A CLASSIC car fan is thrilled his restoration of a rare Austin 10 dating back to 1935 has finally merited an MOT certificate.

It was in 1988 that Tim Thorpe, of Trevor, bought the beautiful but very tired vehicle and thought it would make an interesting project to work on as a hobby.

More than two decades later the Austin – now fully rebuilt and resplendent in its restored form – was approved to travel on the road.

“I felt really pleased. It was a brilliant moment and a great sense of achievement.

There are only 42 of these cars left in the world,” he said.

Tim, an aircraft fitter based at Broughton, said he had no idea the restoration would take so long but every day issues such as raising a family, housing extension and work ate away into the spare time he had available.

Tim has three children, Curtis, 22, Hayley, 20, and Emily,17. Curtis was just three months old when the car came home for the first time.

He said: “My wife Catherine could hardly believe what I had done and asked me why I had bought it. She referred to it as the old wreck, although she does like it.”

Tim said there were times when he was considering giving up and even put the Austin up for sale, but there were no takers. However whenever he hit a low point, fresh inspirations would come along and he would return to the project. I bought it from a car dealer in Bethesda for £900 and now I have had it valued for insurance purposes at £8,000. But this is not about money and I don’t intend to sell it.”

And now he has finally achieved success in restoring the Austin Tim is considering taking on another challenge.

“I’m toying with two possible ideas at the moment. One is to restore a car even older car and the other is to build my own motorbike,” he said.