When Gavin came to creating the swage lines – those half-round decorative pressings formed in the aluminium bodywork – my popularity took a dive. The swages that ran along the sides of the bonnet and then across the top of the doors and finished a short distance behind were not too much of a problem. However, the ones on the rear, one each side of the trunk lid beginning just short of the roof and ending up curving into the bottom of the spare wheel opening, were quite another matter. On paper, visually, either in plan or in elevation, they seemed somehow not to work.
    There was only one answer: design the swages in situ while the rear-end panelling was being made up. Yet, in order even to attempt making a final decision on their style and shape, the panelling had to be virtually complete. Only then could the two long lines be marked out for full visual effect; and, when left unaltered for a week or so and still appeared OK, we had to accept that they must be ‘as correct as was reasonably possible’.
    Not a very happy situation as, in order to apply the swages, the entire rear end body, fully complete and in one piece, had to be put through the swaging roller. On this occasion as I helped with the manhandling, the young ‘professor of bodies’ had to admit that the original drawn position of the swages had in fact been wrong. So, in this instance, I was at least ‘partly’ exonerated. 
    That said, a tiny part of him would doubtless have preferred the swages to have been glued on as an afterthought once the car had left his care. No such luck ‘professor’: authenticity, as we had all decided – and he very much too – was paramount to the project.