BACK in the early 1990s I owned a 1978 Suffix F Range Rover that I bought for less than a thousand pounds. For the next 12 months I spent a considerable amount of time and money making that vehicle look as much like a new Range Rover as possible.
Nationwide Trim installed a new interior in factory standard grey velour, the exterior was repainted in Ascot Green and I replaced the original bonnet-mounted mirrors for the latest fold-out versions that fitted in front of the two-door’s quarterlights using a custom-made bracket.
That Range Rover – which was affectionately known as Camel – was transformed from rusty wreck to tidy vehicle by fitting new parts, and I enjoyed driving it for a couple of years before swapping it for TEW 78X, the 100in hybrid that I still own today.
Looking back now, what I did to Camel back in the early ’90s would be seen as sacrilegious today. Early Range Rovers are cherished for their simple originality, with many contemporary specialists doing the reverse of what I did 30 years ago. I tried to make an old car look as modern as possible, whereas companies
