As many classic car owners will tell you, the mechanical aspect of keeping a golden oldie on the road is actually relatively straightforward.
It’s the metalwork that can and often does defeat you – particularly with regards to a certain generation of British Leyland products that, while much loved, weren’t, ahem, quite up to the build quality and rust-proofing standards one would like...
Fortunately for long-suffering owners of the original Mini, Triumph Spitfire, MG B and their ilk, and even the Jaguar E-Type, one UK company is beavering away with skill and dedication to ensure such classics stay alive and on the road.
Witney, Oxon-based British Motor Heritage (BMH) has been in the steel body panel business ever since those beleaguered British Leyland days. In recent years, under the guidance of Managing Director John Yea, it has evolved and developed into the leading manufacturer and supplier of metalware for BL models.
Ex-Rover finance guy Yea resurrected and remodelled British Motor Heritage out of the smoking remains of the Rover Group, after then-owner BMW decided it wanted nothing more to do with the British brand back at the turn of the millennium.
Yea and several partners bought BMH, along with its stock, a brace of distribution centres and a diminishing order book. After an intensive rationalisation plan concentrating on the classic car market, and much dedication, Yea returned it to the thriving business it is today employing around 40 people.
The turnaround hasn’t been without its hiccoughs. Correct tooling is central to body-panel manufacture, but BL’s original jigs and presses were old and worn – and sometimes not of the highest standard even when new.
That’s where the valuable and unique metal-working and -finishing skills of BMH’s craftsmen really come into their own.
It means that, whether you own a Triumph TR6, TR7 or Stag, MG B GT or Midget, your steel panel requirements can be met – and in some cases you can purchase a complete bodyshell.
So those traditional and wide-ranging skills are more important than ever, particularly now that British Motor Heritage has developed Motoring Classics, a thriving web-based accessories business, as well as a healthy export market. It has plans to cater for more, yet-to-be-revealed models as well.
This company with its roots set firmly in the past is very much looking to the future.
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