Brenton West pays tribute to BBC The Repair Shop’s Dominic Chinea as he speaks out on ‘really hard fix’
The Repair Shop star Brenton West has paid tribute to his co-star Dominic Chinea as he reflected on a “really hard fix” which aired on Wednesday’s episode of the BBC favourite.
Silversmith and precious metals expert West, who joined the heartwarming series when it first debuted in 2017, was given the tricky task in the latest episode of repairing a camping stove – which had been brought to the iconic barn in pieces.
Thankfully, West and Chinea were up to the task, despite initially having some doubts about what they’d be able to do with such a damaged item.
The moment was obviously a memorable one for the restorer, who despite having years of experience in the barn, took to social media following the episode to describe how challenging it had been.
Along with a series of photos of himself and his co-star during the instalment, as well as the stove before and after the fix, West paid special mention to his co-star: “This was a really hard fix, great fun working with @dominicchinea #bbc1 #therepairshop #brentonwestsilversmith.”
Fans were just as impressed as they took to the comment section to applaud the duo on their impressive work, which left the stove looking as good as new.
“His reaction,” one person commented along with a heart emoji as they referenced the emotional and appreciative response from the guest.
“Such an amazing job as always,” a second wrote, with a third adding: “Amazing skills and another feel good episode. Love it.”
“Awesome teamwork!” someone else observed.
“It looked it. Great outcome though,” another responded in reference to the caption.
“Incredible skills from both of you,” one fan shared, with another Instagram user posting: “Great work Brenton and Dom.” (sic)
It came as the owner of the camping stove explained the cherished memories behind it, and how it had come to sadly be destroyed.
Explaining how the item had once belonged to his late dad, guest Graeme Gordon detailed: “It’s been in the family since 1957 when my dad bought it, but knowing dad, it was probably second hand – he bought it when he finished his national service.
“Him and mum loved cycling all over the west coast of Scotland. They went camping everywhere, and he bought this so he could make up soup, dinner, tea, whatever on camping inventions.
“And then when my brother David and I were born in the 60s, the cycling kind of took a back seat, and we ended up just doing a lot of walking holidays.
“And this came with us everywhere. He was very much an outdoors person. I remember once my dad took us up Ben Lomond in a snow blizzard, and there was a kind of little wall, and he dug out the snow drift, and we headed in behind, out the wind, and within minutes, he had the tin of soup. It was always cream of chicken soup.”
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Inadvertently adding pressure to the two restoration experts, Gordon went on to explain: “The stove has been going with us for a long, long time. There was a bit of a hiatus when I had children, and then when my dad died a few years ago, I thought, you know, ‘I really need to get it back out again.'”
“So my friends and I went to a bothy, and my friend asked if he could have a shot at lighting it.
“And paraffin started kind of spotting out, and the flames were at three or four feet high, and eventually it just exploded.”
Chinea admitted later he was concerned about the nature of the fix and whether they would be able to pull it off, but thankfully, the duo managed to get it back to its former state, leaving a grateful Gordon very moved.