[DeTomaso] GT5-S Conversion

Cullen McCann cmccann1972 at gmail.com
Wed Mar 7 10:37:59 EST 2012


OK, so Hall still has the panels listed on his site for 7500 bucks. Are
there other vendors that sell the same panels? Is this about the going rate?

Cullen



I can't answer the question directly since the single conversion I worked on
was done with Hall panels available 15-20 years ago. Dunno whats available
nowadays. But it's almost unimportant how well they "fit' since a good half
of a donor car will be cut away: all 4 fenders and most of the nose go away.
Gary Hall once brought a '71 shell to 'Vegas that had been converted, for a
show-and-tell. The car was in bare metal and I estimated that there was
roughly 20 FEET of meticulous TIG welding and panel grinding that had been 
done. So IMHO it depends mostly on your bodyman's expertise.   I certainly 
would measure a half-dozen times before cutting the OEM panels, though! Cut
OEM panels have some value from restoration shops repairing crash damage so
you 
might even get a few bucks back!   Some L.A shops that specialize in this 
stuff are still around, too.

Once you accept the massive amount of welding and panel work required, a
conversion has several advantages. First, the early chassis seems stronger
than the late one- having benefited from Ford engineering and bracing, and
secondly with the amount of welding necessary to attach the kit, its almost
an afterthought to seam-weld every part of the car to enormously stiffen up
the monococque. Rust repairs will be trivial to do as a matter of course.
This all should improve the handling measurably, as guys with narrow-body
cars converted to racers say the improvement in handling from seam welding
in place of 40-year-old spot-welds was the best single thing they did to the
chassis. 
You being a racer this should appeal to you... Good luck- J Deryke
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