Originally Posted by
Peter Laidler
I haven''t read all of the guff that the advert puts out. The dates just do not stack up. Fazakerley were incapable of producing the rifle to any sort of timed schedule and BSA were approached to take up the slack. Production was to be an all ROF matter - like the pirated Sterling! BSA were approached early on regarding possible production if Faz failed to make any headway. They failed and by 1958 BSA production started in 1958 (UB 58A 121xxx was mine) so it begs the question that if BSA were already successfully taking over the the Fazakerley production AND the Faz L1A1 rifle manufacturing tooling was already on its way to Lithgow, why on earth would Faz be making L1A1 rifles in 1959.
There are no government records of ANY L1A1 rifle production at Fazakerley. And I never saw one either. A rifle was considered produced as an accountable item when the body - the master component - was numbered, in the white, just prior to being sent for proof and phosphating
FAZ did continue production of many parts and for many years, the UF or F58 marking could be seen on Lithgow made rifles along with some FAZ parts. ALL early cracked gas cylinders came from the doomed FAZ factory which was known to us as ROF-6