A PAIR of father-and-son car restorers are turning rust to riches by buying, selling and fixing some of the world's rarest cars. Among the classics Lance and Merlin McCormack, have worked on included John Lennon's iconic white 1965 Rolls-Royce Phantom and motor's worth $18.5m plus. Testing their mechanical know-how, Lance and Merlin have found themselves the go-to guys for bespoke classic car restoration. Other rarities to have been treated at their garage in Brentford, West London, include Captain America's shield used in the 2011 blockbuster, and a scratched windscreen of a 1950s Ferrari. Their current project is one for Merlin - pulling his dad and their business into the 21st Century and getting themselves on social networks around the world.
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MotorTranscript
00:00000001 Master craftsman Lance McCormack owns one
00:05of Britain's best classic car restoration businesses, Romance of Rust. Helping him manage
00:11it is his son Merlin the cutting edge salesman, who also runs his own classic car dealership.
00:17Together they turn rust to riches. On a daily basis they work on some of the most desirable
00:23cars in the world.
00:24000001 As much as $15 million for some of the top
00:27in Ferraris. My own personal insurance should go up as I touch it.
00:32But Lance had a more humble start to his career.
00:35Give it another try. They stopped making idiots like me about 30
00:40years ago. Now I'm a traditional panel beater, manufacturing panels, not crash repair. I
00:45worked at the Rolls Royce coachbuilders called Mulliner Park Ward. So it's a tragedy that
00:49the skills have gone and almost every metal worker that I know from there has either retired
00:54or got out of the trade. And I just kept going. That's all I really knew. So from being
00:58a dodo to being a go-to man for bespoke metal work.
01:03Helping to manage the business is Lance's son Merlin, who also runs his own classic
01:08car dealership, Duke of London. And this is a Merlin.
01:13I've been around Dad's business since I was born. He used to sort of babysit us while
01:16we were still in our cot and while he was at work. I started buying and selling cars
01:21when I was 11. I found a gap in the market with eBay. I was sort of buying heaps of junk,
01:26getting them through an MOT and flogging them on. I went into the city for a while. Despite
01:31doing quite well, I decided that I had to come back and do something with cars again.
01:35And Merlin's modern approach perfectly complements Lance's traditional craftsmanship.
01:40I've sold three cars on Instagram. I've sold a couple of cars through Facebook. I've managed
01:44those pages as well as I managed my website. It's had its ups and downs over the years,
01:49but I think I wouldn't have taken the leap from a full-time, salaried job to something
01:54like this if I didn't have the confidence in our relationship.
01:57The father and son combination is paying dividends. And now the pair have a two-year waiting list
02:03of customers. Their current projects include this amazing Ferrari.
02:07It's a very important, historic car. And this car, at some point in its life, would have
02:12been worth tens of thousands. Now we're talking about ten million plus.
02:20And they look at a rare Aston Martin with engine trouble.
02:30Yeah, I don't think this screwdriver's going to cure that.
02:33Looking slightly less glamorous at the moment is another Aston Martin project.
02:38This is an Aston Martin DB4 shell showing the principle of superleggera. This one's in for a hell of a lot of work.
02:45We're doing a Zagato replica on an original Aston chassis here. And this thing here has
02:50cost us a quarter of a million pounds. Our one finished would be just over a million
02:54pounds. It would be a faithful replica of a Zagato.
02:59Clearly, Lance and Merlin love the cars they have the chance to work on.
03:03At the end of the day, it's a piece of art as well. I've got a huge amount of responsibility
03:08when it's in my care.
03:09These race cars and one-offs, you may own them, but you're a custodian of them. And
03:13I'm sort of blessed to be able to be a day custodian, shall we say. I look after them
03:17for the day. I get to drive them. I get to smell them, recreate features that have been
03:22lost in them.
03:23The name I coined after a couple of drinks one night. My ex-wife used to work for Vogue.
03:29And as a result, I used to go to some very swanky parties with all these sort of dowager
03:33duchess types. And they would all ask, well, what do you do? And rather than just say,
03:37I work at Rolls-Royce. I'm a metal worker. I'm a restorer. I say, I'm with the Romance
03:41of Rust. Oh, really, dear? And they would often leave it at that. But it was just a
03:45little joke I had going on.
03:47Once I'd started up on my own, I was with the Romance of Rust. It applies, if you think
03:51about it, to these cars, because there's a great romantic notion. They're often substitutes
03:57for children, wives, you name it, baby.
04:00With the current state of the market, things are looking good for Lance and Merlin.
04:04That's a car that's about done gold for the last two years, and they don't seem to be
04:08slowing down.
04:09This is looking very rosy. We've never been busier.
04:11But with all this demand for restoration and sales, Lance and Merlin need to expand rapidly
04:16to keep up. And despite the pressures brought by success, the McCormacks are passionate
04:21about what they do.
04:22It doesn't seem like work. I sort of pinch myself sometimes that I'm being paid to do
04:26something that I love.
04:32Next time on Rust to Riches, the Ferrari's windscreen needs resealing. But work on such
04:37an expensive car is never without its worries.
04:41There's a big scratch here in the glass.
04:43If you took it out and broke it, we're in trouble here. It's nightmarish if that happens.