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Rod Jolley is one of the world's top coachbuilders, specialising in classic European cars like Bugatti, Alfa Romeo and Rolls Royce. He was trained as a panel beater by Wally Parr, who built the bodywork for Malcolm Campbell's Bluebird, a car that Rod restored later in his career.
In 1975, Rod repanelled a 1971 Anzani AC for a friend. The quality of the work was so high that he was inundated with classic car fabrication projects. Ten years later Rod took on a factory unit and a team of three people, and the company is now renowned for specialist antique auto restoration.
A magician with metal, Rod has taken on a wide range of car commissions from simple body repairs to complete restorations and new bodies. He works alongside body builders, wheelers, panel beaters, wing makers and fender manufacturers who are skilled at working with aluminium, steel, stainless steel, copper, brass and magnesium alloy. But he had never taken on a challenge quite like the Golden Ford.
Rod is used to working with brass as it is used for radiator shells, windscreens and other chromed car parts, but he had never made a complete brass body. When Claire asked him to participate in the restoration of Salvage Squad's Model T Ford, he was eager to be involved in such an unusual project.
Rod is a perfectionist, and the brass body, although not a complex shape demanded great accuracy and attention to detail. When he saw the Model T gleaming in the sunshine on its return to the Brooklands racetrack he felt very proud of his handiwork.
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