[DeTomaso] GT5-S Gill material

CharlesMcCall charlesmccall at gmail.com
Sat Mar 3 11:34:05 EST 2012


Hi all,

 

The gills located behind the doors in front of the rear tire on the GT5-S
are apparently made from cast iron or lead. They are extremely heavy. 

 

They are so heavy that when Mike Drew and I removed them from my car a few
years ago to look underneath, we literally almost dropped them as our
expectation of the weight was so radically different from the actual weight.


 

It is AMAZING how heavy these suckers are. 

 

Due to the construction of the car, this weight is located rather far out on
a poorly supported portion of the bodywork, and the effect is like putting a
weight at the extreme end of a lever - it bends the bodywork back and forth
and causes cracking in the paint. The gills I'm talking about are these:

 

http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=25247

 

 

Questions:

1) Are all GT5-S gills made of this amazingly dense material or is it
something weird about mine? 

2) If the answer is "yes", has anyone ever made any in something a little
lighter? 

3) If the answer is "no", what would be a good material to use to produce a
reproduction? From my limited knowledge of fiberglass, I don't think it
would be practical for any cloth-based material. Or would it? Are there any
cost-effective ways to machine a duplicate out of some type of plastic -
nylon or something? Aluminum would probably be cost prohibitive.

 

Thanks!

 

Charles McCall

Raising Pantera Awareness Across Europe

1985 DeTomaso Pantera #9375

http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=2323

 

 




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