So I’m in a little bit of a dilema here regarding my mk1 GTO.
I bought it roughly 2 years ago and I’ve been screwed around so much with it that I’ve probably driven it like 5 times during this period. Long story short, screwed by a garage who had it for like 4 months who crushed some jack points (didn’t tell me) and failed to mention anything about how bad the rust/corrosion was (told me its fine and he’d seen worse), then failed MOT. Then a welder didn’t do all the repairs and it failed MOT again.
Now the car is down at Horsham Developments, who I highly recommend by the way, they have been nothing short of amazing and despite being a 350z/Nissan specialist they have been super keen and eger to work on my GTO and have done a great job.
Car unfortunately has way more rust and corrosion than I expected. Had a few restoration shops pop by for quotes and it’s been around £12-15k, roughly all estimating around 200 hours including new sills, floorplan etc…
- repair and strengthening of both sills and structure underneath
- floor pan edge where it mounts to the sill panel
- sill ends,
- Front cross member,
- front chassis legs as required
- rear jacking points.
I’m pretty sold on owning a mk1 and I’ve already put about 6k into the engine including a full turbo remanufactoring.
My dilema is
- Do I scrap this (sell the important parts) and import a mk1 from Japan for little bit more than the welding cost? I could pick up a mk1 for around £15-20k from Japan currently. Risk here is I don’t know the rust condition of the car?
- Do I suck it up and pay for the welding restoration repairs knowing that the car is actually fixed and I get to keep another GTO from being scrapped? Plus here is I know the car is now good for another 20-30 years maybe.
Costs
- Probably spent about £12k so far. Purchasing the car, major service and engine overhaul, remanufactored turbos, more.
Sentimental value?
I do enjoy cars with stories and history and I will rarely sell cars. I’ve still got and drive my 350z that I purchased 15 years ago with zero intentions of selling it. Either scenario the GTO would most likely become part of the ‘forever’ car collection.
WWYD?
