First of all, I appreciate all of the responses I received on what to look
for on a '69 Spitfire I was going to look at. Well, I went to see the car
this afternoon. My first impression was that the car needed work. The paint
job was pretty bad (was painted dark blue with a poor respray over what he
said was originally jasmine yellow). Car had some rust repaired with Bondo,
but it was mainly cosmetic. New floor pans, interior was in decent shape
(drivers seat was missing a side bolster). Car started and ran well (was
tuned 2 months ago in England before he brought it back to the USA). BTW,
the ideas on the list about the car being brought to the US from a military
base in England were right (guy was in the Air Force). Car was not
registered again here in the US, but the owner claimed ha had a title for
the car. It had 2 commission plates, and one did have the FDU prefix on it.
Hard top was in good shape (good glass and no dents) except the headliner
and seals. Soft top was decent, but had hazy windows. The car wasn't overall
bad, but a bit overpriced at $2500. He did not appear motivated to sell, and
was unwilling to move on the price. My intuition was to pass on this one, so
I did. Again, thanks for all the help, and I doubt this the last post you
will see from me (I found a '74 TR6 locally also I am going to look at next
week).
Craig Niederst
niederst@telerama.com
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