Original Griffith on eBay (US)
Discussion
My friend Hayes Harris www.wirewheel.com is offering a Griff on eBay. Seems to be a basket case but someone might take it on.
I see Dave Alt also has his Griffith up for Sale.I spoke with him when he had the other Griffith on ebay about 6 months ago.Beautiful TVR.I gotta get me one (someday)Love those Griffiths.Would be fun getting that out of the U.S. and in through U.K. customs, to quote from the item description: "The original ID foil with the Vin number is missing and it does not have a title. It will be sold on a Bill of Sale only".
Either way somebody [albeit in the U.S.] has already placed a bid at $2,500, lured no doubt by the promise of untold riches.
But let's be a bit more specific as to what you would get, then someone who's done a resto can tell us how much it might cost to ship it back to Blighty and fix it up:
The chassis is apparently rotten, the bodywork has seen distinctly better days, there's no engine/drive train, no windscreen or door windows. To quote again: "The fiberglass body is mostly complete, but needs a lot of work. The top had been cut off and has been taped back into place for the photos.....and there are no seats, dash or carpet. This car had also been fitted with a live rear axle, but [does have] most of the rear suspension parts and differential to put it back to original.....and some other new and used Griffith parts including used upper wishbones, rear control arms, rear shocks, half-shafts, differential and housing, rear brake drums, front rotors, and other misc pieces".
Makes me wish I'd kept my very original Grantura.
Either way somebody [albeit in the U.S.] has already placed a bid at $2,500, lured no doubt by the promise of untold riches.
But let's be a bit more specific as to what you would get, then someone who's done a resto can tell us how much it might cost to ship it back to Blighty and fix it up:
The chassis is apparently rotten, the bodywork has seen distinctly better days, there's no engine/drive train, no windscreen or door windows. To quote again: "The fiberglass body is mostly complete, but needs a lot of work. The top had been cut off and has been taped back into place for the photos.....and there are no seats, dash or carpet. This car had also been fitted with a live rear axle, but [does have] most of the rear suspension parts and differential to put it back to original.....and some other new and used Griffith parts including used upper wishbones, rear control arms, rear shocks, half-shafts, differential and housing, rear brake drums, front rotors, and other misc pieces".
Makes me wish I'd kept my very original Grantura.
Cantus, Hightswitch,
Granted the resatoration of this car would be a tough job not to mention costing a packet. I think I have seen Heightswitch quote about 25K+ to build a replica on a fairly straight car, but I am intrigued by what you say above.
Do you think that its likely someone may have already acquired the VIN from this particular car and built a replica, which is being passed off as a resoration, using the numbers as evidence of authenticity?
How on earth could you prove that this sorry car was ever a Pukka Griff as stated in the ad?
Granted the resatoration of this car would be a tough job not to mention costing a packet. I think I have seen Heightswitch quote about 25K+ to build a replica on a fairly straight car, but I am intrigued by what you say above.
Do you think that its likely someone may have already acquired the VIN from this particular car and built a replica, which is being passed off as a resoration, using the numbers as evidence of authenticity?
How on earth could you prove that this sorry car was ever a Pukka Griff as stated in the ad?
You gotta know now that the Griffith series, still alive and well, will soon be going back into production in the US... check out www.griffithyears.com for information. BTW, from reports, the chassis will be as originally designed but with all the evils exorcised. Bump steer will be all but gone, diff strength will be vastly more reliable (Stateside units equipped with the 8.8 IRS Ford unit) and fuel tank will be not only rear-end protected but an ATL purpose-designed. The car will have several updates, with many improvements that should have been on the original. Heard that it will be sold as a kit car form (you-build-it-from-parts-supplied) and with replacement parts easily servicable and available from your local auto parts shop and Ford dealer.
Keep tuned.....
Keep tuned.....
Griffith 200 said:
Neil,
Am in talking stages with some blokes from Blighty... the only logical source!
Am in talking stages with some blokes from Blighty... the only logical source!
Anyone know who made those fibreglasss Frogeye replicas over on the Isle of Wight ? There is also a good aftermarket/replica Porsche outfit here on the S.Coast of Dorset (Chesil Motors) and a ton of boatbuilders/laminators who might be worth talking to.
heightswitch said:
NO.
N.
Cool - looks like Steves is 147, just check the list. Must have bought his same (01) time as the chap I am getting mine from. N.
Hi Mike - so can get get some of the bits (just thinking things like tanks) from this new run?
How are you going to get period engines or use 302's?
9 days to go until the big day!! (and then 24 to the slightly smaller but still big day!)
Cheers
Jon
heightswitch said:
You Bought it then William??
Neil.
Neil.
No no Neil I am only joking.
