Great way to get a car with just about zero rust l look at them often. If you Google Mit GTO,s for sale in Japan you will get a good idea with lots of photos and their prices are often very good.
Then once you have bought you will need to pay for shipping around 1000 to 1100 or so and once it gets to the UK pay duty and tax so a 3k car from Japan will be around 5.5k in uk, very roughly, then it will need mot,d etc
I just bought a fresh import and bodywork is amazing generaly UK cars are no comparison but very easy to get no waiting etc
If you have a trusted guy to work with you could get a very clean car. Good luck.
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So I was looking at the MOT history of the car in the advert I posted last week and I was a little confused by something. The MOT history only goes back to 2012. I’m sure the owner said it was imported sometime before this - Does anyone know what could explain this? Gaps in the DVLA’s database - held in paper records before 2012? (no idea)
A peronsalised plate can cause issues finding this data. I had that problem with an old car. It was only when I looked through the history and found half the receipts had a different numberplate on it. Ask the owner for the old numberplate.
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So thanks for the info. I asked the owner and he says that these are the plates it’s had since he bought it in 2004. The plate is J366WFA so it seems like a fairly standard plate. He couldn’t think of any reason why the online history would be incomplete. I’m taking it for a test drive tonight so I’ll look through the documents as you did. I did an HPI check and this didn’t mention anything about plates.
Well good luck with the viewing / test drive. Hope it turns out to be a good car.
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ditto, good luck
Sadly, I decided not to proceed with the buy and I am still without a GTO. Am now full member - will look at classifieds later.
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What put you off that car?
Update: I now own a GTO!
Did an oil and filter change.
Aero wasn’t working so I’ve taken it off. Little rusty but the motor runs smooth. One of the microswitches has a high resistance on its open circuit. I’ve ordered replacements for both (£1.47 each), should arrive in the next few days. Will clean and grease everything in the meantime. Motor-gear housing bolts and backplate bolts are the most rusted, can’t get them out at the moment so I’ll leave them soaking for a bit - If I can get them apart I’ll clean off the rust and repaint before reassembly. If I can separate the motor-gear housing, I’ll look at fitting a stepper motor for variable wing angle, if I do, I’ll be sure to share photos etc. Will probably change the bulbs while it’s off.
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congrats never mind photos of the aero we like photos of the car 
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I did take a couple, need to get them off my phone. Am I right in thinking you’re the user who did a full strip down and rebuild of their GTO?
yep i’m that idiot and its still a working progress 
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You’re an inspiration!
looks nice and clean missing the tail pipes thou sure someone will have a set kicking about
Are you in Norwich tonight by any chance
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I’m not - Spot a GTO? Car meet?
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Lol no your IP says you are
Happy days 
Top tip if your going to be doing work on it start a project thread in the projects section , its great to look back on after a while to see where it all started
Welcome to the machine!