Starting with the outside bright-work to uncover what was under the paint we noticed soon the interior leather was heavily bleached by the sun – the areas which were covered were red and others were pumpkin colored. This told me they used furniture leather instead of bespoke car upholstery leather – an expensive mistake (or cost savings at the upholstery shop).
By taking off the door panels it became clearer the paint job on this car was very quick and cheap and many shortcuts had been taken to make it LOOK nice. This also revealed its original color, a metallic gold which was popular in 1969 but not so much now… The paint the previous “body man” put on had a pink-purple hue to it, probably done to match the interior color better. It’s also obvious no “difficult” parts were taken off, they just blew the new paint over everything. You can see Iso’s solution to the door wiring ducts – regular rubber hose which (of course) would break after prolonged use.
Check out the oil stain on my test cardboard after just sitting for a day – it leaked not just at the engine (dark spots) but also transmission fluid so the drive train had to come out and be worked on. It started to look like a serious undertaking more and more…
