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
00:00010 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.
00:24as much as 15 million for some of the top end Ferraris.
00:29My own personal insurance should go up as I touch it.
00:32But Lance had a more humble start to his career.
00:37They stopped making idiots like me about 30 years ago.
00:40Now I'm a traditional panel beater,
00:42manufacturing panels, not crash repair.
00:45I worked at the Rolls-Royce coachbuilders
00:47called Mulliner Park Ward.
00:48So it's a tragedy that the skills have gone
00:51and almost every metal worker that I know from there
00:53has either retired or got out of the trade
00:55and I just kept going, that's all I really knew.
00:58So from being a dodo to being a go-to man
01:00for bespoke metal work.
01:03Helping to manage the business is Lance's son Merlin,
01:06who also runs his own classic car dealership,
01:09Duke of London.
01:10And this is a Merlin.
01:13I've been around dad's business since I was born.
01:15He used to babysit us while we were still in our cot
01:18and while he was at work.
01:20I started buying and selling cars when I was 11.
01:22I found a gap in the market with eBay.
01:24I was sort of buying heaps of junk,
01:26getting them through an MOT and flogging them on.
01:29I went into the city for a while,
01:30despite doing quite well,
01:32I decided that I had to come back
01:33and do something with cars again.
01:35And Merlin's modern approach perfectly compliments
01:38Lance's traditional craftsmanship.
01:40I've sold three cars on Instagram.
01:42I've sold a couple of cars through Facebook.
01:44I've managed those pages as well as I managed my website.
01:47It's had its ups and downs over the years,
01:49but I think I wouldn't have taken the leap
01:51from a full-time salaried job to something like this
01:55if I didn't have the confidence in our relationship.
01:57The father and son combination is paying dividends.
02:01And now the pair have a two-year waiting list of customers.
02:04Their current projects include this amazing Ferrari.
02:08It's a very important historic car.
02:10And this car, at some point in its life,
02:12would have been worth tens of thousands.
02:14Now we're talking about 10 million plus.
02:17And they look at a rare Aston Martin with engine trouble.
02:26Yeah, I don't think this screwdriver's going to cure that.
02:29Looking slightly less glamorous at the moment
02:31is another Aston Martin project.
02:33This is an Aston Martin DB4 shell
02:35showing the principle of superleggera.
02:37This one's in for a hell of a lot of work.
02:40We're doing a Zagato.
02:42Clearly, Lance and Merlin love the cars they have the chance to work on.
02:46At the end of the day, it's a piece of art as well.
02:48I've got a huge amount of responsibility when it's in my care.
02:52These race cars and one-offs, you may own them,
02:55but you're a car dealer.
02:57You're a car dealer.
02:59You're a car dealer.
03:01You're a car dealer.
03:03You're a car dealer.
03:05You're a car dealer.
03:07You're a car dealer.
03:09You're a car dealer.
03:11You may not own them, but you're a custodian of them,
03:13and I'm sort of blessed to be able to be a day custodian, shall we say.
03:16I look after them for the day.
03:18I get to drive them. I get to smell them,
03:20recreate features that have been lost in them.
03:23The name I coined after a couple of drinks one night.
03:27My ex-wife used to work for Vogue,
03:29and as a result, I used to go to some very swanky parties
03:32with all these sort of dowager duchess types,
03:34and they would all ask, what do you do?
03:36And rather than just say, I work at Rolls-Royce.
03:38I'm a metal worker. I'm a restorer.
03:40I say, I'm with the Romance of Rust.
03:42Oh, really, dear?
03:43And they would often leave it at that,
03:45but it was just a little joke I had going on.
03:47Once I'd started up on my own, I was with the Romance of Rust.
03:50It applies, if you think about it, to these cars,
03:53because there's a great romantic notion
03:55they're often substitutes for children, wives, you name it, baby.
04:00With the current state of the market,
04:02things are looking good for Lance and Merlin.
04:04That's a car that's about done gold for the last two years,
04:07and they don't seem to be slowing down.
04:09This is looking very rosy. We've never been busier.
04:11But with all this demand for restoration and sales,
04:14Lance and Merlin need to expand rapidly to keep up,
04:17and despite the pressures brought by success,
04:20the McCormacks are passionate about what they do.
04:22It doesn't seem like work.
04:24I pinch myself sometimes that I'm being paid to do something that I love.
04:31Next time on Rust to Riches,
04:33the Ferrari's windscreen needs resealing,
04:36but work on such an expensive car is never without its worries.
04:40There's a big scratch here in the glass.
04:43If you took it out and broke it, we're in trouble here,
04:45and it's nightmarish if that happens.