A Queensland jigsaw comes together.

It was in April last year that I first heard from Matt Jenkins who was asking whether anybody knew any history on the Mark 7 he had acquired.

He wrote:-
Hi John,
I am writing this to take the opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Matt Jenkins. I live on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, originally from SA.
I recently bought my first Bolwell, a MkVII coupe (it came with another Mk VII convertible and many spares.....)
I have been very interested in RS2000 Escorts for 10 years and still have 2 of them, both coupes. Having owned a few V8s I have always wanted to get another one, however the larger cars do not interest me, so that left the usual V8 into Capri, XU1, Cortina, Escort......(well the Escort WOULD be fun!!)
Then I met a Bolwell owner 5 years ago who has become a very good friend.
Over time he became aware of just how badly I wanted to get a Mk VII coupe (I think it became annoying!!)
So anyway after contacting a few that have been for sale and looking at ANYTHING I could, I have finally found my car!!
Since getting my car home I have been very busy carrying out the plans I have had for a long time now.
So far the new tubular chassis, Windsor engine, T5 gearbox, jag diff and brakes are all done. As I said I have been busy!
I would like to find out some history of my cars. I bought them from Mark Williamson of Brassall, Queensland. He never had them registered, however I have some old rego certificates. They show a VIN or ENG NO R9757B and another certificate showing 179F104012.
Also previous owners are : Russell Bevis (1995), Charles R D Barham (1978). These are names that the cars have actually been registered in.
I am not sure which number is for which car and also what the build or chassis numbers are as there is nothing in the engine bay of either vehicle....... any other info on the past and identity of these vehicles would be of huge interest to me, is there any register that will have these details???
I look forward to meeting other Bolwell owners and finding out more about your club.
Matt Jenkins

At the time we discovered very little and about all we would be able to tell Matt was that it is very likely that there were never any chassis numbers in the first place and the 179F prefixed engine number indicated that the engine was a 179 cu. in. motor from a HD Holden as opposed to an EH which had an M prefix for the 179.

Since the pictorial series, Graham Nichols has been in touch to get Matt's email address for mail-outs and Peter Marr has come up with the following:-

I think I might have a bit of info on this car. I think it could be this one. (Pics B022-B026) (see below) I took these in Toowoomba in Qld in 1995. The owner at that point was Brett Elbourne I think. I later heard that he had sold the car.
The other pics (A038 - A043) (I'll post them later) belonged to another bloke up there whose name I can't recall. He had the sport conversion done locally by a boat builder/repairer. As you can tell from the pics, when they were taken, he was in the process of fitting a turbo to the Holden 6. Some time later he called me trying to locate panels for it as he had lost it when the turbo had come on boost and put it sideways into a pole.
Still later, I had a call from a bloke in the RAAF up there who had bought both of these cars plus I think he said he had also bought a Mk.7 shell that was floating around up there. It was just a shell with no internal panels which I reckon someone had taken moulds off the outside of another car to make this shell. The RAAF bloke might even be Matt Jenkins. At the time he did tell me his name but I have since lost the paper I wrote it on. (you know how it is LOL).
Looks like it will turn out to be a nice car.
Regards,
Peter Marr