RESTO HERO
Gary Mavers took on one of the most difficult cars to restore and achieved a childhood dream
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Walk into Gary Mavers’s workshop and you get three things. A sense of size, there is enough room for four cars; a sense of purpose, this is definitely a working space; and a sense that he likes a good cup of coffee. I get handed one as we sit down between an XJ-S (the next project) and the subject of today’s examination, his gorgeous Corniche.
Of all the cars you could choose to restore at home, this has to be filed at the ‘difficult’ end of the spectrum. There’s got to be a reason: ‘This all really started when I was a little kid.’ Thought so. ‘We were getting ready for church outside my mum’s and this beautiful car rolls past – it was a Corniche. I chased it along the road and about ten houses down, it pulls up and out of one side gets Paul McCartney and out the other side gets Linda. It was 1971 and the Beatles had just split up, so they were at the height of their fame… but I couldn’t take my eyes off the car. It was beautiful.’
It certainly has the style and heft that most rock stars would demand. ‘It wasn’t just that though. My uncle had one later in the Seventies and so, well, it was one of those “one day, I’ll have one” scenarios for me.’ And so here it is. But why restore, not buy? ‘I saw it in a collection of cars in Belfast that was being looked after by a friend. They came up for sale, I bought the lot, restored a few and sold some on, this is the last one, and it’s the one I really wanted.’ Gary gives the Corniche a fond look as I feel a ‘but’ coming. ‘It was pretty bad though. It had lived in a barn for 16 years and was full of chicken poo, but allegedly it had spent time in California, so underneath it was fine. On top though… not so good.’
Where do you start with something so big and so pooey? ‘I’m self taught as a restorer and so I knew I had some skill, but this stretched me further bec
