It's not uncommon for people to spend years restoring a wreck of a car into something immaculate. Robert is unconventional in this respect - he started with an immaculate Rochdale Olympic and crunched it.

This is the story of the second rebuild.

Robert is a good friend who shares my barn. I like to think I'm being helpful by documenting his rebuild on the internet.

	2002: The bump To be fair Robert had just spent 4 years restoring this Olympic from a wreck. It must have been pretty devastating to break it again. Also he banged his head - a significant factor perhaps in his decision to rebuild the car once more. 2002 in detail: Background and the bump

	2003: A rear diffuser The floor was practically the only part of the car that wasn't damaged. So it made sense to start off the repairs by completely replacing the floor with a new one which incorporates a rear diffuser. 2003 in detail: A new floor with rear diffuser

	2004: A fiberglass front subframe Rochdale Olympics originally had a steel tubular front subframe. It was a horrific design and only loosely bonded into the car. Robert decided there would be none of this nasty steel in this latest incarnation of his car, so spent 2004 making a glassfibre subframe. 2004 in detail: Building the subframe and some panels arrive

	2005: The roof and front end Supply of new panels had been a bit of an issue, but they arrived at the end of last year. I think we might see a reasonably complete Rochdale Olympic appear by the end of this year. 2005 in detail: Fitting the roof and front end

	2006: Completing the bodyshell? It seemed about there already. If if were me or you we'd throw some paint on, fit an engine and drive around a bit. But it turns out things are much more complicated. We probably wouldn't consider the need for a bonded in windscreen, and some slackers might not have bothered putting in half a year of work to save a couple of kilograms from the doors. 2006 in detail: Finishing the body

	2007: Rochdale on Wheels In a surprise start to 2007 Robert learned to weld, and quickly went on to fabricate some new upper wishbones and put some wheels on. Perhaps we'll see a bit of paint in the summer of 2007. Who knows. Check the detail page to see what happens. See Rochdale on wheels

	2008: Preparation for Paint So far in 2008 we've had a new bonnet, seats and door latches. Exciting stuff already, but we might even see some paint going on this year. See 2008 - Prep for paint

	2009: Final Assembly Paint mostly went on in freezing conditions at the end of 2008. Now a push to finish the car before a new job takes Robert to Barcelona. See 2009: Final assembly

	2010: The First Drive Work on the Rochdale is only possible when Robert is on holiday. 80 hours crammed into a week were enough to get the car running and take it out for it's first drive in 8 years. See 2010: The First Drive

	2011: MOT and More We're into the development phase now. The Rochdale sailed through it's MOT, the rear suspension was redesigned, it went on a road trip, and it had a ride on a breakdown truck. See 2011: MOT and More

	2012: Fuel Tanks They have started putting ethanol in petrol and it turns out that corrodes fibreglass fuel tanks. We made some new fuel tanks from aluminium. See 2012: Fuel Tanks