New to the forum. Steer me in the right direction

[Lee]

This sort of thread has got be made into an FAQ?

Anyway, to add my thoughts. As Norman suggested in a different thread just now, the price of an airline ticket is not enormous compared to the whole cost of a 40.

Robert, you said you wanted to see head to head, RF, DRB and GT40NZ. That is exactly who I wanted to see so I took 5 days and 24000 miles at the end of May to go visit all 3 from the UK.

I had eliminated ERA, CAV from my search by then, and MDA and Tornado could not meet my particular (peculiar?) requirements of a manufacturer of my 40.

I don't think I can stress too much how important it is to get YOUR own requirements straight.

The visit was VERY educational, and I was pleasantly surprised by all 3 manufacturers.

Now that I have made my choice, and ordered, I will write a post soon detailing what I was looking for, my personal requirements, how I went about choosing, and why I made the decisions I made.

Most importantly I would also strongly suggest that you take EVERYTHING you are told with a HUGE dose of salt, until you see whatever it is with your own eyes. It has been stressed before that owners are obviously biased towards the choice they made, and manufacturers obviously have a vested interest. Even (especially?) on this forum there are certain individuals who are over the top about 'their' manufacturer, so BE CAREFUL. You are going to invest a lot of time and/or money into this project, so don't waste it. So I'll say it again, take Everything you are told with a Huge dose of salt, until you see whatever it is with your own eyes. And at the end of the day, you still won't be able to see absolutely everything and will have to go with your instinct. Note - this forum is also jam packed full of wonderful, enthusiastic owners with loads of excellent ideas and experience which would be impossible to find elsewhere. I am privileged to count myself as a member of this group.

I am now looking forward to receiving a chassis/ body package plus various other bits sometime in the middle of next year, and hope to have my car on the road early 2006.

[rpelliottjr]

Hi Lee,

Having spent a night or two in a train compartment full of Aussie females (when I was much younger), I can't think of anything better than taking a trip to Australia to preview a few GT40's and soak in some nightlife.

I will be doing some investigation and look at taking a trip in early 2004. I am also very interested in reading your story on the particulars of your selections.

Actually, a FAQ that went through why 'any' members selected a particular vehicle would be wonderfully informational to someone like me. It would provide a great basis to start from and then do your own research.

Bill - stop teasing me. Beautiful car. Have you done anything special with the interior? One of the things I think is great about the RF's is the luxury their interior offerings provide (leather, etc.); does DRB offer the same kind of upgrades? I also wonder how likely it is we will be able to leverage some of the official Ford parts from the new GT in the replica cars: badging, instruments, trim, and what not.

As a side note and slightly off-topic. It is my understanding the dashes in these cars are constructed out of fiberglass and then, depending on manufacturer, padded and covered in various materials. I had thought to myself that kind of sucks. A fiberglass dashboard. Then... my wife drives her car into a telephone pole on the first snow day here in KY. She picks up a rental the ins co will pay for - a Kia something or another. The dashboard apparently is fiberglass with some sort of vinyl paint on it. Hard as a rock. Fiberglass with padding and covered in vinyl now seems to be far less of a safety concern than prior to seeing an 'uncovered' one.

[JOSEPH]

Robert Elliot,
I have a CAV monoque which comes with leather on its dash. When I first saw the car I was very impressed with the interior and especially the dash. It is of excelent fit and finish. You need to see these different GT-40's to appreciate how good the qualty is today. All I can say is that these cars today don't look like the older kit cars of the past. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Joe

[jercarnut]

Hi Robert,
One other thing you might consider is attending the Mustang 40 Anniversary in Nashville, Tn., a short trip from Lexington. Last year at the Shelby Nationals held at the same location, there was one ERA two or three CAV's and my RF. There was also a GTD he and I did the track event and I expect to see a lot of these guys at the forith. It will be held in mid April. Forunitly for you there many more cars now then there was two years ago. We live in Ky. and had to go to Phoenix to see RF. Now there is RF's, GTD's here is our state. I am sure as time goes on someone in our area will buy a CAV. Fell free to stop in and visit any time.

[Howard Jones]

Robert I have a GTD and am at the sand the car forever stage but otherwise it is complete. Do not overlook the bodywork required to "fit" a given car together. Some of the older types require quite a bit of work, many weeks at least and months to be more honest, to really make all the fit lines look good.

Be sure to take the time to visit a complete car of the same type you wish to buy. Fly if you must! It would also be a good idea to vist a car in progress of the same type when you have found a kit you would like to do youself.

Its very easy to get caught up in the fun stuff, engines, wheels, brakes etc. and overlook the bodywork. When you go to look at other cars be sure you discuss the body work required to finish a car with the owner at lenght. If he didn't do it himself then talk to his body man.

Many of the newer designed cars have a much better fit because the builder spend the time to correct the body pannel molds so that they would produce a good fitting car. Mainly I'm talking about door close and front and rear bodywork shut lines. THIS IS A VERY BIG DEAL. If this isn't done right the car will come out very ugly and ruin a otherwise fine car.

A car that is "molded off the race cars" isn't really a good thing in itself for these reasons. The race cars were not fit to look good and didn't in most cases. The main mold set for all the early cars, GTD KVA were molded off a real GT40 that was very different side to side. The door openings for an example are at least a 1/2" different side to side and most of the rest of the car is also not matched side to side. This all can be dealt with durning the build but it's there never the less.

Anyway if you are going to build your own make sure you are fully aware of the body fit and finish issue. Looking at the complete cars on this forum really doesn't tell you about, in many cases, the hundreds of hours of bodywook that it took to get them to look that good.

Lastly if you can find a car that is already currently licensed and registered in the USA this will be a lot less work on your part later. The import/registration issue is another thing to learn about. This does not have to be a really BIG problem but something you should understand fully before you buy a car.

There is a lot of good information on this issue here as well as experienced owners and honest importers/builders that can provide answers to your questions.

Take your time learning about these cars. This is something that can be done if you really want to do it and learn a lot in the process. Building my car has been just about the most enjoyable thing I have ever done.

One more last thing; The cobra guys are going thru a period where Dept of motor vehicles accross the country and a lot of insurance companys are either looking very hard at or increasing premiums on anything with cobra in the title.
When you register your car, leave off both GT and 40 on the title and simply name it a 65 Ford, 64 Ford two door, 65 Ford coupe or whatever you can get away with. In the event some DMV in the future searchs their database for GT40 you will not come up. This could save you a lot of hassle some day. Mine is a 65 Ford.

Save this thread.

[Bill Musarra]

You guys just reminded me that(not to toot my own horn) I wrote an "article" on the very subject at hand. Shannon Muncy and Ron were supposed to get the section up on the forum, but I have yet to see it. The article sorts out the buying of a used or uncompleted or even a new kit for that matter, amd all the pitfalls you are to likely to encounter, as well as what steps you should(ought to) follow. It has been quite a while since the "articles" section was suggested and said to be up and running. There are a lot of us out there who could contribute an article for that section that would answer a lot of questions for the newbee and the experienced. If that section ever gets up and running we will become even more informed, with a lot of the biases left behind.
Bill

[Ron Earp]

It will Bill, but I've just had too many pressing things at hand. I'll put a quick link up until I can sort out a new theme and motif for the forum that allows links etc. Sorry for the delay.

Ron