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Technical Speciality: Panel beating and interior design
Height: 5ft 9in
Eye Colour: Brown
Hair Colour: Brown
Favourite car: Bugatti Veyron
Favourite car from series 1: Bentley Virgin Car
Returning for another series of Chop Shop action is Brixton born Julian Gudgeon. A panel beater, welder, fabricator and general Jack-of-all-trades, he has been into cars ever since his older brother pushed him towards becoming a panel beater so that Julian could provide him with free repairs for all the accidents he had.
He worked for Ford in East Dulwich, London, as an apprentice before moving on to a small garage where he learnt the old-fashioned ways of proper panel beating. He spent over a decade there before becoming a panel shop supervisor at Norwich Union. Exciting projects before coming to the Chop Shop include five years of working on many Lamborghini kits.
Julian is hoping that the next project on the cards will turn out to be his favourite. The modified Golf/Subaru for Johnny Vegas will be a real challenge and is something that he’s looking forward to greatly. The recreation of the custom Rover Jet 1 car for Jools Holland has proved his biggest challenge so far - the complexity of dealing with a 50-year-old car with a separate body and chassis has been a real test.
He has come a long way from his apprenticeship to working on Chop Shop and he’s now looking to the future – maybe one day even opening his own car customising garage.
