Facel Vega HK500. A childhood dream or a nightmare?
Discussion
Let's start with a confession...
Sharing this is not just about enlightening those few who might be interested in an obscure French car that most people have never heard of; I'm hoping it might also be therapeutic for me...a kind of virtual psychiatrist's couch!
For many of my friends I am defined by my efforts to return a Facel Vega HK500 to the road. Conversations with them will barely last a couple of minutes before they pop the inevitable question...'How's the Facel coming along?' At that point I usually delve deep into the book of excuses or try to change the subject! It hasn't been an easy ride!
You see, I bought the car in August 1999...and it's still not finished 22 years later. The chap I bought it off had been restoring it for 12 years and the owner before him for around the same amount of time.
Here's the car looking pretty much as I bought it, although plenty of work had already taken place by the time these pictures were taken around 2003.
So, how did I end up owning this rather forlorn relic?
I think most of us can trace our passion or even obsession for a particular make or model to our childhood. For me two things are to blame for Facel Vega fever. One was the 1964 Observer Book of Cars I was probably given as a present. Within its pages detailing Aston Martins, Maseratis, Ferraris and Jaguars, were two pages devoted to Facel Vega. The little Facel III convertible was of little appeal. The same couldn't be said of the Facel II. As a seven year old I only had eyes for the maximum power statistics. 390bhp for the manual car blitzed most of the competition; Aston 282bhp, Maserati 260bhp, Ferrari 300bhp and Jaguar 265. Only the Corvette got close in 375bhp fuel injected form.
The second was a brief encounter in France in 1965. I was on holiday with my parents, driving along one of those straight, tree lined Route Nationale in our Morris Oxford. Dad wasn't dawdling, but we were overtaken by someone in a Facel II that made it look like we were standing still. I was mesmerised.
In my teens I found out that someone who owned a garage near Banbury had several Facels and so I duly cycled a 50 mile round trip to go and see them. I've posted these pictures from around 1974 before.
The dashboard of the Facel II really captured my imagination.
Apart from a half hearted attempt to help set up a UK Facel Club whilst I was at University, active involvement in Facel Vegas lay dormant for more than 20 years. By the late 1990s I was married with young children and an E-Type in the garage. My wife pointed out on a number of occasions that the Jaguar was pretty useless as we couldn't all fit in it.
Having duly sold the E-Type the search was in full swing to find a replacement with four seats. Several cars were considered (Silver Shadow/T Series, Alvis TE21, BMW 3.0CSi, Jaguar MkII) but none of them really appealed enough to take the plunge.
One day in August 1999 a friend who worked for Motor Sport magazine phoned me and asked if I had seen that there was a Facel HK500 for sale. Knowing that I would be interested, he had already phoned the vendor to check it was still available! What's more, it was only an hour's drive from home.
Within 24 hours the deal was done and my life with a Facel Vega began. Sadly I have no pictures of the car as I picked it up.
Until I can continue the story, here's a gratuitous picture from the 2018 Goodwood Revival when the UK Club joined forces with the French Amicale Facel Vega resulting in the largest gathering of Facels the UK has seen in many years.
Sharing this is not just about enlightening those few who might be interested in an obscure French car that most people have never heard of; I'm hoping it might also be therapeutic for me...a kind of virtual psychiatrist's couch!
For many of my friends I am defined by my efforts to return a Facel Vega HK500 to the road. Conversations with them will barely last a couple of minutes before they pop the inevitable question...'How's the Facel coming along?' At that point I usually delve deep into the book of excuses or try to change the subject! It hasn't been an easy ride!
You see, I bought the car in August 1999...and it's still not finished 22 years later. The chap I bought it off had been restoring it for 12 years and the owner before him for around the same amount of time.
Here's the car looking pretty much as I bought it, although plenty of work had already taken place by the time these pictures were taken around 2003.
So, how did I end up owning this rather forlorn relic?
I think most of us can trace our passion or even obsession for a particular make or model to our childhood. For me two things are to blame for Facel Vega fever. One was the 1964 Observer Book of Cars I was probably given as a present. Within its pages detailing Aston Martins, Maseratis, Ferraris and Jaguars, were two pages devoted to Facel Vega. The little Facel III convertible was of little appeal. The same couldn't be said of the Facel II. As a seven year old I only had eyes for the maximum power statistics. 390bhp for the manual car blitzed most of the competition; Aston 282bhp, Maserati 260bhp, Ferrari 300bhp and Jaguar 265. Only the Corvette got close in 375bhp fuel injected form.
The second was a brief encounter in France in 1965. I was on holiday with my parents, driving along one of those straight, tree lined Route Nationale in our Morris Oxford. Dad wasn't dawdling, but we were overtaken by someone in a Facel II that made it look like we were standing still. I was mesmerised.
In my teens I found out that someone who owned a garage near Banbury had several Facels and so I duly cycled a 50 mile round trip to go and see them. I've posted these pictures from around 1974 before.
The dashboard of the Facel II really captured my imagination.
Apart from a half hearted attempt to help set up a UK Facel Club whilst I was at University, active involvement in Facel Vegas lay dormant for more than 20 years. By the late 1990s I was married with young children and an E-Type in the garage. My wife pointed out on a number of occasions that the Jaguar was pretty useless as we couldn't all fit in it.
Having duly sold the E-Type the search was in full swing to find a replacement with four seats. Several cars were considered (Silver Shadow/T Series, Alvis TE21, BMW 3.0CSi, Jaguar MkII) but none of them really appealed enough to take the plunge.
