It was a cold, dry sunny Saturday. The location
was the Essex town of Maldon. The host, J D
Classics, allowed members to view their fully
operational purpose built restoration facilities.
Primarily working on the Jaguar brand J D Classics
have worked extensively on the Mercedes-Benz marques
bring motoring legends to life. Their concours-winning
restorations recreate the style, pedigree and
character of some of the world's most celebrated
period vehicles. The tour started by photographs of
members cars parked around the car park of the J D
Classics newly built premises. This led onto a small
opening speech by Tony De Frates, the Essex
regional officer for the Mercedes-Benz Club UK, in
the lush surroundings of the showroom. Tea and
coffees were served in the main workshop where we
were allowed to wonder and talk freely to J D
Classics team of skilled craftsmen, busy stripping,
fitting out or preparing restored cars ready for
delivery to customers. The metal and paint shop was
next on the agenda where the fine details of metal
work and paint preparation processes were freely discussed
with staff. The engine shop was a miniature showroom
of its own displaying concours prepared and race
tunned engines. The adjoining machining shop had all
the tools to machine purpose built components. The
last stop was the leather shop, finishing off the
tour with a
presentation to Derek Hood and Carl Moss by Tony De
Frates of a pair of Mercedes-Benz cufflinks.
Over forty members hopefully left at the end of
visit with an appreciation into the mechanical
excellence and the detail to attention that makes
every J D Classics restoration "World-class".
J D Classics
can be contacted for just a service, inspection and
evaluation reports or for a partial or full
restoration including the Mercedes-Benz marque.