GT5-S crash rebuild

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Wilson:
Fantastic work Kirk. Sexy colour, what is it,
it's what i was hoping for 13 yrs ago and ended up with a very plain red. love it.

Sorry Chris for the late response--missed your request. The color is stock GT5-s red which is quite orange. The picture looks good because it was shot late on an overcast day. The best time to shoot red is right before the son comes up in the morning. The UV angle makes the red really pop.

Here is the same color shot around noon on a hazy day. It's a very old 35mm picture that was scanned so the quality is not so good but you can see color difference.

This is a studio shot of the same original factory color. In pictures the type of light, time of day and the photographer can make all the difference.

Another shot of the rebuilt GT5-S all in the same color so you can compare car to car on line.

Looks F A N T A S T I C Kirk.
Just looked through a bunch of pages and got caught back up. Really looks good.

Thanks again for sharing your wisdom, I've utilized much of it on my project already.

must be color of mine ?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Belgiumbarry:
must be color of mine ?

Belgiumbarry,

Yes it appears to be the same color---hard to tell with pictures and various types of light.

What is the history of your car? Do you know it? It has a few AmeriSport details on it. Just curious.

Found a good frontend picture of the rebuild---still wet in this shot.

Found a few more picture in another folder. This one may be of interest to S-owners. I've plated the spoiler bottoms on 3 S cars and it seems to be a big plus in keeping the lip straight. I used a much thicker that normal plate---125 thousands or 1/8" material and skinned the entire bottom. 2 of the owners have reported back that they have bottomed out with no visible damage to the spoiler---just some underside scrapes. It made a huge difference to the overall strength allowing the car to lift up rather that role the lip under and damage the spoiler top from material stretch.

Thought this may a plus for you GT5-S owners if you're repainting in the future.

Found a better shot of the newly built replica factory delta wing and a good view of the rear end. I would have liked to shot this car with a good background other than snow.

quote:

Originally posted by Kirk Evans:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Belgiumbarry:
must be color of mine ?

Belgiumbarry,

Yes it appears to be the same color---hard to tell with pictures and various types of light.

What is the history of your car? Do you know it? It has a few AmeriSport details on it. Just curious.

Found a good frontend picture of the rebuild---still wet in this shot.

thanks for interest ! #9425 is in the PROVAMO register. Was imported '86 by Carroll Shelby and bought back by a Belgium collector . I bought the car from him as he found the same , but a targa ....

wing pic , and indeed the orange in the red

What engine is in your car? Cleveland or Windsor? Are the door tags from the US still on it? I have history with your car but can't remember the details---28 years ago.

Hi Kirk, like many of the others, I'm in awe of the commitment and skill required to bring this car back. How many hours of labor from start to finish? Thanks for sharing.
Be well,
-Olaf

quote:

Originally posted by Kirk Evans:
What engine is in your car? Cleveland or Windsor? Are the door tags from the US still on it? I have history with your car but can't remember the details---28 years ago.

Hi Kirk ,

indeed.. i found in the car's documents that the car was send to Auto Exotica by Shelby Automotive for smog equiqment ( all removed now ) and this was confirmed (???? ) by Kirk Evans, pre Amerisport .

Documents :Original engine , Aussie black block 351C , suspect 2V heads

Door tag indeed.. i will take a pic and post it here

greetings
Norbert

Norbert,

Please drop me a note at amerisport@gmail.com for some off line details.

Kirk

quote:

Originally posted by Bdkity:
Hi Kirk, like many of the others, I'm in awe of the commitment and skill required to bring this car back. How many hours of labor from start to finish? Thanks for sharing.
Be well,
-Olaf

Olaf,

Thank you so much for the kind kudos. On a project like this when the insurance company is involved and the car is much worse than originally estimated, I do not track the hours accurately but I am sure there are 500 man hours or more in it. The actual sheet-metal collision work on this car was not that bad. Details, un-seen rust, improvements, paint requiring a total teardown (which is the only way I will repaint any car), customer changes and the haunting perfectionist in me causes far more issues with increased man-hours that the bump work. Sorry for tooting my own horn---you will always get more than the hours reflect because it is impossible to explain why a simple looking bracket took maybe 4 hours to scratch build could cost 400.00---so often we choose to eat the time. I prefer to have extremely happy customers with a car that is well built, run tested so when you are taking your mate out to the neighborhood eatery, paid the check, both walk out to a crowd looking at the car, it looks, starts and runs perfectly. If the car fails because of a poorly made bracket, bad wiring connections or any number of poor craftsmanship issues from the work preformed, it is the worst, most embarrassing moment possible for the owner and I will not allow any car to leave in less than a 100% condition unless we are not completing the project top to bottom. I often do portions of cars so in that case only the work we've done is scrutinized. Sorry for the wordy explanation---but I thank you for asking. (:>)

