250 GTO - the enemy within!

[PeterAllen]

Yes, go ahead, boo and hiss...

I have been looking for an Individually Constructed Vehicle forum for some helpful advice on my, dare I say it, 250 GTO build. The build has been going on for a few years and most of the structural and mechanical work is done, I am just starting to get into body modifications the fiddly bits where I will be seeking some experienced input and knowledge of specialist suppliers.

It's rotisserie up build of a Datsun 240Z shell with LS1 running gear - I must say I was surprised but glad to see that LSXs are run in Cobras - and it is cloaked in a fibreglass 250 GTO body.

Peter
Sydney (Sutherland)

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[Beejay]

Peter,

Nice toy. Is that a Classic Revival body or another one?

Rocker Covers are cool, where did you get them?

Cheers,

Ben

Originally Posted by PeterAllen

Yes, go ahead, boo and hiss...

I have been looking for an Individually Constructed Vehicle forum for some helpful advice on my, dare I say it, 250 GTO build. The build has been going on for a few years and most of the structural and mechanical work is done, I am just starting to get into body modifications the fiddly bits where I will be seeking some experienced input and knowledge of specialist suppliers.

It's rotisserie up build of a Datsun 240Z shell with LS1 running gear - I must say I was surprised but glad to see that LSXs are run in Cobras - and it is cloaked in a fibreglass 250 GTO body.

Peter
Sydney (Sutherland)

[racco]

I have some experience on this, you can copy a cobra and have an identical copy of the real car( same feel, look, power and enjoyment). The ferrari is impossible to copy with a datsun, you will need a ferrari250 gte donor and about 300k for the rebuild.
I don't want to be a wet blanket, but stick to the cobra copies

[Rob. Smith]

Originally Posted by racco

I have some experience on this, you can copy a cobra and have an identical copy of the real car( same feel, look, power and enjoyment). The ferrari is impossible to copy with a datsun, you will need a ferrari250 gte donor and about 300k for the rebuild.
I don't want to be a wet blanket, but stick to the cobra copies

Hey racco show us some pics of your Cobra replica !

[belgiumbarry]

it's nice on tech hobby and GTO looks ... but ... BOO to it's value and point... sorry... it's a kit - car... with mixed roots-feelings... don't throw to much money in it... never gets halve it's refund again, sorry for my reaction.... not my piece of cake... as if abusing worlds most expensive looks on a ricer chassis with ... ok, a GM V8 engine .... does me think of Miami Vice soap.. a Ferrari Daytona look-alike on a Corvette chassis ....

IMHO, better spend the money on restoring a real oldtimer.... don't want to know how much it costs to have rocker covers made for a LS1 with Ferrari casting.... as if it does make any sense .

SORRY ! but who i'm I ? just chase your dreams, one lives longer

[Gav]

Originally Posted by belgiumbarry

it's nice on tech hobby and GTO looks ... but ... BOO to it's value and point... sorry... it's a kit - car... with mixed roots-feelings... don't throw to much money in it... never gets halve it's refund again, sorry for my reaction.... not my piece of cake... as if abusing worlds most expensive looks on a ricer chassis with ... ok, a GM V8 engine .... does me think of Miami Vice soap.. a Ferrari Daytona look-alike on a Corvette chassis ....

IMHO, better spend the money on restoring a real oldtimer.... don't want to know how much it costs to have rocker covers made for a LS1 with Ferrari casting.... as if it does make any sense .

SORRY ! but who i'm I ? just chase your dreams, one lives longer

Who are you to tell this guy what to do?

There are loads of cars about that I think look crap, but that is just my opinion. If no positive can come from your comments keep them to yourself.

The Datto' conversion looks great, it will be a rocket with the LS transplant!
Have you thought to join a club as your car is based on a racecar from the same period as the cobra?
I am sure plenty of us look forward to following your build.

Gav

[Aussie Mike]

I nearly bought a half finished one a few years back but I was a bit short on shed space. I reckon they are great.

some folks on here are purists and you will get some negative feedback from them. They don't like us putting Chev motors in Cobras but big deal. They are easy to ignore or you can have some fun winding them up. I think most of us are a bit more open minded when it comes to building cars. Most of us Aussies love this sort of stuff.

