Irish Vintage Scene (IVS) is a premier magazine publisher in Ireland on classic automobiles. They have described and documented Pat's astonishing sedan restoration in much better detail than I have here, and have graciously agreed to permit two recent articles - one in IVS, the other in their sister publication Retro Classics, to be posted here. Please visit their website to purchase copies of back issues of these fine magazines.
While Pat was on the hunt for a donor car - and, before he stumbled across the LHD limousine he had previously owned, which ended up being the donor - he learned of an online posting of yet another (RHD) limousine, on the Limerick Classic Car Club Facebook page. And who posted it? Colin Williams, the gent who sold Pat the hearse in 1990! The picture had been taken in the early nineties, but Colin had a bead on the current owner, and soon Pat was talking with him. There's plenty of detail I am skipping over here, but read all about it in the May 2019 issue of Irish Vintage Magazine, posted here courtesy of the publisher.
When Pat first laid eyes on the car, it was covered in a mountain of debris. But after he dug away at it, he realized what a treasure he had found - and how wrong it would be to use the car as a donor. How much better, and nobler, to bring this bit of Irish history back to life and put it on the road again.
Remarkably, the car cleaned up rather nicely. After throwing in a new battery and some gas, the Toyota transplant fired right up! Even the brakes worked. Here are some shots of the limo in the Castle environs.
Note the distinctive emblem on the glove box. Coronado?