One example---in the picture below there is allot going on in a tight area. One example---there are 5 relays that control 2 separate ignition control modules---a Ford Dura spark and a MSD multi spark. The customer can switch from system to system on the move and there is a reason for this option. This car's 393 engine was dynode making 565 HP and is driven short jaunts during the season and has never had a failure since it was delivered 5 years ago. Every connection is shrink tubed and properly routed so the wires will not rub through non grommet-ed holes or burn from radiant exhaust heat.

Hope the explanation helps. Thank you all again for the kind words of support.

Kirk

Always great to see the work of a skilled someone, regardless of the skill

I did spot other than the typical bushings sold by many vendors in the suspension arms. What kind are the ones you used in this car Kirk?

quote:

Originally posted by Kirk Evans:
Norbert,

Please drop me a note at amerisport@gmail.com for some off line details.

Kirk

done

quote:

Originally posted by Kid:
Always great to see the work of a skilled someone, regardless of the skill

I whole heartedly agree 100%. There is a combined skill set on this forum that could compete with the best worldwide. I'm here to learn and hopping to help.

I did spot other than the typical bushings sold by many vendors in the suspension arms. What kind are the ones you used in this car Kirk?

The fronts are MAP's in Florida and the rears were in the car and the customer did not want to change them. I think they are originally from Hall---red urethane with center sleeves. I would not have re-installed them if they were the first design without sleeves. The urethane was still good--a bit softer than I prefer but OK to use. IMHO

Hi Kirk ,

indeed.. i found in the car's documents that the car was send to Auto Exotica by Shelby Automotive for smog equiqment ( all removed now ) and this was confirmed (???? ) by Kirk Evans, pre Amerisport . Smiler (quote)



The smog info car was Carroll's GTS converted in 85 right after Carlini's GT5 and we were just starting the GT5-S assembly program with 9381. The GTS was later converted into a turbo charged Chrysler powered BEAST!. I think I've told the ride story his driver gave me on there 1/8 mile test track in California ---OMG--- I had my own twin turbo test Pantera there and on the track which was quite 935 turbo Porsche fast but no where near the GTS Chrysler turbo warp 9 fast.



Your car has far more history with AmeriSport inc. In those early days I made many trips to DC getting educated to properly file all of the necessary documents needed to be an automobile manufacture in the US or A.



Maybe I should tell some of the fun and not so fun stories of those days---where would I post something like this George? You don't have a "OMG what was I thinking" or maybe "days of grandeur" category. We all could post on those.

AAAAAAA memory lane. Lot's of stories about those years and what might have been.

Kirk, We all love hearing about the history and stories!

Amazing thread and a beautiful rebuild of a worthy car. It is in our neck of the woods and looks fantastic in person!

LS

PS-I have the actual OEM factory front wheels from this car (seen in the first few pics of the thread) if anyone is interested!

Thank you LS.---The owner is a great guy.

OK Rapid, here's a bit of history that has not been told.

In 1987, we started designing a new look for the car. We did a dozen or so paper sketches several of which I took to the factory to show them. The jest of showing them the concept art was always OMG! don't let Mr. Detomaso see those---he will get very angry. My question back was always Why?---there was allot more said. All I can say today is the people who were working the factory in those days were fantastic and very supportive of the AmeriSport project and my efforts personally.

During this time, the factory, through there primary trim company, was working on a totally new interior design. They showed me the results which were not so good so I asked them to please let me work on the inside so I could develop a look that will compliment the final outside re-design.

We played with many designs in an effort to keep the original Pantera GT5-S feel but to hopefully make the car look like it belonged to the late 80s---which is easer said than done. Here is one of the early rendering concept sketches of the cars back end from that time period. I wanted a new wing look so we played with several designs---this was one which did not go anywhere.

Another shot of one possible front side detail

We were dealing with 2.5 MPH DOT crash requirements so the bumper had to have impact ability. The final design was never built but was about half of the size of the picture below--about 3" in additional length rather that the 6" The larger design was prototyped and installed on 3 cars. It did not have this side look---these are just to show everyone how many different looks we played with back in the day.

A bit extreme---I wonder what could have been done with the software we have today rather than pencil sketches. Thanks for looking---Good night.