Hi to all. Hey, does anybody a good source for “fittings” (spare parts) since I am restoring a 1953 Lucas Standard Vanguard 4 door Saloon car, Phase II. It has 44,000 miles on it, it was brought from the UK in 1987 and has subsequently won many awards at local shows in the mid-west and out here on the left coast. The car is positive ground and runs fine, save for a few “impedence of motion,” or “adverse thermal events,” all have been addressed and fixed: for now. I am looking for replacement dash switches, a radio (could be a new one, but with a retro-face) I have searched the net and found 1,000’s of sites, spending numerous hours coming to a dead end. Now I know why the British like their beer warm, Lucas started building refrigerators. Lucas was interesting in that Edison may have invented the light bulb, but it took Lucas to invent the short. Any help would be appreciated as the car is approx. 90% complete except for hard to find “fittings,” eith NOS or replicas. Oh, by the way, I just opened my garage door this morning and noticed the left hand exterior door handle on the floor, it was on the car yesterday. Another challenge. Thanks in advance for any advise.
I think your best bet is going to be with UK based sources. Hemmings may have some, but only a bone yard in the UK is going to have much chance of having used parts, and if there is a source for NOS parts it would probably be there also. On the other hand, switches on cars of that vintage were often stock parts from the electrical suppliers. For those you might try Grainger http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/categories/electrical/switches
and see if one of the hundreds of standard switches is a match. There may be a similar type of place in the UK. Good luck.
It’s not clear if you have an original radio. If so, there are several companies you can find on the web that repair antique radios. In the past I have seen at least one or two companies that specialize in putting modern radios into old car radio chassis so that it looks stock and works with the old knobs, etc. A quick search didn’t turn up any, but I recall they seemed to specialize in old Corvette radios.