One day in August 1999 a friend who worked for Motor Sport magazine phoned me and asked if I had seen that there was a Facel HK500 for sale. Knowing that I would be interested, he had already phoned the vendor to check it was still available! What's more, it was only an hour's drive from home.
Within 24 hours the deal was done and my life with a Facel Vega began. Sadly I have no pictures of the car as I picked it up.
Until I can continue the story, here's a gratuitous picture from the 2018 Goodwood Revival when the UK Club joined forces with the French Amicale Facel Vega resulting in the largest gathering of Facels the UK has seen in many years.
Well I never! I didn't expect the level of interest you guys have shown so far.
Thanks for all the comments and encouragement. As I am now realising, it is quite difficult to start a Reader's Cars thread 22 years in! I'll try and run through events in a chronological order as far as I can remember them...I'll get on to the next installment this evening, but first a few answers...
fftm, chunkychucky and Cambs_Stuart; thank you for the encouragement!
Jhonno and B'stardChild; maybe going public will force more progress. The real issue though is that whilst I understand fairly well how cars work, attach me to the end of a spanner and I'm hopeless. That being the case, progress has been driven by three things; finding someone capable of coping with the bizarre and sometimes formidable complexity of these hand built cars, the availability of money to pay them and access to their time. It is the last of these three that has determined the pace of progress over the last seven years and that is really frustrating.
When I read a thread like gary71's My 911T I'm just in awe. He welds his car, he fixes the mechanical bits, he writes well and to top it all, he takes amazing photos. That thread is the benchmark and actually was the catalyst for me to embark on this.
RC1807; the engine in this manual car is a 361cu in Chrysler motor with 'wedge' combustion chambers, specifically used in the De Soto Adventurer. De Soto rated it at 345hp (SAE gross). That wasn't quite enough for Facel which immediately claimed 360hp. It is very doubtful that anything was done to justify the higher figure. For reference, the manual cars had dual four barrel Carter carbs, the autos had a single carb and were rated at 305hp (De Soto) but 330hp by Facel. Sometime during 1959 Chrysler started supplying the updated 383cu in engine. It seems that Facel didn't notice for a while and so the exact change over point is lost in the mists of time!
With regard to the Morris Oxford, I was very careful with my wording! I said Dad wasn't dawdling as he was a press on sort of driver. However, as you say, pressing on was a relative thing in that car (I recall we were traveling at 60-70mph as at that age my eyes were often glued to the speedo!)
Mercdriver; the change from HK500 to Isetta must have been interesting on many levels! The styling of all Facels was done in house by Jean Daninos who founded the company, but there are influences you can see from the US and the European styling houses.
Thanks also to those of you who have posted additional comments and pictures. The next bit of my story may be long on words and short on pictures as I never thought to take photos in the early years. So, please keep adding Facel related pictures!
Thanks for all the comments and encouragement. As I am now realising, it is quite difficult to start a Reader's Cars thread 22 years in! I'll try and run through events in a chronological order as far as I can remember them...I'll get on to the next installment this evening, but first a few answers...
fftm, chunkychucky and Cambs_Stuart; thank you for the encouragement!
Jhonno and B'stardChild; maybe going public will force more progress. The real issue though is that whilst I understand fairly well how cars work, attach me to the end of a spanner and I'm hopeless. That being the case, progress has been driven by three things; finding someone capable of coping with the bizarre and sometimes formidable complexity of these hand built cars, the availability of money to pay them and access to their time. It is the last of these three that has determined the pace of progress over the last seven years and that is really frustrating.
When I read a thread like gary71's My 911T I'm just in awe. He welds his car, he fixes the mechanical bits, he writes well and to top it all, he takes amazing photos. That thread is the benchmark and actually was the catalyst for me to embark on this.
RC1807; the engine in this manual car is a 361cu in Chrysler motor with 'wedge' combustion chambers, specifically used in the De Soto Adventurer. De Soto rated it at 345hp (SAE gross). That wasn't quite enough for Facel which immediately claimed 360hp. It is very doubtful that anything was done to justify the higher figure. For reference, the manual cars had dual four barrel Carter carbs, the autos had a single carb and were rated at 305hp (De Soto) but 330hp by Facel. Sometime during 1959 Chrysler started supplying the updated 383cu in engine. It seems that Facel didn't notice for a while and so the exact change over point is lost in the mists of time!
With regard to the Morris Oxford, I was very careful with my wording! I said Dad wasn't dawdling as he was a press on sort of driver. However, as you say, pressing on was a relative thing in that car (I recall we were traveling at 60-70mph as at that age my eyes were often glued to the speedo!)
Mercdriver; the change from HK500 to Isetta must have been interesting on many levels! The styling of all Facels was done in house by Jean Daninos who founded the company, but there are influences you can see from the US and the European styling houses.
Thanks also to those of you who have posted additional comments and pictures. The next bit of my story may be long on words and short on pictures as I never thought to take photos in the early years. So, please keep adding Facel related pictures!
LarJammer said:
Isn't the dash on these actually metal. Painted to look like wood? That must be a very specialised job!
The dashboard on almost all Facels is indeed painted metal. Customers could specify leather instead or could have the dash painted body colour, although few took up either of these options.The finish on my dashboard had deteriorated quite badly so I had to have it refinished. Firstly I went to someone who came highly recommended as she was an expert in 'scumbling', a Victorian practice of painting grain onto pine to make it look like a more expensive wood. As it happened, painting metal seemed to be a rather different technique and I paid a lot of money to end up with something that looked worse than it had originally!
