Welcome to the Repair Shop,
where cherished family heirlooms are brought back to life...
This is the workshop of dreams.
..home to furniture restorer Jay Blades.
Nowadays, everybody spends a fortune on stuff
that, once it's broken, they just bin it.
But everybody has something that means too much to be thrown away.
And that's where we come in.
Working alongside Jay
will be some of the country's leading craftspeople.
Every piece has its own story.
It's amazing to think that some of my work
becomes part of that story.
I've always played with things, I've always repaired things.
And I just love it.
There is a real pleasure in bringing people's pieces back to life again.
Each with their own unique set of skills...
Right tool for the right job.
..they will resurrect, revive...
..and rejuvenate
treasured possessions
and irreplaceable pieces of family history.
Wow!
She's fantastic!
Bringing both the objects...
Oh!
This is what I remember.
..and the memories that they hold...
Wow!
..back to life.
Oh, my God!
In the Repair Shop today,
Lucia employs all the tricks of her trade
to restore a 100-year-old painting...
It's like plastering, but on a micro scale.
..while a boys' toy gets Steve's seal of approval.
I've enjoyed it all the way through,
and I really don't want to let it go.
I want it back! I know!
But first...
Hi, could someone give me a hand? Course I can.
..Caroline Morris needs help with some precious cargo.
Do you want to put it on there? I should be able to hold it.
No, cos I don't want her to get even more squashed.
Oh, is it...?
She's got a family heirloom that needs expert attention.
OK, so not too heavy for you, Jay?
No, no. There we go. What do we have here?
Oh, it's ceramic. Right.
We have the ceramic queen, who's going to help me out.
Pottery conservator Kirsten Ramsay
has 25 years' experience in the field of ceramics restoration,
and she's going to need to draw on that pedigree.
What have you got for us?
Here we have the female dog of Fo.
Oh, lovely.
And she, unfortunately, her head has been broken.
Oh, my goodness. All the little bitties are in there.
OK. What's the history behind these two, then?
They're Chinese lion dogs, and they're known as dogs of Fo.
Right. And they guard entrances.
So these will be standing outside the front door, and...
They would be inside. Oh, inside. Probably on a shelf.
OK. Looking at the door... Right. ..from the inside.
To scare off people or to welcome them?
Just as a guard dog. It's a guard dog. Yes.
Yeah, that could be a good guard dog. It's quite scary.
I know, my grandchildren are always a bit worried by his face!
Are they? Yes. Oh!
But these were my great-grandfather's. Oh, really?
Which, he then gave them to his son, my grandfather,
who gave them to my father.
And when he eventually died, they came to me.
You know, they have a huge history in our family,
and that's really what we love.
How has the damage come about?
The damage originally came about because my father's dog... Right.
..in the 1950s jumped on his desk, and he knocked her off.
Oh, my goodness. Naughty dog! I know, I know.
Naughty Russett is to blame for that.
And my father was very upset. I can remember it happening.
Can you? I was about five or six. Oh, golly. Yeah.
So my father tried to stick it, but... I can see.
..then it was the old glue.
I don't know what they used in the 1950s,
but it wasn't that good.
I mean, the great thing is that you've...
..you know, you've got the pieces, and... Exactly, yes.
You know, people are always so apologetic
about previous restoration.
But actually, at least, hopefully, all the pieces are here. So...
Well, I think so.
So what we could do for you is basically repair her
to the same standard as he is. Exactly. OK.
That would be absolutely fantastic.
My father will be so happy up there, wherever he is.
Let's hope he's up there. Yes!
Thank you. You take care. You, too. Yeah.
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
I've been so upset by the fact that she has been
in bits, literally...
..that this would really make my day, make my life, really.
Because she's been part of it for so long.
They're different, aren't they?
I've never seen anything like this before.
They're not the prettiest, are they?
I actually love them.
Yeah? Yeah, I really do.
It's a stylised sort of dragon-dog type thing, isn't it?
Dragon-dog. Beautiful glaze,
sort of dripping down the back there.
So what I could do is help you get these over to your desk.
Two hands... Two hands, I know. You've taught me well.
With the dogs of Fo safely at her workbench,
Kirsten can assess the 100-year-old figurines.
