Fast Marina Magazine

Hi all.

I do not have many pics of Mk3 Coupes, and was wondering about the colour treatment inasmuch as the matte black additions.
My Mk3 sedans and estates all had matte black door glass surrounds as well as the B pillar in the same area.
They also had matte black along the entire sill length from rear bumper to the front wheel arch, with the similar coloured skirt from there forward.

I have seen pics of Mk3 Coupes which appear to have the window area treatment but not the sills.
Perhaps the grille vents behind the rear side windows may have also been matte black where there was no vinyl roof..?
Does not seem to be any hard and fast pattern.

Anyone have a pic showing what the normal treatment was.?
I'm guessing this one was styled by the owner...

MK3 UK market coupes just had the normal body colour window surrounds. They were only offered in base or 'L' spec. L spec models had black C pillar vents on account of the vinyl roof. MK3 saloons and estates had black sills and sill trims on the HL spec.

My Mk3 Coupe was Base spec Had Body colour window surrounds black door handles with chrome pulls Body colour sills never been black as were original and i striped them to bare metal C post vents were body colour Bumpers were Chrome with rubber inserts. Before i owned it was owned by a old chap in the West Midlands who has stuck some Chrome Chrysler wheel trims on it. These were removed by Stu the Gas man who briefly owned it and who i bought it off he did not put new bumpers on it
Dave

Thanks mates.
It would appear that the NZ Mk3's had some styling alterations as befit the local market of the day.
As no Mk3 Coupes were sold here I have no way of knowing how they may have been presented if they had been, but I have gotten used to the look that the other body styles had so I shall repeat that on my Coupe.
Basically it will resemble this in blue, and with these wheels.

The black lower body was standard on the Australian TC Coupe from launch, as seen in this picture from the 1972 brochure. Initially it seems to have been reserved for the TC, but by the time the Six was released, it was common across the range. I suspect this may have been to provide an extra layer of paint to protect from stone chips on gravel roads (or to make the chips less visible).

Presumably when NZMC changed over to English sourced CKD kits, they continued with it.

Only the HL had the black sills as far as I know as Josh suggests..

Hello. Here’s an MK3 HL Estate with the black window surrounds, sills, B and C pillar and trim on the sill. Wheels are not MK3 though.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-GBm5n66ycI

Yes MK3 HLs came with those bits painted in black, although that trim level wasn't available on a coupe- just saloons and estates. They do look smart with it, especially in yellow!

Probably having all cars with the black bits simplified logistics as well - you would think at least.

It was certainly the case with most of my NZ Marinas, including #23 acquired last weekend.

This was the fleet in October 2006..


Today..