So, I had the dash repainted a second time, this time by an artist who worked on props at Elstree Studios. I'm very happy with the results...
Jhonno said:
Where are you based? What is the scope of works?
The car is agonisingly close to completion...a couple of full days should have it ready for an MOT (I know it doesn't need one, but after all this time a second pair of eyes won't go amiss). This rather optimistically assumes stuff repaired 20 years ago, remains repaired when pressed into service!I'm in the Midlands, but the car is with one of the very few people who can claim to be a serial Facel restorer. He's based in Cornwall (which isn't as convenient as it might be)!
williamp said:
Back in the late 90s I did a brewery tour of a kent brewer and he had an hk500 in an outbuilding, ripe for restoration. And in kent someone I once knew called (i think) Eric had one, and an Aston V8
So yes please to more of the car!
More of the car to follow and thanks for the encouragement!So yes please to more of the car!
If the Eric in question was Eric Philpott, he had a number of Facels, including the ex Ringo Starr car which P5BNij posted pictures of above. Sadly, he is no longer with us and EPH 4B was subsequently restored to its former glory by Justin Banks (P5BNij's post also shows it post restoration).
Dr Jekyll said:
I saw what I was sure was a Facel Vega in a car park in Hatfield many years ago, but it had a badge saying 'Delage'. Anybody know what I actually saw?
Many people thought Facel Vega took over from where the pre war prestige French brands left off, particularly Delahaye and Delage. There was a Facel (Facellia I think) that someone converted into a Delage homage, complete with 3 litre Delage straight six, curiously revised front styling and Delage badges. Maybe this is what you saw?Link to a picture from the Mythique Facel Vega thread on the French Caradisiac site (well worth a look, if you are interested in Facels)
https://content-eu.invisioncic.com/m304542/monthly...
...anyway, back to the story.
So, in August 1999 I bought the HK...or at least most of it!
The previous owner (Geoff) was a partner in a car restoration business. He had owned the Facel for around 12 years and during that time he had tackled the bodywork, usually the thing that causes most grief. Facels left to their own devices for too long start to disintegrate from the bottom up, so the fact this wasn't an issue was a big factor in buying the car.
Unfortunately, Geoff's business partner had suffered a heart attack and could no longer work. As he was the one with the restoration skills the business was wound up and Geoff was left with the task of selling the inventory.
Geoff may not have tackled the restorations himself, but he was obviously highly proficient in taking cars apart and scattering all the bits across a rather large mezzanine floor. Labelling took a back seat in this process!
Picture the scene...I turn up to pick up the car. There is one large piece which has the engine, transmission and running gear attached to it. The dashboard, steering wheel and pedals are all where you would expect them to be, so this chunk of metal can be winched onto a trailer.
There are also a reassuring number of fairly large, recognisable bits that are obviously part of an HK500; doors, seats, bumpers, that kind of thing.
And then there are a few boxes full of smaller items right down to loose screws rattling around in the bottom.
Whilst my friend Norman loaded the car up I was frantically going through the boxes trying to spot what's missing. Understanding what's not there is much, much harder than establishing what's there, if you see what I mean!
It occurs to me that there is no glazing for the doors...side windows and quarter lights are missing.
At this point Geoff utters the immortal words 'Oh, they might be on the mezzanine'. He then takes me upstairs and explains that scattered across the floor and on racking are most of the parts from two Maserati 3500GTs, a couple of Ponton Merc 220S cabrios, numerous E-Types and MkII Jaguars and a special bodied Healey, all garnished with a selection of parts from more mundane modern cars. Oh, and somewhere in there might be my Facel bits!
The mezzanine was groaning under the weight of all this stuff and none of it was in any order. The only thing I could do was to go back another day and sift through all these parts.
It was hot that August. It was ten times hotter on that mezzanine floor where I eventually spent three days combing through all those parts.
Having had several E-Types I was pretty proficient at identifying the Jaguar bits...and there were plenty of them!
I managed to find quite a few Facel bits...but it became clear that pieces of a Facel II Geoff had sold previously were still lurking around up there.
Unintentionally, I came away with a mouldy old carpet set from a 3500GT and some interior trim from a Ponton Merc!
If someone on here needs the stainless kick plates from the rear interior trim of a 220S Coupe or Cabrio I might know someone who has a pair. Ditto brand new rear exhaust boxes for a Facel II.
Disappointingly, I knew there were some missing parts, the most important being the complete rear light assemblies and the corresponding trims that run half the length of the rear wings. Much of the stainless trim that adorns the lower body had also gone AWOL. All these are made from the finest unobtainium!
So, by the end of August 1999 I had most of a Facel Vega temporarily stored at Norman's workshop. How I wish, I'd taken some pictures!
As I hadn't, here are a couple from later that show some of the welding that had been completed by Geoff's business. These pictures are just a small sample of the work done...they were actually taken to show other things. In all the time since I have only found and had repaired two other tiny areas of rust.
At that stage I was confident the car could be on the road in six months...ready for Spring 2000. What could possibly go wrong?
So, in August 1999 I bought the HK...or at least most of it!
The previous owner (Geoff) was a partner in a car restoration business. He had owned the Facel for around 12 years and during that time he had tackled the bodywork, usually the thing that causes most grief. Facels left to their own devices for too long start to disintegrate from the bottom up, so the fact this wasn't an issue was a big factor in buying the car.
