Facel Vega HK500. A childhood dream or a nightmare?
Discussion
BerrisfordMotors said:
. Similar situation here, owned since 1970,under restoration for 18 years,still not finished,getting there now though??
How I wish I had taken photos of my car as bought. Somehow the day I collected it was fraught with trying to get the car onto a trailer in a tight space and then rushing around trying to find as many bits of the car as possible...they were the proverbial needles in a very large haystack! Pictures were the last thing on my mind in that pre digital age. And to take a picture you still needed a camera and some film!
Long term restorations seem to be a feature of the Facel world! Another person on here has an Excellence that is about 30 years in the making! (How's it going Bob?)
Mefistofele said:
theadman said:
I'm not sure of the derivation of the Pullman name associated with the posh trains of the last century, but is there a connection?
Edited by Mefistofele on Wednesday 9th November 02:02
Thanks for researching this Mefistofele.
Mercdriver said:
Fascinating thread an keep posting please. In your interior picture the roof trim looks like wood? Or is it painted metal like the dash?
A wooden roof lining...now that would be exactly the sort of left field thing Facel would do, particularly if it was really painted metal!Sadly, the truth is rather more mundane. There is no trim present in that picture. What you can see is the brown glue that was applied directly to the underside of the roof. Much of this stuck to the car rather than the leather trim when it was removed.
The original headlining on the HK was quilted leather, with leather trim stuck to the pillars and roof rails around the top of the windows. My car had a Webasto sunroof fitted by the importer early in its life (around 1959/60), so lost its quilted leather and gained a cloth headlining to match the underside of the folding sunroof.
The various Managers at National Windscreens would get in touch from time to time, presumably when they did their first stock take as manager. When I explained it was probably safest on their purpose built racks they seemed happy enough to keep it for me. All that mattered was that the paperwork tied up and TBH they couldn't have been more helpful.
Well, I never thought we'd get to 100 posts on a car as obscure as a Facel Vega. Thank you everyone for your interest so far.
You might be wondering why I've stuck at this project for so long?
If the car in question had been a Hillman Minx or a Morris Marina I surely wouldn't. Any Facel Vega is pretty unusual. In round numbers about 2000 were made between 1954 and 1964 at which point the company became insolvent (figures taken from Martin Buckley's excellent book). Around half of these were the four cylinder cars with the problematic twin cam engine produced for Facel by Pont a Mousson. In simplistic terms it was warranty claims on this engine that sent the company under.
The HK500 is actually one of the more numerous models; 490 were produced between May 1958 and May 1961 when the baton was passed on to the fabulous Facel II. Of these 490, amazingly 105 were right hand drive. This is purely down to the fact that the UK had a very active Importer who wasn't afraid to take the fight to Aston, Ferrari and Maserati.
So, as one of 105 my car has some significance, but it doesn't end there. You see, my car had a small part to play in the evolution of the HK500 and became the first UK demonstrator. In its first two years it was ragged by the great and the good up and down the country as they put it through its paces prior to placing an order.
How did this all come about?
Well, George Abecassis (of HWM fame) had an Aston franchise in Walton on Thames. His friend Lance Macklin was working for Facel and via that connection George imported a couple of FVS models for customers. The FVS was the forerunner of the HK500. The cars were certainly quick, but loosing speed was a problem with the drum brakes fitted and the Robogel bolt on wire wheels were an acquired taste.
Macklin persuaded Abecassis to come over to Paris to meet Jean Daninos, the 'Patron' of Facel Vega with a view to setting up a more formal importing arrangement. An agreement was reached but it was dependent upon Facel upgrading the new HK500 to decent brakes and wire wheels.
Abecassis imported a couple of early HK500s with drum brakes and sold them easily. He then ordered another batch. By this time he was getting a little impatient that there was no progress with the promised disc brakes and suggested to Facel that he could do the development work for them, which was duly agreed.
One of the cars in that second batch had the troublesome drums removed and various disc brakes were tried. It was found that the discs and calipers from a MkIX Jaguar worked well. At the same time the car was converted to run on Aston Martin DB MkIII wire wheels. It was then signed off by Facel and its specification became the standard for subsequent HK500s (until the solid knock on Rudge wheels became available as an option).
As the car had been run as a development vehicle, it was deemed that it could not be sold as a new car, so it was put to use by HWM as their demonstrator and used by George Abecassis as his personal transport.
This is the car that I had purchased in bits in Kettering on that hot August day in 1999. Here it is some time during 1959 or 1960 performing its demo duties...
