Starting as an apprentice with an air-cooled Porsche specialist, Dominic Chinea moved into graphic design and photography before establishing his set-design business in Hackney Wick, which led to his current role as the trusted metalworker on BBC TV show The Repair Shop.
The hodgepodge of objects in Dom’s workshop reflects his wriggly career path: beyond the Porsche 356A shell that’s secured to a fixture table are a couple of classic ’bikes, a collection of old tools and a 10ft-tall spanner.
The shelves are filled with everything from hand-painted vintage signs to a model of a zebra’s head.
In the middle of the workshop is a brand-new Ranalah wheeling machine, Dom’s latest project.
“This is number five of the continuation models,” he says. “I painted it like this for the Goodwood Revival.”
Ranalah wheeling machines were popular among coachbuilders for shaping metal and used to produce aircraft panels during WW2, when they became known as Spitfire Wheels.
Ranalah went out of business not long after the war, so original machines are now rare.