Help Facel Vega, Facel 2

[facelman]

a8hex said:

Cool
But what ever engine you choose I don't think you'll get a very good power to weight ratio with a pallet truck.

Oh I thought it would go rather well on a pallet truck ! It would be nice if I could sort out the fine tuning and get it into the car.It must be out on the track this summer.

[Facelvega]

Re the Silverstone Auction, has the world gone crazy or the auction house made a mistake? £60,000+ For a restoration project. Will this madness please slow down?

Edited by Facelvega on Sunday 13th April 21:09

[theadman]

The HK wasn't even a 'barn find', which seem to be magic words that make a heap the same price as a restored car on the basis that it has not been 'got at'.

Well, judging by the pictures and the description, this one has been well and truly started at some stage in the past, so no longer has the authenticity of a car that has never been apart.

Bizarrely, I'm not sure a good up together car would make much more? As has been mentioned, £70k has been the ball park for some time.

The market is certainly full of surprises at the moment!

[sleevevalve]

facelman said:

The manual cars were often fitted with limslip.You need to look at the bolts holding the steel cover on the diff.If two of them have metal tags under them then it is a limslip.If there is a tag with PL stamped on it then it is a limslip.The other tag being the ratio.I have a new original limslip back axle for HK 500/ Facel II in stock incidentally if anyone needs it.A kit is available to fit a ZF five speed gearbox to the V8 Facels.A useful thing to remember should the original fail.

Considering the inevitable fact that my PAM gearbox won´t last as long as the car itself, the ZF conversion seems to be a good long-term proposition. Do you have further information which you might share with us? Thank you very much for your advice !

[JerryL770]

facelman said:

The advantage of LHD is shared by Gerhard Heins in New Zealand, who fully restored one of his three RHD HK500s, brought it to Bonhams at Goodwood where it failed to sell. Quite rightly, in my opinion, he has opted to convert one of the others to LHD and sell it on the continent where there is not only a loyal French market but an interested German one as well.

This is my first post here having been introduced to this forum last week by Theadman when I went to view his HK500 just down the road from me. What a super job he is doing. It has taken me a week to go through this thread so I'm not sure I want to spend too much time on the French site thread of some 350 pages

I bought Heins's LHD HK last year sight unseen and it was delivered to my door last year. Fair to say it has not been without its niggles and I have been spending some time sorting them to my satisfaction. There's a few more to go and I have a few questions which I hope can be answered on here. First off, here it is on its first outing on the Stilton Cheese Classic Car run on April 27th:





The colour (so I am informed) is a Mazda Satellite Blue metallic. It is not black and in fact looks a super deep aubergine with very slight metallic effect. The interior is light grey.

So, questions. I have read on here of the importance of correct greasing of the front wheel bearings. What grease should I use? Should I dismantle my hubs to install this or is use of a grease-gun all I need?

Should I use the same grease on other grease nipples?

I have had to replace the steering track-rods. What is the proper toe-in amount for these?

What should the normal tyre pressures be?

Thanks. More later??

Jerry

Edited by JerryL770 on Thursday 15th May 09:49

[vixen1700]

That does look lovely.

[dpp]

Now thats real classy Jerry.

[facelman]

JerryL770 said:

This is my first post here having been introduced to this forum last week by Theadman when I went to view his HK500 just down the road from me. What a super job he is doing. It has taken me a week to go through this thread so I'm not sure I want to spend too much time on the French site thread of some 350 pages

I bought Heins's LHD HK last year sight unseen and it was delivered to my door last year. Fair to say it has not been without its niggles and I have been spending some time sorting them to my satisfaction. There's a few more to go and I have a few questions which I hope can be answered on here. First off, here it is on its first outing on the Stilton Cheese Classic Car run on April 27th:





The colour (so I am informed) is a Mazda Satellite Blue metallic. It is not black and in fact looks a super deep aubergine with very slight metallic effect. The interior is light grey.

So, questions. I have read on here of the importance of correct greasing of the front wheel bearings. What grease should I use? Should I dismantle my hubs to install this or is use of a grease-gun all I need?

Should I use the same grease on other grease nipples?

I have had to replace the steering track-rods. What is the proper toe-in amount for these?

What should the normal tyre pressures be?

Thanks. More later??