When I bought the car, I noticed it had a rather odd chassis number; HK D2. I thought that maybe the D was for droite as in right hand drive. This proved not to be the case.
HK chassis numbers started at A1 and then ran to A9, then B1 to 9 and so on. So my car was the 29th produced by my reckoning and I now know that the first RHD was HK C4 and mine was the fifth. Someone from Belgium who owns HK D1, the car before mine, kindly sent through a copy of the factory production records.
From this you can see the batch of cars George Abecassis ordered, with my car being black, with a black roof and red leather.
My car was finally registered in October 1958 and in February 1959 it appeared in a 'first impressions' test in Autocar. This is a photo of an old photocopy, so apologies for the quality.
Autocar picked the car again, this time as a used car test in March 1961. In two years it had completed 49000 hard miles.
However, it appears to have stood the test of time remarkably well.
To finish this post, here's a picture of the car that was found on Flickr and subsequently posted on the French Facel forum. I believe this is Aintree, but if anyone knows better please let me know. I also believe the man in the picture is George Abecassis and his wife, Angela nee Brown, daughter of David Brown (as in Aston Martin).
A few years ago I was in correspondence with a gentleman who worked on the Facel business at HWM. He remembered my car and said it had a red roof. During the restoration there had been absolutely no evidence of this in the layers of paint we removed, so I was inclined to think his memory was playing tricks. When confronted with this photo and the one I posted further up the page I had to eat humble pie!
Apparently the roof was painted red at the same time as the Webasto was fitted. George Abecassis thought it would make the car more 'racy' and potentially that would convert into greater sales! Whether it worked or not, we will never know. However, as mentioned before, a remarkable percentage of the HK500 production came to the UK.
More of the car's history next time...
You might be wondering why I've stuck at this project for so long?
If the car in question had been a Hillman Minx or a Morris Marina I surely wouldn't. Any Facel Vega is pretty unusual. In round numbers about 2000 were made between 1954 and 1964 at which point the company became insolvent (figures taken from Martin Buckley's excellent book). Around half of these were the four cylinder cars with the problematic twin cam engine produced for Facel by Pont a Mousson. In simplistic terms it was warranty claims on this engine that sent the company under.
The HK500 is actually one of the more numerous models; 490 were produced between May 1958 and May 1961 when the baton was passed on to the fabulous Facel II. Of these 490, amazingly 105 were right hand drive. This is purely down to the fact that the UK had a very active Importer who wasn't afraid to take the fight to Aston, Ferrari and Maserati.
So, as one of 105 my car has some significance, but it doesn't end there. You see, my car had a small part to play in the evolution of the HK500 and became the first UK demonstrator. In its first two years it was ragged by the great and the good up and down the country as they put it through its paces prior to placing an order.
How did this all come about?
Well, George Abecassis (of HWM fame) had an Aston franchise in Walton on Thames. His friend Lance Macklin was working for Facel and via that connection George imported a couple of FVS models for customers. The FVS was the forerunner of the HK500. The cars were certainly quick, but loosing speed was a problem with the drum brakes fitted and the Robogel bolt on wire wheels were an acquired taste.
Macklin persuaded Abecassis to come over to Paris to meet Jean Daninos, the 'Patron' of Facel Vega with a view to setting up a more formal importing arrangement. An agreement was reached but it was dependent upon Facel upgrading the new HK500 to decent brakes and wire wheels.
Abecassis imported a couple of early HK500s with drum brakes and sold them easily. He then ordered another batch. By this time he was getting a little impatient that there was no progress with the promised disc brakes and suggested to Facel that he could do the development work for them, which was duly agreed.
One of the cars in that second batch had the troublesome drums removed and various disc brakes were tried. It was found that the discs and calipers from a MkIX Jaguar worked well. At the same time the car was converted to run on Aston Martin DB MkIII wire wheels. It was then signed off by Facel and its specification became the standard for subsequent HK500s (until the solid knock on Rudge wheels became available as an option).
As the car had been run as a development vehicle, it was deemed that it could not be sold as a new car, so it was put to use by HWM as their demonstrator and used by George Abecassis as his personal transport.
This is the car that I had purchased in bits in Kettering on that hot August day in 1999. Here it is some time during 1959 or 1960 performing its demo duties...
When I bought the car, I noticed it had a rather odd chassis number; HK D2. I thought that maybe the D was for droite as in right hand drive. This proved not to be the case.
