Man spent over 20 years restoring Spitfire aircraft in UK garage; project sells for £18,000

Arnold's garage housed the reconstructed Spitfire F Mk 22 PK519 fuselage. (Instagram/Dominic Winter Auctioneers) For more than 20 years, a garage in the British town of Newport Pagnell housed the partly rebuilt body of a historic Spitfire aircraft. Its owner, Peter Arnold, had spent decades collecting aircraft remains and putting together pieces of aviation history. But he never got to see his final project sold. Arnold died in 2025, aged 83, and on October 8, this year, the unfinished aircraft fuselage fetched £18,000 at an auction in England.According to a report by The Independent, Arnold was widely known among aviation enthusiasts as “Mr Spitfire”. His garage contained the reconstructed fuselage of a Supermarine Spitfire F Mk 22, identified as PK519. But the fuselage was only the main body, assembled using surviving wreckage and parts recovered from other Spitfires.The aircraft was not always hidden away inside the garage. Arnold sometimes moved it onto his driveway, allowing members of the public to have a closer look. In 2003, when asked about keeping the unusual project at home, he said, “I just like it being here.”The fuselage remained at Arnold's home for more than two dec...