And so, I jumped. For the past nine months, my beloved Suzuki Cappuccino has been in the care of the brilliant team at Midlands Performance & Retro, who poked, prodded, welded and painted it back to showroom condition. But just how hard has the process been and, most importantly, would I do it again?
In part one of this article, I told you how my journey into this restoration was far from a confident march, but closer to a faltering stumble. The idea of losing the little car to rust was heartbreaking, but so was the prospect of it languishing neglected and forgotten in the corner of a body shop. Fortunately, neither scenario came to pass and, without wanting to tell you how this story ends almost before I’ve started, I am ecstatic to report that like some prodigal child, the Suzuki Cappuccino has returned to its old home in my garage, looking as spotless as the day it left the Shizuoka factory in which it was built.
This does not mean it was all smooth sailing. No, you could never call it that. Oh, there were tribulations, so many tribulations. Thank goodness, then, for Mike from Midlands Performance & Retro proving to be the most steadfast of pen pals and keeping me fully informed throughout the process, with weekly photographic reports and status updates, which lent much meat to this article.