HK chassis numbers started at A1 and then ran to A9, then B1 to 9 and so on. So my car was the 29th produced by my reckoning and I now know that the first RHD was HK C4 and mine was the fifth. Someone from Belgium who owns HK D1, the car before mine, kindly sent through a copy of the factory production records.
From this you can see the batch of cars George Abecassis ordered, with my car being black, with a black roof and red leather.
My car was finally registered in October 1958 and in February 1959 it appeared in a 'first impressions' test in Autocar. This is a photo of an old photocopy, so apologies for the quality.
Autocar picked the car again, this time as a used car test in March 1961. In two years it had completed 49000 hard miles.
However, it appears to have stood the test of time remarkably well.
To finish this post, here's a picture of the car that was found on Flickr and subsequently posted on the French Facel forum. I believe this is Aintree, but if anyone knows better please let me know. I also believe the man in the picture is George Abecassis and his wife, Angela nee Brown, daughter of David Brown (as in Aston Martin).
A few years ago I was in correspondence with a gentleman who worked on the Facel business at HWM. He remembered my car and said it had a red roof. During the restoration there had been absolutely no evidence of this in the layers of paint we removed, so I was inclined to think his memory was playing tricks. When confronted with this photo and the one I posted further up the page I had to eat humble pie!
Apparently the roof was painted red at the same time as the Webasto was fitted. George Abecassis thought it would make the car more 'racy' and potentially that would convert into greater sales! Whether it worked or not, we will never know. However, as mentioned before, a remarkable percentage of the HK500 production came to the UK.
More of the car's history next time...
Edited by theadman on Wednesday 9th November 23:41
I was trying to find a way of substantiating (proving is too strong a word) the mileage.
The car was on its original wire wheels when I picked it up. The tyres were hardly worn 6.70x15 Michelin X. As a result of that question and the answers I received it seems that that size of tyre was last made by Michelin in 1966. It is therefore a pretty safe assumption that the car hasn't covered too many thousands of miles since then, unless one of the owners was stockpiling tyres!
From the used car test in Autocar I know the mileage was just under 49000 in March 1961. When I picked the car up in 1999 the mileage was just under 60000. I believe the tyres show that the car can't have covered too many miles since 1966 at the latest, so there is a five year window at most when it could have been heavily used.
It's a stretch to assume it covered 100k miles in that time and the clock rolled over, so there are three possibilities. Either the clock was disconnected at some stage during that period, a dealer 'clocked' it on a change of ownership or that the mileage is correct. I'm leaning towards the latter, given the relatively low ownership and sheltered life the car has enjoyed.
Sorry for the long answer!
The car was on its original wire wheels when I picked it up. The tyres were hardly worn 6.70x15 Michelin X. As a result of that question and the answers I received it seems that that size of tyre was last made by Michelin in 1966. It is therefore a pretty safe assumption that the car hasn't covered too many thousands of miles since then, unless one of the owners was stockpiling tyres!
From the used car test in Autocar I know the mileage was just under 49000 in March 1961. When I picked the car up in 1999 the mileage was just under 60000. I believe the tyres show that the car can't have covered too many miles since 1966 at the latest, so there is a five year window at most when it could have been heavily used.
It's a stretch to assume it covered 100k miles in that time and the clock rolled over, so there are three possibilities. Either the clock was disconnected at some stage during that period, a dealer 'clocked' it on a change of ownership or that the mileage is correct. I'm leaning towards the latter, given the relatively low ownership and sheltered life the car has enjoyed.
Sorry for the long answer!
Stegel said:
A fascinating thread, I admire your dedication. They are certainly striking cars - when I’m in the office I park in a multi level subterranean car park in Birmingham, normally heading for the deeper, less busy, levels. This was parked at a low level in August 2019; right hand drive but I’m not sure where it is registered:
Thank you Stegel.I think cream really suits the HK shape. Could that be a Northern Ireland registration with the numbers spaced to ape French plates? Nice touch if so as 75 is the mark for Paris, home of Facel.
This is state of the art wheel and tyre technology 1950s style...
These are the Aston DBMkIII wheels that HWM adopted for the Facel. As mentioned previously, the tyres are 6.70x15 Michelin X, last manufactured around 1966. You can see there is plenty of tread left; the tyres are hardly worn.
The car was on these wheels when I picked it up in 1999. I still have them, as somehow it seems wrong to throw them away. All they do is sit in the garage and provide a home for some pretty big spiders!