Unfortunately, Geoff's business partner had suffered a heart attack and could no longer work. As he was the one with the restoration skills the business was wound up and Geoff was left with the task of selling the inventory.
Geoff may not have tackled the restorations himself, but he was obviously highly proficient in taking cars apart and scattering all the bits across a rather large mezzanine floor. Labelling took a back seat in this process!
Picture the scene...I turn up to pick up the car. There is one large piece which has the engine, transmission and running gear attached to it. The dashboard, steering wheel and pedals are all where you would expect them to be, so this chunk of metal can be winched onto a trailer.
There are also a reassuring number of fairly large, recognisable bits that are obviously part of an HK500; doors, seats, bumpers, that kind of thing.
And then there are a few boxes full of smaller items right down to loose screws rattling around in the bottom.
Whilst my friend Norman loaded the car up I was frantically going through the boxes trying to spot what's missing. Understanding what's not there is much, much harder than establishing what's there, if you see what I mean!
It occurs to me that there is no glazing for the doors...side windows and quarter lights are missing.
At this point Geoff utters the immortal words 'Oh, they might be on the mezzanine'. He then takes me upstairs and explains that scattered across the floor and on racking are most of the parts from two Maserati 3500GTs, a couple of Ponton Merc 220S cabrios, numerous E-Types and MkII Jaguars and a special bodied Healey, all garnished with a selection of parts from more mundane modern cars. Oh, and somewhere in there might be my Facel bits!
The mezzanine was groaning under the weight of all this stuff and none of it was in any order. The only thing I could do was to go back another day and sift through all these parts.
It was hot that August. It was ten times hotter on that mezzanine floor where I eventually spent three days combing through all those parts.
Having had several E-Types I was pretty proficient at identifying the Jaguar bits...and there were plenty of them!
I managed to find quite a few Facel bits...but it became clear that pieces of a Facel II Geoff had sold previously were still lurking around up there.
Unintentionally, I came away with a mouldy old carpet set from a 3500GT and some interior trim from a Ponton Merc!
If someone on here needs the stainless kick plates from the rear interior trim of a 220S Coupe or Cabrio I might know someone who has a pair. Ditto brand new rear exhaust boxes for a Facel II.
Disappointingly, I knew there were some missing parts, the most important being the complete rear light assemblies and the corresponding trims that run half the length of the rear wings. Much of the stainless trim that adorns the lower body had also gone AWOL. All these are made from the finest unobtainium!
So, by the end of August 1999 I had most of a Facel Vega temporarily stored at Norman's workshop. How I wish, I'd taken some pictures!
As I hadn't, here are a couple from later that show some of the welding that had been completed by Geoff's business. These pictures are just a small sample of the work done...they were actually taken to show other things. In all the time since I have only found and had repaired two other tiny areas of rust.
At that stage I was confident the car could be on the road in six months...ready for Spring 2000. What could possibly go wrong?
P5BNij said:
Great photos as always P5BNij.
The one above I believe is Lionel Bart who was a big name around the time the Facel II was launched. He walked onto the Motor Show stand and demanded he had the car that was sitting there immediately. The Facel stand staff tried to put him off, but he was having none of it so he was soon driving around in the car.
What he didn't know was that Facel specially prepared their show cars. Past experience had shown that the sealant used behind the stainless steel window surrounds used to melt under the stand lights causing a real headache for the car cleaners. Cars destined for motor show duty were built without sealant, which was important as the trims were secured through the roof using what appear to be cut off bicycle spokes. The little nuts on the spokes were then used to pull the trim down.
In normal circumstances show cars returned to HWM and the sealant was applied before sale. Not this time. Mr Bart soon became quite soggy as did the car interior. I'm not sure how the story ended.
Mr Camus met his end in an FV3B, the precursor to the HK500.
Mr Tidy said:
Fantastic thread. 
Great cars that I may have loved more if my first Observers book had been from 1964, but it was 1965 so I fell in love with Gordon Keebles instead!
I have been on the brink of buying a Gordon Keeble a couple of times. In many ways it's a better car than the HK, particularly dynamically.Great cars that I may have loved more if my first Observers book had been from 1964, but it was 1965 so I fell in love with Gordon Keebles instead!
Living not far from Brackley, I visited Ernie Knott who was the man for Gordon Keebles. He had a custard yellow one for sale at his workshop with an off white interior. It wasn't in the best cosmetic condition and Ernie wanted what I thought was strong money for it, so I walked away.
Many years later, after Ernie retired, the company that was working on the Facel bought his old workshop. My Facel sat for several years exactly where that yellow GK had been parked. It felt like a strange coincidence.
The Surveyor said:
These Facel Vega’s are so special and what an epic project OP.
The French produced some beautiful cars in the 50’s and 60’s and it would be a tough choice between that grey FV at Justin Banks or the Talbot Lago T26 Grandsport which is for sale at the Car Barn in Beamish, co. Durham
Thanks, it has been quite a journey with the HK. I was in awe of your Maserati Mexico restoration a few years ago. What a car that was!The French produced some beautiful cars in the 50’s and 60’s and it would be a tough choice between that grey FV at Justin Banks or the Talbot Lago T26 Grandsport which is for sale at the Car Barn in Beamish, co. Durham
Once again, thanks to everyone for their good wishes and contributions.
