So after a hiatus of 18 years I've returned to kit car ownership, I had a GTM Rossa as my first ever car - but not knowing one end of a spanner from another it didn't end well.

I purchased this 3a off of ebay on Saturday. It looks good but in reality the MOT isn't worth the paper it's printed on! I wanted a project and have definitely got one.

I wondered if anyone on here knows/knew this car...I have a copy of an ebay sale from 2012 when it was immaculate. It is also covered in RHOC stickers from 2010 (it even went to Le Mans) - one of the previous owners was clearly an avid owners club owner.

Sadly the last 8 years haven't been kind...the car has been used, abused and somewhat neglected. I'm looking forward to getting her back to former glories.

 

 

It's been used, yes, but abused? That's what cars look like after 8 years of actual road use.

I'm not personally a polisher and much prefer to drive my car, so mine already looks almost like that after just 3 years 😀

I'd agree, mine looks as if it spends most of its time going through hedges. It has always looked that way since I started my ownership. The body has extra holes in it and scratches everywhere, way too far gone to benefit much from a polish. However the suspension is tight, the brakes are mustard and the engine pulls like nothing I've ever driven before. Plenty of money spent but all out of sight!

Same here.  Mine is decidedly scruffy, but is now 12 years old with 23,000 on the clock.   The only way to keep them looking good is to lock them in the garage and only bring them out for car shows.😀

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about appearance. I love a car that has been used - that's why I bought it.

There are things on the car (from an engineering stand point) that frighten me! Bits of fence bracket holding the battery loosely in place, a massive piece of angle iron under the floor which has been catching on the road and bent the floor. The throttle cable going through bare steel and wearing away.

However, this is not a criticism, I am over the moon with the car and can't wait to get cracking at recommissioning it

 

The bit of angle under the floor is probably there to stop the floor from cracking...

It’s 100% a brace, probably part of mounting the seats. But having it as the lowest point on the car is the issue. Will make a flat plate to reinforce the weak/damaged spots 
 

Got in the garage and started the strip down - such a good feeling 👍🏼

 sideways radiator  thats new

Lots of tin tops have sidesways rads.

Admittedly most are a lot wider than tall so it possibaly is need for uniform heat disipation reasons.

Mine's  the same design as that one.  I think it's based on the VW Polo.  Being an aluminium radiator I was told by the supplier (Radtec) to mount it on flexible rubber bobbin mounts and to only use the old style antifreeze with it.  Apparently they have had failures at the matrix joints with the newer antifreezes

That’s helpful to know, I’m going to fabricate a new mounting system and integrate some rubber mountings for sure.

Wondering what constitutes old/new antifreeze? Any ideas? 

I though it was only copper rads that needed to use old (glycol based) antifreeze. Newer antifreeze is OAT (Organis Acid Technology). Glycol is normally blue and OAT is red / pink.

That said I'm using OAT in a copper rad and it's been OK for the last 10k miles.

My experiance is that the OAT antifreeze kills old style thermostats.

Switched to the new antifreeze and the waxstat that had worked for 5 years died in a couple of months, the replacement thermostat also died in months, switched back to glycol and the new stat still working 3 years later.

1 car, 3 stats, 2 antifreezes so not an exhaustive test.

Cool, I’ll bear all that in mind - the engine needs to come out over half term anyway so I’m a long way off having that worry yet 😂

So, the days past into weeks, the weeks into months and here we are! I thought it was time to start updating the thread with the progress I have been making. I plan to start doing this after every major development.

So here we go...

Firstly, in early December I managed to remove the engine and replace/refresh the front suspension and calipers, sadly I neglected to take photos of this.

The engine is off being rebuilt and refreshed - I have also sourced a pair of Webers for the future.

The next move was to fabricate new brackets for all the front panels, the rad cowling and front nose. This is all absolutely solid now - with the new rad being nearly fitted.

I have also decided to strip out all the rats-nest wiring and damp and rotten interior - with a new Autosparks loom ready to go back in.

Whilst doing this I have also going to fabricate a better column mount/front roll hoop as frankly what's there is bloody dangerous. I am also doing away with the column switches and cowling - this will be a stripped down raw experience!

The car is far more work than I ever envisioned but also far more fun and satisfying than I could ever have hoped.