A huge thank-you to Doc and Eileen for helping me with the information I needed to do this restore.
I purchased this extended FPIII off eBay for the price of the upgrade (though no longer available). It was equipped with some really nice Mazda Cifte tubes and well built. It sounded great but had some real cosmetic issues. The transformer bell was heavily rusted and there was sticky goo all over the chassis. Underneath, the electronics was coated in some kind of blue paint like substance that made updating difficult. The wooden base was completely untreated and suffered from the accumulation of dirt and dings.
After securing the extended upgrade manual from Doc and Eileen (I had the Foreplay manual from a previous build), I began the work of completely rebuilding this wonderful preamp.
Months later, here is it with wenge base and gold anodized top plate. I literally took it all apart and rebuilt it.
I never thought anything could sound better than my FPIII. The extended version was quite a lesson in sound for me. Both the FPIII and extended FPIII have Mazda Cifte tubes and I can really hear the difference. This preamp has securely found a home driving my Paramounts in the main system.
More later, here is the pic:
