Repairable? Or am I looking for a donor body?

[440Interceptor]

[440Interceptor]

[440Interceptor]

[440Interceptor]

[440Interceptor]

[440Interceptor]

[440Interceptor]

mrzigazaga said:

Have you had extra scrim foam put on arm rests and centre consoles?...Looks really comfy...Is it leather?....
Looks lovely..The wood work looks like a tasty chunk of toffee...Yummy...

Zig, When the body was off I stripped it back to the bare fibreglass, removed what glue i could, sanded and then covered the parcel shelf, trans tunnel (probs an inch thick here), inside sills and footwells and the boot with sheets of upholstry foam offcuts that I got from a local business for $60. Then glued new carpet over the lot with hi temp stuff. All new edge trimming as the old stuff needed shooting and burying.

The door skins and seats were done circa 2004 professionally, and all the walnut french polished then too. That's been sitting on a bookshelf for a decade waiting for the rebuild so its still perfect.

All the vinyl is original circa 1984, I just cleaned it. Some of the stitching (door tops) is tired but nothing new is a perfect match so I'm not touching it. Hardtop was recovered too as that had holes on the corners....

I didn't want the car to look (or smell) new, but I wanted it as tidy and sorted as possible. There was next to no rust, just in the door hinge plates, but every bit of steel has been blasted and painted 2 coats by hand with POR-15 (that was a P.I.T.A I can tell you). unlikely it will see any rain though out here.

I'm amazed that no bushes squeak and the the ride is actually quite good. Got the new Gaz shocks set midrange for now and they might stay there.

Oops sorry, got carried away :-o

[440Interceptor]

KKson said:

Toby, your car looks great and not a bad timescale for a full home rebuild. Cheers.

Cheers Keith, I'm not counting the hours...

[440Interceptor]

Haha, Maidstone boy myself Rick! I doubt I could handle a proper winter any more. I take my hat off to you guys driving your cars on black ice with numb hands, you're all mad!

[440Interceptor]

Thanks Martin, it ain't perfect by a long way, but it's not too bad.

[440Interceptor]

Thanks Gavin. It's been my mantra to leave a (classic) car better than I found it. Did that with my Jensen and I've done it with this one even though it might have cost me more than it's worth in the process (don't tell the missus!) Irrelevant anyway as I'm not selling her!

Starting to wonder what the next project should be though...

[440Interceptor]

mrzigazaga said:

GT Falcon...XC Fairmount coupe...They both look pretty cool....

If only we'd known the prices of those things would go stratospheric! Never really got into the GTs but the Coupes do look good to my eyes. They used to be cheap as chips. Bit too mainstream though and they all come with a certain image.

From my experience you need three things to own a classic out here. A good mechanic who is not yet at retirement age (so that counts out the TVR engined models), a strong owner forum (and this one is brilliant) and parts availability. Its also getting harder and harder to find anyone that actually knows their way around a carby. I never did get the 6 pack on my Jensen running perfectly.

I was thinking maybe a Merc SLC or 300CE as I think their lines are faultless, or maybe something American and 60s (not the usual suspects) although they're all left hookers. I dunno and until I make some room at home it ain't happening anyway. Anyone want a very nice 3200GT??

Edited by 440Interceptor on Saturday 11th February 03:12