This month, Toni Marshall reveals her secret project and how it truly became an affair of the heart that has blossomed into a love of everything old and simple.
I have kept a secret from you all for near on a year now. I’m not exactly proud of my double life but sometimes a girl needs her own space and a special place to dream and scheme!
The secret? Well, I have a ‘project’ car. A renovation, or is that a restoration?
After years of longing for all things bright, shiny and new, I have pulled on the handbrake and done a complete u-turn on my ‘new’ car purchasing and brought a forty-year-old ‘do-up’.
It really has been a bit like a secret affair. So many ups and downs, loads of surprises, some wanted and some unwanted. The more time I have spent with the ‘project’, the more I have grown to understand and enjoy both the car and the process of bringing an old car back to its original glory.
Not wanting to bore you with the details of the restoration, I did want to share just how satisfying it has been working on a great piece of timeless engineering.
Among the treats and surprises of the project has been meeting and working with real craftsmen; people who, with their bare hands, form and create something very special. Their craft has been passed on from generation to generation. Watching them beat steel – with a cigarette hanging from their lips – into a beautifully formed wheel arch or doorsill has been a very soothing and reassuring part of my weekly routine.
Every Tuesday for a year now, I have visited the project as she has been stripped, sanded, beaten, welded, filled, dipped, welded some more and generally repaired.
At every stage, I have been able to view and digest just what is being done. It is the simplicity of this old car that has captured my interest.
When I lift the bonnet on my ‘new’ car, I truly have no idea of what it is that I am looking at. For goodness sake, it hasn’t even got a dipstick for me check the oil. On the project, however, I can identify all the major elements of the engine and running gear.
Why is this so important?
Firstly, I want to be able to see what work has been completed on what parts but, moreover, I feel like I am going to be in control of the car when I am able to drive it. Each piece of engineering acts to complete the single task of making the car move.
So much of our modern daily lives have become so multifaceted and mass produced. Much of everything we own and use daily has lost its mystique and uniqueness. Ironically, as soon as we purchase a piece of new technology, we all want to ‘customise’ it to some degree to ensure it reflects who we are?
With the ‘project’, I can now clearly trace what has gone in to making her great and just who has done what and, for some reason, this is important to me. In addition to this, my decisions in what we have chosen to change and modify during the restoration process has made my project car unique! I think that is very cool!
With only weeks until the project is complete I have begun to plan with real determination to make time to drive the car regularly on long journeys to romantic destinations with someone I care about. These trips will be unhurried and involve one extremely important ingredient … time out!
Toni Marshall