Now, back to the saga...
As previously mentioned, I've been fascinated by Facel Vegas since childhood. Over the years I've always gravitated towards them whenever they have been at shows and events. Sometime in the mid '90s the Facel Club had a stand at the Silverstone Classic (which was called something else in those days). I spent some time on the stand talking to John Barton about the practicality of ownership. To my surprise he said he had bought the entire Facel factory parts stock, so finding parts would not be too much of a problem. He also quoted some very reasonable prices, using the dashboard gauges as an example.
Thinking back to that conversation I contacted John as soon as I purchased the car. Unfortunately for me, he had subsequently sold the vast majority of parts on to someone in Germany, but he had held back some stock. My first trip was to visit John in Sussex to buy some of the badges I knew my car was missing. John's place was like an Aladdin's cave, full of Bugatti and Facel related stuff. However, there had obviously been rampant inflation in the Facel parts market since our initial conversation, so I reigned in my desire to buy just about everything I might possibly need!!
Don't get me wrong, John was extremely helpful then and has been many times since, but I just didn't have the budget that seemed to be required to dive straight in. I would have to pace my purchases.
That left a bit of a dilemma. How could I source the parts John couldn't supply as and when I required them? It seems strange now, but the internet was in its infancy. The web might have been world wide, but access wasn't. The best way to get on the inside track was via a car club, in this instance the French Amicale Facel Vega. Through people who knew other people I began to create a set of contacts that was to prove vital to the project.
The fax machine at work was pressed into service. A contact in the States sent me a list of Facel parts he was selling. Two new old stock sets of Facel Vega letters (for the front and rear of the car) and a radiator shroud were soon on the way.
By the end of 1999 I had found most of the 'tinsel' I knew my car lacked. However, there were some fairly important parts that I still lacked like door handles and rear lights! There were also going to be a large number of mechanical parts that were past their service life; suspension, brakes, steering etc.
In early 2000 I made contact with Hans Ruhe. Hans sits at the centre of the Facel Vega world. He gave up his day job to set up Amicale Facel Holland some time in the 1990s and since then has been sourcing and producing parts. His inventory plays a part in keeping many of the Facels across the globe on the road. As you can imagine, given the limited demand and small production runs, parts are quite expensive (some eye wateringly so), but at least they are available. I believe something like 6000 lines are now available, which is amazing for a manufacturer that went out of business 58 years ago after producing only 3000 cars in total.
Hans started supplying the bits that would actually make the car function!
By this time the car was with Howard Dent, a person who can turn his hand to just about anything. Howard worked on my car in his spare time. He set about the running gear. Hans supplied new front and rear springs together with shock absorbers. Howard remanufactured the rear shock absorber mounts as the Dexion that was currrently pressed into service probably wasn't factory original!
Many parts were of UK origin, which made things easier. Front and rear brakes were Jaguar and the rear axle was a Salisbury unit (and not limited slip either...which will be fun with 360bhp). Sadly, the brakes are from a Mk9 which are as rare as rocking horse poo. The XK150 units are a mere 1/8th of an inch different, but it's an 1/8th of an inch too much!
Suspension and brakes renewed and it was on to the diff. That needed a complete rebuild. I'll tell you about the car's history later and all will become clear!
So progress had been made. It was now the end of July 2000, so I was a year in. So much for having the car done in six months! Howard had other commitments so we agreed I needed to find someone else to carry on the good work.
At this point I had a conversation with Hans Ruhe. He suggested I send the car over to Holland and he would return it completely restored for £20,000. In hindsight, how I wish I'd taken him up on his offer!
For some reason I still wasn't taking photos...I promise there will be some soon!
Now, back to the saga...
As previously mentioned, I've been fascinated by Facel Vegas since childhood. Over the years I've always gravitated towards them whenever they have been at shows and events. Sometime in the mid '90s the Facel Club had a stand at the Silverstone Classic (which was called something else in those days). I spent some time on the stand talking to John Barton about the practicality of ownership. To my surprise he said he had bought the entire Facel factory parts stock, so finding parts would not be too much of a problem. He also quoted some very reasonable prices, using the dashboard gauges as an example.
Thinking back to that conversation I contacted John as soon as I purchased the car. Unfortunately for me, he had subsequently sold the vast majority of parts on to someone in Germany, but he had held back some stock. My first trip was to visit John in Sussex to buy some of the badges I knew my car was missing. John's place was like an Aladdin's cave, full of Bugatti and Facel related stuff. However, there had obviously been rampant inflation in the Facel parts market since our initial conversation, so I reigned in my desire to buy just about everything I might possibly need!!
Don't get me wrong, John was extremely helpful then and has been many times since, but I just didn't have the budget that seemed to be required to dive straight in. I would have to pace my purchases.
That left a bit of a dilemma. How could I source the parts John couldn't supply as and when I required them? It seems strange now, but the internet was in its infancy. The web might have been world wide, but access wasn't. The best way to get on the inside track was via a car club, in this instance the French Amicale Facel Vega. Through people who knew other people I began to create a set of contacts that was to prove vital to the project.
The fax machine at work was pressed into service. A contact in the States sent me a list of Facel parts he was selling. Two new old stock sets of Facel Vega letters (for the front and rear of the car) and a radiator shroud were soon on the way.
By the end of 1999 I had found most of the 'tinsel' I knew my car lacked. However, there were some fairly important parts that I still lacked like door handles and rear lights! There were also going to be a large number of mechanical parts that were past their service life; suspension, brakes, steering etc.
