Dolly Webb – My Restore Hero

Words and Pictures: Dolly Webb

So, it all started in 2009 when my husband gave me the most wonderful gift for my 40th birthday. I never thought I would get close to seeing one let alone owning my very own Figaro. I called her Lucy, it was like seeing my children for the first time, I fell in love immediately. At first, I couldn’t afford to tax or insure her, so I spent many a year driving her just to my front gate and having a picnic on the lawn with her I cleaned and polished her as often as possible. After three years, I saved enough money to get her on the road taxed and insured. Many a time she would break down. Not knowing anyone really to save her let alone work on her, my husband David and I fettled around with her and kept her alive. In 2016 I was having a conversation with my friend whose husband has many classic cars and she was telling me about a guy that doesn’t live too far away, Her husband went to college with him, and she told me he had a passion for all things classical and vintage and had every faith in this guy. I was very reluctant as I hated anyone going near my pride and joy.

I took the plunge and in 2016 I met Joe from Allenwood Auto Service, and the rest is history! Joe has kept Lucy not alone alive but the best self that she can be. We bought an engine and Joe stored all the parts on a shelf in his garage for me. Over the years things broke for Lucy and he would always have a part to fix her. We have had many years of love, and laughter and let me tell you lots of tears when she would smoke up and break down. Even one day I locked myself out of Lucy and yes you are right, Joe came to the rescue again and opened her up for me. In 2021 I had saved up enough money for Joe to give a full restore on her body, fixing all the rust. Imagine having a non-rusty figgy, it just blows my mind. Joe has a love-hate relationship with Lucy as she brings him great surprises and not-so-great surprises. When he stripped her down to rebuild, he rebuilt new wheel arches and rebuilt new sills on both sides. He rebuilt the back window everywhere, basically, anything that had rust was removed. He also changed all the under piping to copper piping and rerouted the drains so there was no more rust going into the sills. My rad got reconditioned new silicone hoses put in, chrome bumpers a new roof from The Figaro Shop. A big shout out to Toby and Chris and Danny for all their help and for getting all the parts I required for Joe. Nothing was ever too big or too small for them to help. Joe did so much more for Lucy, too much to mention, but I am ever so grateful for the time and effort, sweat and tears that he put into her. I also got second-hand mirrors and hinges from Chris in Scotland, thank you, Chris. I didn’t want my Lucy to look brand new, if I did, I would have just bought a new car. I did, however, want her rust-free and anything that could be saved to be saved.

I managed to save everything inside Lucy. I repainted Lucy’s carpet by taking swabs from under the main middle console as this would be the nearest to the original colour of the car carpet coming out of the Pike factory. I got this paint from Phillip at Fabricspray. I was very happy with the colour and I also got Axminster underlay and glued this to the back of the carpet to give extra soundproofing.

I then moved on to the leather seats. Kevin from the Figaro Owners Club recommended the leather repair company. They were wonderful and even managed to make the exact colour of the original seats, we got a 15% discount for being a member of the club and they sent me everything I required. Thank you to the Leather Repair Company., I prepped all the seats, cleaned and washed them, and then I did all the cracks with filler. There were two tears and I glued these and then sanded them down in between coats of painting and then finished with a seal. You get a matte finish or a shiny finish however I wanted neither. So, I mixed the two solutions together to get a beautiful satin finish on my seats. The results were amazing. I was so proud of myself. This was very time-consuming but very therapeutic. I then removed Lucy’s interior panels and washed and cleaned them to their best self. I then cleaned the seatbelts I pulled them down to their limit and clipped them with a peg and then outside the door I put the seatbelts in a bucket of hot water and washing-up liquid and left them overnight to clean. I then watched Kevin’s tutorial on how to re-puff/spring the front seats. I was very happy with the result. I also managed to put the Forest Green piping around the front seats to match the dash and the horn so everything inside the car was tackled. She’s not perfect but she’s perfect to me. Joe has even managed to work around all the Japanese stickers to save them. Joe was so patient with me and indeed Lucy.

I would watch Kevin’s tutorials, and any classic car show like Bangers and Cash, Car SOS, and Richard Hammonds Workshop. I would text him at all hours,” after watching programs,” Joe are you doing this with my Lucy?” Joe, are you doing that with my Lucy?” “Richard said you should look out for this etc. lol.”

The Smallest Cog Company has been my greatest inspiration to write this report about Joe. When I turned on the show for the first time I agreed with Neil on how good he was, and he reminded me of Joe.

I have already had wonderful memories with Lucy over the past 14 years, we have had many school runs in her when our main cars weren’t even working. We have had many events with her from the Irish Chapter of the Figaro Owners Club and indeed English events, family days out, weekend road trips and even when she wasn’t working, we still managed to have a picnic with her, even on her 30^th birthday 14^th February, we went over to Joe’s Garage and had a picnic with her. She brings so many fond memories to my family, from the love of my husband buying her for me in the first place in 2009 to the laughs me and my children would have when my husband would have to pick us up from a feis(Irish dancing comp) very late at night when we had run out of petrol LOL.

I can’t wait for our new adventures together. It’s now 2023 almost a year and a half since Joe took her for the rebuild. I will finally get to be reunited with my Lucy I get to show her off again on the 17th of June 2023. We are taking a road trip up to Kilbroney Classic Car Show where I will show her off and all the work that Joe and I have done.

Thanks

I want to thank all these people for giving me the inspiration and the courage to write this report and the journey that I have been on with everyone for the last year and a half restoring Lucy……