And soon detects where the 1950s fixes are.
Wow. Um...
The previous repair is....
..yeah, it's not great.
It's really sort of showing some signs of age. That's really bad.
It's been badly overpainted,
but there's all sorts of restoration on here.
It's particularly dreadful in there.
I think I'm just going to take the whole thing apart
and strip it back to the original.
To break down all the old paint and adhesive
that may be holding the piece together,
Kirsten's going to unleash the dragon...
..her trusty steam cleaner.
Whilst I appear to be removing some quite large pieces here,
I'm very confident that the bits that are coming off
are actually all just previous restoration.
This is porcelain.
It's fired to a very high temperature.
It's not porous in any way,
and the steam is just a really effective, fast way of cleaning it.
Only once Kirsten has removed all the old repairs
can she begin to restore this dilapidated dog of Fo
back to its former glory.
The next item to arrive at the Repair Shop
belongs to James Barnes from Salisbury.
Steve may be the Repair Shop's authority on timepieces...
Hello?
But he is also the go-to guy for any clockwork curios
that arrive through the doors.
So what have we got here, then?
Well, it's a very old toy...
..racing car.
That's fantastic. Little bit battered, I'm afraid.
It looks the most wonderful piece.
It's a very precious item.
So, tell me a bit about it.
Well, this was given to my father
in round about 1925 by my grandfather,
a new toy to play with. He... Oh, brand-new then? Brand-new then.
He was really into cars, motor racing, and he used it.
And then, after many years, it was given to me to play with.
Yeah. I think, probably, slightly vigorously.
Did you sit on it when you were playing?
It looks if it's been sat on! Yeah...
I think it sort of did a few rallies it wasn't designed for.
What car is it? It's an Alfa Romeo P2.
So it was used for, well, what nowadays is called Formula 1,
that was the top echelon of motor racing, in the 1920s.
The steering wheel is not...you haven't got that.
No, no, that went many years ago.
Do you know if that will turn the wheels?
Yes, it goes down through...
..through here. I see, yes.
And this suspension all joins up.
So you could wind it up and it would go.
Have you got a key for it? No.
Right, OK. So you'd...you'd set the wheels... Yeah.
..and set it on its way and then run after it.
Yeah, and then you'd sort of follow it and then turn it.
I was brought up in a very large vicarage and downstairs,
there was a huge...sort of runway, effectively.
So you could start it up at one end and let it go,
and then it would hit something.
I do have a recollection that
my mother didn't like me driving it into the kitchen,
although I suspect my father might have encouraged that.
I think it's a wonderful piece.
I've never seen a car like this of such quality,
because this...this isn't thin tin plate, is it? No.
This is quality tin plate. Yeah. Yeah, it is quite solid.
So to get this all working again and looking good and steering again,
what would that mean to you, to have all that done?
Well, it's...it's a very tangible link with my father.
Sure. You know, and so for me,
I think of him and I think he would love it if...
..if he knew that this was back as a...
..back as it was, as a child's toy, and cherished. Yeah.
And it's something that will stay in our family.
Fantastic. And once it's all up and running,
would you then let your grandchildren play with it?
Under very strict supervision.
The car means a huge amount to me because it's part of our family.
My grandfather gave it to my father, and he passed it on to me.
I'm feeling really excited about seeing it return to...
..its usable glory, really. It's been many, many years
it's just been a static exhibit.
It would be great to have it back operating again.
This French tin toy dates from around 1925 and is rare
and extremely collectible.
There's a lot wrong with it.
The whole of the front suspension has broken
quite badly, actually.
Got to give it a good cleaning up,
and I think one of the main challenges
is going to be keeping the paintwork as it is.
Because it's got a lovely finish to it,
and I don't want to damage that finish at all,
if I can help it. There's an awful lot of work to do.
Huge amount of work. But it's just a lovely piece.
It's going to be an absolute joy to work on.
I love this sort of stuff.
I heard you was mucking around with toys over here!
Have you brought in your old toys, yeah? What are you doing?
Do you know what? James has brought this car in... Right.
..and it's beautiful. It's such good quality.
It's probably the best wind-up car that I've seen.
It looks broken to me. You're saying the best quality?
