Any Gordon Keeble Owners Out There?
Discussion
Hello Mello,
Yes bumpers have arrived! Yesterday at 11am so pretty swift COURIER (I've given the courtier the day off Caterhamfan)
Initial impression is good but I've only had the chance to open one piece, each bumper is a 3 piece item, the finish looks to a high standard, you can see some very slight buffing marks but to be expected as they are polished S/S and not chromed, i'll open the rest as soon as get the time and provide a further update with pictures. Fitting should be fun!
The GK certainly attracted attention at Goodwood Mellow, Not long now til 76's out and about to enjoy some limelight! Hope you have sorted the little snag?
Interesting snippet, the owner of the blue Ferrari 250 (lusso?) reg ONJI was an owner of 9 KOR who enjoyed the memory of the 'crumpet' adorning the back seat while living in central London.
Yes bumpers have arrived! Yesterday at 11am so pretty swift COURIER (I've given the courtier the day off Caterhamfan)
Initial impression is good but I've only had the chance to open one piece, each bumper is a 3 piece item, the finish looks to a high standard, you can see some very slight buffing marks but to be expected as they are polished S/S and not chromed, i'll open the rest as soon as get the time and provide a further update with pictures. Fitting should be fun!
The GK certainly attracted attention at Goodwood Mellow, Not long now til 76's out and about to enjoy some limelight! Hope you have sorted the little snag?
Interesting snippet, the owner of the blue Ferrari 250 (lusso?) reg ONJI was an owner of 9 KOR who enjoyed the memory of the 'crumpet' adorning the back seat while living in central London.
Edited by B7trr on Tuesday 7th August 21:34
So here's the box, compleet with '63 Hurst shifter
New clutch:
Mated to the engine, it all fits
...shiny new coat of paint, and note that your words on core plugs didn't fall on deaf ears, Ben.
Another one to keep an eye on, this is one of the trailing arms, rusted through from the inside. The others all looked fine but once off the car you could shake them and hear a substantial amount of rust moving around inside:
These are the Terry harris replacements, heavier gauge steel all round, he's made a spare set to "keep on the shelf".
The hitch: problem with the splines on the box, prop only goes in half as far as it should. Last time I spoke, Terry had just got permission (from Claremont) to take the back off and investigate.
New clutch:
Mated to the engine, it all fits
...shiny new coat of paint, and note that your words on core plugs didn't fall on deaf ears, Ben.
Another one to keep an eye on, this is one of the trailing arms, rusted through from the inside. The others all looked fine but once off the car you could shake them and hear a substantial amount of rust moving around inside:
These are the Terry harris replacements, heavier gauge steel all round, he's made a spare set to "keep on the shelf".
The hitch: problem with the splines on the box, prop only goes in half as far as it should. Last time I spoke, Terry had just got permission (from Claremont) to take the back off and investigate.
Gearbox main shaft splines turned out to be twisted so replacement main shaft required. I was facing the prospect of the replacement shaft being ordered from the US and waiting for the gearbox supplier to have it fitted but G-K Spares came to the rescue. After a dig around in the parts bin a good 2nd hand main shaft was located and sent to Terry who's fitted it, all is well. The original gearbox supplier agreed to foot the bill with no fuss. Engine/Gearbox should now be back in the car, dashboard is back together, rear seat-belts are being fitted. Should be finished next week 
GK52 said:
Number 52. Does that make it 13 now? 52 is in the finishing stages of full ground up restoration. It is now almost time to book at MOT- I cannot express my excitement!
Welcome to Pistonheads. Any photos of the restoration? Hope the MOT goes well and you're on the road soon!
286 photos and counting. At some stage I intend to write an article for Keebling magazine and put many of the photos online. When I bought the car it was an ambitious project which I can best describe as being like a jigsaw puzzle, however, without the photo on the box. Hopefully my photos and contacts will prove useful to others. I've managed to find people to manufacture some of the trim which I've seen described elsewhere as 'being made of unobtanium'.
