Serious, looking at the pictures you have done a very good job. Yes, the distance might be a problem and welding isn't my specialty as well. I am lucky to know a few people that are very good skilled in welding. How far are you by the way, is the car already painted by now or still in the primer? I also noticed that you offered it for sale on a German Market Place website, are you realy going to sell it???

I assume that it must be possible to save the chassis. The centre and front section will need the most work in cutting and welding. Therefore it is in my opinion essential to have the correct examples of the floorstructure and tunnel as well. But I will bare your tip in mind, it is a good idea to stress the tubes in order to see how they react. What needs to be replaced, will absolutely be replaced. Better to work longer for a good endresult right?

Thanks again for Your kind words.
If I can help, just let me know.

Tubes are tricky items. They may look perfect from outside, but can be quite well gone inside (where water can get traped and there is no rust protection). I think You should be aware of this.

According to my Cox, I will deffiniatly sell it at the end. I am a lego-type of man . My joy is to (re)build theese cars, not to own them. I release them in their top condition, and will never see the first scrathes/scuffs/dents etc... After a few thousand kms of joy of course

The car is developing every day, but we are at the "desert" phase of the build. the day are going one by one without any visible difference. Absolutly all the systems of the car had been replaced/redesigned. I do realy doubt that this car was ever road-worthy (even it had MOT untill 1984). I have just bought the perspex for the windows today and the alloy plate for the door cards.

Sounds good, I am curious for the endresult. Keep us informed, even if it's "dessertwork" because only experience and knowledge of other owners is helping others in order to keep GTM's on the road. What color are you going to make it, grey I read a while ago, but what color grey? Hopefully Jaguar Gun Metal Grey??

Regards,

Michiel.

A couple of pics of my storage bins, as promised a while ago!

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.....

Well, after a longer period then expected, I have done more work on the Heerey GTM. First of all, I took all the old double skinned panels of the car. Someone made new non original panels on the non original structure of the chassis. Pictures will follow soon.

Also I have sanded back the whole body. That revealed a lot of unexpected and unpleasant horrors. About 37 years of paint, 9 layers in total, and 3 till 5 cm thick filler came from the body and as you can see the original colour was yellow.
It's a lot lighter now. Hell what a #@*&% job!!!

So with all the layers of paint and filler of you can see clearly the damage the car had through the years. The drivers side is in need of full repair, the back and passenger side can also use some TLC. Thankfully the passengers side still has the original wheel arch. The nose section on the other hand is completely new. Under the green paint is the grey gelcoat, so that needs light sanding in order to have it ready to paint.

So, before staring the repairs on the bodyshell, I will sand the body a bit more so that it has a smooth surface. After that some weekends and evenings will be spend with glassfibre

I will take the body of the chassis in the comming week, I will add some pictures of that as well. By the way, I also managed to buy the original brochure from the GTM 1-3 from Ebay. Now that's something rare I suppose!?

In the meantime, enjoy the pictures listed below................

As mentioned in the update before, here a picture from the GTM 1-3 brochure. I haven't seen it before.




Regards,
Michiel.

The next stap has been made, this is the lifting of the bodyshell, that proved to be very easy. I attach a couple of pics to complete the next episode in my report. The square tube behind the engine is bend as you can see, due to the fact that the car had a accident on the rear of the drivers side. This has to be replaced as well, so the "horrors" continue. Now that there is a good clear view on the chassis, I suppose there will be no hidden "treasures" anymore that can bring you that nice feeling of; "what on earth have I let myself into"?

Here they are:





Regards,
Michiel.

Sorry, something went a bit wgrong with uploading the pics.......

Fixed the multiple posts, making good progress there. makes a huge difference having the body off to get to the chassis for repairs it is the best way to do the job

West

Hi West, thanks for fixing that!!! Yes, indeed it's a big difference and the longer you look the more you see. Well, that's the thing with restorations. Once you get started it's a long journey to complete te job, but you have to keep the end result in mind to stay enthusiastic And indeed as you say, it's the best, if not the only, way to do a proper job!!

Thanks again.

Regards,

Michiel.

Fine progress!

I can feeé Your "pain" in my hearth .

But dont get down! A bit of sweat and blood (plus a wagon of coins...) and it will all be fine. And You'll have a car that is UNIQUE. And part of a real Legend.

Keep up the good job!!!

Hi Gergo,

Thanks for the kind words to keep me enthusiastic. Yes, it will need a lot of work, but as you said, it's a unique version, so only therfore the job must be done.

A guy I know will do the welding job, I have to find out what the costs are, otherwise I have to save some extra money and it will take a bit more time On the other hand it's a hobby and there is a worldwide financial crisis, so we'll see !!

Any news on the seats yet?