Rotting car brought back to life

An 84-year-old classic car which had deteriorated into a “crumbling rust bucket” has been restored to its former gleaming glory by a Black Country vintage vehicle nut.

Dean Millward, aged 44, rescued the heap of rotting metal from under a tree in the wilds of Scotland.

Four years on, he has almost entirely rebuilt the open-top Austin 7, even running up the interior seating on a Singer sewing machine which he found on a council tip.

Now it looks the spit of the Brum, the car in the popular children’s television programme, down to its fold-down hood and shiny headlamps.

Draughtsman’s son Dean declared himself well proud of his handiwork, which drew admiring comments from neighbours and passers-by when he took it for its first run out yesterday.

The Austin 7 was produced from 1922 through to 1939 and was one of the most popular British cars ever made.

Dean’s yellow peril is a 1924 model but the undercarriage was so dilapidated he had to put in another chassis, from 1932, and it is registered with the DVLA under the later date.

He was told about the car through friends in the Austin 7 Club who had spotted it on farmland in the Stirlingshire countryside.

Dean made the 1,200-mile round journey, sleeping in the back of his van beside the car before bringing it back home to Banklands Road, Dudley.

He said: “Nobody was interested in it because it had deteriorated so badly. It was so rotten that I had to bring it back in bits and pieces. But I managed to restore a lot of the original bodywork and fabricate from templates what couldn’t be saved. I’m really pleased with it.” Bachelor Dean even did the upholstry himself using special strong thread from Beatties.

“I’m not that handy on the sewing machine but I’ve turned up curtains on it before and thought I’d give it a go,” he added.

Much of his car knowhow comes from his father, a draughtsman and tool designer who used to work at the old Ewarts engineering firm on Burntwood island.

“He had me doing up old pushbikes from the age of 10. He was more interested in 1960s cars while I was fanatical about old Austins for as long as I can remember.

“It’s is the best car I’ve ever owned, it’s beautiful.”