East Sussex Classic Wedding Cars for Hire

I purchased the Stag in March 2021 as like many people I wanted a lock down project.

I was not sure whether to go for a completed restoration but after some thought decided to save a car that needed some love and also one with some history.  The car came with a thick file of previous owners and service history but not all the owners were recorded in the information that was provided.  I decided to do some investigation and after about six months and many requests to DVLA I managed to track the first two owners down.  I now have all the previous owners.

The third owner had kept the car for over 26 years and was still at the same address.  I was able to contact him and discuss the cars history over the period of time he’d owned it.  He’s a lovely guy and gave me not only some great stories but also an email containing some of the important dates and mileage that these events occurred on which is priceless information as it verifies the car’s mileage etc.  He’d planned to restore the car but never got round to it.  I promised I’d take the car to show him once it was finished. 

Initially it was going to be a modest restoration but very quickly it became apparent that a major project had entered my life.  Although the engine had been recently completely rebuilt the rest of the car was going to need a lot of love.  After initially removing the outer wings and sills a lot of corrosion and bad repairs were exposed.  I decided to go the whole hog and strip the car down to its bare bones and send the chassis off for a sand blast to remove all the paint and over 40 years of wear and tear.

Once the shell was returned the repairs began and over two years later the car is finally finished with pretty much every nut and bolt being replaced.  The dash and steering wheel are all original but I did change the colour of the interior as I just love the blue.  

The engine, which according to the third owner was matching heads had been changed which was disappointing.  I have however been to the motor museum in Gaydon to try and find the origin of the replacement engine.  After three hours sifting through the production records in the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust Archive Library I managed to find the original car which was from March 1973 which again is great to know as it all adds to the history of the car.

I could not get back in touch with the third owner after nearly six months of trying.    Fortunately his son picked up the email and got in contact.  He informed me that his father had been quite ill which is why I couldn’t get hold to him.  Luckily he had recovered so I was able to arrange to visit them.  It was a lovely day as it not only brought back some happy memories for him but also allowed me to share some of the history of the car with him.  Unbeknown to me, they’d actually used the car on their wedding day which is a nice little twist.