Renowned Bradford car restorers have nearly completed a painstaking restoration of one of the most highly-sought-after Jaguar models around.

Alastair Naylor and his team at Naylor Brothers, based in Hollins Hill, Baildon, have been piecing together the Jaguar E Type Series 1 3.8 1963 model since it arrived from Germany, mainly in boxes.

Mr Naylor, who normally specialises in restoring MGs, said he took on the challenge in 2009 to help out a customer.

He said the outer shell of the two-seater, in an opalescent silver grey colour, had nearly been fully-refurbished and was now waiting for the interior and upholstery to be put in.

He said the current owner, a Frenchman living in Germany, began the restoration in 2003, dismantling the car almost entirely before needing the help of the restoration specialists.

The car was then shipped over to Bradford, with the body shell on a pair of slave wheels and almost the rest of the car in boxes.

Mr Naylor said: “It’s not the best way to start a restoration when you haven’t taken it to pieces in the first place.”

The car was bought by the current owner’s father in 1972, and was taken over by the son in 2001.

Mr Naylor said: “It’s an ongoing restoration really since 2003 and it does happen that occasionally people start a restoration, they effectively get out of their element or somebody doesn’t do something quite correct and for their own personal reasons decided somebody else should finish it off.

“But the best way to restore a vehicle is to actually take the vehicle to pieces yourself so you know where all the different parts have come from.

“So it’s been a challenge and once it’s had all the interior and upholstery and the hood put on, effectively it will be a question of the final detail work and out road testing and then eventually it will go back to Germany, presumably this year.”