Facel Vega HK500. A childhood dream or a nightmare?
Discussion
P5BNij said:
Incredible cars, they just ooze sheer glamour. Ringo Starr bought one in 1964 but sold it four years later after almost writing it off in an accident.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ringo+starr+face...
Wacky Racer said:
P5BNij said:
Incredible cars, they just ooze sheer glamour. Ringo Starr bought one in 1964 but sold it four years later after almost writing it off in an accident.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ringo+starr+face...
The internet movie car database site doesn't list any Facels, but I'm sure I remember one being used as the main car in an early '60s black and white Euro flic, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was called.
P5BNij said:
I posted some of those images earlier in the thread
The internet movie car database site doesn't list any Facels, but I'm sure I remember one being used as the main car in an early '60s black and white Euro flic, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was called.
Fill your boots!The internet movie car database site doesn't list any Facels, but I'm sure I remember one being used as the main car in an early '60s black and white Euro flic, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was called.
https://www.imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=Facel+V%E9...
theadman said:
Congratulations Vixen1700! Is that one of Manny Motashaw's cars?
Thank you! Yes it was indeed owned by Manny Motashaw, he kindly drove us that day.
I was driving my old TVR Vixen back in the Summer of 1998 and stumbled across a pub car park in Cambridgeshire packed with Facels from France and found out it was something organised by him, so contacted him about our wedding.
Right, glass of red wine to hand, laptop fired up and on to the next installment!
Progress with the Facel was somewhat more glacial than usual from the end of 2000 through to around 2004 as life got in the way! June 2000 had seen us move to a cottage in a nearby village. I felt this was the house that was meant to be and was for keeps. At the time it seemed my wife felt the same way too. Consequently, we spent a lot of time, effort and money altering things to suit us. A custom made 'Facel House' was duly constructed in the garden which would provide enough room both for the car and for a workshop area (working on the flawed assumption that at some time in the future I would magically gain the skill to wield spanners without adult supervision)!
However, by the end of 2002 my marriage was at an end, the cottage was subsequently sold and a divorce settlement was in place. We both moved on, but remained on good terms. This is quite pertinent to the story; my ex understood my old car affliction and therefore didn't pursue the relatively small amount the wreck of a Facel represented in the winding up of all things 'us'. I was therefore able to keep it, even if affording to do things to it was now a moot point!
The car was now housed on a farm closer to where I lived. I spent around a year pretending that I was making progress working on the car myself...self delusion on a grand scale! What I did achieve was the creation of a list of all the jobs that would be required to return the car to the road. It was a bit daunting! The other thing I achieved was a detailed trawl through all the boxes of bits that had accompanied the car. This was both good and bad! I found stuff I thought was missing, but also found quite a few parts were wrong.
At this point stubbornness kicked in. My old boss was gracious enough to call it persistence! But, the reality was that I was a bit p
ed off with the hand that life had dealt me and just knuckled down to get the car moving forward.
A friend was in a position to work part time on the car. The clincher was that he had restored a Facel Vega Facellia in the past and was at least partially familiar with the weirder aspects of the brand. So, with high hopes, Dermot began working on the car.
For some reason I can't remember the rear axle was back out of the car again...I think it started with the rear springs. These had been retempered as part of the work during 2000, but I think I decided to go for new springs from Hans Ruhe. With the rear suspension off and the scope of works migrating from simply making the car roadworthy to a more thorough restoration, it made complete sense to paint the axle back from the garish red it had been to black, as it left the factory.
We ordered new wheels and tyres from MWS in 2004 as can be seen in the picture above. The original wheels came with the car. They were in poor condition, to the point where they appeared to be painted wires. On that basis I sourced silver painted replacements. More recently, using period photographs I have established that the car originally sat on chrome wires. In many ways the painted wires are the better option as the chroming process weakens the spokes. Back in the day Arnold Burton used to hill climb the forerunner to the HK500 and his chromed wires were always suffering from broken spokes.
Dermot was brave enough to raise the question of wiring and began to figure out what each wire did and the function of the random switches that were suspended on the loom around the car as their original resting places had long since been removed from the interior.
This was the type of thing he was up against! What on earth did these things do? Obviously, I didn't have a handbook or any form of workshop manual...I don't think Haynes would have made a profit on publishing one!