This tin plate is so, so thick.
Right. And everything is well made.
The detail is fantastic about it, so... Oh, OK.
You know what? It sounds like you're quite excited about doing this one.
I am. Yeah? I really am.
This is the one that's getting your juices flowing, this one is.
Well, this is... It is quite... Did you have one of these? No.
No! You wanted one of these, didn't you?
Yeah, I did, yeah. I always wanted one of these.
Oh, bless you. It is... But it's clockwork.
It's a wind-up clockwork mechanism.
So you've yet to see what it's like in there. Yeah.
So that might be totally knackered.
No. I'm sure it won't be. That's what I like to hear!
I'm sure it won't be. I knew you was going to say that!
I mean... You have every faith this has kept it's quality.
It's going to be tiptop. All you've gotta do is cosmetic stuff outside.
Yeah. And...and if it's clockwork, I can always repair it anyway. Yeah.
See you, Steve. You're the man.
With their combined experience, the Repair Shop squad is poised
to rescue and preserve cherished family heirlooms
for future generations.
And determined to do just that,
Kirsten's been doing battle with the Victorian Chinese figurine.
After a deep clean, this dog of Fo
is now displaying the full extent of the damage.
33 pieces, all of which are encrusted with old glue and paint.
I'm having to work quite hard using acetone
and sort of just manually picking with a scalpel.
If I don't get all the break edges really, really clean
and remove all the old restoration,
I won't get good joins, and the whole point of redoing this
is to actually make a better job of the repair
than was previously done.
So it's vital that I get all the edges
really good and really clean.
Once the pieces are dry, Kirsten reaches a critical stage,
beginning the rebuild.
She's starting with a practise run without glue,
to work out how the dozens of tiny bits
of fragile porcelain fit together.
Kirst, is this for me?
How did you guess, Jay?
That's not right!
I'm... All right, I'll put my hands in me pocket, then. You do.
I can't touch nothing. I'm not that bad!
Actually, do you know what? Yeah?
It's probably all right at the moment. Is it?
Because actually, I don't think this could be in any more pieces
than it is at the minute. That's true.
So I can touch? Yeah, go on, then.
Oh, thank you. Yeah.
Aren't these great? I love these.
They are quite cute.
It's quite... You've got loads of bits! I have, yeah.
I was just sort of checking how that one goes in there. Wow.
Cos that was quite badly joined before.
So that's going to go there. That's all right!
And then I'm going to actually try and do the heads,
cos... Oh, OK. ..that's in so many pieces.
It's quite a tricky job you've got there, then, isn't it? It is tricky.
Quite a lot of glueing, yeah. OK. Quite a bit of concentration.
Probably just have to be left alone... All right, I get the hint!
..to get on with it! No, I get the hint!
I'm using an epoxy resin,
which has got really good sort of non-yellowing properties.
It's very slow curing, it takes about 48 hours to cure properly.
So it's great, it gives me plenty of time
to actually go back and check that everything's sort of in place
and sort of make any adjustments if necessary.
Because it's quite a heavy piece,
I am actually going to use quite a lot of adhesive here,
just to make sure it's stable.
And I'm now going to buffer up the...
..the dog, and...
Hopefully, it will go on OK.
When it goes together well, you can sort of feel it
kind of just clicking into place,
which is really, yeah, quite satisfying.
Especially having spent literally hours and hours cleaning it
and trying to prepare it all. So...
Yeah. That's good.
I'm happy with that.
With the dog back on its plinth,
Kirsten starts to stick the head back together,
fragment by painstaking fragment.
But it's soon clear that this jigsaw is missing a piece or two.
It's becoming apparent that actually,
this is going to be a much bigger job than I had actually anticipated.
To make this porcelain dog whole again,
Kirsten will need to mould the missing features herself.
I'm just going to have a little look at this other...
..the pair of the dog of Fo.
What I've got is a broken-off area,
and the whole tongue seems to be missing.
And I can see from the other dog of Fo
how the original tongue should actually look.
I'm just going to see if that fits now.
I'm having to be quite careful,
because this is quite fragile, this top jaw.
I don't want to exert too much pressure.
Tongue completed,
Kirsten can move on to replacing the missing section of forehead...