The spinners are quite interesting as they were probably originally Aston ones. As a result, the centres had been cut out and a new circle of steel was let in with crudely stamped Facel Vega lettering. Unfortunately these are with the car down in Cornwall so I can't share a picture.
Around 2006 I managed to find a very affable Belgian man selling a set of four spinners from a Facel II at the Beaulieu Autojumble. I showed some interest and asked to have a look, as non-commitally as possible! There was no price ticket so I broached the question, having had a brief discussion about Facel Vegas. His response was £50. As I had already spoken to an English supplier of spinners earlier in the day, I knew the going rate was £85, so fifty quid seemed pretty reasonable as the spinners were perfect (but not stamped 'Facel Vega').
My quandary was did he mean £50 each, or £50 for the four! I hesitantly proffered £50 and waited to see what happened...the lovely man gave me all four spinners, thanked me for the purchase and wished me well with the car!
What a result...you can still find bargains at Beaulieu!
These are the Aston DBMkIII wheels that HWM adopted for the Facel. As mentioned previously, the tyres are 6.70x15 Michelin X, last manufactured around 1966. You can see there is plenty of tread left; the tyres are hardly worn.
The car was on these wheels when I picked it up in 1999. I still have them, as somehow it seems wrong to throw them away. All they do is sit in the garage and provide a home for some pretty big spiders!
The spinners are quite interesting as they were probably originally Aston ones. As a result, the centres had been cut out and a new circle of steel was let in with crudely stamped Facel Vega lettering. Unfortunately these are with the car down in Cornwall so I can't share a picture.
Around 2006 I managed to find a very affable Belgian man selling a set of four spinners from a Facel II at the Beaulieu Autojumble. I showed some interest and asked to have a look, as non-commitally as possible! There was no price ticket so I broached the question, having had a brief discussion about Facel Vegas. His response was £50. As I had already spoken to an English supplier of spinners earlier in the day, I knew the going rate was £85, so fifty quid seemed pretty reasonable as the spinners were perfect (but not stamped 'Facel Vega').
My quandary was did he mean £50 each, or £50 for the four! I hesitantly proffered £50 and waited to see what happened...the lovely man gave me all four spinners, thanked me for the purchase and wished me well with the car!
What a result...you can still find bargains at Beaulieu!
CAPP0 said:
Great thread OP, and I'm enjoying reading the history that comes with it and which you've unearthed.
Let's hope HWM were rather better at their chosen profession back when they had your car than they are these days - speaking from personal experience!
HWM, or rather the wholely owned offshoot called Intercontinental Cars that was the Facel Importer, often worked towards the edge of the envelope of what was legal. For instance, there was only one set of trade plates. This was a bit of an issue when they went down to Lydd in Kent to pick up cars off the 'Silver City' air ferry. The plane could carry four cars and so for the journey back to the workshop the cars had to be driven in convoy with a trade plate on the front car and the other one on the last car!Let's hope HWM were rather better at their chosen profession back when they had your car than they are these days - speaking from personal experience!
The way they managed their stock was quite inventive and often involved the help of one Bernie Ecclestone, then a thriving London second hand car dealer. But, HWM were only conducting business the way most other franchises were in the early 1960s.
I had professional experience of them in the early 2000s as they held a Volkswagen franchise. Mike Harting, who joined HWM as a salesman (and shareholder) in 1959 was at the helm. I have to say he was a real gentleman.
As an aside, when Mike heard I was restoring a Facel he gave me photograph of Stirling Moss taking delivery of his HK500 that had hung in the showroom. He also promised me a white silk scarf if I finished the car. These scarves were given to each HK500 purchaser and Mike had a couple left in a cupboard somewhere. Given the length of time it has taken, I suspect that deal is off!
Here's the showroom picture in its current home...
Following on from my post about the HK being used as a development car and then as a demonstrator, I thought a couple of references to it in books might be of interest.
Published in 1990, Fred Hobbs' 'A Life with HWM' was about the only English language book that covered Facel Vega at that time. (There was a 'Cars in Profile' pamphlet penned by Michael Sedgewick that predated it.)
Fred Hobbs writes:
'The first batch (of HK500s) sold at once but, as before, we kept one for demonstrations, Abecassis' personal use and to use as a 'guinea pig'. This car did 25000 miles in our hands (actually much more) and was exemplary. We carried out numerous experiments with such things as plugs, brake pads, dampers etc and the car, when sold carried on to a mileage of 52000 when I last saw it in November 1962. Its present whereabouts is unknown.'