Edited by GK52 on Thursday 13th February 11:54
GK52 said:
286 photos and counting. At some stage I intend to write an article for Keebling magazine and put many of the photos online. When I bought the car it was an amitious project which I can best describe as being like a jigsaw puzzle, however, without the photo on the box. Hopefully my photos and contacts will prove useful to others. I've managed to find people to manufacture some of the trim which I've seen described elsewhere as 'being made of unobtanium'.
Great stuff, welcome to PH and the GK thread, I'll look forward to all your info and pics.Mellow Yellow said:
Gearbox main shaft splines turned out to be twisted so replacement main shaft required. I was facing the prospect of the replacement shaft being ordered from the US and waiting for the gearbox supplier to have it fitted but G-K Spares came to the rescue. After a dig around in the parts bin a good 2nd hand main shaft was located and sent to Terry who's fitted it, all is well. The original gearbox supplier agreed to foot the bill with no fuss. Engine/Gearbox should now be back in the car, dashboard is back together, rear seat-belts are being fitted. Should be finished next week
Good to hear its coming together MellowGK52 said:
286 photos and counting. At some stage I intend to write an article for Keebling magazine and put many of the photos online. When I bought the car it was an amitious project which I can best describe as being like a jigsaw puzzle, however, without the photo on the box. Hopefully my photos and contacts will prove useful to others. I've managed to find people to manufacture some of the trim which I've seen described elsewhere as 'being made of unobtanium'.
Hi GK52, nice of you to join us! I'll second Huntsman in looking forward to seeing the pictures..Mellow Yellow said:
Another one to keep an eye on, this is one of the trailing arms, rusted through from the inside. The others all looked fine but once off the car you could shake them and hear a substantial amount of rust moving around inside:
These are the Terry harris replacements, heavier gauge steel all round, he's made a spare set to "keep on the shelf".
I had a similar problem on No 6, except that one of mine was bent as well!These are the Terry harris replacements, heavier gauge steel all round, he's made a spare set to "keep on the shelf".
I made my replacements out of round CDS tube, and put a rose joint at one end so I could set the rear axle thrust angle correctly:
If your trailing arms are rusting out, you might want to have a good poke around the rest of the chassis, particularly the tubes sitting above the floor plan. This was No 9 before restoration:
Mellow Yellow said:
Gearbox main shaft splines turned out to be twisted so replacement main shaft required. I was facing the prospect of the replacement shaft being ordered from the US and waiting for the gearbox supplier to have it fitted but G-K Spares came to the rescue. After a dig around in the parts bin a good 2nd hand main shaft was located and sent to Terry who's fitted it, all is well. The original gearbox supplier agreed to foot the bill with no fuss. Engine/Gearbox should now be back in the car, dashboard is back together, rear seat-belts are being fitted. Should be finished next week
Did you check the speedo drive gears before you fitted the box? You can change the driven gear once it's installed, but changing the drive gear fitted to the output shaft involves removing the gearbox tailshaft housing.V10Mike said:
Did you check the speedo drive gears before you fitted the box? You can change the driven gear once it's installed, but changing the drive gear fitted to the output shaft involves removing the gearbox tailshaft housing.
