The photos above are of the "roll out party" for Doug Schrantz's MK I.

It actually drove out of the garage. This was prior to when it went to the upholstery shop for interior and front and rear glass.

The cars shown are, left to right:

Doug Schrantz's Black 59 3.4L M.O.D. ; Thad Wolfe's White 59 3.4L M.O.D. ; George Skopecek's.BRG 58 3.4L M.O.D.

I am sending these photos on because they provide some interesting comparisons and information on how/where parts are supposed to be and the owners interpretation that. I note that Mark Singleton (Mark I Mark) commented on the muffler for the intake on the 3.4L Saloon. There are 2 sets of engine bay photos (straight on and from the right) showing various arrangements. Thad (59 white MK I) choose not to install the muffler and also moved the makers plate. His wire wheels are original to the car. My MK I is more or less as original having been reworked in the mid-80's. It's the dirty BRG car with a driven dirty engine bay. Doug's (59 Black) is RHD and you will note slight changes in the engine bay to account for this. For smoother lines, Doug choose not to install mirrors on the front wings.

When this car was purchased three years ago, it came with a metallic gold paint job. That paint job appeared to have been applied by the PO from a case of aerosol cans purchased at an after-Christmas sale. Happily, whilst Doug was in transit to his office one day, an elderly gent, late for his golf date, passed through the stop sign, abruptly removing Doug's rear bumper and rearranging the rear of the body.

A simple repair job then turned into a two-year ordeal as more items were found in need of attention. In the end, the interior and exterior were stripped to bare metal. New floor pans were fabricated, a new floor for the boot, new sills, new door bottoms. The front was measured for square and it was found that the right side was 4" shorter than the left side (front to back). Whilst stripping the interior, the headliner was found to contain about 5 pounds of dog food, deposited by a pack rat. The rework of the car became a main source of steady income for the body man, eventually it became necessary to repossess the car. After three months in the paint shop the car was returned home and serious reassembly commenced. These photos, taken late in June, show the results of another three months work. For those interested in this model car they will find various subtle differences between each of them.

First off, the interior of Doug's car has not been installed and there are no front or rear glass. Thad's white car was originally ordered with the wire wheels shown. George's BGR car was redone in the mid 80's and is a driven car and does need a new paint job. Doug's is RHD, the others LHD. Note that the number plate on Thad's car is on the opposite side of where its normally found. All three cars have differently positioned exhaust systems. George's is NOS, Thad and Doug both have S/S systems from different suppliers.

On August the 17th, Doug's car came out of the interior shop and head for the paint shop for a final touch up.

The JPG pictures have been reduced in size and quality to speed up downloading, if anyone should like higher quality JPG of any of these, please mail Alastair Lauener