(Fred Hobbs/Foulis Publishing/Haynes Publishing)
The additions in parenthesis in the copy are mine.
Then in 2007 Martin Buckley wrote 'Facel Vega; Grand Luxe Sportif' for Palawan Press. Finally, there was a decent book covering Facel.
In it Martin Buckley mentions 500 HPA a couple of times. Apparently Mr Abecassis would visit the dealership most days. When it was time to leave, the workshop staff at the adjacent garage would stop to watch him wheelspin his way out, as he did it every day!
There is also an anecdote about one particularly hairy test drive that ended in a purchase plus a boast that the buyer would break his car within 6 months. Apparently it took two years, but he eventually managed to strip the teeth off third gear! That test drive would have been in my car.
As a preview of things to come, the piston tops bore the scars of that and similar encounters...
Ouch!
Published in 1990, Fred Hobbs' 'A Life with HWM' was about the only English language book that covered Facel Vega at that time. (There was a 'Cars in Profile' pamphlet penned by Michael Sedgewick that predated it.)
Fred Hobbs writes:
'The first batch (of HK500s) sold at once but, as before, we kept one for demonstrations, Abecassis' personal use and to use as a 'guinea pig'. This car did 25000 miles in our hands (actually much more) and was exemplary. We carried out numerous experiments with such things as plugs, brake pads, dampers etc and the car, when sold carried on to a mileage of 52000 when I last saw it in November 1962. Its present whereabouts is unknown.'
(Fred Hobbs/Foulis Publishing/Haynes Publishing)
The additions in parenthesis in the copy are mine.
Then in 2007 Martin Buckley wrote 'Facel Vega; Grand Luxe Sportif' for Palawan Press. Finally, there was a decent book covering Facel.
In it Martin Buckley mentions 500 HPA a couple of times. Apparently Mr Abecassis would visit the dealership most days. When it was time to leave, the workshop staff at the adjacent garage would stop to watch him wheelspin his way out, as he did it every day!
There is also an anecdote about one particularly hairy test drive that ended in a purchase plus a boast that the buyer would break his car within 6 months. Apparently it took two years, but he eventually managed to strip the teeth off third gear! That test drive would have been in my car.
As a preview of things to come, the piston tops bore the scars of that and similar encounters...
Ouch!
OK. Let's complete the history and then get back to the story of the restoration.
The car came with both a buff and a green log book. Interestingly, a replacement buff log book was issued in January 1962 at just the time HWM/Intercontinental Cars were selling my car. All reference to its first owner being HWM and its use as a demonstrator were therefore deleted.
2nd owner: D H Adams, 20th January 1962.
I wonder if the second owner, D H Adams was aware of its history when he bought the car? It was a company purchase for D H Adams (Investments) Ltd, obviously for Mr Adams himself as he signed the log book. The car was registered at the company address of 11, Royal Crescent Mews, London W11. Interestingly, his address is now home to Palawan Press which publishes investment quality, limited edition books. The Facel Vega tome pictured previously is one of their offerings. A further coincidence is that the owner of Palawan has a couple of Facels. What are the chances of his business premises having once been the registered address of a Facel in period?
I couldn't find any record of Mr Adams on line and D H Adams (Investments) Ltd is no longer trading.
Mr Adams didn't keep the car very long and by October it moved on to its next keeper.
3rd owner: Edward George Wace, 19th October 1962.
Mr Wace was from the other side of the City, based in Farringdon Road, EC1. He kept the car until late 1966. Again, good old Google came up with nothing on Mr Wace.
4th owner: William Leslie Morgan, 8th December 1966.
At the end of 1966 the Facel left the city behind and took up residence in Exmouth with Mr Morgan. On a visit to see the car in Cornwall I made a detour to Exmouth on the way home. I was keen to see where my car had been in the late 1960s. This is Alma House today (like so many large properties it is now split into flats). It's quite an imposing place...
No traces on the web of Mr Morgan either, although there are a couple of military references from WWII that could be him.
In 1969 the Morgans moved from Devon to Rugby in Warwickshire. At some stage in 1972 I assume Mr Morgan sadly died as ownership passed to his wife.
5th owner: Hilda Morgan, 23rd May 1972.
The house the Morgan's were living in in Rugby is now a solicitor's offices, so the trail goes cold. I suspect Mrs Morgan used the car very little, if at all. In December 1973 the road fund license was cancelled, suggesting the car was laid up.
There was a new green log book issued in May 1976 which still showed Hilda Morgan as the keeper and showed the car was licensed again.
