VIN 7176, grey manual - November 26th 1981

[jerzybondov]

This car was originally bought at a dealership in Michigan but at some point in the late 80s the car moved to Florida. The owner was an old guy and he last drove the car in 1995. At this point the car was left parked outside. In a bog.

In 2007 Lawrence Lormand arrived and decided to rescue the car. These pics are taken after the car was pulled out of the bog by a 4x4. It was up to the wheel arches in mud and it was so stuck that the front crumple tube came off the car when it was pulled out.

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Lawrence's first instinct was to part the car, the frame was in a bad way and the car generally needed a lot of help - however he decided to put a lot of work into getting the car going with a view to selling it once fully restored.

However, his workshop filled up, he ran out of time and in November 2008 he decided to get rid of the car and put it on eBay with no reserve. That's the point at which I turned up.

[jerzybondov]

I won the auction and shipped the car from Baltimore to Southampton, with it eventually arriving in Early Feb 2009.

This is the car as I found it at the docks:

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It wasn't very happy and the journey had taken its toll. The battery was well flat, the rear left tyre was pissing out air and the car wouldn't start for 3 hours.

Finally though, it did start and toiled through the snow up to Essex for PJ Grady to sort out the myriad disintegrations and malfunctions...

[jerzybondov]

2 months later and I pick the car up again for Easter. It's had a full rebrush and LOTS of stuff sorted out. The interior had needed quite a bit of help!

Since then I could put a list up of all the work that's been done, but I'll save myself the bother of writing it and everyone else of reading it by just saying it's like Al's list but shorter

[Admin-bloke]

Looking good there Gez, a lot better !

[arranj]

Gez - did you do a "frame off" then?

[jerzybondov]

No frame off - Lawrence told me he'd spent about 70 hours on the frame, welding, sanding and epoxying so it was solid and in a much better state when I got it.

Chris also did some further welding on the frame to get it through the MOT.

It's still not the prettiest though so I think I'll get it looked at this winter to get it tidied up, not a frame off but a job that'll be good for 10 years or so...

[dmc4087]

The car looks completely transformed from when you got it mate, well done!

[jerzybondov]

Cheers Thomas...

Here's the interior. Much improved too.

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[arranj]

Spotted again! Chris Nicholson's free "spare car"! (sorry Carl!)

[A Van]

Spotted again! Chris Nicholson's free "spare car"! (sorry Carl!)

lol!

Wasnt there another picture of Carls somewhere too?

Sorry to hijack your thread though Gez!, your car does look much much better

Al