But, my opinion about this car is that it is only usefull for spares and the good man is probably intend to do so.
But I know in other cases that a car is already driving around somewhere if you know what I mean.
I can imagine that a buyer of spares or a totally rotten car will search for its original chassisnumber and
mabey he will even discover it what the original number was. But the owner who is already driving/racing around with this number probably bought or build that car in good faith. Nothing wrong with that.
So I think in such a case a car (spares) which was for example recently sold on E-bay should be dismanteled and sell the spares seperateley to prevent the possibility of two cars driving around with the same chassisnumber.
For example, I do have two original Griffith 400 bodies without papers !! I will only sell it in parts and already cutted it into 4 peaces. Half of it already went to 4 owners worldwide.
Anyway, it will be a never ending story.
greet
William
davidy said:
So what do you do with the cars that left the TVR factory with the same chassis numbers then?
Hi David,
That is different !I know this happened in the past. But whatever the reason was to do this (guess !!)these cars both have genuine V5 documents with the same chassisnumber. None of them is fake !!
And now you pushed me in the corner and I don't what to say !!
I can see the simularity and understand exactly what you mean.
1-0 for you !
greet
William
Now seems they all (or alot have that) very light blue base gell coat on that could be mistaked for a possible top coat. Mine does and it is diffinately the base gell coat - no idea what colour it might have been but I an thinking of a period bright burnt type Orange with two black stripes and same black minilite or Compomotive wheels - sweet.
I just noticed this thread. I purchased a Griff off of Hayes Harris at wirewheel a couple of years ago and imported it to the UK. In my case I checked with Joe Rauh who runs the Griff club (alongside Mike Mooney now) and he had a record of it back to 1973, I got the email of the owner since 1973, I got a Griff foil on the bulkhead, and I got a Griff 200 US equivalent of what we call a log book.
You're right about the cost of re-building though - I banked on £10k and am doing pretty much everything myself.
Where I'm leading with this is that there are some real cars around if you search hard enough, wait, and buy wisely (albeit not cheaply). However there's a lot more fakes than real ones or so it seems here in the UK.
The fact that this recent basket case was sold by Hayes suggests that every Griff can be broken and the ID sold to one vendor and the car to another which doesn't help anyone at all.
It would help if Joe got around to re-printing his list of Griff IDs which were on the web when I was looking. Although one argument says that that encourages people to just pick from the gaps/unknowns - I think it's still the best option.
Cheers,
Neil
You're right about the cost of re-building though - I banked on £10k and am doing pretty much everything myself.
Where I'm leading with this is that there are some real cars around if you search hard enough, wait, and buy wisely (albeit not cheaply). However there's a lot more fakes than real ones or so it seems here in the UK.
The fact that this recent basket case was sold by Hayes suggests that every Griff can be broken and the ID sold to one vendor and the car to another which doesn't help anyone at all.
It would help if Joe got around to re-printing his list of Griff IDs which were on the web when I was looking. Although one argument says that that encourages people to just pick from the gaps/unknowns - I think it's still the best option.
Cheers,
Neil
Neil
Very good!!!
I have several points to make!!!!!
Before 1973 many cars left the factory as kits, so just what is original? There are very few one owner cars from pre-1973 and I know of one of those that was factory built but had no chassis number plate! Remember all the US Griffiths were in effect kits!
Personally I couldn't care less about who converts what into what or restores a car the way they want, as long as they are honest in their description when they come to sell it. During the classic car boom in the 80's there were many replica's and air-cars created, some were attempted to be passed off as genuine cars, others were not. It was purely greed driving the people to make significant sums of money.
The best thing now is that many of cars are being used instead of slowly degrading with time stuck in a collection.
The history of earlier TVR is riddled with vehicles with no chassis no, duplicate chassis numbers and myth, just really how many Griffith V8s, Tuscan V8s and Jomars were really built?
davidy
Very good!!!
I have several points to make!!!!!
Before 1973 many cars left the factory as kits, so just what is original? There are very few one owner cars from pre-1973 and I know of one of those that was factory built but had no chassis number plate! Remember all the US Griffiths were in effect kits!
Personally I couldn't care less about who converts what into what or restores a car the way they want, as long as they are honest in their description when they come to sell it. During the classic car boom in the 80's there were many replica's and air-cars created, some were attempted to be passed off as genuine cars, others were not. It was purely greed driving the people to make significant sums of money.
The best thing now is that many of cars are being used instead of slowly degrading with time stuck in a collection.
The history of earlier TVR is riddled with vehicles with no chassis no, duplicate chassis numbers and myth, just really how many Griffith V8s, Tuscan V8s and Jomars were really built?
davidy
Edited by davidy on Friday 29th September 09:47
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