A PENSIONER spent nearly half a century restoring his beloved 1957 Austin only for a “moaning” neighbour to ruin it.
Peter Jibb, 79, has been renovating a classic car for decades and said he would “feel lost without it.”
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The iconic car had done more than 60,000 with the Jibb family and Peter has been revamping cars as a hobby since he was a teen.
He first noticed the Austin after his friend was selling a 57 Austin A35 and he thought he could see its potential.
Thankfully Peter was spot on because 50 years later he’s still behind the wheel of his beloved Austin.
He added new wings on the front and got it back on the road a few months after buying it and was using it as his daily driver.
However, after a disagreement with his neighbour, the classic motor broke down.
He told Forever Cars: “Every so often I used to open the garage door and keep it running, because you can’t just leave it standing idle, and she complained about the fumes.
At the time he was changing the antifreeze and was running it up to get all the air bubbles out of the system.
“I should have told her to go away but, trying to be a good neighbour, I switched it off,” he continued.
After half an hour, the neighbour had disappeared to Peter took his car up the road.
He added: “I hadn’t got all the air out of it, and I blew the head gasket – I took the cylinder head off, and there was a hole in one of the pistons.”
The car fanatic was frustrated about the damage to his car but said that he might be able to fix it.
Peter dropped the sump and put another piston in, but unfortunately, the car has always been slower since the interaction.
The car however remains very precious to him and he says he still tries to get to the national rally.
The last one he went to was at Beverley, in Yorkshire, where the pickup came away with a first prize.
It had been crowned multiple times over the years and Peter said at one point he had too many cups he didn’t know what to do with them all.
Despite going a little slower now Peter said it’s still lovely to look at and he’s still incredibly proud of his car.
He also just finished renovating an A35 pick-up which is one of 50 on the roads today.
The proud owner said when he’s got the two cars parked next to each other “they look fantastic.”
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