Jim Rosenthal
Supporter
Ask in fifty years. We'll see how many of the replicas are around.... actually most of them will be, since they aren't getting flogged around race circuits like the original ones did.
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- Thread starter Boz40
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the GT40 is coming along quite nicely. finding lots of interesting stuff with markings on pipework etc. the monocoque is now back from the painters. it had a bare metal respray so none of the new paint could react with the old paint. it is painted in 2K paint so no waterbased here. it took an absolute age to find the correct colour to get an exact match of what was on the car but it was worth it.
when stripped there was absolutly no filler found so no filler was used to smooth the bodywork pre paint. white wouldn't have shown up any imperfections so the painter was a little woried on how it would look in a darker colour. it looks amazing . you can see the extremly slight imperfections in the panelwork but you really have to look. thats how it would have been from new so thats how it'll stay.
this is all you'll get picture wise to show the colour i'm afraid but i expect there will be loads soon when it hits the shows. after that i'll dig out the build up photos for you. :thumbsup:
when stripped there was absolutly no filler found so no filler was used to smooth the bodywork pre paint. white wouldn't have shown up any imperfections so the painter was a little woried on how it would look in a darker colour. it looks amazing . you can see the extremly slight imperfections in the panelwork but you really have to look. thats how it would have been from new so thats how it'll stay.
this is all you'll get picture wise to show the colour i'm afraid but i expect there will be loads soon when it hits the shows. after that i'll dig out the build up photos for you. :thumbsup:
Jim Rosenthal
Supporter
I thought about the issue of longevity of these cars. When you consider that they were just race cars and not meant for posterity, I think it is amazing that so many of them are still around. No doubt that has to do with the fact that they sat around indoors for many years in most cases. I still think it is terrific. They are tough old bangers.
Here is a link to 6 photos in and about Manhattan of a MKIII in 1967 with dealer plates.
Any idea of the Chassis number?
bestwheelbase
Any idea of the Chassis number?
bestwheelbase
It's 1101, the original LHD MkIII protype. The photos are from a Car & Driver article 1967 when the car was used as a promotion by Gotham Ford, NYC. Ronnie Spain's book says 1101 was later crushed in a shipping accident. It sat for a few years, but was restored in the 1970's and had several subsequent owners.
Jim Rosenthal
Supporter
Looks like a Shelby GT350, maybe, inside the showroom door in that first photo....
It's nice to see such great craftsmanship. It will help preserve a piece of history for all of us even if we don't get to own it. Any chance you could post some closeup pictures of how they sealed up the area around the front suspension? On the race cars these areas are open and allow water, mud and dirt into the area in front of the foot wells. Thanks.
lots of the smaller items going on. nearly there, looking great. the avatar picture is the largest you'll see until the car has been on the road a few days.
if you spot the car around then post pictures in this thread :nice:
i'm still trying to find original pictures of this car but keep coming up blank. Ronnie Spain mentions in his book here that the car was sold to Max Aitken in a blaze of publicity but i can't find anything.
what i did find though was this
story here
a recentish (2010) barnfind Max Aitken ordered DB4. from what i can work out not purchased by him though? anyway , coincidence on colour or special order?
if you spot the car around then post pictures in this thread :nice:
i'm still trying to find original pictures of this car but keep coming up blank. Ronnie Spain mentions in his book here that the car was sold to Max Aitken in a blaze of publicity but i can't find anything.
what i did find though was this
story here
a recentish (2010) barnfind Max Aitken ordered DB4. from what i can work out not purchased by him though? anyway , coincidence on colour or special order?
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so close to finished now. MOT tomorrow, we delayed the MOT a couple of days due to weather and finishing off the last few bits. does look stunning. it moved under it's own steam for the first time in at least 15 years.
going to be strange working on the Jags again after all this time.
i'm still going to make you wait for pictures of the finished car though
leased:now sporting a new MOT and 15 more miles on the clock :happy:
not easy threading it through school run trafic but it performed well. didn't overheat and everything works. gets very hot in the cockpit when moving at a snails pace though.
thanks for all your help. as it's now been seen in public for the very first time in many many years, looking like it would have been when new, i'll post a slightly larger but still very small teaser pic.
i'm sure once it's been seen out and about more there will be more and more pictures floating about the web. higher res pictures soon.
cheers again.
not easy threading it through school run trafic but it performed well. didn't overheat and everything works. gets very hot in the cockpit when moving at a snails pace though.
thanks for all your help. as it's now been seen in public for the very first time in many many years, looking like it would have been when new, i'll post a slightly larger but still very small teaser pic.
i'm sure once it's been seen out and about more there will be more and more pictures floating about the web. higher res pictures soon.
cheers again.
Jim Rosenthal
Supporter
There's no ventilation in these cars. The engine has a better time of it than the driver and passenger, at least in the non AC cars.
Car looks great, by the way. You all did an outstanding job.
Car looks great, by the way. You all did an outstanding job.
Barry,
Glad to learn the MOT went well. Not that it was ever in any doubt.
In one of your posts you asked about the publicity at the time of the sale of the car to Max Aitken. I'm pretty sure I have a FoMoCo press launch memo in amongst the documentation I scanned in America last year, but if I do, it's in amongst some 12,000 other scanned documents from the GT40 programme, so it may take me some time to find it. But for now I am posting scans of the reports of the sale of the car from Motoring News (8th May 1969) and Autosport (9th May 1969). You'll see that in the reports the car is stated as "number 101" in Motoring News and as "chassis number 101" in Autosport. So a typo must have been included in the official press release. This same typo will therefore be responsible for the references in the distant past to their having been 101 GT40s built. The Autosport report actually describes the Aitken car as "The last road-going Ford GT40", but then says that there were only 31 such cars, when, of course, that 31 total referred to the street version of the Mark I GT40. Confusion was such an easy thing to create.
Hope the first test drives go as well as the MOT, and congrats to you all on the beautiful restoration.
Ronnie Spain
Glad to learn the MOT went well. Not that it was ever in any doubt.
In one of your posts you asked about the publicity at the time of the sale of the car to Max Aitken. I'm pretty sure I have a FoMoCo press launch memo in amongst the documentation I scanned in America last year, but if I do, it's in amongst some 12,000 other scanned documents from the GT40 programme, so it may take me some time to find it. But for now I am posting scans of the reports of the sale of the car from Motoring News (8th May 1969) and Autosport (9th May 1969). You'll see that in the reports the car is stated as "number 101" in Motoring News and as "chassis number 101" in Autosport. So a typo must have been included in the official press release. This same typo will therefore be responsible for the references in the distant past to their having been 101 GT40s built. The Autosport report actually describes the Aitken car as "The last road-going Ford GT40", but then says that there were only 31 such cars, when, of course, that 31 total referred to the street version of the Mark I GT40. Confusion was such an easy thing to create.
Hope the first test drives go as well as the MOT, and congrats to you all on the beautiful restoration.
Ronnie Spain
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