In early 2000 I made contact with Hans Ruhe. Hans sits at the centre of the Facel Vega world. He gave up his day job to set up Amicale Facel Holland some time in the 1990s and since then has been sourcing and producing parts. His inventory plays a part in keeping many of the Facels across the globe on the road. As you can imagine, given the limited demand and small production runs, parts are quite expensive (some eye wateringly so), but at least they are available. I believe something like 6000 lines are now available, which is amazing for a manufacturer that went out of business 58 years ago after producing only 3000 cars in total.
Hans started supplying the bits that would actually make the car function!
By this time the car was with Howard Dent, a person who can turn his hand to just about anything. Howard worked on my car in his spare time. He set about the running gear. Hans supplied new front and rear springs together with shock absorbers. Howard remanufactured the rear shock absorber mounts as the Dexion that was currrently pressed into service probably wasn't factory original!
Many parts were of UK origin, which made things easier. Front and rear brakes were Jaguar and the rear axle was a Salisbury unit (and not limited slip either...which will be fun with 360bhp). Sadly, the brakes are from a Mk9 which are as rare as rocking horse poo. The XK150 units are a mere 1/8th of an inch different, but it's an 1/8th of an inch too much!
Suspension and brakes renewed and it was on to the diff. That needed a complete rebuild. I'll tell you about the car's history later and all will become clear!
So progress had been made. It was now the end of July 2000, so I was a year in. So much for having the car done in six months! Howard had other commitments so we agreed I needed to find someone else to carry on the good work.
At this point I had a conversation with Hans Ruhe. He suggested I send the car over to Holland and he would return it completely restored for £20,000. In hindsight, how I wish I'd taken him up on his offer!
For some reason I still wasn't taking photos...I promise there will be some soon!
I thought I had some pictures somewhere.
Excuse the quality as these are photos of prints I have just found from early 2000.
This was a unit I rented in the same farm complex where Howard worked. Work is in progress on the front suspension and for some reason I can't remember, the radiator is out. As you can see, headroom was at a bit of a premium if you needed something from the back of the car!
This gives a better impression of the true state of the car. The black paint had just been flashed on over red oxide to provide a bit of protection against rust. Most of the car was micro-blistered. Note the original tool case is in place at the top of the boot...whilst the foam form was still present in the case most of the tools had gone missing.
Refurbished rear hubs. Don't be fooled by the coil spring; the car's not that sophisticated! It's one of the old ones off the front. It's leaf sprung at the rear with no fancy axle location either. Although contemporary road tests praised the car's high speed poise, more modern tests in the classic car magazines have questioned the car's dynamic ability.
The engine compartment actually looked pretty good. As a manual car it had the correct twin four barrel Carter AFB carbs (the autos had a single AFB). Geoff, the vendor, assured me that the engine had been fully rebuilt at a cost of more than £3000. He didn't have the bills though! It certainly shouldn't have been red, but maybe it was painted that colour to make it go faster! The rear axle was painted red too...all I needed was jacked up rear suspension and a couple of neon lights and I'd have been all set up for a 1970s cruise!
This out of focus shot shows the car at its most daunting. There was no windscreen as it had been smashed when something fell on the car in the 1980s. Windscreens on the HK500 are a nightmare. First you've got to get hold of one and then you have to fit it. If it is not made perfectly or the aperture isn't exactly to factory specification it is likely to split across one of the bottom corners. I had many sleepless nights worrying about this as the base of the windscreen showed signs of significant work. But more of that later.
Excuse the quality as these are photos of prints I have just found from early 2000.
This was a unit I rented in the same farm complex where Howard worked. Work is in progress on the front suspension and for some reason I can't remember, the radiator is out. As you can see, headroom was at a bit of a premium if you needed something from the back of the car!
This gives a better impression of the true state of the car. The black paint had just been flashed on over red oxide to provide a bit of protection against rust. Most of the car was micro-blistered. Note the original tool case is in place at the top of the boot...whilst the foam form was still present in the case most of the tools had gone missing.
Refurbished rear hubs. Don't be fooled by the coil spring; the car's not that sophisticated! It's one of the old ones off the front. It's leaf sprung at the rear with no fancy axle location either. Although contemporary road tests praised the car's high speed poise, more modern tests in the classic car magazines have questioned the car's dynamic ability.
The engine compartment actually looked pretty good. As a manual car it had the correct twin four barrel Carter AFB carbs (the autos had a single AFB). Geoff, the vendor, assured me that the engine had been fully rebuilt at a cost of more than £3000. He didn't have the bills though! It certainly shouldn't have been red, but maybe it was painted that colour to make it go faster! The rear axle was painted red too...all I needed was jacked up rear suspension and a couple of neon lights and I'd have been all set up for a 1970s cruise!
This out of focus shot shows the car at its most daunting. There was no windscreen as it had been smashed when something fell on the car in the 1980s. Windscreens on the HK500 are a nightmare. First you've got to get hold of one and then you have to fit it. If it is not made perfectly or the aperture isn't exactly to factory specification it is likely to split across one of the bottom corners. I had many sleepless nights worrying about this as the base of the windscreen showed signs of significant work. But more of that later.
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)
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!!
OK, time for the next chapter!
But first, a bit more about the leather and the construction of the interior.
When Howard started taking the seats apart he came across enough evidence to confirm that they had never been touched since leaving the factory. Therefore we had a perfect pattern to match up leathers and colours.
