I'm in the process of restoring 885026 (26th LHD FHC), build date (7/9/1961).
The car needs to be as correct as possible (with some minor exceptions).
This should be a straight bulkhead car, except for it isn't.
Sometime in the past, the bulkhead was modified, indented.
As the owner is quite a tall man, he would like to keep this feature, every cm matters.
Still, this feature makes me wonder, there's a few things that don't add up.
To begin with, the modifying is done very neatly. It almost looks like it's pressed in with some sort of mould. No hammering to see anywhere.
The 2nd weird thing is the interior trim. There is an adapted hinge extension with a wavey top. The support rail also follows the waved form.
This car is of the road for at least 25 years. Sometime way before that, the interior was retrimmed (or overtrimmed, original trim is under the new) from beige to bordeaux colour. What's strange to me, is that, on the hinged extension and the support rail, under the retrimmed, bordeaux leather, there still is beige vinyl (or some sort) to find, that matches the original very well. This makes me think the modified bulkhead is done very early in its life.
I'm not assuming this is some sort of experimental car (although that would be terrific), but it makes me wonder if this could be some sort of distributor/dealer modification. Anyone here who have seen a similar modification, or who can shed a light on this?
