[Ian Grant]

Ian ,

You are purist as much as James Bond when selecting women You have a MG and an Aston Martin at the garage and a Minox camera in your jacket and receive satellite signals from your wife with your wristwatch

Actually I have an Austin 1300 GT - a wolf in sheeps clothing essentially a verry similar highly tuned engine to the Mini Cooper S cars used in the orriginal Italian Job film

It's done less than 25,000 miles (40,000 km) from new but needs a little rstoration, I've not used it for about 15 years, I'm the second owner.

Never used blond shellac for my french polish, but have used the method extensively for years as a furniture maker.

The normal shellac or french polish (off the shelf) is similar to what was use for much British antique furniture, it's nice biut I noticed on occasions was darker than I really wanted.

The Blond(e) shellac has gone up in price recently, quite a big price hike in fact, it's a lighter honey colour and a touch more translucent as well. It's better suited to my restorations, I wish I;d found it earlier but then I'm on a big learning curve

Ian