Sabra ST4870

Henk recently found a "new" Sabra.
Meanwhile the car isn't for sale anymore. Jacques Vandevelde bought it.

A short description: (further below you'll find Jacques' final report)
The new-one is a Sabra GT LHD, should be "made in Israel" and exported to Belgium, no date of first use known, neither a former owner. Curious about the serial number both on the car as on the documents.
Mr Oet bought the car and started restoring (dismantling) but hindered by health-problems the project was stopped and now the car is for sale.
Its color is green-blue, the chromium plates and points are present but not mounted, seats are removed, but may be present, as are the ignition-lock-switch. The left headlight seems broken as is the right rear light.
The steering wheel is not original but very look-alike
The Sabra-emblem on the hood is missing (didn't pay attention to the one on the steering-wheel-hub). The Sabra-logo on the rear is present and in good condition.
The car has wire wheels and has evidently got a complete "Alexandre"-tune-up, the camshaft-cover mentiones "Alexandre" and the engine (sitting beside the car) has double SU's.

The GT I bought from someone from Antwerp, Amerika lei in 2001.

He had previously purchased the car to restore, never really started.

The car was complete, the engine was out and said to be out of order and was lying next to it but had the ZF gearbox attached. The car was dry and in a kind of large storage space for over 20 years. This proved to be right later on. Many pieces in a number of boxes. Later, while rebuilding I found there are only 2 (fundamental) pieces missing, the gear shift (I had to have a new one machined, which wasn’t easy and costly) and the switch of the wiper (a special, only also used in Jaguar XK120/150, but possible to find).

In 2002 I have everything disassembled and the body off. All bolts and pieces in labelled plastic bags of course.

Reconstruction began in 2007, for lack of time earlier.

The chassis is sand-blasted and has been welded where needed, metallised, and treated with 3 layers of chassis paint. The seats are refurbished on the original frames in original red and black colours, the black cloth being very close to the original (original pattern no longer available) at MEKO, Tongeren.

Roof lining and interior red cloth was bought in UK based on original patterns, but it turned out to be for a RHD, so I had to customize.

The spray work was performed, with an extra layer of special paint against bubbles, typical of old GRP, by Mariën-Clé, Aarschot. The original color was copied by the paint machine and fine tuned by the eyes of the sprayer ; it gave a great result.

The engine block was overhauled by Leo De Rijck. The block was cleaned and checked for cracks, crankshaft regrinded, new cylinders and bearings + oil seals. Gearbox was equipped with new seals, was in very good condition otherwise. The valve seats were adapted to unleaded petrol.

The chrome parts were replated at Voorspoels chromium plating. Some parts were bent after the rechroming, which made it difficult to fix them, eventually everything got back on its right spot.

The rest of the work is my own . All original parts were derusted, cleaned, oiled , repaired and re-used. Most of the new parts like brake /clutch components and rubber seals were purchased through the Internet in UK, USA and even New Zealand.

The only modification to the original is a fan with ring that gives better cooling and that was mounted on the original spot. A 30A in line fuse was added for the fan and an direct feed to prevent interference in the Revs meter.

Construction of the bare chassis to "rolling chassis" in 2008.

Body was put on and further development in 2009.

A known problem was to be the registration since the car had no papers. A (B) at the back proved that the car had been of Belgian origin. With the help of MOT station in Heist op den Berg and the Police of Aarschot the registration number of the last owner who had registered the car could be found and then MOT testing and registration was no longer a problem.

I aked for a technical inspection run "for daily use" and there was no problem.The car passed the test.

I asked the registration as "classic car " with limited use.

The car is in traffic as classic car since September 2009 and is now "ran-in" after about 2000km.

His first long journey will be a weekend with 3 other Sabra's in UK, Peak district, Buxton and surroundings, at the beginning of September 2010.