As an aside, Haynes do have an HK500 in their collection...sorry for the rather strange redness going on in the photo1
Whilst Dermot was beginning to grapple with the mechanical aspects of the car I started on some of the cosmetics.
Unfortunately the dashboard with its intricately painted 'wooden' appearance was too far gone to save. I hunted around for someone in the UK who was proficient in the Victorian art of 'scumbling'; painting pine to give it the grained appearance of more expensive woods or marble. A set of contacts in the antiques world led to a lady who worked from home and had created quite a name for herself. A trip to the Midlands and the handing over of a wad of notes together with the dashboard had work underway.
A few weeks later the dash was ready for collection. The results were rather underwhelming. It was immediately apparent that the techniques that worked well on wood didn't translate too well onto metal. Although the results were plainly far from good, the lady simply told me that it might improve with the application of many coats of bees wax and bid me farewell. The least I expected was some recognition that the job hadn't gone well and perhaps an element of further work to try and retrieve the situation. But, there was nothing of the sort! It seemed I was on my own.
From a distance it looked pretty good, as can be seen in this picture, but close up (as in sat in front of it the way you would when driving the car) it was an orange peeled mess.
I had rather more success with the leather trim. Although it was far too early to be thinking about the interior, an opportunity arose to use the services of a chap called Howard Buchanan who was trading as Leather Restorations in Finedon, Northamptonshire. Howard was on the verge of retiring and was clearing down his outstanding jobs. What he didn't know about bringing car interiors back from the brink wasn't worth knowing. I was very keen to retain the original leather, if at all possible. However, whilst the hides were dry and at the point of splitting, the real problem was that some kind of solvent had been spilled on the seats in a number of places, completely removing the finish.
Howard told me what I knew but didn't want to accept...the seats had long since passed the point of no return. It would need to be a complete retrim. As a concession he said he could save the backrest of the rear seat. That is now the only surviving part of the original interior.
Five hides later and many hours of hard work later the seats were done...
This is many years later when the interior was finally being reunited with the car.
I also pursued some of the missing parts, but more of that next time.
Progress with the Facel was somewhat more glacial than usual from the end of 2000 through to around 2004 as life got in the way! June 2000 had seen us move to a cottage in a nearby village. I felt this was the house that was meant to be and was for keeps. At the time it seemed my wife felt the same way too. Consequently, we spent a lot of time, effort and money altering things to suit us. A custom made 'Facel House' was duly constructed in the garden which would provide enough room both for the car and for a workshop area (working on the flawed assumption that at some time in the future I would magically gain the skill to wield spanners without adult supervision)!
However, by the end of 2002 my marriage was at an end, the cottage was subsequently sold and a divorce settlement was in place. We both moved on, but remained on good terms. This is quite pertinent to the story; my ex understood my old car affliction and therefore didn't pursue the relatively small amount the wreck of a Facel represented in the winding up of all things 'us'. I was therefore able to keep it, even if affording to do things to it was now a moot point!
The car was now housed on a farm closer to where I lived. I spent around a year pretending that I was making progress working on the car myself...self delusion on a grand scale! What I did achieve was the creation of a list of all the jobs that would be required to return the car to the road. It was a bit daunting! The other thing I achieved was a detailed trawl through all the boxes of bits that had accompanied the car. This was both good and bad! I found stuff I thought was missing, but also found quite a few parts were wrong.
At this point stubbornness kicked in. My old boss was gracious enough to call it persistence! But, the reality was that I was a bit p
ed off with the hand that life had dealt me and just knuckled down to get the car moving forward.A friend was in a position to work part time on the car. The clincher was that he had restored a Facel Vega Facellia in the past and was at least partially familiar with the weirder aspects of the brand. So, with high hopes, Dermot began working on the car.
For some reason I can't remember the rear axle was back out of the car again...I think it started with the rear springs. These had been retempered as part of the work during 2000, but I think I decided to go for new springs from Hans Ruhe. With the rear suspension off and the scope of works migrating from simply making the car roadworthy to a more thorough restoration, it made complete sense to paint the axle back from the garish red it had been to black, as it left the factory.
We ordered new wheels and tyres from MWS in 2004 as can be seen in the picture above. The original wheels came with the car. They were in poor condition, to the point where they appeared to be painted wires. On that basis I sourced silver painted replacements. More recently, using period photographs I have established that the car originally sat on chrome wires. In many ways the painted wires are the better option as the chroming process weakens the spokes. Back in the day Arnold Burton used to hill climb the forerunner to the HK500 and his chromed wires were always suffering from broken spokes.
