250 GTO on E-Bay

[technicalninja]

There is a Ferrari GTO replica on E-Bay ending in approx 1 day. The car is located in Arlington Texas and I have looked at it.

It is a 77 or 78 280Z automatic factory a/c chassis. The chassis is in pretty good shape and only has minor rust. It will not need floorboards or major metal repair. I don’t believe that it is a Alphabet kit as most of the glass looks to be chopper-gun laid (I could be wrong but the Alpha 1 kits I saw at Alphabet's shop in California were all hand-laid cloth). The basic condition of the glass parts is good as there seems to be no major cracks in any panel, but minor gel-coat cracks exist in all panels. For show car quality results all panels will need work. The car is basically gutted inside and is missing many needed parts in engine comp. More boxes of parts may exist but I didn't inquire about them. It appears to have the original N47 head drive-train and all suspension parts but did not appear to have any upgrade stuff (ie aftermarket spring, sway bar, bushings etc...).

It is basically a pretty good stock 280z roller shell with drive-train. It doesn't look like it has run in a long time. It probably will require a doner 77/78 car to complete it.

The work inside the wheel arches is well done and has 4 intact fender liners in it (the rear liners will need work where they fit into the rear vents-not finished out).

The car has two main faults IMO.

The rear hatch sails have been cut out of the car (previous owner was trying to make rear of car look more like a GTO.) The rear trunk lid and below window area appear to be of a different age than rest of kit. It is currently exposed to the elements but it appears this exposure is recent. It does not have bad rust in rear hatch area yet. I was told it was garaged before the British car shop got it and I believe it. I would put a roll cage in car to correct any rigidity problems that the cuts may have caused. This area will need to be properly fabricated and is not a job for a beginner. It will need a Plexiglas window built and framed in.

The door window mechanisms and their mount points in the inner door structure have been removed. The last owner was modifying the windows to be Plexiglas sliders as most GTOs had. The 4 pieces of plexi have been cut but not fabbed in. The doors are re-skinned to get rid of the lower body line and replacing the doors with stock 280Z doors will look weird. A really good welder could put the stock stuff back in but it will be a chore. The sliders could be finished out but I bet they would leak both water and air and the car would be less secure against theft.

The outer door handles have been changed to the more Ferrari like mechanisms but the linkages to connect them to the Z latch didn't appear to have been made. The old handle depressions have been poorly filled and will need body work.

One more minor point is the rear taillight area, low quality body work has been performed where the lights mount. It almost looked like the entire rear panel was made out of self-expanding foam and bondo. This will require reworking as it looks like it might fall out on a big bump.

The basic body install seems to have been done well with most of the bad problems created by the second owner. I was told first owner had basic kit installed, sold it to the shop who sold it to another customer, who then sold it back after he had gutted and cut the car.

This could be a good starting point for a GTO project just be aware it is a major job and will require specialized welding and fabrication skills. It is ripe for a V8 conversion and custom interior.

It has strange low back quasi-bucket seats that are not fully installed, no real interior to speak of, and only the metal frame of the dash. I consider most of what is left inside of the car as junk. The car was a factory AC car but most of it is gone also (compressor and mount still on engine could not find evaporator or control head.)

 

This car has potential.

If the sails and doors had not been cut I would be sweet talking my wife and not posting on this board.

 

The shop that it is at is Sports car Warehouse (site http://www.sportrscarwarehouse.com) and I spoke with Byron and Tom. They are a British car specialist shop and were very friendly. They have not been involved with the work on the car and are just reselling it. I believe they will be easy to deal with if you end up buying from them. Their shop was nice in that "old sports car shop" kind of way. They had quite a few nice British cars for sale and appear to be very good at what they do. They are definitely "Car" people.

I am not invloved with this car and only met Byron and Tom today.

I thought interested forum members might apperciate a detailed report.

 

Onward GTO warriors

Rick

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