..and fills in and smoothes the cracks to create a seamless finish.
Finally, some replacement fangs.
Looking at the other dog of Fo, it's...
..they're actually quite flat, the teeth.
I'm just going to press them into place.
So that's the teeth in place.
Already, the dog is looking a lot more ferocious.
The next customer to arrive at the Repair Shop
is Terry from Bristol.
Hello, Terry. Pleased to meet you. I'm Lucia.
Come into our lovely workshop.
Lovely, thank you.
Resident painting conservator Lucia Scalisi
has been in the restoration business for over 25 years.
Put it on the easel.
Now, that's the damage.
Oh, I've got my work cut out with this one, haven't I?
How did you damage the painting?
I was transferring from one property to another.
It was balanced on the back of the car seat,
I thought, propped up well.
A black cat ran across the road, which was really unlucky for me.
My brother braked heavily and the painting shot forward,
and... Hence the... ..punctured a hole in it.
Yeah. It's quite a fragile canvas.
I'll look at the back of it in a minute.
But what attracted you to it? It was in 1960,
I was in business with my school friend,
partnership in plumbing and heating.
And we did a fair showing, had a little bit of profit.
And I said, "I want a decent painting."
And we went down to the auction, and I found this painting.
Yeah. And I looked at it, and I thought,
"That reminds me of my childhood," because in Worthing,
there's an avenue of trees like that called the Ilex Way,
from Goring to East Preston. Oh, really?
Is Ilex Way, does that still exist? It still exists. Oh, lovely.
Probably a lot more overgrown now, you know. Cos I'm going back...
..right to my childhood, I was seven years old,
walking down this avenue of trees.
Does it sort of bring people back into your memory,
your family or friends?
Just my friend. He bought a painting, as well, and... Oh.
I always reflect to it, because he's got the twin of this one.
Really? Yeah. So do you still see your friend?
Are you still friends? I still see him, now and again.
I go down to see him, and he's still got his hanging on the wall.
Oh, how nice! He says it's never moved. Really?
Wow, so it's a really nice record to have,
of a friendship from childhood to now.
Yeah, he's a good lad. That is a wonderful story.
So we've got a monogram here, JWM,
and we have a date, 1887.
Interestingly, it's in original condition.
We've got an old 19th century canvas here.
Tabby weave.
It's got some old patches on the back.
So, with my job cut out,
it's obviously repairing that tear.
It's very discoloured.
If we clean it, it will look a bit brighter
and there will be more contrast between the sky and the trees,
which is quite a nice thing.
But leave it with me, if you're happy to do that.
I'm quite excited that you're going to work on it.
Yeah. Oh, good. Thank you. I'm glad.
I will see you when it's all done. Yeah. Many thanks.
Bye.
The painting, to me, means a great deal.
I was seven or eight years old when I first walked along Ilex Way,
and it reminds me of my childhood.
This is a difficult job. It's quite a complex problem, with the tear.
The canvas is very brittle,
and there's actually a section of the canvas missing from this damage.
Meeting Lucia, studying my painting,
giving me hope that it's going to be restored
to a very excellent condition.
I'm very pleased.
It's a really complicated job.
I've got to combine the ethics of conservation
with the practicalities of the work.
A lot of thought got to go into this,
how we're going to tackle it, and a way forward.
Over on Steve's workbench,
he's planning the restoration of his latest project.
This 1920s toy racing car has seen better days,
and so has the paint job.
Lucia, can I ask your advice, please?
You may. Yes.
Lucia's more used to restoring portraits and landscapes,
but her extensive knowledge makes her a valuable ally in the workshop.
Just had this come in.
It's... It's beautiful.
It is beautiful. Yeah. 1925.
Wow. It's an absolutely wonderful object.
I need some advice on the paintwork,
cos I really, really don't want to touch it that much.
I really don't want it to look too new.
By just taking that sort of top surface dirt off,
it'll look a lot brighter. Yeah.
Look, its whatever... Oh, that's... ..fan belt's fallen off.
No, no, no. It's the leather strap that goes over the bonnet. Oh, OK.
Got to keep that. Oh, and look! That's the colour.
Yeah. It would have been red, red, red. Yeah.
