Euhh ... missing the black rear light panel
Good spot Theo but there is a reason that the rear panel is not painted black. When the car was discovered & recovered the panel was white - it was assumed that it had been black like all early TR7s but that at some point in the past a previous owner had painted it white. However when the shell was being stripped & prepared for restoration Roy found no trace at all of black paint on the rear panel.
Now it could be that someone had meticulously removed the black paint before painting the panel white, but it could be that it was never painted black in the first place! Unusual I know, but Roy has a very keen eye for bodywork & he could see no tell tale trace at all of black. I also saw the car in it's unrestored state (I helped take it to pieces) so I can confirm this.
I was with Roy at the paintshop yesterday when he first saw the finished car, it is indeed a superb job done by a father & son team in a small unit local to me. From a mechanical & specification point of view Roy has decided to restore the car to "as found" condition, including the sunroof & leaving the rear panel in body colour. The car has a number of interesting features only found on very early examples. It will not be "over restored" like some classic cars that you see, although knowing Roy's attention to detail it will be to a standard that we would all like to aspire to.
Tony
<font size="1">1981 TR7 FHC Cavalry Blue
1980 TR7V8 DHC Jaguar Regency Red - sadly sold!
1977 TR8 FHC EFI Factory development car Inca Yellow</font id="size1">
