THE BIG RESTORATION
What began as an easy project quickly snowballed into an epic restoration that took one resourceful enthusiast to the very brink
It takes a particular type of person to tackle the restoration of an early TVR. With simple mechanical components borrowed mostly from mainstream models, a chassis that could be built using a Meccano set, and a body that will never rust; on paper at least, an early Grantura feels like the perfect project. But you only need look at the number of cars sold as partial restorations to realise that this pint-sized sports car can present some truly mammoth headaches.
David Lester, the restorer of this 1960 Grantura MkI, is perhaps ideally suited to resurrecting one of these rare cars. His first house, after all, was little more than four walls and two collapsed chimneys before he brought it back from the brink in the early Seventies. Even then, the revival of this diminutive car nearly broke him – and took a whopping 23 years to go from rolling chassis to roadgoing classic.
It started in 1996, when a post-show conversation with a friend turned into an impromptu viewing of a stalled project that had languished in a garage for several years. Presented as little more than a poorly painted shell atop a rolling chassis, the little sports car was in a sorry state of repair and required complete restoration. ‘I fell in love with it, even though it wasn’t driveable,’ explains David. ‘Having got it home and into the garage, I started to strip it. Only then did the horror set in. Using an angle grinder to separate the body from the frame, I realised that the chassis was almost non-existent.’
AS FOUND The very beginning of the journey. Safely transported to his workshop, the scale of the project becomes apparent as David removes the bonnet and begins to inspect the car’s structure.
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Undaunted, David mounted what remained of the chassis on wooden trestles, ensu