6th owner: Steve Horsley, late 1970s.
At this point the paper trail runs out, but conversations kick in! I managed to trace Steve Horsley to a garage in north Northamptonshire and eventually made contact. Steve wasn't sure quite when he'd bought the car, but he purchased it at an auction at Castle Ashby as part of the estate of Hilda Morgan.
Steve bought the car intending to restore it, as he was in the motor trade and used to like unusual cars. He stored the car in a unit somewhere locally and started to strip it down. I don't think he got very far. At some stage the windscreen was broken (smashed would be a better word) and after that another resident of the unit decided to do some shot blasting right next to the Facel. As a result one side of the car was peppered with shot. The paintwork was rough anyway, so that didn't matter too much. What did matter was all the glass down one side was pitted along with the irreplaceable stainless trims that run the length of the car.
This was too much for Steve and with a heavy heart he sold it to the local restoration company run by Geoff Pugh and his partner. I'm not sure when the sale took place, but as Geoff told me he had had the car for about twelve years I guess it was around 1987.
7th owner: GB Car Centre, around 1987.
We are now back to where this thread began!
Next I'll pick up the restoration story in 2006, around seven years in.
The car came with both a buff and a green log book. Interestingly, a replacement buff log book was issued in January 1962 at just the time HWM/Intercontinental Cars were selling my car. All reference to its first owner being HWM and its use as a demonstrator were therefore deleted.
2nd owner: D H Adams, 20th January 1962.
I wonder if the second owner, D H Adams was aware of its history when he bought the car? It was a company purchase for D H Adams (Investments) Ltd, obviously for Mr Adams himself as he signed the log book. The car was registered at the company address of 11, Royal Crescent Mews, London W11. Interestingly, his address is now home to Palawan Press which publishes investment quality, limited edition books. The Facel Vega tome pictured previously is one of their offerings. A further coincidence is that the owner of Palawan has a couple of Facels. What are the chances of his business premises having once been the registered address of a Facel in period?
I couldn't find any record of Mr Adams on line and D H Adams (Investments) Ltd is no longer trading.
Mr Adams didn't keep the car very long and by October it moved on to its next keeper.
3rd owner: Edward George Wace, 19th October 1962.
Mr Wace was from the other side of the City, based in Farringdon Road, EC1. He kept the car until late 1966. Again, good old Google came up with nothing on Mr Wace.
4th owner: William Leslie Morgan, 8th December 1966.
At the end of 1966 the Facel left the city behind and took up residence in Exmouth with Mr Morgan. On a visit to see the car in Cornwall I made a detour to Exmouth on the way home. I was keen to see where my car had been in the late 1960s. This is Alma House today (like so many large properties it is now split into flats). It's quite an imposing place...
No traces on the web of Mr Morgan either, although there are a couple of military references from WWII that could be him.
In 1969 the Morgans moved from Devon to Rugby in Warwickshire. At some stage in 1972 I assume Mr Morgan sadly died as ownership passed to his wife.
5th owner: Hilda Morgan, 23rd May 1972.
The house the Morgan's were living in in Rugby is now a solicitor's offices, so the trail goes cold. I suspect Mrs Morgan used the car very little, if at all. In December 1973 the road fund license was cancelled, suggesting the car was laid up.
There was a new green log book issued in May 1976 which still showed Hilda Morgan as the keeper and showed the car was licensed again.
6th owner: Steve Horsley, late 1970s.
At this point the paper trail runs out, but conversations kick in! I managed to trace Steve Horsley to a garage in north Northamptonshire and eventually made contact. Steve wasn't sure quite when he'd bought the car, but he purchased it at an auction at Castle Ashby as part of the estate of Hilda Morgan.
Steve bought the car intending to restore it, as he was in the motor trade and used to like unusual cars. He stored the car in a unit somewhere locally and started to strip it down. I don't think he got very far. At some stage the windscreen was broken (smashed would be a better word) and after that another resident of the unit decided to do some shot blasting right next to the Facel. As a result one side of the car was peppered with shot. The paintwork was rough anyway, so that didn't matter too much. What did matter was all the glass down one side was pitted along with the irreplaceable stainless trims that run the length of the car.
This was too much for Steve and with a heavy heart he sold it to the local restoration company run by Geoff Pugh and his partner. I'm not sure when the sale took place, but as Geoff told me he had had the car for about twelve years I guess it was around 1987.
7th owner: GB Car Centre, around 1987.
