By Classic Yorkshire contributor Tony Lofthouse
When Yorkshire Classic car enthusiast Adrian Tingle saw a 1964 Jensen CV8 for sale on an online auction site back in 2018 he just had to snap it up.
The car came with a colourful past (see my blog, 30 Aug) and initially looked in good condition. Adrian wasn’t keen on the bright red finish and soon the car revealed its hidden secrets!
He said: “I’d never seen a CV8 before until I came across the car advertised with Brightwell Auctions.
“The first thing I did before getting into the restoration was test the engine and check the car was okay mechanically.
“Using my experience from restoring other cars I then went over the vehicle bolt by bolt and drew up a long list of the work needed.”
Adrian would do a fair bit of the restoration himself but he also called on local businesses to help him.
One of the first tasks was to strip the car, removing the fibre glass body from the steel chassis. Unfortunately, this revealed holes in the sills and floor plan, a chassis in need of repair and a crack in the car’s roof.
Adrian was determined to give it a new colour and Scott’s Body Shop in Baildon carried out the fibre glass repairs and repainted the CV8 in an original Rolls Royce Regal Red finish. This was a colour which 46 CV8s out of the 500 produced by Jensen left the factory wearing.
Mexborough-based Prestige Electro-Plating restored the car’s chrome work and West Yorkshire Windscreens of Bradford refitted the front and rear windows.
Inside the Jensen there were a string of issues. They included torn and perished leather seats, tatty vinyl trim and a tired laminated wood effect dashboard.
Adrian worked on replacing the wood dashboard and headlining on the roof and his wife, Mel, kindly helped re-stitch the new vinyl trim. A local car upholstery specialist was also taken on to restore the leather trim.
All welding was carried out by Adrian and he re-assembled the whole car himself.
By the Summer of 2020, the restoration was complete and a rare Jensen CV8 was ready for the road again.
Looking back Adrian is proud of the transformation. He said: “It proved a bigger task than I first thought. In fact, I wish I’d kept a detailed record of all the hours spent on the project.
“In the early days we had to store the body of the car in our dining room and the restoration looked a long road ahead!
“Throughout all the work I took hundreds of photos to record things and it’s amazing how helpful this is when it comes to putting the car back together.
“The Jensen Owners’ Club were brilliant, along with the club’s marquee specialist John Staddon, in giving their expert guidance and advice. I’m also very grateful to the local companies who have been a big part of the rebuild. To anyone starting a restoration I would say ‘look into the trades on your doorstep. They are out there.’”
So would Adrian take on a similar restoration again? “Yes, it’s all worth it when you’re enjoying driving through our Yorkshire countryside in a rare classic you’ve put so much of your time, skill and effort into!” says Adrian.