The only problem with the 250 GTO replica is the values of donor cars. A good 2 seater 240Z or 260Z is worth more than $20K now so it's a shame to cut one up. If I found a rough one that needed a lot of rust repairs etc I'd definitely consider it though.

There's a really good website/forum for Nissan Z car conversions and modifications. Lots of V8 conversions and suspension info etc. It might be worth checking out to help with your build.

HybridZ

Keep us posted on your build. I'm dead keen to see it develop.

Cheers

[PeterAllen]

You're a lively lot, I'll give you that.

The purpose of my post you merely to introduce myself, not to start a mass debate on the integrity or worth of copies, replicas, kit cars, hand crafted automobiles and individually constructed vehicles. I'm old enough to identify and ignore 'wankers' but thanks for the support.

Hydrid Z was most helpful with the LS1 install but I had to make my own way with the GM diff installation. The rocker covers were a real find on eBay of all places. They are machined from a solid aluminium billet and I had the engraving done, all at a very reasonable price.

Guys, I'm just here to have a good time and spend the kids' inheritance. Peace to you all.

[belgiumbarry]

Originally Posted by Gav

Who are you to tell this guy what to do?

There are loads of cars about that I think look crap, but that is just my opinion. If no positive can come from your comments keep them to yourself.

The Datto' conversion looks great, it will be a rocket with the LS transplant!
Have you thought to join a club as your car is based on a racecar from the same period as the cobra?
I am sure plenty of us look forward to following your build.

Gav

SORRY Gav... didn't i say so ?

Who are you to tell this guy what to do?

I don't ... just give my opinion... he expected BOO's ...

There are loads of cars about that I think look crap, but that is just my opinion.

Just like mine here....

If no positive can come from your comments keep them to yourself.

i will remind this.. again ,sorry...but... is this forum only about throwing flowers ? .... you guys sure don't do it with me i hope... what should i learn from that ? and that's the reason we are here no ? not to be heroes...



The Datto' conversion looks great, it will be a rocket with the LS transplant!

i didn't put this in doubt... i'm sure it will be !

Have you thought to join a club as your car is based on a racecar from the same period as the cobra?

not directly... a friend of mine is member with his Cobra and i was looking also for one... but with Belgian laws i'm afraid of the tech inspection every year... they make it harder and harder to keep cars not ever officially imported ... which i cannot change... just a small civilian....

I am sure plenty of us look forward to following your build.

cannot "demand" anything Gav... just ask.. found it here great for tech information... do i have to fear now everything here is based on "positive" replys instead of real facts/feelings ?


Do you really think i would kill myself if someone calls my Pantera BS ? No.. i would ask why...

sorry for You... sorry for PeterAllen.... i gived MY opinion... i'm not God !

[Rob. Smith]

Originally Posted by Gav

Who are you to tell this guy what to do?

There are loads of cars about that I think look crap, but that is just my opinion. If no positive can come from your comments keep them to yourself.

The Datto' conversion looks great, it will be a rocket with the LS transplant!
Have you thought to join a club as your car is based on a racecar from the same period as the cobra?
I am sure plenty of us look forward to following your build.

Gav

Good Onya Gav, well said. Remember the celica / Ferrari conversion ??? That WAS a piece of crap..this GTO jobby is nice.

[Donunder]

Pete I reckon most of the blokes on this forum are behind you all the way with this project, and the fact that one of our truly clever guys Aussie Mike has come onboard offering you solid advice on fabricating and build ideas will be of huge assistance to you.

I have not seen a completed 240Z/GTO replica but I would assume that the contemporary body dimensions are pretty much true to the original. Some earlier attempts were so out of kilter they were hideous. Does the fact that the GTO had a rather high roof line mean that you won't have to chop the Datto either to stay faithful to the GTO's lines?