Jerry

Edited by JerryL770 on Thursday 15th May 09:49

Nice car Jerry.I have known this one for nearly thirty years.You MUST use molybdenem disolphide grease for the front hubs.I have only three front stub axles left in stock for HK and whilst I would be delighted to sell you two it can be avoided.The front end of the V8 Facels of all types,is vey heavily loaded and normal grease cannot take the strain.This was discovered by HWM way back in the early 1960's with a spate of broken stub axles.You obviously have to remove the hubs to grease them.Tyre pressures depend to an extent on the tyres used.Do not be tempted to fit oversized tyres [ as above re stub axles ] 6.40 x 15 or a modern equivelant.I always use this same grease for all balljoints then I can never forget.camber is 0 to 0.45 minutes degree,tracking is 0 to 4 degrees,castor 0 to 1 degree,I am always happy to answer queries if you want to message me,I strongly suggest that you join the frence facel club.It can become disheartening in england to turn up for a club meeting and find that yours is the only facel there and the entire club is sheltering in a phonebox.There is nothing better than driving out with 40 other facels to visit a vineyard or resto etc.cheers John

[dinkel]

facelman said:

There is nothing better than driving out with 40 other facels to visit a vineyard or resto etc.cheers John

LOL - stuff dreams are made of.

[JerryL770]

Thank you John, that is very useful.

I have taken my HK 30 miles to get new SS exhausts made for it and the first thing I will do on its return sometime next week will be to remove the front hubs and re-pack them with moly grease - to be sure.

[JerryL770]

As the HK was off in Peterboro having its new exhausts fitting this w/e it seemed a pity not to take advantage of the good weather so I scored a few brownie points taking the Mrs out in this:





Pub for evening meal on Saturday and off to Coton Manor gardens yesterday. Unfortunately the bluebell wood was past its best.

[facelman]

facelman said:

Oh I thought it would go rather well on a pallet truck ! It would be nice if I could sort out the fine tuning and get it into the car.It must be out on the track this summer.

The Bugatti T73c has now driven for the first time and will be at the Le Vigeant circuit on the 5/6/7/8 of June.Any Facel owner in France at that time and not at the Facel meeting in Rheims ! Is welcome to come along.

[facelman]

facelman said:

The Bugatti T73c has now driven for the first time and will be at the Le Vigeant circuit on the 5/6/7/8 of June.Any Facel owner in France at that time and not at the Facel meeting in Rheims ! Is welcome to come along.

The next outing for the T73c will be angouleme in september.There will be also my Facellia and other Facels.Please feel free to pop along.

[Tom hk]

Any Facels going to Castle Hill car festival near Barnstaple next weekend the 9th and 10th.

[droopsnoot]

This was in the marquee at Tatton Park classic show this weekend:

[d.wilde]

Bugatti inspired dashboard for Lazarus !

http://www.haslamsbodyrepairsltd.co.uk/index_files...

[theadman]

d.wilde said:

Bugatti inspired dashboard for Lazarus !

http://www.haslamsbodyrepairsltd.co.uk/index_files...

Oh dear...that dash looks like a footballer's Bentley to me! However, I do understand that painting metal to look like wood might not be to everyone's taste.

[sleevevalve]

Gentlemen,

who purchased the rusty HK500 chassis (RHD) on ebay a few days ago? Perhaps the buyer might consider to send a PM. Thanks in advance!

Regards
sleevevalve

[Tom hk]

How interesting that the the remains of a hk 500 that was thought to be scrapped and lost according to the facel club have surfaced again .according to the records this was chassis no HK1 BW9 and was a automatic..it would be great to here from the purchaser if he intends to try and acumalate enough parts to build this chassis back up into a vehicle again ,judging by the upward direction of prices it may be a worthwhile but time consuming project .i would think the states would be a good place to look for the body parts as there was someone over there who used to break up lots of facels who used to post a picture on the web of dozens of Facels in a field in various states of repair being broken for parts I wonder if they still exist? Either that or he could restore the chassis and hang from his lounge wall as a conversation piece / work of art !
Tom.

[Bob CD]

As one who has restored (or rather paid for the restoration) of a Facel 11 (which is at the NEC this weekend) and is currently paying for the restoration of an Excellence with the same company, I would suggest that anyone trying to build up a Facel Vega from that chassis would be dreaming. There is ssssooo much to find, so many new parts to look for, bits to source, where are the door handles for instance, and there are a thousands bits like that to look for. Whoever bought it paid just under £2000 for it; I would like to think that he was just looking for a rear bumper or something, one of the parts that went with the car, maybe the steering box. He can junk the rest of it; whoever suggested restoration is dreaming.
However, there is an HK500 coming up at a sensible price at Brightwells quite soon, and they've secured some good publicity in the Telegraph motoring supplement this weekend. Being overseas, I haven't seen it but anyone in the club - er, that's the Facel Vega Car Club, not the other one - will tell you that this is A Good Car.