We are now back to where this thread began!
Next I'll pick up the restoration story in 2006, around seven years in.
BerrisfordMotors said:
Ours took a step forward today,headlights,bumpers and grills in,different restoration company taken over now after previous company's stalled,and we are moving forward quite quickly now??
OK, so much for the car's history. I hope you agree that it has an interesting past and can see why I have persevered over the years!
Now back to the story...
By the end of 2007 the car was making some progress.
Firstly, I had found someone to have another go at the dashboard painting. They came recommended through a friend who was thinking really left field. He had a friend who worked at Shepperton Studios painting sets for various productions. His reasoning was that she spent her life painting things to transform them into something else (usually items that were prohibitively expensive to purchase within the film budget).
Carol was intrigued with the idea of painting metal to look like wood. She had completed some projects like this on set, but they were never going to be subjected to any real scrutiny as they weren't the focus of attention. Painting a dashboard would need to be at a completely different level.
She read up on the subject and then agreed to 'have a go'. This time around money was not the only motivator, professional pride and the opportunity to prove she could turn her hand to anything were both high on the list.
With some trepidation I delivered the dash.
Carol put in a lot of hours...there are 16 layers of paint in some areas! Unlike the artists at the Facel factory who created dashboards that gave the impression of wood (look closely at an original panel and you'll see the 'grain' is actually nothing like wood), Carol went the whole nine yards. She even imitated the 'book ending' of veneers you would see on typical Rolls Royce dashboards where each side of the dash is a mirror image of each other in terms of the grain.
Not great pictures I'm afraid...
The overall effect
The 'book ending' on the centre console where the 'grain' is mirrored down the centreline
More of the detail...
Whilst this might not be true to the fairly heavy handed factory approach seen on many cars, my original dashboard finish was more like burr walnut, so perhaps customers could chose what type of wood they wanted? What you see here isn't a million miles away from the style used on my dash.
Early 2007 saw a concerted effort by an old school auto electrician to get to grips with connecting the wiring loom back up to the various electrical components with varying degrees of success! The indicators, which operate in the most complicated way known to man via an intricate 50 year old Bakolite confection that is as brittle as anything, refused to play ball. However, after a bit of perseverance most of it started showing signs of life.
By August we had the semblance of a car that moved under its own steam. One day that month I actually got to drive it across the yard, very slowly as the brakes needed bleeding. 30 yards in first gear.
First impression? I need a leg transplant...that clutch is monumentally heavy!
Subsequent impressions? Well, there aren't any...that's still the only time I have been behind the wheel!
Here are pictures taken on that day...
(I drove the car as far as the fence!)
This felt like real progress, but something was bothering me...
Up to this point the aim of the project was simply to get the car back on the road in good usable condition. To achieve this there was still a lot to do. The most expensive task would be painting the car.
In my book there is only one way to paint a car...and that's properly. Cut corners and it will only come back to bite you. So, assuming I commissioned a decent paint job, I was going to end up with a car that had reasonable bodywork, good mechanicals, excellent paint and interior. The stainless trim was a bit battered and the glass quite poor. I feared the really good bits would just make the rest look even more shonky.
In the meantime, along with other classic cars, Facel prices had been rising. Given the expenditure to date, this was a very good thing! However, proper restoration was beginning to become viable. At that time the very small UK stock of roadworthy HK500s were generally survivors rather than fully restored cars. Somehow, even the few that had been brought up to a high standard by Nigel Cooper in the late 1990s seemed to have lost some of their lustre. I didn't know of anyone at that time undertaking a full restoration that would result in a top notch UK RHD car. If any car deserved it, then mine did.
At the point I was thinking about this, most of the interior wasn't finally fitted and much of the glass wasn't in the car or was missing/damaged. Although it might not look like it from the pictures above, the car was little more than a rolling shell.
The car was in the capable hands of 586 Sports in Brackley, so I talked to Steve Black about how much extra it would cost to change tack and begin a full chassis off, ground up restoration.
As with all restorations, the answer turned out to be wildly different from the reality! However, with what we knew then and the assumptions we made, it seemed like a good idea. Cars for sale at the time highlighted the huge difference in price commanded by the best examples, evidence that a full scale restoration might be the better financial route, as well as being more satisfying.
So, in 2008 Steve began the strip down.
Now back to the story...
By the end of 2007 the car was making some progress.
