon as I've worked out how to drive two cars at the same time. My wife quite likes the old cars too but she won't drive them herself.'
Metaltreat Ltd, based at Canal Road, Bradford, offers a full "hot-dip" galvanizing service and operates a fully-enclosed galvanizing bath measuring 6m x 1.2m x 2.8m, which meets all European and British environment-protection regulations.