Aceca barn find on eBay

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nikbj68
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Re: Aceca barn find on eBay

Post by nikbj68 »

Time, mostly! Hundreds of highly-skilled, billable hours.
That and finding a correct AC engine & box in good condition, or poor condition & refurbing( thanking God it wasn't a Bristol!).
Plus there's the woodwork which will probably be quite rotten, getting the body repaired might be cheaper than a new shell, but not much, or possibly more...shall I go on? ;)
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Roger King
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Re: Aceca barn find on eBay

Post by Roger King »

Engine and gearbox refurb alone would likely cost a lot, and any worn/broken suspension components are going to be very difficult to find - if there's a bent/corroded wishbone, for example, you could easily be looking at having a new casting made and machined. Same goes for hubs, brake parts, diff...
I seem to remember there is a fair bit of timber framing in an Aceca. You are therefore going to be staring down the barrel of a lot of timber replacement and aluminium work to repair electrolytic acid corrosion from the timber. Having just completed Contour Autocraft's part II restoration course I have a bit of an insight into what's involved in that, and it ain't cheap or quick.
If you do it all yourself: maybe 40-50k, if you're lucky.
If you have to pay professional restorers: I'd be astonished if you got away with 100k.
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Re: Aceca barn find on eBay

Post by nikbj68 »

Thank you Roger for your informed opinion.
Paul Blore wrote:I'm also inclined to think that £100k is probably excessive for one of these cars...
Paul
Also? Who else thought £100k was excessive? I just saw someone ask where the figure came from...
Knowing how much the restoration of several Aces and Greyhounds have been, in better & worse shape than this Aceca, it is more likely that £100k is a 'best case' figure for this particular AC if entrusted to a marque expert.
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Re: Aceca barn find on eBay

Post by nikbj68 »

Kevin, for an idea of what could be involved, look at THIS ACECA RESTORATION on the ACOC Forum, (now sadly devoid of photos thanks to Photobucket's despicable blackmail policy) on a car that appeared to be in better shape than the subject of this thread.
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Re: Aceca barn find on eBay

Post by KevinW »

Thanks for the comments - I was interested, as like Paul, I had though these were fairly simple cars....apart from the ali body issue. I'd like to look at that ACOC story, but with the loss of pics, a lot of info is lost.

On an entirely different non-Cobra dog-leg, people might be interested in this replica story.....
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/jagu ... /64758-001
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Re: Aceca barn find on eBay

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Roger King
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Re: Aceca barn find on eBay

Post by Roger King »

That's a very old episode, but quite interesting
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