So sad to hear about Del. Atlantic Garage was directly behind our hotel, the Birchfield, in WSM. I knew him very well - though not as well as my wife apparently who ended up marrying him! 😂 (we resolved all that when they split up - he was my youngest Son’s Godfather ).
He sold me his mother’s Vandem Plas 1300, complete with her number plate SYB 1L, on the understanding that he got the plate back when I sold the car. He also built a Fiat 128 for me (HOT888L).
If we ever parked our car in his forecourt and it was dirty, it was clean by the time you had finished talking to him - he always sent someone out to wash it.
We lost touch when he left Madeira so didn’t know he had returned to the UK.
Certainly a character and a very talented engineer