Dermot was brave enough to raise the question of wiring and began to figure out what each wire did and the function of the random switches that were suspended on the loom around the car as their original resting places had long since been removed from the interior.
This was the type of thing he was up against! What on earth did these things do? Obviously, I didn't have a handbook or any form of workshop manual...I don't think Haynes would have made a profit on publishing one!
As an aside, Haynes do have an HK500 in their collection...sorry for the rather strange redness going on in the photo1
Whilst Dermot was beginning to grapple with the mechanical aspects of the car I started on some of the cosmetics.
Unfortunately the dashboard with its intricately painted 'wooden' appearance was too far gone to save. I hunted around for someone in the UK who was proficient in the Victorian art of 'scumbling'; painting pine to give it the grained appearance of more expensive woods or marble. A set of contacts in the antiques world led to a lady who worked from home and had created quite a name for herself. A trip to the Midlands and the handing over of a wad of notes together with the dashboard had work underway.
A few weeks later the dash was ready for collection. The results were rather underwhelming. It was immediately apparent that the techniques that worked well on wood didn't translate too well onto metal. Although the results were plainly far from good, the lady simply told me that it might improve with the application of many coats of bees wax and bid me farewell. The least I expected was some recognition that the job hadn't gone well and perhaps an element of further work to try and retrieve the situation. But, there was nothing of the sort! It seemed I was on my own.
From a distance it looked pretty good, as can be seen in this picture, but close up (as in sat in front of it the way you would when driving the car) it was an orange peeled mess.
I had rather more success with the leather trim. Although it was far too early to be thinking about the interior, an opportunity arose to use the services of a chap called Howard Buchanan who was trading as Leather Restorations in Finedon, Northamptonshire. Howard was on the verge of retiring and was clearing down his outstanding jobs. What he didn't know about bringing car interiors back from the brink wasn't worth knowing. I was very keen to retain the original leather, if at all possible. However, whilst the hides were dry and at the point of splitting, the real problem was that some kind of solvent had been spilled on the seats in a number of places, completely removing the finish.
Howard told me what I knew but didn't want to accept...the seats had long since passed the point of no return. It would need to be a complete retrim. As a concession he said he could save the backrest of the rear seat. That is now the only surviving part of the original interior.
Five hides later and many hours of hard work later the seats were done...
This is many years later when the interior was finally being reunited with the car.
I also pursued some of the missing parts, but more of that next time.
Williamp the dashboard is indeed painted metal. If my memory serves me correctly, there was one man at the Facel factory who was skilled in this, so the majority of the dashboards were painted by him over the 10 year production run of Facels.
As an option you could have the dashboard painted body colour or covered in leather. Not many took up either of these options as the painted dash looked so opulent and convincing.
This is an original Facel II dashboard, photographed when the car was around 12 years old. (Sorry for the quality of my 1960s Kodak Retinette and flash bulb)
As an option you could have the dashboard painted body colour or covered in leather. Not many took up either of these options as the painted dash looked so opulent and convincing.
This is an original Facel II dashboard, photographed when the car was around 12 years old. (Sorry for the quality of my 1960s Kodak Retinette and flash bulb)
P5BNij said:
Not wishing to be rude to the lady in question – who later went on to become a bestseller writer – but Cardinale had a much sweeter (and more intriguing) face. Also: British numberplate (41YPK)If what a certain Mr wilde_ says in this French website is to be believed, the car itself is rather interesting:
https://forum-auto.caradisiac.com/topic/374205-top...
Translated: "This car is the HK500 that Rob Walker used to own: registered ROB2, chassis number HK1BY5. Presenly being restored in the Netherlands"
Note that the post is dated October 2015.
Back to the girl... it seems she is Jackie Collins, as in the sister of Joan.
Wonderful pictures as usual, Mr P5BNij, even if your sources sometimes mislead you (bet you found it in that American website!).
Vivement les nouvelles de M. theadman!
Edited by Mefistofele on Saturday 5th November 14:01
jamesson said:
What an absolutely fantastic motor car. I look forward to reading about its progress. Congratulations on owning such a fine machine!
Thank you jamesson! It is a fantastic thing to own, but there has been a bit of a love-hate relationship over my 23 years of ownership. I'm in so deep there is only one way out...get it finished!!Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff