This car was bought as a kit back in Dec 2005 from GBS by a Mr Burges and cost a total of £3500. On top of that the full weather gear which has still never been fitted cost around £700. He then bought a 1992 Sierra 1.6 as the donor, which is where all the mechanics are from. Amazingly the donor mileage was only 13500 miles which sounded far too good to be true but I have confirmed this to be accurate through MOT records and checking out the mechanics, inside of the gearbox & engine which are all in pristine condition. Even the carb inside & out looks like its off the shelf. It has an N type 5 speed and drums at the back.
I bought the car in June for £2200 this year from what seems to have been forth owner of this build who speaking to him just felt it really needed dismantled and done properly and initially looking over it, I came to the same conclusion. General appearance was tatty and very very poorly executed. The wiring although working was an utter mess and bodywork fit badly done but the potential for a great car was there. Adding up all the stuff I was getting it was still a bargain.
Once home I got to work removing the body panels by simply slicing off the rivets with a chisel to get down to the basic frame. It was while doing this I realised how heavy all the stainless panels were and decided early on to make new ones from aluminium that being only a third the weight. The one piece scuttle/bonnet/nose cone were so heavy I had to get help to lift it off! which is crazy for a 7 type car. I then went about welding up all the old rivet holes for fitting the new panels quickly everything was sorted and painted.
Getting down to the rear bulkhead I discovered one of the previous owners had a fetish for expanded can foam and had used that to try to seal up open areas in the bodywork, then covering that in black mastic. Oh boy…. Not only that in the process he’d effectively glued the rear suspension to the body and completely buried the bolts so I had to dig them out. After several nights I’d removed it I had filled a whole black bin bag with the foam and black goo!
Although the chassis is really well made, with beautiful welds and is very accurate (I’ve now found out it is predominantly stainless). The design of the bodywork on the other hand is so half-baked it seems laughable. The rear bulkhead was so horrendous and badly designed at first I thought the owner had just made it all up but then found out he'd actually done it as per the build manual! In fact I'd honestly say ALL the panels on this car are a dreadful design and are just going to be scrapped, the whole lot will be done differently and properly. So far I can see me keeping only the nose cone, front wings and rear wing outer or in other words just the GRP parts which personally I think are quite thin compared to other makes.
So first impressions, yeah what a lemon... but I'm hugely keen on finishing this car and after stripping it back, I think it could be fantastic if I build it light and simple just the way I want it
I'll post some pictures as I go shortly, cheers.
