Transforming the extensive history of a 1962 Austin Healey 3000 MKII from a pile of paper in tatty folders into two custom made binders with its own slipcase.
I should point out that the "Uncle" in this story is not mine or ours, but our colleagues' Cara, but for this commission he became known affectionally as 'Uncle Simon'
A classic car in superb or mint condition always has a meticulously kept history of invoices, receipts and photographs. It is as much a part of the cars value as is the quality of the car itself.
However, unlike it's paint job and perfect chrome work, the vehicles paper work is regularly presented in far less pristine fashion, normally in a couple of rough cardboard document wallets as below.
And so it was with this absolutely dotted upon and adored Austin Healy 3000. From the tip of it's front bumper to the tip of it's back bumper and everything in between, Uncle Simon has either documentary evidence of its restoration or a chapter on how to repair or restore it.
Indeed, whoever one day becomes this cars next owner, will be in no doubt, just by the history alone, that it was restored, loved and cherished and then kept regularly pampered in near perfect showroom condition.
Our objective was to take the cars pile of paper work and place them in something more worthy of the vehicle itself.
The brief was that Uncle Simon wanted two portfolios, one that could be placed on the bonnet of his Healey at classic car shows, that illustrated the history and the work done to the car (the pretty and interesting stuff) and the other containing all the receipts, invoices and technical stuff (important, but not for show).
While there were two albums we wanted to keep them all together so we created a box for both.
To make the folders and box bespoke to the Healey, we choose colours the matched the cars exterior. We also foiled the cars full details on the covers.
The Cars History & Show Album
As this was going to be more than likely placed on the car's body (probably its bonnet) we opted for leather so as not to damage the paint work. To match the colour of the roof, we went with our 2.5mm veg tanned black leather.
With the vehicles initial story, the album was also filled with special A4 pockets that held 6'x4' photos as well as space on the side to write a brief description of the photo that we sourced from Arrowfile .
The Vehicles Document Folder
The vehicles document folder was a more bulky affair (given the history we had) and used a big 6.5cm ring binder mechanism. The cover, just like the cars show album, had the Healys details foiled on the front cover.
Again Arrowfile provided a great resource for plastic pockets for the finished project.
We attached a leather handle to the spine of the car folder (which matched the leather album) which made pulling the binder out of the slipcase much easier.
All in all, it appears to have been a great success (certainly in the case of Uncle Simon!) We probably won't know the end wow factor to potential purchasers of the Healey in the future, as Uncle Simon has decided to be buried in his beloved Healey with our box included.
We have a page dedicated to bespoke Classic Car boxes and folders which can be found HERE.
