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To repaint or not to paint - that is the question
I'm now living in the northeast after years below the Mason/Dixon line where the word winter was just something seen on TV or in movies! Now I get to remember what winter is like once more AND I get a few months of "forced" time to park my Mark I.
Wen I park it, the shop has heat, so time to jack it up and really go over stuff - things like... pull the body off and installed a new wiring harness. I have a new clutch ready to bolt up to the back of the engine, and lots of ideas to fix up the interior. New low back seats are on the list as the driver seat top has slowly been pealing off. The T5 has been rebuilt but I don't like the gear ratio - overdrive is not high enough - as I prefer to be holding at about 2G when hauling down the interstate - now I'm at between 2.5 and 3G. A few of these project are on a list to budget into the winter down time for the ol'Mark I.
I had been considering the new soft top from FFR but that would require removing the older FFR top attaching pins in the body. Which means patch holes in the body. The doors are the newer style Mark III - I happened on a pair of carbon fiber doors! And with them a Mark III trunk lid too. All these have been repainted. I'd love to get ahold of a carbon fiber body but have not heard of any of those few that were built available.
Got lots of miles on my Mark I . The body shows front end chips from track events and the miles. There are other chips, nicks, cracks in the clear coat, marks on the doors from shopping market lots... all of which suggest time to get it repainted.
I have two thoughts on repainting the car.
1) if I have it repainted, it's good to look great - who is going to believe it has a lot of miles on it, to which I also think who cares.
2) There is now a trend to leave old cars with the look of rust and what is called panache. I think a car built in 1997 with all the highway miles on it may fit that class of cars.
Thus I'm wondering what others think.
Ralph Button
FFR 1436 (PROUD Owner of an Original Mark I)
400,013 miles as of 11/1/2009
417,840 miles as of 8/12/2010
435,021 miles as of 12/19/2011
Now a well broken in 347 engine
523,145 miles as of 7/29/2014
601,165 miles as of 6/1/2018
615,215 miles as of 4/23/2022
"It's not about the destination, it's the about the journey. And where is your journey taking you?"
"... Not all who wander are lost!... --J.R.R. Tolkien
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