I don't want it to look like that.
That's too... But what if you do a little surface clean
and it comes up like that, and it's just dirt?
I don't think it will. I'm tempted. I'm tempted.
Oh, are you? Can I do it? With a bit of saliva?
Be careful. Let's do it on...
Oh, look, that is literally just dirt coming off.
I know it doesn't look much,
but that's actually a lot, in conservation terms.
And that's just with saliva. And I think the object's small enough
to be able to do a spit clean across the whole thing. I would.
I think it would be very rewarding.
But if you don't want to use... A spit clean? Spit cleaning.
I mean, even if you rolled over that with distilled water or something,
it would take something off. Sure.
But the enzymes in your saliva have a bit more of an effect.
I don't know whether I have enough spit to do all that!
Oh, I'm sure you... I'll have a very dry mouth at the end of this!
Getting into all these little areas here
is going to be really good, cos there's a lot of gunk in there.
You'd really enjoy that, wouldn't you? I would enjoy this!
Thank you for your advice. My pleasure.
Confidence he's not going to damage the paintwork further,
Steve can turn his attention to the clockwork mechanism.
Slightly scary, because I've never taken one apart like this before.
Certainly, not one of this sort of age.
I have no idea how this is actually going to work, in the end.
So this is what I like about a project like this,
is that I have no...
..preconceptions about how easy or how difficult this is going to be.
I will just work through it and repair part by part.
I do want to actually have a look at the clockwork mechanism, though.
I haven't seen in here yet, so this is going to be quite interesting.
Clockwork toys work by winding up a spring which, when released,
turns a series of cogs, gears and axles to power the wheels.
These screws are coming out nicely.
OK.
I did think that was just going to pop off, actually, so...
Um...yeah.
I might just have to force that out.
There's no other way.
I can't take the top off, I can't take the sides off,
I can't take anything else apart.
Oh.
Right. That's good news.
It's obviously suffered from being in the wet at some time,
because it's absolutely red rust.
It's nice to get that out, that's the first step, really.
With the spring coil finally removed,
Steven winds it to its full length
and sets about cleaning off the rust and grime.
A well-maintained spring is key
to the smooth running of the mechanism.
And cleaning duty doesn't end there.
So what I'm doing now is just scrubbing up
the clockwork mechanism from the car.
By scrubbing it, what I'm doing is I'm removing some rust,
removing the dust, the dirt, the grime.
This lever was absolutely seized up,
and it's probably working for the first time
in 20, 30, maybe 40 years.
But this piece is relatively modern compared to some of the objects
that come through the Repair Shop doors.
And over on Lucia's workbench, more history is being revealed
as she prepares to free a 130-year-old painting
from its wooden frame.
I have...I've taken out the tacks,
and what I'm going to do now is actually lift it out of the back.
One of the advantages of having the original tacking edges is,
because I actually need to make a little patch here,
I'll make a pattern, cut it out of here
and actually insert that, so I'll be using the same canvas.
So that's the advantage.
So now I'm going to lift the stretcher out.
There we go.
So for the dust collectors amongst us,
there's some really grotty dirt and dust down there.
And insects, look, a lot of flies.
I have found a skeleton of a bird behind a painting, once.
Obviously a big painting and a small bird.
So the next process, I'm going to clean this with my vacuum.
With the painting now dust-free and the hole patched up,
Lucia can line the picture, strengthening it
by sticking the entire painting onto a fabric backing.
So I'm going to use a lining adhesive that comes as a film,
and if you look closely,
you can see...
..the adhesive is on the back of the canvas.
So it will be just nap bonded to the lining fabric.
It's polyester sailcloth.
That's pretty good.
Using the heat of an iron, the canvas adhesive and liner
are now bonded together.
It's actually quite good.
I can see where the tears that I've aligned
have melted, as well, so that's quite good.
The danger here
is that Lucia's industrial glue mix is so powerful,
it could bond to the table, as well.
I'll just give it a little jiggle.
That's fine. It's free.
You only get one shot at this,
so I'm really pleased with that.
And it's actually nap bonded,
or attached to the polyester lining canvas.
This square here is where I actually took the patch of canvas
and made the infill for the loss.