Is the car registered? If so do you still have to present it for a full inspection or can you just advise of the engine swap because "the Zed's motor was beyond repair"? This would get you around the many ICV problems. In Qld I think you can go forward with engine technology eg; the LS motor into the Zed, but you can't go backwards, like putting a carbied 350 into a late model Commodore for instance.

Lots of photos and stories about the build please!!

[boxhead]

Very nice Peter, no booing or hissing from me.
I tried to convince my wife she needed one of these as her car, but she wanted something with "pop up eyes"

I still would not mind one of these in the shed for highway cruising.

[Gav]

Sorry, how dare I defend some poor bloke with a car that is a bit different to what you consider to be cool.

Knob.

[Aussie Mike]

Yep, lets not turn this into another bicker-fest like the gold wheels thread.

I for one am interested in this car.

I put a GM diff in my Cobra. It originally had a Ford AU falcon diff in it and now it's got a Commodore Hydratrack diff from a HSV GTS in it.

Hope I can be of some assistance.

Cheers

[PeterAllen]

Mike - I haven't got around to organising the drive shafts as yet, I've lowered the car quite a bit and I have to remachine the lower shock mounting points to eliminate the neg camber. It will probably add a smiggen to the lengths of the shafts. I plan to use the floating CVs on both ends - my donor was a VZ SS Ute with one fixed and one floating CV.

Where did you have your drive shafts made? I have heard good things about Boznjak (sp) at Smithfield here in Sydney.


Beejay - Apologies, I got distracted. No it's not from Ian (we raced at the same time in the 70s) It's from a mob in Melbourne around 2000 who are no longer in business. The first owner did just enough damage to realise he was out of his depth and I was able to take it all back to square one.

[Aussie Mike]

I went to my local wrecker and sorted through the shafts from all the various different IRS equipped Commodores till I found 2 that were close to the length I needed. They all use the same 6 bolt pattern for the flanges.

Since I used a mix of Ford and Holden stuff I ended up making my own drive flanges for the suspension uprights. This let me me mess around with the lengths in the flange dimensions.

You can see how I made the new drive flanges in these pics.





Cheers

[PeterAllen]

Mike - Any idea on the length of those shafts, the Holden Ute were 510mm but I only need around 345mm and I didn't think they would make anything that short. If you used a standard shaft did you use the floating CVs on both ends?

I made similar drive flanges to suit the Datsun.

Would also love to see the front diff mount design - I made one but I'm not all that happy with it.

[Dimis]

There's a car that I'd be happy to sit along side a Cobra in my garage...
GTO250 definitely a keeper and in my top 10.

Good luck with your build.

[Bartruff1]

Thanks for sharing....when you get it finished, I will trade you my Superformance for it.....

[PeterAllen]

Update: In the last few months the project has gone backwards to go forward. Coming back to earth after seeing all those GTOs at Pebble Beach and Laguna Seca I happened upon a body kit on eBay. It was no ordinary kit but a ‘Puckett’. Californian Charlie Puckett built very few of what is regarded as the crème de la crème of GTO kits and to find one in Oz was absolutely amazing. In the last 5 seconds I bid my life’s saving on it but thankfully got it at a very good price. That’s the good news.

The downside is that while it was never fitted to a car some clown had cut it up in an attempt to make a Spyder out of a Berlinetta kit. I have been trying to locate the parts in their correct positions and re-fibreglass them into a single rear section. Unfortunately all the work undertaken on my original body kit has now been time wasted but I'm hopeful the finished product will wipe away all that.

This kit has the option to stretch the wheelbase the 100mm needed to match an actual GTO. It’s fairly straight forward really; you move the front cross-member 100mm and then unpick the front shock towers (spot weld remover) and re-weld them 100mm forward. A little cutting and patching of the inner guards is required but no big deal. As exciting as that sounds I’m not doing it at this stage as I’ve already seam welded the towers and it would probably mean taking the project from a simple re-bodied approval to ICV.

About the only issue remaining with the body is the higher waistline but I’m still working on new doors and sills to help address this.

The Spyder in the photo is a long-wheelbase Puckett.