COLONEL MUSTARD

Steve Willsone has been a panel beater all his life and runs a paint and body shop, so when he decided to rebuild this 1932 Ford three-window coupe, he set himself very high standards of fit and finish.

- Mike Renaut

They say old Fords never die. Well, this one has certainly been resurrected more than once. When you’ve worked around vehicles all your life and own a business dedicated to accident repairs, it can be difficult to find time to work on your personal car, let alone completely restore one from the ground up. But when your desire’s strong enough, you find away.

Steve Willsone of C&D Services (UK) Ltd in Basildon had always wanted a hot rod and finally took the plunge three years ago. “When I was 17 years old, I began training as a panel beater,” explains Steve. “I was taught the traditional methods, using an English wheel, beating out dents over sandbags and even learned lead loading joins and metal finishing. I was always into hot rods. When I first met my wife Julie, our first date was a visit to the Chelsea Cruise.” Despite that, this 1932 Ford three-window coupe is the first rod he’s owned. “It was definitely becoming time to buy one,” continues Steve. “I love Ford Pops and they were my dream car until I saw this ’32 for sale. I’d been looking for a black car, then it suddenly dawned on me we could repaint whatever I bought any colour I fancied. I originally wanted to build a car from scratch, but by the time I’d costed that I then realised it might be better to buy one I liked and then recondition it if necessary.”