Last year, Norman Hamer brought a derelict '34/'35 Riley Falcon back from Barbados. John Mackenzie, a resident of the Caribbean island, was alerted to the find by a priest, who had opened up an old church building for the first time in 40 years and found the sad car inside.
Mackenzie began some work on it before deciding it was too much for him. He then advertised it in the Riley Register's Bulletin.
Hamer was intrigued: "A few e-mails later, and following some kind organisation by John, I was unpacking the contents of a container that had been shipped to Portsmouth on a Geest banana boat. There were bits missing, such as the radiator, seats, fuel tank, shock absorbers, lights and instruments."
The rebuild is now underway, but the Riley will not re-emerge as a Falcon. "As you can see from the photographs, it really was too far gone so it's going to be another special," said Hamer.
The chassis number is not known to the Riley Register. It is thought that it may have been exported to Barbados from new for, perhaps, a Government official, and not been registered in the UK.