Building a Gr4 replica

Here's the rebuild story of a 1972 euro GTS project I purchased in 2013.


The car is a July 1972 car. Sold by Claude Dubois in Belgium to Mr. Dambois in Liege but not much more is known about its early whereabouts except for a few funny stories Claude Dubois told me. According to the original archives in Modena it was originally silver/black and a genuine euro GTS. The only other information in the documents were receipts from 1973 for right rear a-arms, axle assembly and 10 inch wheel, so the car was in an accident sometime in 1973. Signs of that incident are still visible in the chassis.

The car then turned up in Sweden in the early 1980s. At that point it was a project and was further taken apart and probably at that point stripped to the metal by media blasting. The chassis has had rust repairs done in some of the usual places which I think was performed back then also. The project stalled and the car was sold 20 years later to another swede, in 2004 I think, which re-did some of the chassis work and restored all the suspension parts, brakes, interior and more. Then in 2006 it went to the first owner in Denmark which bought more parts and had more chassis work professionally done before selling it to its second Danish owner (the guy I bought it from). He invested A LOT of money in new parts, including a complete factory GT5S body kit, NOS narrow fenders, doors, fuel tank, Kirk Evans quads, tons of NOS small parts, stub axles, chrome trim, tail lights etc., etc. Except for a few minor pieces the car is complete and includes an overhauled ZF-2.

A 5S conversion was started by the last owner, but I did not want to continue in that direction. Since I didn’t have much money in the car my initial thoughts were to do a Gr4 build for historic racing but bringing it back to original euro GTS specs would be cool too. My heart says Gr4 but my brain and economic sense says original GTS. Would be kind of cool with a 1972 Le Mans replica.

So what needs to be done to the chassis?

Well, the chassis IS NOT TOO RUSTY. However some repairs have been done incorrectly and need to be re-done. I’m sure they are solid enough, they are just NOT CORRECT. So I’m basically drilling the chassis apart to redo these areas which include; the inner b-posts, outer b-post skins, outer rockers, rear suspension uprights and a few other pieces. In addition, all four fenders had been fitted with GTS metal flares, so the fenders have come off and will be replaced as well (came with the car). Also, the car has been quite severely hit in the right rear and left front in the past. Both ends has been repaired, but the rear subframe is still a little bend – and the left front need to be pulled and rebuild.

Feel free to comment along the way

Here’s a shot of the car when I looked at it first