I'm relying on Terry Harris to do the work as I have neither the time or knowledge to do it myself. I've a lot of faith in his ability and the engine/gearbox should be in now...so hopefully he did! Afternoon Keeblers
Quick update on Chassis 48 - wish I could post a picture but my brain is too small to work out why I can't get one to load even though its below the 2MB maximum. Anyway - will keep trying. Chassis 48 has not been too far since I bought it last October from Godin Banks and before that it was running around the Auction circuit and before that in storage in Portugal for a few years. So....come MOT time, you can imagine what I was thinking. Well I am delighted to say that its passed. A an excellent local garage here in Cardiff - Du Croq - Slip Engineering (specialist in older cars and especially Lotus) changed all the fluids, secured the brake calipers (!), strapped the exhaust and tightend the new drive shaft / hub that was fitted at the time of sale last Oct. So its staying on the road. I am hell bent on a full restoration as I think the car deserves it but equally, when polished up it looks very decent and a number of people photographed or asked about it today. The Chevy sounds epic, holds its temperature well and has very good oil pressure and the box changes nicely with no whining, nor from the diff. So its a good basis. Only issue troubling me is some sort of fuel starvation. When I bought it I was told that maybe the fuel pumps were not man enough but I can see now that thats probably not the issue. It runs fine until warm and then becomes very hesitant and drops power. It all points to fuel vapourisation to me so thats what I will dig into. Had the same issue on my Marcos 3 litre (which has an Eseex V6 and generates huge amounts of heat)- it was a nighmare to to sort but its fine now. Anyway - wanted to post this note as I really enjoy reading your notes on this forum and am looking forward to the resto photos from CH52 - that will be very helpful. I will try to get a pic up. All the best - Phil.
Quick update on Chassis 48 - wish I could post a picture but my brain is too small to work out why I can't get one to load even though its below the 2MB maximum. Anyway - will keep trying. Chassis 48 has not been too far since I bought it last October from Godin Banks and before that it was running around the Auction circuit and before that in storage in Portugal for a few years. So....come MOT time, you can imagine what I was thinking. Well I am delighted to say that its passed. A an excellent local garage here in Cardiff - Du Croq - Slip Engineering (specialist in older cars and especially Lotus) changed all the fluids, secured the brake calipers (!), strapped the exhaust and tightend the new drive shaft / hub that was fitted at the time of sale last Oct. So its staying on the road. I am hell bent on a full restoration as I think the car deserves it but equally, when polished up it looks very decent and a number of people photographed or asked about it today. The Chevy sounds epic, holds its temperature well and has very good oil pressure and the box changes nicely with no whining, nor from the diff. So its a good basis. Only issue troubling me is some sort of fuel starvation. When I bought it I was told that maybe the fuel pumps were not man enough but I can see now that thats probably not the issue. It runs fine until warm and then becomes very hesitant and drops power. It all points to fuel vapourisation to me so thats what I will dig into. Had the same issue on my Marcos 3 litre (which has an Eseex V6 and generates huge amounts of heat)- it was a nighmare to to sort but its fine now. Anyway - wanted to post this note as I really enjoy reading your notes on this forum and am looking forward to the resto photos from CH52 - that will be very helpful. I will try to get a pic up. All the best - Phil.
Caterhamfan said:
Doesn't seem to be listed on their website though 
perhaps it's already sold?
The de Bruyne Grand Touring is now advertised on the Godin Banks website, and eBay. Unfortunately, the advertiser has simply 'cut & pasted' the "nonsense" about the marque from Wikipedia!! The club would have been pleased to 'help'! perhaps it's already sold?oneof99 said:
Caterhamfan said:
Doesn't seem to be listed on their website though perhaps it's already sold?
The de Bruyne Grand Touring is now advertised on the Godin Banks website, and eBay. Unfortunately, the advertiser has simply 'cut & pasted' the "nonsense" about the marque from Wikipedia!! The club would have been pleased to 'help'! perhaps it's already sold?I guess it’s difficult to put a price on a one-off but seems to be missing quite a lot of bits. The best thing G-B can find to say about it seems to be “Interesting” (twice), not sure I could live with that white interior though. Hopefully somebody will buy it and another one will be back on the road.
Here is the link... Gordon Keeble De Bruyne Special
~iw
oneof99 said:
Unfortunately, the advertiser has simply 'cut & pasted' the "nonsense" about the marque from Wikipedia!! The club would have been pleased to 'help'!
Wikipedia is made up of users' contributions so if the entry is nonsense the club could help by changing it. I'll be happy to edit it myself if you tell me what's wrong.~iw
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