Any Gordon Keeble Owners Out There?

[Mellow Yellow]

RoyD said:

Hi to all GK Pistonheads!

You may have noticed that, of late, the Keebling magazine has 'lost' a few of its pages. The editor advises that this is due to a lack of material. He's conscious of some of the great stuff being put up on this forum - pictures of centre consoles re-carpeted (nice job, by the way!), man-sheds under way, works in progress on various cars - but this is only seen, or known about, by a few!

How about sending these items to the editor, as well as to this site? That way, we can all enjoy the popular "Work in Progress" page(s) that sometimes appear and can hopefully feature, in an edition soon, some more enties for "My Garage" (see Vol.42, No.1) The editor's email is shown on P2 of the magazine.

In the meantime, best wishes to you all for Christmas and the New Year, and thanks for the enthusiasm and entertainment!!

Point taken, I shall make an effort to get some material to the magazine in the near future. The "fleet" are all reversed into the garage ready for a "My Garage" photo, so I just need a bit of decent weather at the weekend.

[Mellow Yellow]

Cheers for the response Mike, sounds like Realms are the way to go then.

[Mellow Yellow]

Happy new year everyone. Popped into Terrys yesterday to settle my account, thought I'd make a personal appearance as he'd mentioned he had another GK in and I wanted to take a look. Tidy looking dk blue one, not pictured on the GKOC site, always nice to see another and compare/contrast. Hunstman, we're long overdue a progess update and pics, it's almost two months since Ch57 entered the man shed.

[Mellow Yellow]

GK52 said:

Mellow, you missed my car by only two days. I'm going to see Terry on Saturday! All the post shake down issues following a major restoration now (hopefully) sorted. Just the front wing chrome strips to fit- royal mail managed to misplace them for over a month whilst the car was being reassembled....Seems they are able to track to destination, however, if it doesn't make it that far then that's as far as the tracking goes- premium price rubbish service.

Terry did have a set of front chrome wing strips there, I pressume they were yours. I work only half an hour away by tube so I may pop by to have a look if I'm free one lunch time.

[Mellow Yellow]

oneof99 said:

"Gordon Keeble Logo" items on internet.

I confess to buying a key fob some time ago, not great quality but it was only a fiver. The company just manufacture the badges in various sizes and stick them to a range of generic products, the badges are on a metallic background so they don't exactly look "period".

In my defence I didn't realise the club had such items available, the club site only lists the Bertone badges, cufflinks and tie pin. Do the club still have key fobs and those gorgeous GCOK grill badges?

[Mellow Yellow]

GK52 said:

Hi Mellow, Chrome strips happily on the car and back safe and sound in the garage down in Clapham. Where are you based?

Chrome strips Terry had must have been for the other GK he had in. I live near Horsham, West Sussex but work in Central London (Holborn).

[Mellow Yellow]

B7trr said:

Hi All,

Finally finished 'Gordons House' CH81 will now be getting ready for a new coat of paint!

Still not fitted those new bumpers I see, no excuses now the the manshed is finished.

[Mellow Yellow]

A Date for your calendars, 3rd March, 2013 is "Tax Free Sunday" at the Goodwood Breakfast Club. For anyone who's never been to the Breakfast Club, it's a great event, essentially it's a themed car meet held at the circuit on the first Sunday of the month. Entry is free, themed cars get to park in the circuit and there's ample overflow parking for non themed cars. If the weather is good vehicle turnout can easily run into hundreds with a great variety, last year saw the likes of Ferrari 250 GT Lusso and a Daimler Scout car. There were two GKs in 2012, hopefully we can drum up a few more this year, I'll post again nearer the time. If there are a few GKs going it would be nice to meet up beforehand and arrive together, that way we'd get parked together and be able to get some photos for Keebling.

[Mellow Yellow]

soaringace said:

Saw this car at the NEC last year and it did look very impressive.

There is also a provisional entry in the next Anglia Auctions sale in April, for a '64 Gordon Keeble which has been based in Belgium, so could be #7 or #59
http://www.angliacarauctions.co.uk/classic-auction...

Pretty sure this was the car I was offered in response to the ad I placed on the GCOK site, by then I'd already purchased Ch76. I see Ch75 is advertised on the GCOK site (which has been updated), Sussex based and seems competitively priced if it's all there, surely you can fit another in that man-shed huntsman!

[Mellow Yellow]

Just had an "interesting" experience this morning trying to get Ch76 MOT'd. Dropped it off and nipped down the road for a "healthy" breakfast, popped back an hour later only to be told they couldn't test the car as they were unable to get a Reg No./Chassis No. match on the VOSA computer. Apparently it's not unknown on older unusual vehicles and the tester said I just needed to take the reg doc back with the vehicle the next time and if he keyed it from the reg doc it would match. If the tester doesn't enter the chassis number exactly as it's recorded by the DVLA they can't issue a certificate, presumably this has only come into play since VOSA have moved to a centralised computer system.

Has anyone else come across this problem? certainly worth taking a copy of your reg doc with you to save time, now I'm going to have to go through the whole process again next week, which means another fry up

[Mellow Yellow]

Goodwood Breakfast "Club Tax Free Sunday" this Sunday, once I had the Paperwork, Ch76 cruised through the MOT without issue, so I'll be taking it along and ensuring there's a GK presence. Aiming to be there around 08:30am, will keep my eyes peeled for other GK's and familiar faces.

