Kellison’s Fame Heads Overseas: Welcome Our Newest Member From Dubai


Hi Gang…

A new trend is happening at Forgotten Fiberglass – and it’s an exciting one at that!

More and more, our readership is expanding overseas.  You can see this on our Home Page in two ways.

1: If you scroll down and look at the right hand side of the screen, you can see the “Live Traffic Feed.”  This shows the location of people currently viewing the website, the country they live in (or are viewing from), and the story / page they are reading.

Early in the day (USA time) we see more European visitors and late in the day we have visitors from Australia, New Zealand, and the Far East.  Here’s a sample from around 6pm yesterday:

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2: Another way of looking at this expansion is by clicking on the option for viewing the “Map of Visitors” which is on the bottom right side of the Home Page.

When you click on this link, it automatically shows red dots for viewers who have visited our website from across the globe in the last 30 days – as shown below.  You can click on the image below to make it appear larger on your screen – and easier to read (this is true for any image that appears on Forgotten Fiberglass.)

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Studying these maps and lists over time, we see that we are now expanding our reach to a new area of the globe – the Middle East.

Today’s story comes in from a new friend who lives in Dubai.  He’s asked me to keep his name private for now, and as always, I protect any requests for confidentiality and privacy.

But…he’s so excited about his new purchase – a Kellison J6 Panther – that he wanted to share not just the story with me but with each of you out there in Forgotten Fiberglass-dom.  So let’s review his story, and for now he wishes to be known as “The Man From The Land of Sand.”  Let’s take a look at his first letter:

Letter From: The Man From The Land of Sand

Hi Geoff,

Pleasure talking to you on the phone the other day.

I have been a Kellison enthusiast and wannabe since the day I first saw one on BAT a few years back. I will be writing to you about that story and its interesting owner as a “Part II” to this adventure.

In hunting around the usual places Kellisons go to be put up for sale, I found no car that satisfied the fibreglass itch I had for them. I looked high and low and waited patiently for years.

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My next thought was to track down the owner of the car I had seen on BAT. After much effort and emails and phone calls, it transpired that the vehicle – a J6 Panther – as supreme as it is – was not meant to be for me.

Four weeks later I found another Kellison (yes, another J6 Panther) and looked at it from top to bottom, spending countless hours on the phone and researching the cars quality with my friend and mechanic here who helps me with my cars of the classic kind.

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With shipping rates, insurance, trucking and the rest in place, it looked like that may be the Kellison for me. But it needed a lot of work, so my hesitation persisted in holding me back from executing the purchase from abroad.

Having said that it seems my hesitation was not in vain. A few days before I was going to make a negotiation call, I got an email from the lovely gent who runs the Kellison website. He had a collector who was looking to part ways with his Kellison and was willing to take an offer on it prior to putting it up into the public domain.

His representative was unsure of the car. His employer had it bought for him at auction at RM in 2007 with little history behind it.

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It was sitting in a private collection from 2007 and was in excellent company along with Hot Rods, Movie Cars, Restored muscle cars and a very large number of Formula racers in a purpose built facility run by ex-racing team mechanics.

On looking at the car for 5 minutes via email, I placed a call to the owners representative and within 24 hours, bought the car. I am now the proud owner of a 1962 Kellison J6 Panther ! 🙂

The paint, the mechanics and the rest all seem to be in great condition. The recessed engine intrigues me, since I have not seen that on many Kellisons and am curious to know more. There is much to be done on the windows, interior and a few other things to match my taste and I will do my best to stay period correct with whatever information I can find.

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After purchasing the car (sight unseen or undriven), it is currently making its way all the way from the East-coast to the West-coast, where it will sit in the hands of a dear friend who I consider to be one of the very quiet – yet supremely well informed pillars of the classic car community internationally.

He will be looking to take the next steps to bring the car into a state where I can enjoy it and show people what Kellisons are in my part of the world.

It will take time, but it will be worth it – as the best things in life are not rushed (but shouldnt be overdone either!)

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Having said that, I am struggling to piece together the entire history of the car. While it is being reworked, I would love to trace it back to the original owner and try and even meet them in person with the car. It’s an adventure I am looking forward to and appreciate the help in writing it all down. At the same time, it would be interesting to know what it started out as and how it has changed and where it has been.