The first port of call was Connolly, who we suspected had supplied the original hides. They were likely to be a product called Vaumol, which was a high quality hide supplied to many of the high end British manufacturers. Jean Daninos, the owner of Facel Vega was an Anglophile and this showed in the British content of his cars. It seems the seats themselves had a very British heart. Howard found these whilst disassembling the seats.
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?
The dates on the seat labels are quite interesting too. One is stamped March and the other April 1958. My car left the factory on 23rd July, so either the building of a car was a long winded process or Facel bought in seat frames in relatively large batches compared to their output. 'Just in time' was obviously not part of the philosophy!
Anyway, back to the leather...
Having received samples of the Vaumol leather grain, it really didn't seem to be a close match for the original. So I approached Bridge of Weir to see what they could supply...and bingo, we had a pretty close match.
In the previous post I explained that the rear seat back was the only piece of the original interior that could be saved. Electing to keep it meant that we had to try and match the grain. Here you can see it works quite well...this was the first time the interior was refitted in 2007.
The large door cards were a potential issue. They are heavy, take a lot of covering and have fibreglass formed door storage bins. The base is plywood...or in my case the base used to be plywood. The bottom third of it had delaminated to become a wobbly mush. Howard recreated the bases using the correct ply cut from sheet. My concern was that the doors have a pronounced curve and the door cards now had no curve at all! Whilst the ply could be coerced to some extent and over time would assume a degree of curve, the fixings were going to have to cope with significant pressure. The big fibreglass bin structures weren't going to help either as they had very little flex.
In the event it hasn't been an issue and I needn't have lost so much sleep! After all, when the car was built the plywood would have been just as flat. It worked then and sure enough, it worked now!
The real conumdrum with tackling the leather at the beginning was the subsequent storage of it whilst the rest of the project caught up. This has proved to be a bit of a headache over the subsequent 20 years, but the quality of Howard's workmanship has stood the test of time and the seats have come through relatively unscathed.
Having bought the car in August 1999 the process of chasing down missing parts took quite a bit of time right through to about 2010. There were some pretty important parts missing:
Door handles, locks and keys. (The ones on the car were Jaguar MkII, probably taken from the stash of MkII parts the previous owner had on that mezzanine floor.)
Windscreen.
Rear lights and trims.
Of these, the windscreen proved to be the biggest surprise.
First, I talked to some of the Facel specialists in Holland, the UK and France. The consensus was that nothing was available. Windscreens were built in batches and the Facel world was between batches. Until enough demand was created another batch wouldn't be produced.
So, I then contacted Triplex aftersales who were very helpful, but couldn't magic up the goods.
My next call was to Pilkington and they were simply amazing. I soon found out that every windscreen past and present has a Eurocode, in just the same manner as RAL codes for paint. The good news didn't stop there...the nice folks at Pilkington then informed me that the code for a clear (non tinted) Facel HK500 screen was 9042 and they could make me one if I was interested. Needless to say I bit their hand off. Then they delivered the final piece of advice...using the code they had supplied, order it through a national windscreen supplier and include fitting in the price. That way, should the windscreen break during fitting I would be covered for a replacement.
I duly ordered the screen through National Windscreens on 25th June 2001 for £400 including fitting. It sat safe and secure at their Banbury depot right through until about 2015, the point at which the Banbury store closed! It was finally fitted in late 2017 (not by National Windscreens). Thankfully, it went in OK as they are renowned for being tricky.
So, on to the door handles. Where on earth can you get them from?
As mentioned in a previous post, the internet was not what it is today in the early 2000s. Finding parts was more about who you knew than about keyboard skills.
Early on, I had come across Mark Morgan who was pivotal in the Facel world in the US. Mark had helped with a few bits himself, but also put me in touch with other people in the States who had Facels or Facel parts. I had also come across the name of Roger Spaulding in conversations on both sides of the Pond. Roger was rather fond of collecting Facels, lots of them. This was his back yard in the late 1990s (picture reproduced from www.facelvega.com)
If anyone had a pair of door handles, Roger would. The only problem was that Roger kept himself to himself. I tried writing to him personally and also tried to contact him through his business. As I suspected, this came to nothing.
In a subsequent conversation with Mark Morgan I mentioned my dilemma. Mark didn't live that far from Roger and I thought there was a reasonable chance they would know each other. The reality was far, far better. When Mark was younger he had actually spent much of his spare time helping Roger at his workshop. Mark said he'd see what he could do.
Sure enough, some time later Mark had a pair of door handles for me which he duly sent in my direction. I awaited their arrival with real anticipation. But, I waited and waited. Mark had obviously posted them but they had just disappeared into the ether.
It was about three months later that I received a demand for payment of duty from HMRC. I've never been happier to oblige! The parcel had been lost somewhere between the port of entry and my regional postal hub.
The rear lights ended up coming from three different continents! This was made more complicated by the fact that the American lights were different from those fitted to European cars. Somehow my car had ended up with a bit of a mixture. Sorting it out involved finding the odd part at the Beaulieu Autojumble in Hampshire, help from Ian Webb and his stash of parts in Cornwall, a few bits from the States found on the early Ebay (which in those days was full of bargains) and finally some lenses from Australia.
It was now the beginning of 2006. Over six years in with some significant expenditure and the car was still a long way from finished.
But first, a bit more about the leather and the construction of the interior.
