When David Peckover bought the Standard A10 Saloon in 1968, it cost him the princely sum of £48.

Now he would be lucky to buy a tyre for the same price.

But despite the rise in inflation, Mr Peckover is preparing to spend thousands of pounds having his pride and joy restored to its 1930s' glory.

Mr Peckover used the car, made in 1936 by the Standard Motor Company, which eventually became Triumph, as a family runabout.

After 20 years' service, including numerous trips to Devon, it was taken off the road for repairs. But it never made it back on to the highways again.

For almost a decade the semi-retired building services engineer of Thackley, Bradford, spent much of his spare time working on the saloon.

Now, after scores of hours spent elbow deep in engine oil and axle grease, Mr Peckover has decided to let the experts at Naylor Brothers Restoration in Shipley finish off the job. The motor is now in the hands of Naylor Brothers Restoration manager Iain Rooney and his team of craftsmen. Mr Rooney said: "The car has 19-inch tyres, which are quite difficult to get hold of and cost about £60.

"So he'd probably only be able to buy a wing mirror for £48 these days.

"Once the work is completed, though, it should be worth a lot more than £48!

"We specialise in restoring MGs but now and again we get phone calls from people wanting to have old cars like this restored.

"I went to have a look and it didn't seem too complicated a car to put together. Mr Peckover had done quite a lot of work on it and had built the body on to the chassis. But it still needed wings and new chrome work.

"There are no parts available for this car, so everything will be custom made. We will be basically starting from scratch because it's a one-off car.

"We are probably talking thousands of pounds, but we hope to have it finished some time next year."