And if you look closely, you can see the patch
and you can see where the actual paint is lost
on the original canvas as well,
and another one I inset there.
With the canvas newly strengthened and intact,
Lucia can cut away the excess fabric
and then set about re-stretching the canvas.
I'm actually putting them into the original tack holes,
so we don't have any extra perforations in the original canvas.
Finally, the corners are carefully folded back into place.
Where it's been protected, it's cleaner,
and the exposed areas are dirty.
So that's sort of helping me.
It's like making a bed.
Ceramics conservator Kirsten's been rebuilding
a century-old Chinese figure known as a dog of Fo.
The reconstruction has been painstaking,
but now she can get on with blending in the repairs
with some expert paintwork.
I find, when I'm painting,
it's not about sort of being really, really exact.
It's actually getting a feel,
it's more sort of an instinct for the feel of the piece,
and it's normally sort of something like this.
It's quite loosely decorated,
you know, it's not sort of tight, little things.
It's all just quite relaxed and loose.
And so I will just try and mimic that when I'm painting,
and sort of look at the signs of age and wear
and just try and copy that, too.
My palette is actually really small.
I think people are quite often surprised,
how few colours you use. So I have white,
I've got...like, a raw umber,
which is a sort of really dark brown, and that's quite good for
sort of making colours look slightly more sort of dirty and aged.
A couple of blues and ochre, yellow, magenta.
And not a great deal else, actually.
You can get most colours that you want
from that just basic palette.
I'm hoping that this sort of, really, the final stage of painting
will transform this dog of Fo
into a dog that Caroline will recognise once again.
When Caroline dropped the dogs off,
their 100-year history was evident.
But she's hoping Kirsten has managed
to get Mrs Dog of Fo back to her best.
There is a certain amount of nervousness.
Maybe they won't be quite as they were before,
but the main emotion is excitement.
And I really, really feel happy
at the prospect of seeing them again.
Hello! Good to see you again. Likewise.
All right, you ready?
Yeah, I'm ready. OK.
Yeah, I'm ready. In you come, then.
Caroline, how lovely to see you. Yeah, good to see you as well.
Gosh, it's a bit exciting!
Has she been a challenge?
She's been a challenge, yeah.
She's been a little bit tricky. Oh, dear. Would you like to have a look?
Yes! Oh, OK. OK.
SHE GASPS Wow, look at that!
She's fantastic!
Look at that!
Gosh, you wouldn't have even known anything had happened,
that's so incredible.
And her brain is looking intact!
You're a Wonder Woman. Oh, you're very kind.
I'm thrilled, and I think he's so happy now
to have her back again!
But today is my birthday. Is it really? It is!
You kept that quiet. Well, I'm 21 again.
Well, I thought as much. There you go, yes.
So this is the best birthday present I could possibly have.
That's so lovely. So, she's got new fangs.
Oh, she's got... Tongue. Oh, my goodness!
So she has. There was quite a lot of dental work in there.
You didn't think you'd be doing dental work. I didn't, no.
Really, I don't know... It just means so much to me, Kirsten.
I'm just delighted.
Really, really fantastic day, wonderful birthday.
Just...happiness all round.
I couldn't believe how well Kirsten had done them.
What an expert! And to me, to my family, my children,
even my husband,
everybody will be thrilled.
And nobody's more excited than me.
I really can't wait to get them back into their rightful position
guarding the door.
Over on Lucia's bench, work is finally under way on the front
of the painting.
She's filling in patched areas to get a level enough surface
to paint on. So I'm going to use my beautiful dental tool,
which I've had since I was a student,
and nothing I have ever found has been able to replace it.
It's wonderful.
And I'm going to apply the filling to those losses.
I apply the filler into the surface.
This little inset is the little bit
that I cut from the edge of the painting to fill in
the hole there.
So, basically, I want to bring this fill
up to the level of the ground that's on this piece of canvas.
It's like plastering, but on a micro scale.
So there's the island of original paint,
in a sea of lovely white filling.
And it matches up to the edges very neatly.
It's a lovely thing to do.
You really get quite focused.
It can be quite meditational.
It's quite rewarding to see the job well done at the end.
