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20 February 2024Born again classics
Wales-based Hemmels has built a thriving business out of reconstructing vintage Mercedes from carefully restored parts. Now the firm’s taking the electric route
Words: Tim Griffiths, Images: Shawn Eastman
T he ageing engine conks out while cruising along a sunny promenade. Then the convertible hood leaks on your suit as you drive to dinner. And when you hand the keys to a valet parker they report back later: ‘I’m sorry, but it won’t start….’.
The perils of owning a classic car have long been accepted as part of the price one pays for enjoying the wonderful style of period motoring. However much a buyer invests in a beautiful old car, the ownership seems to come with the following small print: this is an old well-worn machine that can’t compare with a modern vehicle for luxury and reliability.
What classic car buyers really need is a bespoke specialist engineering company that builds cars from individual period parts, as if they were building a new car. And that’s why a small Welsh firm has recently taken the classic car world by storm: by building ‘new’ classic Mercedes sports cars.
Two car enthusiasts in a garage started Hemmels in 2016. Within three years it has grown to become a multi-million-pound global business, with 45 staff hand-building more than 40 cars a year.
The company only builds three models: the Mercedes 280SL, 190SL and 300SL. All are designs from the Fifties and Sixties. Each car takes around 50 weeks to construct and thoroughly road test. The cars are priced at between £225,000 and £1.4m.
The Cardiff-based operation uses a process devised by founder Joseph Sullivan called neugeboren – or newborn. It’s part new-build, part replica and part restoration.
This 4,000-hour method involves carefully dismantling an old donor car, cataloguing and examining every part right down to the tiniest nut, bolt and rubber washer.
Anything worn is replaced. Vinyl upholstery is exchanged for fine-quality leather and ageing troublesome carburettor systems are removed in favour of a state-of-the-art electronic fuel injection. Modern reliable electronic ignition is installed.
A recent car was built with a hands-free phone integrated into its original 1950s facia with a minimum of visual impact
The level of detail is faultless. The craftspeople even strip the dashboard instruments down to restore their parts. Then they recalibrate them to ensure they are as accurate as they were when they first left the factory.
All the glass is new. Engines, axles and gearboxes are completely rebuilt by hand with all new or resurfaced parts. Every gasket, seal and valve is replaced. All chrome is re-done, even the new parts (the quality is never good enough, says Hemmels). The entire body is stripped back to bare metal and examined. The majority of the bodywork is replaced with new Mercedes panels.
Hemmels has already become the largest purchaser of classic Mercedes panels in the UK.
‘There’s simply not one aspect visible or otherwise that we don’t renew and make ready for another 50 years of motoring,’ says head of marketing Iain Wood. ‘There is one rule: everything must be better than new. We’re providing a new luxury car buying experience, albeit on a vehicle that is 50-60 years old. That’s why our cars come with a 12-month warranty.’
The dedicated Cardiff showroom and factory is a clinically clean environment with pristine, white-tiled floors and state of the art machinery.
‘Our craftspeople feel they that this is a place where they want to work,’ says Wood.
Contemporary technology has another impact: clients can follow the neugeboren process via smartphone updates. If they so wish, they can watch a live feed documenting every piece of paperwork and photographs from when the car was sourced, stripped, and rebuilt right up until delivery. As a permanent record, all this is then compiled into a hard-backed book that is given to the customer.
The result of the painstaking rebuild is a classic car that Hemmels claims is better than when it left the factory half a century ago.
Little wonder, then, that this year Mercedes UK commissioned a 1968 Hemmels 280 SL for display at the official Mercedes museum at Brooklands, Surrey.
‘It’s very rewarding to step back after the restoration and just bask in it sometimes.’
Hemmels appears to have created a tidal wave of interest in the normally sedate world of high-end classic cars. Even as this article is being written, the fast-moving company is preparing an official announcement about offering their classic Mercedes cars with an all-electric engine under the bonnet.
The company already offers customisation options like USB ports, satellite navigation or state-of-the-art sound systems. A recent car was built with a hands-free phone integrated into its original 1950s facia with a minimum of visual impact.
Hemmels’ whirlwind success is down to the inspiration of local Mercedes enthusiast Joseph Sullivan. He may be just 32 years old, but Sullivan is the third generation from a family of high-end mechanical experts. Aged just seven he was already helping his father rebuild engines on the kitchen table. At 12 he owned his first Mercedes. In his teens he was already renowned as a car restorer. ‘Mercedes is in my blood. Every member of the family has had a Mercedes going back many generations,’ he says.
At the age of 16 Sullivan was awarded a place on a Ministry of Defence fast-track aeronautical technical training programme. After that, still in his twenties, he set up his own company with the aim of producing the world’s finest Mercedes classic cars. It was named after Peter Hemmel von Adlau, a Renaissance stained-glass craftsman known for his relentless pursuit of quality.
Now Sullivan’s role is checking quality at every stage of a restoration, including a final test drive. It’s clearly still a very personal process for him. ‘To be regarded as one of the finest restorers on the planet, of models that are this difficult to restore, is an honour,’ he says. ‘Just look at them; they’re absolutely jaw-dropping, gorgeous. It’s really rewarding to step back after the restoration and just bask in it sometimes.’
Sullivan’s operation has recently been boosted by being taken over by successful Yorkshire-based entrepreneur Richard Butterfield. The former teenage door-to-door salesman, who later founded the Principle Group, is an enthusiastic collector of classic cars and aircraft. He is also a private pilot who owns his own 1949 Boeing.
Butterfield says: ‘The global opportunity for beautiful products to this exacting standard is huge and we have plans to expand our production capability to around 80 by 2020. The cars themselves, in particular the iconic 280 SLs, appeal to people all over the world.
‘They become a beautiful collector’s item that can also be used daily. Some of our clients commission one of each model. We find our buyers include a wide and globally based diversity of people.’
How did Butterfield discover Hemmels? Well, it may sound familiar. He had himself bought a car from the company and he was so impressed… he came back to buy the company.
Words: Staff
‘The global opportunity for beautiful products to this exacting standard is huge and we have plans to expand our production capability to around 80 by 2020.'
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