Restoring a 1967 Mercedes-Benz with a fascinating past...

Simon bought his 1967 Mercedes-Benz 'Fintail' in 2011, and enjoyed using it as a family car for many years. When the time came to restore it, Simon and his family had no idea just how much work would be involved - and how quickly the costs would rack up.

Simon tells us more about his first major classic car restoration and how he used a Novuna loan to help complete the project.

From family runabout to cherished classic car

Around ten years ago, Simon had been looking for a new car but simply hadn't come across the right one. When he spotted the Mercedez-Benz less than a mile from his home sat in the carpark of an industrial unit, he knew he'd found something special. "This one seemed to call for me," Simon explains. "I'd 'visited it' three times before I bought it for £2,000 - coincidentally almost the same amount as its new price 45 years previously!"

The 1967 Mercedes-Benz 'Fintail' is one of only 200 registered in the UK currently, making it a rare find. Despite having been off the road for a very long time, it passed its MOT with only a few minor repairs and mechanical TLC. For many years Simon and his family used the car for day-to-day trips and adventures, entering a few village car shows for fun.

"Unfortunately, there came a time when it would no longer pass an annual MOT and so a decision had to be made - scrap it, break it or restore it," Simon says. The family made the decision to restore the car as they had understandably grown so attached to it.

Though Simon had some restoration experience, including restoring a 1930s Gaff Cutter and a 1950s ski boat, this was his first classic car project. So where did he begin?

"We'd grossly underestimated the cost of the rebuild!"

While the original quote to tidy the car up was around £7,500, Simon and his family ended up spending over 10 times that amount for a full bare metal restoration.

"Every panel in the car has received attention with new sills, floor, wings repaired, doors reskinned, bonnet and boot made good," says Simon. "Probably only the roof is untouched!"

Many different aspects of the restoration contributed to the rising costs. For example, some replacement parts needed to be sourced internationally and parts that were originally good were clearly damaged whilst taking the 50+ year-old car apart. Simon explains, "Replacement parts alone for the rebuild amounted to approximately £10,000, and even rechroming the original bumpers cost an extra £2,500."

A restoration of this magnitude is undoubtedly expensive, and cashflow resulted in delays as the car was put back into storage between periods of restoration work. That's when Simon decided he would borrow the money he needed to get the restoration moving again.

Simon tells us the application process with Novuna was very straightforward, allowing him to complete the restoration project sooner.

Delving into the car's fascinating history

During the restoration Simon traced the ownership history of the car, and found it was first owned by a particularly intriguing figure. He tells us more: "The first 'East End of London' owner had the car for 26 years but it came off the road at around 4 years old in 1970/71. That is very odd for a very expensive car costing as much as, if not more than, a house in the early 1970s.

"This was also around the time the Kray twins were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, and paperwork indicated that the car might have a Kray connection. A letter to the Editor and readers of the Mercedes-Benz Club Gazette requesting information anonymously revealed that the original owner was indeed a member of the London 'underworld' at that time. They were a 'known getaway driver' and regular of The Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel, the scene of Ronnie Kray's final gruesome crime, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. So it seems this car has East End history related to notorious gangsters and the London underworld and was well worth preserving!"

The next chapter for Simon's classic car

The restoration took almost five years to complete but it's certainly a project to be proud of.

The car is now in great shape with still only 29000 miles on the clock. Will Simon keep it for another round of adventures?

"The price of classic cars, particularly Mercedes-Benz, has rocketed. In order to pay off the amounts invested, the car will go to auction," Simon concludes. "I hope it will be cherished by the new owner and hopefully be a Concours winner!"

Could a Novuna loan make your important things happen sooner?

Apply now, and you could borrow between £1,000 and £35,000 over 2 to 7 years at low rates from 6.9% APR Representative (£7,500-£25,000).