This all started off sometime ago when I first realised that the WRC would need significant rust removal and fresh metal welding in place, initially I thought I would buy replacement panels such as sills and rear arches or rear quarters and weld them in.
As it turned out I couldnt buy the panels in the first place and buying them from a breaker was too risky without first cutting out the rot so as to know how far back to go and then relying on the breaker cutting the correct size / shape etc....
Secondly the nature of the work requires a certain degree of talent, who is to say I could have done it?
So common sense kicked in and the car is over at Martins and he has done all the work, cutting out the rust, treating the surrounding areas and making up new panels section by section. A cracking job it is too. :thumbsup:

I now have a 185 that is in pretty good condition but could need some welding / sections replacing when I get to that stage or some time in the future and this time I would like to tackle the job myself so I am going to enrol on a night school (Leeds city college provide well regarded classic car / body work restoration courses if you look them up) however getting the panels is still going to be very difficult

This week I have been talking to a firm who produce pressings for a number of "old" vehicles, mainly Ford but quite a few BL, Rootes and other marques
How they go about it is to buy original parts and then make the press tools / formers from the originals, a recent example of the approach is that they have just bought the last couple of OEM Ford Puma sills and are tooling up for a production run to supply to the owners trying to keep the cars on the road.

They are keen to branch out and see what can be offered to the Celica owners, to do this I need to track down 2 of everything we want them to produce
They need 2 as they tool up from one and they check quality against another, the first often gets damaged over time so they keep an original part as a master.

So to cut to the chase I am looking to obtain two perfect / very good front wings, sills, doors, sun roofs and rear quarters for the gen 4, gen 5 and gen 6 cars for each side of the car or better still still 2 very good condition shells for each model.

Your thoughts please?

_________________
Forever in search of knowledge (especially GT4 related)

Hi Dave, I have spare front wings and tailgate if you need them. It's possible Barry at SCW has a spare ST205 shell but I guess it would cost to transport. Many of the breakers seem to just send stripped shells to the scrapyards although finding a Gen4 shell might be a challenge!

_________________
Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

Cheers Don
The company will pay for the shell or panels
The gen 4 will be a challenge, it would almost take some one with good wings / sills / sunroof etc..... to sacrifice them to enable a future supply to be possible
I had two new wings for the 165 I had but sold them when I let the car go..... if only

_________________
Forever in search of knowledge (especially GT4 related)

There's a good comunity of gen 4 owners on CCUK so worth an ask over there.

_________________
If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

I assume gen 4 & gen 6 share wings, and possibly sills?? across all models.

The gen 5 gt4 is obviously quite different in the wing due to the wide body of the gt4.

Either way good sills and internal stiffening panels would be ace to have available. I don't know if there needs to be initial interest to warrant them tooling up but I would be interested.

_________________
JP
GT4DC Treasurer

Grey St185 RC
Silver BMW E46 M3
Multicolour yawn Honda VFR400
Silver Honda Civic Type-R