It's been days of work just to get the painting to a place
where Lucia can open her paint set and begin to blend in
her repairs.
This is where her skill as an artist is really tested.
The paint brush that I use is pure sable.
They're quite expensive because they take
a lot of expertise to make. The tip is everything.
It controls the flow of the paint onto the surface
that I'm working on.
With the background colour in place, Lucia must now begin to imitate
the hand of the original artist to rebuild the missing areas
of the painting.
So I take a few...
..specks of the yellow ochre, mix it in,
and I just start to retouch and see how that looks.
I think this area of retouching is actually going to be
quite forgiving
because there's a lot of colours in here and a lot of work happening
in the brush strokes.
So what I'm trying to imitate is the yellow foliage colours that
have been put on before the green
foliage has been applied.
Mimicking the style of the artist is an important skill
in the world of art conservation.
Really, it's such a slow and minute process.
The labour... Or the skill, I suppose,
and the experience comes from just
sort of getting your eye in, onto the artist's palette.
So you have to know what the artist intended,
rather than what a modern taste might require.
Steve's been giving an antique clockwork car a full MOT.
But it's been more complicated than he bargained for.
I thought it was going to be relatively straightforward.
I have, though, found some issues with it. On the front of the car
here, all of the wheel axle side of things, the suspension,
it's all bent and broken.
I've actually discovered something as well.
I'd assumed that this car had a simple toy steering device,
but I've discovered actually that it doesn't,
it has a more complex rack and pinion device.
A rack and pinion device is what you have on a real-size car,
a proper-size car,
so quite sophisticated for a toy.
But it does mean that I've got
to make, from scratch, a new rack for it, which is quite challenging.
I hope it works out, actually.
With the internal workings of the car overhauled,
it's time to see if he can get them all working together
to power the wheels.
So, this is the moment of truth.
I've made a good solid key for the car.
And...
This is where the main spring either goes bang...
..or it winds up fully and does its job.
CLICKING
It's a great sound, isn't it?
And...
WHIRRING
That's working absolutely fine.
Essential to any car - a steering wheel,
and this one had been missing for years.
I've made a steering wheel. I've just got to solder
those arms on. It's starting to bubble now.
There we go, that's flowed lovely.
I think, when James comes in, he might have a problem taking
this from me, actually.
I really, really want this car. It's so nice.
Lucia has been spending hours meticulously filling in
the missing patches on the painting.
She's emulating the style of the artist
to seamlessly blend in her repairs.
And today, owner Terry is due back to collect it.
I think Terry will be very pleased, actually.
I think he'll be surprised when he sees how the whole tear has
been pulled together.
I think I'll be quite happy to see his tree-lined avenue back
in one piece.
The painting had hung in Terry's home for 50 years,
until it got damaged.
He's hoping Lucia has managed to restore it,
earning it pride of place back on his wall.
You must be Terry. That's it, that's me.
How you doing? You all right? Yeah, I'm fine, thanks.
You've come to pick up your painting? Yeah.
I'm really looking forward to this. Well, you should be.
In you come. In you go.
Lucia, look who I found. Ah, Terry! Lucia.
Welcome, welcome. Lovely to see you again.
Lovely to see you. Been a while.
Yes, it has. Come in. I'm really excited about this.
Are you?
So, what did it look like when you first brought it in, then?
I remember a nice
two-inch diameter hole in the middle. Right. And I thought
it'd never get repaired, surely.
Well, we won't keep you in suspense any more.
I'm all smiles.
You can't wait to see it, can you?
No. Lucia'll show it to you. Are you ready? Yeah.
Wow.
That's amazing.
You like it?
Over the moon with that.
It's certainly a lot cleaner,
and that hole has disappeared.
And I was thinking of sticking a patch on there and touching it up!
Oh, no!
I'm still trying to find where that hole is,
and I can't see it.
That is amazing. I do thank you so much.
Oh, my pleasure. That's brilliant.
It was really nice to work on, actually. Lots of little details
have come out, like this little flock of sheep over here.
They weren't really very obvious because of the discoloration
and dirt on the surface.
Those are birds there as well, in the distance? Birds in the sky.
Yeah, there's a few birds in the sky. Yeah.
And there's a lot of details in these figures as well.
