Steve, your right about the Falcon being red at one stage, and having boxed flared guards. I don't have any photo's of it like that and only found one photo of it like that on the Autopics website. It says the year was 1987.
I suppose the constant changing of specifications of Sports Sedans is one of the problems owners have when restoring cars, especially with Sports Sedans having their own Historic category now. The Bob Jane Monaro now owned by Des Wall had been through many stages of development and I only remember it as a sports sedan, but it was taken back to Improved Production specs.