Hi
I’m Martin Hassett, a Coupe owner from Sandhurst in Berkshire
I’ve been lurking here for a while without introducing myself.

In the 1980’s I owned the white car very briefly
I got it home on a Saturday and it was written off in a Road Traffic Accident the next day. ( the other driver was prosecuted).

Then after kids and mortgage I started hankering for it again and tracked it down. I don’t know what had happening to it in the interim, but it was in the hands of SidneySupertuning on here.
I procrastinated as usual and when I finally asked Sidney if it was for sale, he had already sold it to Japan.

Then I lurked on here looking for a tidy Coupe to come up for sale. I was on business in Prague when Woody posted his Coupe for sale. I jumped at it.
It is the Coupe that Andy Spalding restored in Projects on here:
andys-83-coupe-t577.html

Woody had done some mods that needed to be undone to get the vehicle back on the road.
Thankfully I know some guys in my sporting motor club, , Farnborough & District Motor Club http://www.farnboroughdmc.org.uk/ who do rallying and have their own garage business and relished working in the Coupe as a change from doing repairs on the worlds daily drivers. They re-commissioned it for me.

This suited me as I am a bit(!!) wrinkly now and my chest seems to have slipped to my waistline.

It had its first “outing” today to the Crotch Coolers meet at Alton in Hampshire.
http://www.crotchcooler.co.uk/
This is an informal meeting of classic car enthusiasts in Alton Hampshire

I have not done much to the car since I got it from Woody. It now has a removable steering wheel, which helps, and a reclining seat in the search for headroom
I have fitted hotter plugs to the engine that Andy built an it runs more cleanly now.
At speed it tales my total attention !!
Unfortunately I last had a BMC mini in 1988 as my Mini know-how is lost.

I would like to meet up with other GTM owners in the Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire borders.
The other hobby car I have is a third generation Mazda RX-7, which is stock and like a limousine compared to the Coupe!!

Looking forward to meeting you all.

Welcome Martin

Good to see the coupe back out being used!

Neil

Hi Martin, the Coupe is looking good, I'm interested to see that you don't have the ridge on the leading edge of the bonnet where a Mini bumper is supposed to fit, was that filled in, or were bonnets made like that? I've been looking and thinking I will have to fill mine in, the chances of finding a mini bumper are about zero here

Only the Cox and euro front did not come with the ridge to my knowledge

Neil

The bumper recess was filled in by Andy Spalding.
This can be see on Andy's Project thread.

andys-83-coupe-t577.html

Martin

Where am I going to find expanded foam, (similar to that used making race car seats) in Kano?? I was thinking along the lines of carving styrene foam to the correct section, gluing it it and then covering with a layer of glass mat.
John

Expanded polystyrene (and DIY single component expanding polyurethane foam) cannot be used as it dissolves in polyester resin.

I used rigid polyurethane foam to fill in most of the slot then glassed over it leaving the surface just below the level of the rest of the bonnet so that I could fill and sand it.





You could also use the two pack expanding polyurethane foam.

In the UK you can get them from East Coast Fibreglass.

http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/c ... board.aspx

http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/c ... iquid.aspx

Hi Martin & welcome

Must admit that i tried to buy this one as well. Contacted Woody the day after he advertised it for sale on here, but he said he'd had loads of interest & had 'sold' it to someone who hadn't even seen it! I'm guessing that was you. Well done for being so quick, cause there was a queue of people behind you. It still looks a lovely car & one of the best coupe's i've seen.

If I don't find anything local here in the middle of the back of beyond I could buy an 8'x4' of 1" thick polyurethane sheet as packing for the screen I have to bring back next time I travel, just been investigating Egypt Air unaccompanied baggage, if I can persuade them its a household effect it could on
John

Thats a very nice looking coupe!

I used builders spray expanding foam. The stuff they use to fill big gaps.

Also florist foam, the green stuff they stick flowers into ( Oasis ?) can be used.

If not cover the foam in brown tape or tin foil to stop it melting long enough to glass over it.

Hi Ken,
I found some 12mm thick h-d polyurethane foam I had used to put between the sump and sump guard on my twinny mini, so cut it into strip's and will glue it into position with Evostick before trimming and sanding, just now too hot to go out and work, remember the song about mad dogs and Englishmen between 10.00 and 2.00 too hot and no shade, I still have a little more floor section to chop out and replace with aluminium sheet if I can find a shady spot to work.
We had 2 days Eid el Mubarak holidays so have to make the most of it, back to paid work tomorrow
John

Hi Sven.

I think I recognised it from when it was on Ebay a year or so earlier., and looking great.
I held back then because I thought it was on Irish plates and I would have IVA issues with the headlight heights at least. When Woody said it was UK registered I jumped straight in.
I like to keep stock cars stock...but with a kit car anything goes...provided you don't spoil the looks of a great looking car.
From the marks on the engine cover, it looks like someone had a wing in it once. I would be surprised if that improved the looks.

As an avid Car and Car Conversions reader in my youth, the Cox to the Ring story really got me going on GTMs.

Martin