Aw shucks, thank you guys for your kind comments. I'm glad that you have enjoyed reading the story as much as I did writing it!
Although none of this would have been possible had we not been able to track down the car's first (well second) owner. For this, I have Alistair to thank, as he was the one who successfully made contact with Tim and his excellent communication skills helped us to retrieve this key information. Cheers Al, you're a top man!
arranj wrote:Wow Carl! Really good, thanks for the history, we love it don't we?!
I would guess that the aerial could quite easily have been drilled into the donor wing, and would probably have been the sensible option, given that your windscreen is a "plain" one?
As for "making 1 good car out of a bad one" - wow! Seems quite radical - especially if all the panels have been transferred from the VIN#6xx one - what was wrong with that car?!
Arran, yes I imagine that the hole for the aerial could have been drilled in had they used the "other" wing. I'm pretty sure that is not the original wing on my car now as it has never shown any signs of damage? If it is, it would've had to been repaired bloody well and this was almost certainly before Chris Nicholson burst onto the scene with his unique talent!
This is an old pic of the car that was sent to me when Nick still owned it. It shows the original aeriel, anything unusual about it? The aeriel has since been replaced by Chris N when he carried out bodywork on the car earlier this year. The old one looked a little scruffy after the re-brush, so Chris put me a new one on, although I still have a key for the old one!
The question is, which one was the "good" car? I'm beginning to wonder!!
Seriously though, I have a sneaky suspicion that the other car was probably in good condition (although maybe a non-runner?) Maybe it was a write off that couldn't be legally returned to the road? Or as previously mentioned, maybe it simply didn't have a VIN plate like some of the early cars? Maybe it was stolen?
It does seems strange why they chose to keep the original underbody from VIN 11777 and extensively repair this, rather than use the other underbody? Also, I have very good reason to believe that the other car used was a manual, as it appears the frame on my car has been slightly hacked about in which looks like someone was trying to accommodate an automatic transmission!
I know that Dave Howarth saw my car at Mcfall's back in the early 90's. From what he could recall, it was complete at the time, just caked in dust! If correct, it suggests the car was salvaged and restored very quickly by Mcfall's (somewhere between 1985-1991/93) and then left. Of course what's to suggest that the car that Dave saw that day was even mine? maybe he saw the donor???
One thing's for sure, I am determined to get to the bottom of this mystery and I still have a couple of leads to try... so watch this space guys...
All the best
Carl
by Domi » Sun Sep 27, 2009 12:22 pm 
ed by DCUK...
