grp 4 gulf oil build progress

[murrayarnold]

Its been a while since i posted anything regarding my gulf oil livery grp 4 build. Work over the last year has had me away from home for 11 months so progress on the car slowed considerably. Never the less I am home now for a couple of months and intend to get dirty and make progress this month. The interior of the car is nearly finished and in my opinion is looking good. The material came via a friend from Maserati. If that does not add horse power, nothing will I have made the decision to keep the interior ergonomic and functional rather than grp 4 spec. The main omission being the FIA cage. My wife and myself participate in local old timer rallies and a cage is not required. So why make cramped conditions. In addition I have added sound deadening under the new carpets and the full interior is black leather and suede.
The new grooved brakes, brake lines, pads, exhaust, expansion tank, electric fuel pumps, new back and front marker lights, push button start and all switches have still to be installed. A weeks work including multiple coffees involved. Oh i forgot, the new fast road cams and twin 40 down drafts.
Now the engine at the moment will only have the fast cams, exhaust and carbs as an addition. Good chance I will destroy this engine but Guy Croft from England is busy building a new one which will replace the one that I am ready to blow up.
I will take photos over the next 2 weeks off the new work and add all to my blog. If anyone visits the blog just go to the bottom of each page to the lower right and choose the " older posts". These are actually the newer posts as I want the blog to read from the start to the begging and not the other way round.
So please pay it a visit and read all info as I tried to make the info light and humorous where possible.

http://www.gulfrally124spider.com/

[vandor]

Nice work!

BTW, I've been to Split in a previous life

[murrayarnold]

thanks. Yes Split is just along the road and the summer months are amazing. What a difference having the cars here with the better weather. Scotland has nasty weather and getting use of the cars was impossible to predict.
The work on the car has been intensive. I never managed the complete project and basically left the work very fluid regarding where to stop. Great if you have cash to through at it but hell, once that bonnet opens its money money money.For example, here is whats now being done, and this is simply due to the fact that i decided on a 200hp Guy Croft custom built engine. Needless to say for an engine like this it requires a lot more than a block and head. And then the rest of the drive train......

New engine
44 IDF and manifold
New custom built Exhaust
High torque starter
Alternator for all the new spot lights etc
twin batteries
twin fuel pumps
comp engine mounts
5 speed quaif gearbox
limited slip diff
new vented competition brakes,hosed and pads
Hydraulic handbrake and bias switch

As you can see none of the above is a cheap add on. Basically its all a must if you want the car to go and stop. As for the value of this car when its finished. Who knows. I will be to scared to drive the damn thing with the amount of money in it. I may just clean it and put it in the living room and look at it ha ha ha.

Thanks for the comments.

[pluktv]

Had a look at the blog, I like your style and love it!! It`s going to look like a seriously nice looking car when it`s done, I like the way that you can just look at a car that doesn`t belong to you and think - that`s my focus of how I want it to turn out-and keep it on track.

You are certainly a braver man than me... I just wish I had the talent, time and money (but mostly talent) to tackle a project like that. The idea of attacking a perfectly good wheel arch just to make it look different is beyond my comprehension. Yikes!

Good luck with it, hope it turns out everything you want it to be.

Phil

[ga.spyder]

Fantastic work,Murray.I love the flared fenders(wings) that you fabbed for the car.You,sir,are a craftsman!!! Looking forward to more updates.!!Your hood is reminiscent of my Lemons racer,although we did ours with olive oil cans !!!!

[murrayarnold]

Thanks for the responses guy. Very positive and motivating. Having a vision of what needs done and how the final product will look are definitely a bonus. As for cutting up a good wing. I don't have the love affair with my fiat as I do for my TR6. I have had the TR for over 15 years and would indeed hate to touch it. But seeing I never went looking for, or even had a love for the fiat it was easy to cut up. I am sure in time however I will learn to love it. I also want to produce the best 124 I can. Both under the bonnet, the outside and fingers crossed with the interior. Its the one unknown factor at the moment as its not yet complete. Fingers crossed it will look great. And yes, the car will perform and handle but chances are never to its potential. Shame really but its simply an exercise to see what I can achieve. I don't have the time to devote to competing with the car. I think if I did though, i would go for hill climbs. There was a famous one in Scotland near Stirling that i used to go to. That always thrilled me. And off course rallying which I grew up with as my dad competed and was also a petrol head. Anything I do however will be always added to the blog. I just need a normal job now so i can spend more time with the cars. Not easy in this current financial cliff we in the free world live with.

Thanks again and I hope the car is a great motivator for others to do similar. But yes, there are cheaper and easier ways to go about it and still achieve the same look. I will gladly give any advise wanted.

[dantye]

It certainly is the "Anti-Cyclops!"

[dantye]

It certainly is the "Anti-Cyclops!"

Sorry - admin please delete this duplicate - some Internet glitch.