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Johnboy HB wrote:looks quite a solid project, maybe Elkhart yellow originally, what are the pipes for in the rear quater

The pipes were probably 'Frenched ariels' a '70's customisation craze. I thing an HB GT project like that one would interest me if I didn't have the Firenza. Maybe in a couple of years time.

Wow! It's really pretty solid isn't it.

Please, please restore it to it's original Elkhart yellow, just like the one in the original MK I GT brochure. Other than Dave Wheatley's lovely Mk 1 1/2 VXE 710G there just aren't any Elkhart yellow cars.

rizzo wrote:Wow you have been busy, like the pics, doesnt look that bad really, have you got to the underside yet?

Bill

Hi Bill. I started first on the roof by taking the vinyl to reveal some bubbling. Then went straight from there to the floor inside to scrape the under sill off. Really surprised on how good it was, so decided to sand down from top to bottom to see how solid she was. Really happy!!
As from the underside of car. I haven't started scraping the under sill off yet, but I've had it off the ground & it seems really solid. Can't believe it!!
Cheers
Steve

Colin wrote:Wow! It's really pretty solid isn't it.

Please, please restore it to it's original Elkhart yellow, just like the one in the original MK I GT brochure. Other than Dave Wheatley's lovely Mk 1 1/2 VXE 710G there just aren't any Elkhart yellow cars.

I totally agree Colin that there is only one colour this car should be!! It's such a 70's colour!!

Johnboy HB wrote:looks quite a solid project, maybe Elkhart yellow originally, what are the pipes for in the rear quater

It was definitely Elkhart yellow & I will be getting her back to that colour. The pipes we're put there for the electric Ariels when is was mildly customised. These have to go!! That's the ugly part!!
So if there is anyone who may have this section of the wing please get it touch.

Colin wrote:Wow! It's really pretty solid isn't it.

Please, please restore it to it's original Elkhart yellow, just like the one in the original MK I GT brochure. Other than Dave Wheatley's lovely Mk 1 1/2 VXE 710G there just aren't any Elkhart yellow cars.

The one you've posted is green? Any photo's of VXE 710G?

The one you've posted is green? Any photo's of VXE 710G?

The 1968 brochure does show the Elkhart yellow car as a rather brighter green than reality. The actual colour is a sort of 'pistacchio' green colour (aka snot green!), not really a yellow at all. It was the third option colour along with the more commonly chosen Le Mans blue and Monaco white on the original MK I cars. Elkhart yellow was deleted as an option for the MK II GT in late 1969.

I'm still trying to master resizing of images using my computer's 'paint' function so apologies if the below is too small, but here's Dave Wheatley's car photographed at the Stockwood Park, Luton, Show last year. I hope he won't mind me uploading this picture of his car.

This one, ORO526H, is Colin Robbin's Goodwood green starmist MK II. Colin bought this car from me in 1983 when we were Vauxhall prototype engineering apprentices together at the Luton factory.

I have to say it was a bit of wreck when I sold it to Colin for £120 all those years ago! To my eternal shame I scrapped this car's original 1975cc engine replacing it with a 2279cc from a Sunspot yellow FE VX 4/90 then languishing in a Luton scrapyard. You have to remember in 1983 these cars were just old bangers. Unfortunately when rebuilding that engine I was wrongly supplied with 20 thou oversize crankshaft bearings which of course immediately destroyed the unground crank! We were young!

It was at that point in the miserable February of 83 that I gave up and sold ORO526H with a very noisy 2.3 engine and holes in the floor to Colin for just a few pounds. Colin subsequently re-shelled it and painstakingly rebuilt it over the next twenty years into the immaculate example you see here.

Colin then used the original shell from ORO526H as purchased from me to build his fantastic race replica Viva GT. Seen here at Billing last year with my current Viva GT, PRP493G.

That's why I couldn't picture in my mind ever having seen a yellow GT, because it's green.....

I've seen Dave Wheately's GT at Billing. A lovely car.