This extremely rare Lancia joined us to address some localised corrosion to the lower passenger door, A-pillar and sill. The car’s owner bought it from Italy and drove it all the way home to the UK.

Those of you with a keen eye will notice that this example is a right-hand drive, which may seem unusual to come from Italy, but the owner explained that Italy used to drive on the left-hand side of the road until the mid-1920s and it was considered a luxury option to still specify a rhd car beyond then. Similarly, Japanese cars are sometimes rhd too, but this is so the chauffeur is on the kerb side of the car to assist the passenger.

This Flavia is an 1800cc 4-cylinder manual transmission with column mounted shifter. The unusual gold paint colour proved challenging to match, as it had been resprayed at some point in the past with a subtly different shade, but we eventually managed to get an invisible blend.

A remarkable feature of this car is that the original owner left the plastic door trim covers on from new to protect the trim, and they are still fitted!