Weather expected to be dry and even a glimpse of sun:

[Mellow Yellow]

Weather ensured a good turnout at the Breakfast Club, chassis 57 was also there so 2 GKs present. Got a lot of interest and photographed a couple of times too, see thead:

Breakfast Club 2013

The August (4th) event is Pre-'66 thoroughbreds, Ch81 and Ch88 attended last years Tax Free Sunday so maybe we can get a few more there, expect Huntsman will have his back on the road by then, too

[Mellow Yellow]

Huntsman said:

Mellow Yellow said:

Weather ensured a good turnout at the Breakfast Club, chassis 57 was also there

No it wasn't, that's mine...was it Barry/B7trr?

Goodness knows where 57 came from, it was 19.

[Mellow Yellow]

GK52 said:

New project....I must be mad.
GK75 one week in:

Does this mean 52 is finished? Keep us posted with updates, it's good to see them progressing.

[Mellow Yellow]

GK52 said:

The front and rear window rubbers are available from the club. They are quite difficult to fit- the stringing method doesn't give a tremendously satisfactory result. Terry Harris advises putting the rubbers in hot water, then fitting them into the aperture first followed by the window. Best left to someone who does it all the time/ has done it before as the rubber goes over the head lining material! We learned of Terry's tip after installation first time around and it was necessary to mastic around the rubber to ensure a watertight seal. David Y advises that mastic is normally needed, although, it feels wrong when you hsbe restored a car to near concours condition.If you need there is a good guy who does this with a mobile compressor and a very fine nozzle based near Portsmouth.

The side windows, quarter-lites, boot rubbers etc. are available from woolies. David Y has the profile number and total length needed for each of the various applications.

The only thing that caused any real headache was a missing bit of chrome trim which needed to be made (sounds easier than it was).

I think Terry H spoke to me about the same car, another thing he mentioned was leaving bolts in the groove, that takes the chrome strip, for several days in order to stretch it enough to get the chrome in. My car came with a new set of front/rear rubbers from the club, the previous owner had a new screen fitted and the guy who did it gave up with them and used something else instead (along with a lot of mastic). It doesn't sound like a fun job.

[Mellow Yellow]

Just stumbled across this, nice gallery of pics of Chassis 72 restoration

http://freespace.virgin.net/tim.tizard/GK72.com/ga...

[Mellow Yellow]

soaringace said:

I would thoroughly recommend RH (part of the Equity group).

http://www.rhclassicinsurance.co.uk/

The GK premium was about £155 last time for unlimited mileage and any driver over 30. I also used them for my modern BMW and had to claim over £15,000 for a water-damaged engine, which they handled exceptionally well.

Alan

Thanks for this tip Alan I've just switched to these insurers, they quoted the same as you, £155 for 3000 miles for me and Mrs M. Policy has some nice features, e.g If they write off the car they will pay the agreed value but also let you keep the salvage FOC. Impressive that they also provide full UK and European Recovery in that price too.

[Mellow Yellow]

Heaveho said:

Is there any information regarding the cars that don't feature in the GK owners club hall of fame? How many are known to be lost through accident etc, and are there any that are known to still be alive, but not featured in the photograph archive?

I'm developing an unhealthy obsession with these things, it's the first time I've become interested in anything that could be regarded as a classic, if you'll excuse the terminology! I may even pursue a purchase if I don't get a grip!

As Huntsman says, join the club and you get a directory listing them all. I went through the club directory the other day and I could only find about four that were known to be lost, GCOK site says over 90 accounted for but I think it's probably closer to mid 90's. The club relies on the owners to supply photos so there are certainly some around that aren't pictured on the club site, e.g 72 & 75 which both feature in this thread.

As you can see from these pages, there are a number undergoing resoration. The rise in prices over the last couple of years seems to have led to several of those in storage being sold off, no doubt these factors will make cars at the bottom end of the market scarcer. So, if you have a limited budget and you're thinking of buying, you might want to move sooner rather than later. There's one provisionally entered for Anglia's classic auction on 6th April, go on....

http://www.angliacarauctions.co.uk/classic-auction...

[Mellow Yellow]

Doesn't look like you're wasting any time with this one B7trr. How is the chassis? doesn't look too bad from the photos but difficult to tell from the angle they're taken at.

I see anglia Auctions have updated the listing for the GK: "1964 Gordon-Keeble GK1. Belgium based for many years - Due to the vendors poor health, the sale of this entry will be postponed until June 2013"

[Mellow Yellow]

Mellow Yellow said:

Doesn't look like you're wasting any time with this one B7trr. How is the chassis? doesn't look too bad from the photos but difficult to tell from the angle they're taken at.

I meant that for GK52, copied the wrong handle, I know what yours is like B7trr Sounds like you're up to the task of tidying it up though. Not tempted to change it back to a manual whilst it's in bits? I have to say it's far from being the best box in the world but IMHO it is an improvement on the auto. Not only that, B7trr has two boxes and only one car, B7trr are you sticking with the 5 speed Toyota box or reverting back to standard?