‘ You don’ t want CNC parts all over your pre-War car. We try to leave the engine looking as standard as we possibly can’
‘ You don’ t want CNC parts all over your pre-War car. We try to leave the engine looking as standard as we possibly can’
which most weren’ t. They certainly won’ t be now after people have bodged them up and changed them and adapted things to fit because they didn’ t have any spares.’ Because for a lot of these cars, spare parts were never produced.
If you do have a spare, that still doesn’ t make it easy.‘ You buy a part for a pre-War car and try and fit it onto another one, it doesn’ t fit because everything was handmade and hand-fitted originally. So you’ ve got to know how to fit and modify and make things work. Most of the parts need a lot of engineering work. Even putting a water pump on, things don’ t align. You really need engineering training with a good mechanical background, rather than the other way around.’
In this day and age, with 3D scanners and multi-axis machining, you can make anything, right?‘ You don’ t want CNC parts all over your pre-War car. You don’ t want four carburettors on a car that had two. We try to leave the exterior of the engine looking absolutely standard, or as standard as we possibly can. Sometimes we’ re forced to change something like an exhaust manifold. Even then we’ ll try and design a pre-War style exhaust manifold, rather than some modern spaghetti.
HCS looks after a huge variety of cars from a range of manufacturers, the only common factor is they’ re all old
Spring 2026 The Engine Rebuilder 45