When Howard started taking the seats apart he came across enough evidence to confirm that they had never been touched since leaving the factory. Therefore we had a perfect pattern to match up leathers and colours.
The first port of call was Connolly, who we suspected had supplied the original hides. They were likely to be a product called Vaumol, which was a high quality hide supplied to many of the high end British manufacturers. Jean Daninos, the owner of Facel Vega was an Anglophile and this showed in the British content of his cars. It seems the seats themselves had a very British heart. Howard found these whilst disassembling the seats.
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?
The dates on the seat labels are quite interesting too. One is stamped March and the other April 1958. My car left the factory on 23rd July, so either the building of a car was a long winded process or Facel bought in seat frames in relatively large batches compared to their output. 'Just in time' was obviously not part of the philosophy!
Anyway, back to the leather...
Having received samples of the Vaumol leather grain, it really didn't seem to be a close match for the original. So I approached Bridge of Weir to see what they could supply...and bingo, we had a pretty close match.
In the previous post I explained that the rear seat back was the only piece of the original interior that could be saved. Electing to keep it meant that we had to try and match the grain. Here you can see it works quite well...this was the first time the interior was refitted in 2007.
The large door cards were a potential issue. They are heavy, take a lot of covering and have fibreglass formed door storage bins. The base is plywood...or in my case the base used to be plywood. The bottom third of it had delaminated to become a wobbly mush. Howard recreated the bases using the correct ply cut from sheet. My concern was that the doors have a pronounced curve and the door cards now had no curve at all! Whilst the ply could be coerced to some extent and over time would assume a degree of curve, the fixings were going to have to cope with significant pressure. The big fibreglass bin structures weren't going to help either as they had very little flex.
In the event it hasn't been an issue and I needn't have lost so much sleep! After all, when the car was built the plywood would have been just as flat. It worked then and sure enough, it worked now!
The real conumdrum with tackling the leather at the beginning was the subsequent storage of it whilst the rest of the project caught up. This has proved to be a bit of a headache over the subsequent 20 years, but the quality of Howard's workmanship has stood the test of time and the seats have come through relatively unscathed.
Having bought the car in August 1999 the process of chasing down missing parts took quite a bit of time right through to about 2010. There were some pretty important parts missing:
Door handles, locks and keys. (The ones on the car were Jaguar MkII, probably taken from the stash of MkII parts the previous owner had on that mezzanine floor.)
Windscreen.
Rear lights and trims.
Of these, the windscreen proved to be the biggest surprise.
First, I talked to some of the Facel specialists in Holland, the UK and France. The consensus was that nothing was available. Windscreens were built in batches and the Facel world was between batches. Until enough demand was created another batch wouldn't be produced.
So, I then contacted Triplex aftersales who were very helpful, but couldn't magic up the goods.
My next call was to Pilkington and they were simply amazing. I soon found out that every windscreen past and present has a Eurocode, in just the same manner as RAL codes for paint. The good news didn't stop there...the nice folks at Pilkington then informed me that the code for a clear (non tinted) Facel HK500 screen was 9042 and they could make me one if I was interested. Needless to say I bit their hand off. Then they delivered the final piece of advice...using the code they had supplied, order it through a national windscreen supplier and include fitting in the price. That way, should the windscreen break during fitting I would be covered for a replacement.
I duly ordered the screen through National Windscreens on 25th June 2001 for £400 including fitting. It sat safe and secure at their Banbury depot right through until about 2015, the point at which the Banbury store closed! It was finally fitted in late 2017 (not by National Windscreens). Thankfully, it went in OK as they are renowned for being tricky.
So, on to the door handles. Where on earth can you get them from?
As mentioned in a previous post, the internet was not what it is today in the early 2000s. Finding parts was more about who you knew than about keyboard skills.
Early on, I had come across Mark Morgan who was pivotal in the Facel world in the US. Mark had helped with a few bits himself, but also put me in touch with other people in the States who had Facels or Facel parts. I had also come across the name of Roger Spaulding in conversations on both sides of the Pond. Roger was rather fond of collecting Facels, lots of them. This was his back yard in the late 1990s (picture reproduced from www.facelvega.com)
If anyone had a pair of door handles, Roger would. The only problem was that Roger kept himself to himself. I tried writing to him personally and also tried to contact him through his business. As I suspected, this came to nothing.
In a subsequent conversation with Mark Morgan I mentioned my dilemma. Mark didn't live that far from Roger and I thought there was a reasonable chance they would know each other. The reality was far, far better. When Mark was younger he had actually spent much of his spare time helping Roger at his workshop. Mark said he'd see what he could do.
Sure enough, some time later Mark had a pair of door handles for me which he duly sent in my direction. I awaited their arrival with real anticipation. But, I waited and waited. Mark had obviously posted them but they had just disappeared into the ether.
It was about three months later that I received a demand for payment of duty from HMRC. I've never been happier to oblige! The parcel had been lost somewhere between the port of entry and my regional postal hub.
The rear lights ended up coming from three different continents! This was made more complicated by the fact that the American lights were different from those fitted to European cars. Somehow my car had ended up with a bit of a mixture. Sorting it out involved finding the odd part at the Beaulieu Autojumble in Hampshire, help from Ian Webb and his stash of parts in Cornwall, a few bits from the States found on the early Ebay (which in those days was full of bargains) and finally some lenses from Australia.
It was now the beginning of 2006. Over six years in with some significant expenditure and the car was still a long way from finished.
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