I got all the bits out of the Box on Saturday afternoon and then put all the body work plastic back inside, as all the initial work will be to build up the chassis until it is a rolling chassis.
I had prepared a pallet with castor wheels to put under the chassis for ease of movement during the oncoming work, next was the start of the cleanup of 30 or more years of neglect and storage in damp places, I had been told by the seller colin47, when I bought it off him that he had bought it from a chap in Wales who never got round to building it, now for the curios part, after Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning scraping and wire brushing, it is obvious that the chassis has had a body attached, traces of fiber glass on the tube door pillars, witness marks where bits have been bolted or riveted on, but the body that came with it was not drilled for fixing points behind the doors and no signs of being bonded onto the door pillar tubes, very strange.
With my old Cox Gtm all the work was mechanical, replacing engine, gearbox and brakes, apart from cutting intakes and air outlets for the radiator, oil-cooler and cool air for the carbs I never had to work on the chassis or body and only when you see a bare chassis do you realize just how many bits go into making it, I’m sure there is plenty of scope for simplifying and lightening it.
One of the differences between the Cox and later Coupes is the early cars having a deep vee formed in the chassis at the base of the screen whereas the later cars are flat; on the Cox this was an ideal place to put the petrol tank, well away from the potential accident when located inside the front subframe and with the spare wheel standing in front of the tank as an extra cushion leaving plenty of room for the front mounted radiator and its outlet ducting, so this is another mod on the list, I have to make a tank so why not modify the chassis to fit it in.
I shall be taking bits in to work to make, or modify for a long time to come, first is to make the floor stiffener plates to go under the cage legs so that the cage can be welded into position.
John

Modifying the chassis to mimic the earlier dropped bulkhead in my view is a good idea and will also stiffen up the bulkhead and tie it in with the tunnel better, this is a long way down on my wish list unfortunately. Wish I did it when I originally built mine.

Neil

I have to disagree that the petol tank is in anyway unsafe when put in the front subframe on later cars. Back in the late 80's when i was renovating my coupe, i happened to find & buy a written-off coupe from a local scrapyard. It had received a heavy frontal impact - bad enough to bend the chassis & write it off. The front subframe & the petrol tank were completely intact. I checked the tank & used it in the car i was rebuilding (& as far as i know, its still in use - Weasel on here owns it now). They're pretty solid those front subframes & don't tend to rust too much (unlike the rear Mini ones!)

Hi Sven, I know those subframes are heavy I was lugging two without suspension around yesterday I just like to use that Vee of the earlier Cox to park a nice big tank into to free up space for outlet ducting for the radiator, also I will be taking a good look at lightening the subframe or replacing it with a tube frame and coilover shocks
Cheers
John

Sounds good John.
I can't wait to see some pics of this project in progress. Hope you'll keep us updated as it goes along.

Hi Sven,
I did take a couple of shots yesterday after removing 30 years + of barnacles and rust and positioned the P&P cages roll cage into rough position,
I tried to post, but the file size was too big and I have not worked out how to reduce them any advice welcome.
Does anyone have or can tell me where to find
Front, rear and door screen window sealing rubber
Door hinges (or a good picture to make) + locks + door seal rubber
Bonnet hinges (or a god picture to make) + Herald (type) catches
Engine cover catches/locks
Cheers
John

One method os shrinking the pictures before posting

http://www.gtmdrivers.com/forum/post15305.html?hilit=paint#p15305


Neil

Work in progress

I hope it's true I heard there is somebody here in Kano who can sandblast bigger items, in the south of the country the boat yards would be able to do it, 1200Km from the sea not many boats up here, camels don't like to be sandblasted
John

not hanging around John! mind you the weather looks quite nice for a bit of wire wheeling outside

That cage looks substantial to say the least and I think when I eventually get a Coupe I am definitely going get one installed.

Keep up the good work!

Its above 40c in the shade, I had to wear gloves to pull the chassis out of the box it was so hot Good excuse to drink plenty making cage feet plates at work, will be drilling mounting holes next weekend and warming the angle grinder and nibbler to cut the Vee in the front of the chassis and convert it to L-H drive
John

That is pretty toasty, how does the fibreglass hold up in that sort of climate with powerful direct sunlight?

I guess a black paint job and nice black leather seats won't be on the cards

I'm sure the fiber glass will be OK, I used to have a Fiat Abarth 124 Spyder with glass boot, bonnet and hardtop that had no problems, anything rubber, screen seals etc dry out and crack the same for the top of dashboards and steering wheels, black is a big no here unless you have very effective air conditioning, light colours are best, I'm tempted to go yellow, in memory of my old XPL, but that's a long way off just now
John

Just found my 1st snag as I was looking what holes I have to make for rack and peddles, the rack mounts on my donor car are on the body, the subframes that came with the GTM have the mounts on the subframe, but there must be a saddle under the rack where the U bolts pass into the subframe, anybody have a pair of saddles and U bolts they would like to sell me, or can make a dimensioned drawing so that I can make them?
Next problem the holes for master cylinders and accelerator peddle are very poorly done, just the thing our local bush mechanics could do!! I’m not sure I can trust taking measurements off the old holes and transposing them to the other side of the chassis, has anybody got proper measurements of the peddle position and steering column holes.
Thanks
John

Here is a sketch of the blocks which fit on the rear face of the front subframe for the steering rack mounts.