Daytona #14273 - Is there life after death?

Nice restoration

 

Alwin can make any panel that he needs ... no?
Pete

 

Hi Pete
Yes he can but we would like to use NOS panels to try and retain as much originality as possible.

Thanks Art. Jnk and Swift53, thanks for your ideas. I'm in touch with Rutlands and Alberto is right: Anything is possible if we just stick at things.........keeping calm, carrying on and getting it right. Right?
Chris

 

Uhhhhhh maintain originality with replacement panels? How does that work? The original panels are the ones that necessitate replacement. No other panel will ever be the original panel.

If it were me - I would have an entirely new body done in alloy. Build a sleeper of a hotrod Daytona. Aluminum body, comp spec engine, lower final drive ratio, upgraded suspension and brakes - make it look bone stock and correct from the outside but offer much lighter weight and far more performance.

The car is always going to have a "story". May as well have fun with it.

Terry

 

That would be quite a car!

 

Hello, Chris!

Any progress on your project?

 

Hi Daniel
Well the whole body and chassis unit is with Alwin in Holland. AFAIK, the Mototechnique restoration has been dismantled and the chassis corrected with correct spec., tubing to the correct size. Also, and with a lot of help from friends, I was able to purchase NOS and correct body panels which Alwin seems happy to use so I just have to be patient and wait for him to get on with it. It is very frustrating, not to be able to see progress and reports are few and far between. I do hope that I will one day see this remarkable car on the road again.
Chris

 

Nice to know, Chris! Please post pictures of the progress whenever you can!

Best,

Dan

 

Well, sorry to keep you waiting but here are some of the fantastic photos that I received from Alwin. The Mototechnique restoration has now been completely dismantled and is a thing of the past. The photos show that the detail and correcting work on my chassis has been completed, including all brackets, gussets, wiring clips etc., in position. Also, snail fan brackets are welded on correctly so that we can now fit the fans on the front side of the brackets. Furthermore the important upper cross member which carries the steering column is now a one piece tube with correct, original steering column supports, not a hacked about mess.
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Quality starts from the ground up.

 

Nice!!

Man, they really took it to a "bare bones" condition to get everything in place, huh? This is gonna be REAAALLY impressive when finished!

Please, keep posting the progress, pal! Congrats!

 

Beautiful Work!

 

A few more recent photos..... fibreglass repairs to tub and fitting...
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Glad to see its coming along Chris. If you need new front inner wings Superformance sell them, they bought my old ones for next to nothing and used them to make a mold.

 

Thanks Grant. Fortunately the originals are OK and unmolested so I'll put those back in. At least with Alwin's, excellent chassis repairs, we know they will fit properly this time.
Chris

 

......and a nice car in the background

 

Here are a few more photos of the car from a little while ago. As you can see, progress has been made and Alwin is fitting roof and rear clip. I am going to see the car next week so I hope there will be further progress to report. Things are getting exciting once more and I am starting to think about getting back into the engine, other mechanicals and interior restoration.
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Nice job at Hietbrink Coachbuilding. 1960 250 SWB and two 1961 SWB in the back.

 

Beautiful! It's really impressive that they have the jigs to get everything lined up correctly. What a dreamy place to work!!

 

Hi Chris, do you have a copy of the record showing #14273 as part exchange in a deal in 1974?

This car is noted as the 'scrapped' part exchange valued at £700 against another Daytona (believe it or not, the consecutive chassis number #14275 - valued at £4700) in September that year.

The car was sold by a Mr John Rutherford, and was at that time registered as KWE 528J.

-Ed

 

Thank you very much for this, Ed. Your information shows that the car met with a serious accident some time between the first registration (May 7th., 1971) and sale of the damaged vehicle on Sept 13th., 1974. So it was only on the road for 3 years 4 months maximum and has languished in various peoples ownership, garages and barns ever since. What a shame!!!

When we get to the end of this, I think we will feel satisfied that we have accomplished something significant.
Chris
GTB Restorations

 

I looked out the old UK green log book which shows that Mr AJ Rutherford of NSW Bank, London took ownership of the car on 13 June 1974. Assuming it was in good condition then, he only had it for 3 months before it was sold as damaged, against Daytona #14275, and then it remained unrepaired for all these years. Fascinating....
Chris

 

What's the latest news, Chris? Interested to see how it's coming along.

-Ed

 

Very good - did you bring a case against the previous restorer?

 

No 360 Modena, we were never sued because there was no case to answer ……… we worked correctly within our estimate and in fact over delivered.

You need to ask the question as to whether you are being misled, we were accused of ruining the identity of this car when we carried out our chassis repairs. Please check out the attached photos which shows the condition of the chassis as it arrived to us, these photos were given to us by GTO Spoons himself, and he was very proud of his repairs. As you will see the wrong size oval tube which was of incorrect specification being a squashed round section which had been stuffed inside the existing original tube with a slash style welded joint, also the tubes for the superstructure were of the wrong size and were of imperial dimension rather than metric, the workmanship was childlike at best. We had no option other that to replace this abortion.

On checking through the photos which GTO Spoons himself has posted on Fchat, it would appear to us that what is happening is that an anonymous donor chassis is being dressed up with NOS panels which then assume the identity of chassis * 14273 ??????

Check the photo entitled ( A few more recent photos..... fibreglass repairs to tub and fitting... ) and you will see that the “A” post is riddled with rust ………… We can see that the front superstructure is different to the car we worked on; we are not convinced that this is the same chassis which we worked on namely * 14273 and I attach a photo of the "A" post as replaced by our selves, now we all know that Ferraris rust, but , this would be a world record !!!!.

The million dollar question is ………… What chassis number are you going to use Spoons, not the one from the donor car as I suspect that there is a Group 4 Daytona already using this number, Your thoughts ??????

Chris, throughout this project we acted with honesty and integrity, can we please now bury this vendetta and move on ????? cheers Kev.
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