A second disaster has struck the prized car collection of The Repair Shop star star Dominic Chinea, and he says this may be the final straw as he considers selling it
Dominic Chinea admitted he ‘feels bad’ about the state of the car(Image: DominicChineas/YouTube )
TV star and The Repair Shop presenter Dominic Chinea admitted “it’s getting worse and worse” as he introduced the latest update on his Land Rover restoration project.
The engineering expert has been restoring a dilapidated 1957 Series 1 Land Rover that he found buried in a hedge near his new home in Cornwall. He has described it as one of his most challenging projects to date, given that the chassis was completely rotten and the vehicle had been half-buried in undergrowth for several years.
Dominic hasn’t had the best of luck with the rebuild. Only a few weeks ago, Dominic admitted that he had hit a major snag after accidentally damaging the Land Rover’s seat base as he lifted the rear tub.
He said he was thinking of reaching out to Repair Shop co-star, upholstery expert Sonnaz Nooranvary, before the Land Rover can be considered complete.
But Dominic’s trials and tribulation with the Land Rover restoration aren’t his only problem at present, because he’s had a second mishap with his vintage VW Caddy.
The BBC star is something of a petrol-head, counting a 1957 Porsche 356a, multiple Land Rovers (Series 1 and Defender 110), a 13-window VW camper, a 1958 VW split bus, and a 1936 BSA motorbike among his extensive collection. One of the numerous vehicles undergoing restoration in Dominic’s new workshop is an early Eighties Volkswagen Caddy pickup.
Back in February, back-to back storms caused a major accident in his new workshop, causing major damage to the Mk1 Caddy.
Dominic explained: “Previously, during the last storm, part of the roof flew off of the workshop and landed on the Caddy, smashed into the bonnet. It made a hole in the bonnet, dented the wing, and I was gutted.”
He added that the reinforced concrete beams that support the structure of his workshop are becoming increasingly corroded: “The steel rebar is getting rusty and swelling up and it’s breaking the concrete and a chunk of that has fallen off the roof.
“Of course, it’s landed on the windscreen of the Caddy and broken the windscreen”
Dominic blamed himself for the accident, explaining that he’d had some work done to install a ramp into the workshop and that the vibration from the machinery may well have dislodged the loose chunk of concrete: “That is my stupid fault,” he said. “I should have put something a board over [the cars] or moved them outside or something like that.”
Dominic said that after this latest disaster he was close to giving up on the pickup: “I may well sell it because I haven’t really used it since I’ve been down here and I feel bad that the poor thing is just getting worse and worse whilst it’s here.”
He called out to fans, saying that he wasn’t really sure what the car might be worth, saying: “Make me an offer.”
Catch Dominic on The Repair Shop tonight (Wednesday, May 6) on BBC One from 8pm to 9pm.