At some point, I would also like to enter it into certain shows, where I know people are partial to Kellisons as well as shows where people want to know more and showcase the car.

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Love the Forgotten Fiberglass website, love the group and looking forward to having many more conversations and meeting you in person soon and visiting the FibreGlass Farm.

Best regards,

The Man from the Land of Sand

Summary:

What a great car and story – and a big “WELCOME” to our newest member from overseas.  It’s great to have you with us as we celebrate vintage ‘glass across the world.

We very much appreciate the enthusiasm shown for this new acquisition and terrific sports car.  And…we look forward to reviewing the next part of his story and sharing it with all of you here at Forgotten Fiberglass.

Hope you enjoyed the story, and until next time…

Glass on gang…

Geoff


Comments

Kellison’s Fame Heads Overseas: Welcome Our Newest Member From Dubai — 10 Comments

  1. Extremely old ex racer looking for Kellison or Jaguar XJ 13. use to have 2 Kellisons in the past and should have kept them, sold one to Germany

    • Hello Frank, I bought your Kellison from the person who bought it from you, Mr. Friedhelm Tang. What a stunning car! I would be happy to know something about it’s history, seems like it was a race car at the time. It has received a new paintjob and looks really great. I can send pictures if you want.
      Best regards from Germany Guido Enderle

  2. Hello Man from the Land of Sand,

    I believe your car was listed in the RM auction catalog in August of 2007 at the Monterey Historics. You may be able to contact RM for contact info of the seller at that time.

    Good Luck!

    Kevin
    1959 Kellison J4

    • Hello Kevin,

      Thanks for the heads-up there. I did see the car in the 06 and 07 catalog. I have been in touch with RM and politely nudging them where possible. Its been very slow getting information back from them since they have to get the owners permission to allow me to talk to them in the first place.

      Would love to see pictures of your J4 🙂

  3. Appreciate your reply. I have tried to attach pictures but do not seem to be able to. Any suggestions? Here is a link to a Kellison webpage showing Lynda Carter Wonder Woman\’s car in its original green color http://kellisonpage3.homestead.com/WonderWoman.html Also, I have a FaceBook page with pictures of my car as it is today. There is a picture of the green paint found under the dash pad along with various angles of the car. Tried to attach a link to the page but was not able to. If you go to FB and search 1979 Stallion By Kellison you will find it. Look forward to updates on your J6 Panther. Charlie

    • Hi Charlie,

      Looks fabulous ! What a beaut !

      Unfortunately, I cannot seem to get a hold of much information on my car just yet since Mr. Kellison is not longer with us, but hoping that someone will come across it here or elsewhere and shed some light on where she has been and where she started out.

      Thanks for the wishes. I have my fingers crossed out here..

      Best,
      TMLS

  4. Thank you Merrill,

    Am hoping someone or a group will come forward with some more information, pictures, history or stories about the car so that I can do it justice 🙂

    The more the merrier !

    Best,
    TMLS

    • Isn’t it exciting to own a piece of Kellison History. I purchased a Kellison Stallion in 1999 and didn’t know it was a kellison until 2 years later. The previous owner changed the emblems to Cobra 427 so I thought it was a very good quality Cobra kit car. My son found a picture of a Kellison Stallion in an automotive history book so we googled kellison Stallion and found Jim Kellisons website with some history of the Stallions and the second Stallion he built was without side exhaust with a ford 302 engine for Wonder Woman Lynda Carter. I emailed Jim Kellison to see if my Stallion could be the one custom built for Wonder Woman and Jim said yes the VIN is correct. The color is red but Jim told me to look under the leather dash pad for green paint and there it was. I still own Stallion number 2 and it is in pretty good condition. Jim said Lynda Carter sold the car years ago for around $90,000.00. I really enjoy driving the Stallion it handles well and it turns a lot of heads. Enjoy your Kellison and good luck with your restoration. Charlie

      • Thanks Charlie – for both, sharing your story with me here as well as your good wishes.

        Am going through the review stages before we begin work on the car.

        Hoping to collect more history on it along the way 🙂

        Would love to see pictures of the car you own as well!

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