A charity which works with disengaged and at-risk teenagers has completed the restoration of a classic car.

Around 40 youngsters with the Youth Skills Development Trust (YSDT) in West Drayton converted the run-down 1979 MGB and gave it a new lease of life with its own unique character.

The charity hopes to sell the car and use the money for their next car-rebuilding project.

Zahir Virmani is assistant manager at the YSDT and was in charge of MGB project. He purchased the vehicle on eBay for £450 last year and said, back, then it wasn't much to look at.

He told getwestlondon: “It had failed its MOT and the owner wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. It was in a pretty bad way.”

YSDT runs a series of programmes to get kids off the street, including car maintenance and customisation. Soon, youths aged between 13 and 19 were working their magic on the MGB and in the space of a year completely transformed it.

Mr Virmani said: “We had a very limited budget and spent about £400 on the car.

“We wanted to make it look as good as possible and get it up and running so it could pass its MOT and get back on the road.

“We started with underneath the car. We welded and repaired it, painted and rust-proofed it and it’s literally like a new car underneath.

“Then we went through engine and made sure gaskets were changed. Basically anything that needed changing was changed to make sure it ran to maximum capacity.”

Pimp my ride

Tight financial constraints meant the team had to get creative when it came to spraying the vehicle and upholstering the seats. But they were able to rise to the challenge.

Mr Virmani said: “We didn’t have enough money for a re-spray of the whole vehicle, so the students came up with a plan to turn it into a race car.

“They painted the bonnet and front spoiler black and polished up the rest of the body – it’s come out looking quite nice without getting re-sprayed.”

Expensive restoration of the seats was avoided by adapted seat covers they already had, and the group also kept and spruced up the original alloy wheels.

They also set about ‘pimping up’ the inside of the vehicle, by painting and sound-carpeted the rear and adding a subwoofer.

Mr Virmani said: “It looks a 1979 classic car that’s been done up by kids and it looks amazing. It has their signature on it.”

He hopes to get at least £1,000 for the vehicle and use the money on restoring a recently purchased 1986 Escort XR3i Convertible, saying: “That needs a hell of a lot of work doing to it. It’s a complete wreck at the moment.”

He said work such as this was vital in the West Drayton-based charity’s aim to help young people: “We run an evening programme to engage young people, get them off the street, to do something positive.

“It’s about engaging difficult young people, young people at risk. We try to get them off the streets, and make them realise there’s more to life than what they were doing before.”

For more information on the charity go online.