If you look at girls' faces, this little girl's got highlights
in her eyes, she's got rosy cheeks.
It's just...amazing. Yeah?
I could get quite emotional over that. Really? It's wonderful.
That's nice. Yeah, brilliant.
When the painting was revealed to me,
words can't describe how I felt.
I was like a child
receiving its first candy.
I was...
Just amazing.
Hi, Terry. Lovely, here we are.
I'll put it in the car for you, back seat. I think it'll be safe
if it's nice and flat there. OK? Can't move there.
That'll be fine.
I think I'm going to enjoy it more now because Lucia has cleaned it
and brought out all the details, and it will take me back
to when I used to be a child, walking down this avenue of trees.
Take care. Don't brake hard.
THEY LAUGH Bye-bye.
Meanwhile, Steve has almost completed the restoration
of the toy racing car.
The motor is safely back in
and he's giving the bodywork a spit clean,
as per Lucia's very specific instructions.
Hey, Jay, come and have a look at this.
What do you reckon of that? Now, that is cool.
I like that. Thank you very much.
Yeah, you've done a grand job on this. I like that as well.
What is that? Is that like the drive shaft or something?
It's the rack that I've made for it, so that's to do
with the steering on it.
You've made a rack for the steering. So it works and everything?
Like, can steer? Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. Can I see it? JAY GASPS
See, now, that's why you're Steve, innit? Thank you very much.
Right?
I need three done by the afternoon! STEVE LAUGHS
Owner James is looking forward to being reunited
with his beloved childhood toy.
It's one of my earliest memories as a child.
And because cars are a shared interest with my father,
that's something that, you know, I have such fond memories of.
I'm hoping to see the car sensitively repaired, cos it's
got the scars of many, many years of use.
Hello, James. Hello, Steve. Nice to see you. Yeah, excellent.
Come and have a look.
So, it's under here?
Yes, it is under here.
Wow. This project has been such a fantastic project.
I've so enjoyed doing it.
And there have been issues with it that I didn't expect
that I've had to get over. OK.
But I've enjoyed it all the way through,
and I really don't want to let it go.
So... I want it back! I know!
This might be a reproduction.
Here, let me unveil it.
There we go.
Oh, my word.
This is...
This is what I remember. Great.
This is what I remember as a child. Yeah.
With all the suspension... It's perfect cos it's as it was.
Yes. Yes. It's not overdone. Steering wheel. Yeah, that's great!
Absolutely fabulous. And the steering works.
Oh, look at that. That is absolutely unbelievable,
and that's come up beautifully,
that Alfa Romeo... It has. ..badge on the front.
We've cleaned it very, very carefully.
We haven't over-cleaned it.
We've been very, very careful to leave the age on it.
So I've made a key. A key, look at the key!
So...
I think I ought to let you wind it, really.
You think so? You think I can have a little wind?
I'm going to turn that around and... OK. OK.
That's a long time since you've felt that.
Yes, it is.
It's got that slow click. Yes.
Do you remember that? Yeah, it was... I think overwound it!
And I really think...
..that we ought to run it. Yeah, absolutely.
Are you ready? Yep, I'm ready.
This is the first time James has seen the Alfa Romeo run
since he was a little boy.
That's right, turn it round. Turn it round? Come back.
I've got to put a little bit... Yeah, absolutely.
I think you've done an amazing job.
Thank you very much. Amazing job.
I'm almost tearful.
But it's...it's...
The total link through
to my father,
to our interest in cars,
to remembering playing with this
when he was still around, obviously, which is terrific.
Yes. Here's the key. A key, fantastic.
And I'll go and get a box and wrap it up, and keep it all safe
for the journey back. Thanks, Steve.
I think there will be a bit of play in the kitchen this evening.
I think my father would be
absolutely delighted to see the car repaired.
And I can see him smiling down from up there, saying,
"That's a very good job done."
I think the most impressive part of Steve's work
has been repairing bits that were broken but not taking away
the essence of the car, and the essence of the car
is what my father had and what I had as a child and what our
grandchildren hopefully will have in years to come.
Join us next time,
as more precious pieces are rescued
and their cherished memories restored...
Wow!
..in The Repair Shop.