Jamal's 1976 Matador X Coupe

In the early 80’s a friend came to visit. He was driving a Javelin with the build number 002. He had bought it from Jim at Mascot Motors of course. He took me for a drive in the Javelin. It was love at first…ride!

I decided that one day I would have one.

 About seven years ago I decided it was time to buy one. I contacted Steve Fripp and asked him to see if he could find one for me. I also placed an advertisement in the Hub. I got a call from a bloke who said he had a mate in Tahmoor who had a couple of Javelins. I went down and of course I bought one that night. It was a 1968 model with the 343 motor.

 I kept this one for about three years and restored it, with new paint and then sold it to a couple in Western Australia. We moved to W.A. for a couple of years and when we moved back my wife got sick of me moping around the place and one day said, “Oh just go and buy another Javelin will you please?”

 Jeff Fripp had a 1976 Matador X Coupe on the farm in Cullen Bullen and sent me some pictures of it. It was in a bit of a tired condition but the motor, a 360, was good. I bought it from the pictures only.

We took it off the road. Even though it was registered. I stripped it and had it, painted Sting Red, a Monaro colour. There was minor rust in the door pillars and the window frames, and we had that fixed too. We removed the motor, cleaned it thoroughly and put in new gaskets and chromed a lot of parts.

We took the fan off and installed a thermo fan and an additional fan for the air-conditioning unit. All the trim was redone including the cloth inserts in the seats which were black and white and are now red with black pattern. Carpeted the parcel tray as well.

We removed the bumpers, and although not the purists favourite modification, I like the swept look it gives. We had chrome plates made with the exact hole pattern from the bumper brackets to cover the bumper mounting points.

We got extractors from the U.S. of A and fitted a two and a quarter inch exhaust system and sports mufflers to give it that lovely 360 burble.

This car had original wheels on it, but I remembered the wheels I had on the first Javelin and although I could not get them from stock, a friend put me onto Neale Wheels http://nealewheels.com.au/ and when I talked to them they had copies of the originals made for me…they came up great as you can see.

 Editor: Jamal is immensely proud of his car and it shows in the presentation of it. The family seem to love the coupe and I am sure when old enough, they will all get driving lessons in it!.................NOT !!!

 However, what a cool ride for the formals… This photo shoot was done at the bar b q that we had at Les and Helen’s house where Jamal and his girls cooked for us, and as you might notice, it rained. Does tend to ruin some shots, but we did good anyway.