MEET the father-and-son car restorers who are turning rust to riches by buying, selling and fixing some of the world's rarest cars. Lance, 52, a former panel beater for Rolls-Royce, is now the go-to guy for bespoke classic car restoration - while Merlin, 20, specialises in sales and acquisition. Some of the rarest cars treated at their business in Brentford, west London, can be worth upwards of $19m. This week Merlin's classic car dealership Duke of London needs a permanent home, and Romance of Rust is running out of space and has a two-and-half-year waiting list for restorations. To cope with demand, Merlin has ambitious plans to expand both businesses
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00:0001. Master craftsman Lance McCormack owns one of Britain's best classic car restoration
00:05businesses, Romance of Rust. Helping him manage it is his son Merlin, the cutting edge salesman,
00:12who also runs his own classic car dealership. Together they turn rust to riches.
00:1802. Up till now, Merlin has been fully capable of running his car dealership, Duke of London,
00:24from home.
00:25All I need to run things is my phone, my laptop, and some good cars. Within the industry, reputation
00:35is arguably the most important thing. I've been lucky that I've had Dad's reputation
00:40to use to my advantage, something that he's been working on for the past 30 years. I've
00:44almost got such a close relationship with his clients that the trust that they've invested
00:50in me wouldn't necessarily have been there if it wasn't for him.
00:54And the strength of their combined reputation means that business is booming.
00:59At the moment, I'm in a position where I've got 12 cars in stock, two motorbikes. Of those
01:0512 cars, four of them haven't even arrived yet and I've sold them. Stuff's coming in
01:09and selling faster than I can even dream of, which is great for me, but it means that I'm
01:13constantly searching for new stock, which is a big struggle because everyone's at it
01:16these days. After the market spiked a couple of years ago, everybody and their brother
01:21thinks they can be a classic car dealer and the competition's fierce. People are working
01:25on more or less zero commission just to get a deal in through the door to fill up their
01:28showroom.
01:29To stay ahead of the competition, Merlin has decided it's time to think bigger.
01:34This place here has been home to Romance and Rust for quite a long time. The way things
01:38are moving, it's about time we expanded. This building here was an engineering shop for
01:44the past 40 years. The plan is within the next week or so, we'll start stripping it
01:48out and turning it into a fully-formed showroom. We've mapped it out and we can fit 10 cars
01:54in there, which is going to be completely fine for what I want to do. There's only so
01:59much I can do with regards to expanding my business online and running things from home.
02:03Beyond that, I think there's a great deal of comfort in both a vendor and a buyer knowing
02:09you've got a purpose-built set-up where their cars are going to be safe and secure. People
02:14want the confidence of knowing that they're dealing with a proper business person, a proper
02:17business. I think that without this, I'm not going to be able to take things up to the
02:22level that I need to in order to keep everything afloat.
02:25However, such an ambitious project does not come cheap.
02:30The rent is a lot. The rates alone are £1,000 a month and to decorate the place to get it
02:36to where I want it to be is going to be probably another £10,000 to £15,000.
02:39But the work available makes the risk worthwhile, as demand for their services constantly exceeds
02:44their current resources.
02:46The expansion for Dad is very, very, very needed right now. He's outgrowing the place
02:52he is. We need more staff. We're telling people for a full restoration, there's a two-and-a-half
02:56year waiting list at the moment, which the next time a job comes in, that'll increase
02:59to three-and-a-half years.
03:01We're really, really, really busy. We're blessed, but that backlog of work, we could filter
03:05through very quickly if we had the expansion of both the premises and the workforce.
03:11It's perfect for me. It's next door to Dad. He's tight on space. There's plenty of space
03:14for him here. It means he can expand his business, I can expand my business, and it
03:18should work very well for both of us.
03:20The location of their new building may be perfect, but the current state of the interior
03:25leaves a lot to be desired.
03:27The floor is gone. It's beyond repair, so we're going to have to put a whole new concrete
03:32floor in. The roof is leaking. Some of the wood's rotten upstairs in the floorboard,
03:36so obviously it's not safe for anyone to go upstairs at the moment, woodworm and whatnot.
03:39There isn't currently a staircase upstairs. There's only a ladder.
03:42Each extensive renovation comes at a price, as Merlin knows.
03:46In order to pay for all of that, it's probably going to take me a couple of months of hard
03:50grafting. It's not going to be the easiest task. It's a bit of a challenge for me. I
03:56think I'll be all right with the amount of money I'll have left at the end of it. I've
04:00budgeted, I've saved up, I've been sensible this year, which has enabled me to make this
04:09big decision.
04:11Despite the challenges ahead, Merlin is still confident that his plan can succeed.
04:15I can't see any reason why, within the next six to eight weeks, this place can't be glamorised
04:23to an extent and be full of cars.
04:26Next time on Rasta Riches, Lance looks into Aston Martins in very different conditions.
04:31Yeah, I don't think this screwdriver's going to cure that. This is an Aston Martin DB4
04:36shell, showing the principle of superleggera. This one's in for a hell of a lot of work.