Lost and found
And Behold all that was lost is now found and it came to pass that great joy was seen throughout the land -- - no I don’t mean that big chic who lives just along the road whose picture made page 3 of the “Mirror” last week when she removed her bra and went topless in the middle of the M25 in the morning rush hour, the great joy in this case was the arrival of my box of scrap loosely called a GTM all the way from Lagos, the last 1200Km has taken a lot longer than the sea trip from London to Lagos and at a price!! From offloading at Tin Can Island to Kano the cost works out to more than £2000.00 in local currency, but think positive, cheaper than buying and shipping another one out here!!
So now we can start looking at the chassis and P&P Cages collection of pipe work to decide do I lighten it. Replacing chassis steel floor, centre tunnel, bulkhead, etc, with Ali sheet, I can’t get L72 Duralumin sheet here, (unless I import it, groan!!) all new ali in the market is soft and of unknown spec, so I’m putting the word out to local suppliers that anybody stripping crashed/scrap planes that I’m in the market, or make the space frame replacement removing at least the front subframe and going to coil over shocks, I’m also very tempted to cut the rear bodywork off for easy engine access, much easier to do now as the body has never been fitted.
Will keep you posted as we go along
John

Exciting stuff.

Do you mean cut the body off like this?

Perhaps this picture is better.

Hi David,
Something along those lines but without the backstays on the cage, no MSA or scrutes here, only corrupt police looking for a handout
Woking on, or removing the engine is a bitch, I remember it well and the same with my twinni Mini lift the body off
I will get to have a look at it during my break time to see if all is there and no breakages.
John

Thats great news, John.
Good to know that another GTM will be saved, rather than scrapped.
Now the hard bits out of the way, you've just got the easy bit of re-building it.......

Good news!

Bad news had a little look in the box after work and before it went dark last night and the screen is broken, I had given instruction to the box makers how to arange and secure, they didnt
Anybody know the pilkington Glass part number I think the price is about gbp300 so not much change from gbp1000 landed here
John

There is a guy on this site who buys batches of screens and sells them off one at a time - I guess he will be along shortly. I bought one when I broke a screen in mine a few years ago, it was fine but since he rallies his GTM they all come with heating elements in them - just right for you!

David

That's great news! I have a screen spare if it's any use? There's a tiny chip in the very edge covered by the window rubber iirc

Heated elephants thats just what we need, regulo 5 for how many hours before they are done?
I did see him mentioned in another thread somewhere.
Thanks for the offer octance I may take you up on that, like all things here its not just the purchase cost but also the shipping, clearing and customs cost which will be double the purchase price
John

great stuff John I thought your delivery was going to languish in some sort of Nigerian Car jail for the foreseeable future but it sounds like you have a project on the go now!

Does this mean there is one less person after a coupe now if another one ever pops up for sale

Offer still stands if you need anything ordering or holding til you next visit the UK then give me a shout.

Just make sure to include some coke bottle top shims somewhere on the build to keep it authentic!

Hi Runk,
There is one less person looking for a Gtm now, as the only one in Nigeria if not all Africa, thats enough to be getting with, besides more than one they start to become common
Many thanks for your kind offer as parts finder,
I do not recommened hammered coke bottle tops as valve shims much too soft and lose the adjustment with hours, an African bush mechanic trick, dem no kno betta Oh

Ah, Hi that'll be me then

Glad to hear your bits have eventually arrived.
D