Firstly, I had found someone to have another go at the dashboard painting. They came recommended through a friend who was thinking really left field. He had a friend who worked at Shepperton Studios painting sets for various productions. His reasoning was that she spent her life painting things to transform them into something else (usually items that were prohibitively expensive to purchase within the film budget).
Carol was intrigued with the idea of painting metal to look like wood. She had completed some projects like this on set, but they were never going to be subjected to any real scrutiny as they weren't the focus of attention. Painting a dashboard would need to be at a completely different level.
She read up on the subject and then agreed to 'have a go'. This time around money was not the only motivator, professional pride and the opportunity to prove she could turn her hand to anything were both high on the list.
With some trepidation I delivered the dash.
Carol put in a lot of hours...there are 16 layers of paint in some areas! Unlike the artists at the Facel factory who created dashboards that gave the impression of wood (look closely at an original panel and you'll see the 'grain' is actually nothing like wood), Carol went the whole nine yards. She even imitated the 'book ending' of veneers you would see on typical Rolls Royce dashboards where each side of the dash is a mirror image of each other in terms of the grain.
Not great pictures I'm afraid...
The overall effect
The 'book ending' on the centre console where the 'grain' is mirrored down the centreline
More of the detail...
Whilst this might not be true to the fairly heavy handed factory approach seen on many cars, my original dashboard finish was more like burr walnut, so perhaps customers could chose what type of wood they wanted? What you see here isn't a million miles away from the style used on my dash.
Early 2007 saw a concerted effort by an old school auto electrician to get to grips with connecting the wiring loom back up to the various electrical components with varying degrees of success! The indicators, which operate in the most complicated way known to man via an intricate 50 year old Bakolite confection that is as brittle as anything, refused to play ball. However, after a bit of perseverance most of it started showing signs of life.
By August we had the semblance of a car that moved under its own steam. One day that month I actually got to drive it across the yard, very slowly as the brakes needed bleeding. 30 yards in first gear.
First impression? I need a leg transplant...that clutch is monumentally heavy!
Subsequent impressions? Well, there aren't any...that's still the only time I have been behind the wheel!
Here are pictures taken on that day...
(I drove the car as far as the fence!)
This felt like real progress, but something was bothering me...
Up to this point the aim of the project was simply to get the car back on the road in good usable condition. To achieve this there was still a lot to do. The most expensive task would be painting the car.
In my book there is only one way to paint a car...and that's properly. Cut corners and it will only come back to bite you. So, assuming I commissioned a decent paint job, I was going to end up with a car that had reasonable bodywork, good mechanicals, excellent paint and interior. The stainless trim was a bit battered and the glass quite poor. I feared the really good bits would just make the rest look even more shonky.
In the meantime, along with other classic cars, Facel prices had been rising. Given the expenditure to date, this was a very good thing! However, proper restoration was beginning to become viable. At that time the very small UK stock of roadworthy HK500s were generally survivors rather than fully restored cars. Somehow, even the few that had been brought up to a high standard by Nigel Cooper in the late 1990s seemed to have lost some of their lustre. I didn't know of anyone at that time undertaking a full restoration that would result in a top notch UK RHD car. If any car deserved it, then mine did.
At the point I was thinking about this, most of the interior wasn't finally fitted and much of the glass wasn't in the car or was missing/damaged. Although it might not look like it from the pictures above, the car was little more than a rolling shell.
The car was in the capable hands of 586 Sports in Brackley, so I talked to Steve Black about how much extra it would cost to change tack and begin a full chassis off, ground up restoration.
As with all restorations, the answer turned out to be wildly different from the reality! However, with what we knew then and the assumptions we made, it seemed like a good idea. Cars for sale at the time highlighted the huge difference in price commanded by the best examples, evidence that a full scale restoration might be the better financial route, as well as being more satisfying.
So, in 2008 Steve began the strip down.
BerrisfordMotors said:
Not sure what stage you are at at this time,but I guess/hope you have a finished car by now,we will find out as the story continues,ours is certainly getting there now it is safer hands on the restoration side,so we should have two very nice HK500's on the road soon,it's my brother's car,he is in the Facel Vega club in the UK,I'm sure you could have a very interesting conversation together about almost identical long term Facel restoration,let me know if you would like his contact numbers,we should be traveling down to Maidstone to check on progress of ours in the next couple of weeks
I think it might turn into a very long commiseration, but I've sent you an email!My car is a probably a few days of work away from being MOTed, assuming all the things that were fixed early in the restoration choose to cooperate! The problem is persuading the restorer to find those few days...and that is turning into a real issue.
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