Hi,

Just like to introduce myself.
I am Steve Brabazon from Northumberland and have just bought this Rossa http://www.gtmdrivers.com/forum/rossa-for-sale-on-gumtree-up-in-scotland-t2607.html

I went to see the car just after the ad appeared and then hummed and harred a bit before deciding to buy it, as the car does require quite a bit of work and money putting into it.

The rebuild will not be starting immediately and when it does I will be taking my time over it, as I am just about to retire and tinkling on with the Rossa will keep me from getting bored.

I will post some photographs as and when I get them.

Steve
http://www.brabazon.org/

Hi Steve & welcome
That looks like a nice car (project) you've got there for the money. I'd have been very tempted to have a look at it myself if it had been closer to me.
Best of luck with the rebuild.

welcome Steve. looks like a nice car to start with and at a bargin price. good luck with every thing and if you need any help you are in the right place.

The car certainly looked to be a good buy - if I didn't already have (3) coupes and several other projects I would have been tempted.
Good luck with the build - keep us updated with progress.

Good luck Steve - it looks a nice car to base a rebuild on. I'm in the same position as you in wanting a project to keep me tinkering now that I'm (semi) retired and it's now nearly finished - 5 years later

Hi,

The car is now in Northumberland and I am beginning to have a look around it.


Click on thumbnail

Steve

Click on thumbnail

Hi,

First impressions are quite favourable; the car has obviously been standing around for a long time. Most of the bare metal components are showing signs of surface corrosion. The exception being the subframes which look very good, appearing to have been painted in body colour when the car was first built. The gel-coat is very faded and there are a few chips in it however there are no stress cracks, so I don’t think the car has ever been involved in any accidents.

The interior is a mess and will need redoing. There is a nice coating of moss in the damp interior and the odd spider or two who have decided to set up home. The seats and carpets need to be replaced and the side panels recovered, the rest may be fixable. One of the things I am pleased about is that nobody has hacked around with the dashboard. Not even a radio.

Turning to the engine nothing stands out as being wrong, taking the rocker cover off it all looks clean and even the oil on the dip stick is clean, time will tell. The engine turns over by hand, as well as the turbo which seems to have no discernible play.

So nothing unexpected has turned up yet, hope it stays that way.


Click on thumbnails for more photographs

Steve

Click on thumbnail

Bet it was hairy towing it with the Quantum. The trailer and Coupe probably weigh more than the Quantum and with the majority of the weight of the Coupe behind the trailer axle I'd imagine it would snake like the proverbial.

Iain

Hi Iain,

It was not too bad, I left myself plenty of time and did not take any risks.

We took a while to position the GTM so it was just nose heavy as the springs on the back of a Quantum are quite soft.

The roads between Newcastle and Edinburgh are not all that fast so most of the journey was done at around 55. I did however manage to overtake a horsebox which was struggling to get up a hill. The odd times the car crept over 60 you could start to feel the trailer inferencing the car.

My Quantum has previously towed a MGB on a trailer so I knew what to expect. Now that was heavy!

Steve

Click on thumbnail

Hi,

The car came with an exhaust system however I was not totally happy with it.

Click on thumbnail for more photographs

With the help of a Capri downpipe and a mig welder I set about re-working the system and ended up with this.

Click on thumbnail for more photographs

Steve

Click on thumbnail

Hi Steve,
Just wondering how the re-build is going.
Time for an update?

Hi,
Not much has happened over the Winter but now that Spring has spring and I have retired , I thought I would have a go at the engine cover, in particular to find a neat way to cover up the carburettor which is sitting so high it needs a hole in the engine lid.

I had considered a number of options.

1. Remove the turbo and just fit a standard system. Dismissed because a turbo set up would be a bit unusual, so I wanted to keep it.
2. Cut the middle part out of the engine cover and put more of an angle on it. This would probably have looked OKish, but I felt it would take a lot of work to get it right and once I started there would be no turning back.
3. Take a moulding off a Mini door pocket. This would have looked too big.
4. Over the Winter I had been looking out for cheap GRP bonnet scoops on Ebay and did buy one however it turned out to be a bit too small as it was.

Having no other ideas I decided to try and adapt this scoop to fit. The finished result is now laminated onto the car


Click on thumbnails for more photographs

Steve

Click on thumbnail

On removing the front subframe to tidy things up I found the shock absorber mounts were different heights. One had had an extension brazed on. This was carefully removed and the mounts de-rusted before painting. I wonder how the car handled!


Click on thumbnails to enlarge

Steve

Click on thumbnail

Thats weird
Did it have 13" wheels on one side & 10" on the other

Hi,

As I needed to replace the brake master cylinder I decided to take the opportunity to convert the car to dual circuit braking.

After reading the threads on this forum it appeared that a master cylinder form a servoed Metro would be needed as well as some welding, drilling and fibre glassing.

I started with the pedal support bracket and found that the large hole that the push rod goes through needed to be made larger and the two mounting bolts moved outwards. This entailed welding up the old bolt holes and extending the mounting plate both forwards and to the right so that the new holes could be drilled further apart. The clutch cylinder needed to be moved slightly away from the brake cylinder and swivelled round a little bit . This required the original bolt holes being welding up and then re-drilled.

Turning to the bulkhead the four bolt holes were glassed over and then re-drilled to match. The push rod holes just needed opening out. A brake pedal stop is also required on the support bracket but this is very easy to do.

The finished installation ends up being a very tight fit in all directions. (More photographs can be seen by clicking on the thumbnails).


Click on thumbnail

Steve

Click on thumbnail