The building of my Mark 7 convertible - episode 2

In this picture, the car is now completed and no longer belongs to me. I sold it unfinished to Colin Michael who had John Evans finish assembling it. John repainted it black. I had painted it white. (It looks better black, IMNHO.) I had some photos of it after I had painted it but they got lost somewhere at Fibrecar. I took it to a Show and Tell and painted the engine Holden Engine Red and put a "161" sticker on a standard rocker cover I bought for the occasion. It didn't fool too many people!

Anyway, as you can and will see, John did a fabulous job on it. Colin had been hassling me to sell it to him and when I decided to go back to Uni, I did the dirty deed and sold it to finance my studies. I've had sellers remorse ever since!

The bonnet bulge you can see came from an early Corvette. Royce had a Corvette bonnet stashed up in the rafters and it seemed perfect for the job. The bulge broke up the flat expanse and gave the bonnet added height which I think it needed visually and it also stiffened the bonnet. Unfortunately, I didn't take a mould off it. I thought I'd do another one later but in the meantime Royce threw out the Corvette bonnet in a clean-up!

The ripples you can see in the reflections on the guard come from the corrugated factory skylight and not the guard! Here we are, full frontal. John Evans' great paint job is fully evident here. John made and fitted the headlight covers. He used to do a lot of van customising including bubble windows. He also fitted the flush covered turn indicators which are a bit hard to see in the photo. He also fitted shortened Fairlane tail lights to the rear which you will see further down.

I bumped into John by chance a few years after selling the car. He told me he had it back to do a major repair on it. It seems the owner after Colin had had a head-on argument with a Ford F100, if memory serves me correctly. The front of the body was completely smashed up to the windscreen, though, the bonnet must have survived reasonably well. Fortunately, and perhaps incredibly, the driver only had minor injuries. (Great cars these fibreglass cars!). John was lamenting having to stick all the broken pieces back together to reform the front of the car. He knew it was a one off. I then told him I had a mould for the complete front including the windscreen surround. He looked at me for a moment with his mouth wide open and then said, "You're kidding me!" So we settled on a price and I went off to make a front panel and John went home the happiest man in Melbourne that day!

This final picture is noteworthy for four things:-
My trusty Suzuki, the even more trusty Mr. Ric Kemp, the flattering way it shows up the rear deck conversion and the shortened Fairlane tail lights.

All these photos were taken at Fibrecar, by the way. I had a lot of good times there working again with Royce and when Don Elliott was there as well it was a lot of fun. One time I must tell you about what a great whistler Don is.

I hope this has been interesting, John, and not too long winded. It's been enjoyable for me looking back on the project.

Cheers,

Jim.

It's been enjoyable for me reading this and I am sure enjoyable for everybody else too. I have some nice photos of that car myself which I will share in a little feature I would like to do on Mk.7 convertibles. Your old car also featured on the 1993 club calendar. (I think it was 1993). We've got copies if anybody is interested. I remember the car being in Sydney, owned by a member of the NSW club. Then it went to Qld and I think it was last year it was advertised for sale. Gee, Ric Kemp's thinned out a bit hasn't he.