WATCH: 10 foot portrait of the Queen made entirely out of car and truck parts
It's been dubbed 'The Queen of Parts'
To celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday on Thursday Kwik Fit and artist David Parfitt have created a 'technical tribute' to the Queen using over 800 car parts.
It's a little known fact that the Queen is actually a trained mechanic, so the 'Queen of Parts' seems a rather fitting tribute. Princess Elizabeth, as she was then, worked with the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service during the Second World War as a mechanic and driver.
Princess Elizabeth trains as an ATS mechanic at a training centre in southern England, April 1945. | © Popperfoto/Getty Images
David worked with Kwik Fit employees from the south east, to create this art piece, using 50 metres of cables and hoses, 125 spark plugs, 60 gaskets, 150 washers, 24 pumps, 20m of leads, 10 headlights, 6 bumpers and hundreds of springs, nuts and bolts.
The team even went to the effort to source some parts from vehicles around the time that her Majesty worked in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, including brake and indicator lights from an original Austin K2 (military vehicle) for the giant crown.
Mechanics Jamie Bannerman (left) and David Tarry work on a 3.5 by 2.5-metre sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II made entirely from car parts | © Matt Alexander/PA
Speaking about the 'Queen of Parts', David said, "we think the finished portrait is a fitting acknowledgement of the contribution she made".
The Queen has previously admired David's work, having signed a sculpture that he built in 2011 to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of Crawley New Town.
The full sculpture is 3.5m x 2.5m and weighs around 115kg and will be doing a tour of Kwik Fit centres.