It was fairly common practice to chop up old cars and turn them into vans during their later years, but this Pilot left Ford’s Dagenham factory as a genuine commercial vehicle, which explains the left hand drive steering wheel – it appears that commercial pilots all came like this.

You could in fact order a Pilot commercial variant with just a front mounted cab and a bare chassis at the back, on to which you’d build, or have built, your own pick up or van bodywork.

The previous owner of this Pilot van rescued it as a non running restoration project, with an aluminium van body rear section.

He then lovingly restored it and recreated that van with all new hand made panels.

If you’ve ever looked even vaguely closely at an original Land Rover Defender finished in black paint you’ll know how it shows up ripples and panel defects.

So it’s a tribute to the restorer’s work that his panel work is good enough to carry off this paint finish.

The Pilot looks straight and sharp, and about as ...