Diffence between steel & plastic GTV's??

[scuzzyGTV]

Hi everyone

In my neverending quest for restoring my steel bumpered GTV, I am now also looking at the possibility of using another car. I really like the look of the steel bumpered cars, but these dont seem to come up to often, and the ones that do, look to be in similar condition to mine anyway.

Therefore the search always turns up the plastic bumpered cars, and i was wondering what the main differences are, and if the steel bumpers can be retro fitted to make it look better (IMHO).

Any input is welcome.

Thanks Scott.

[116gtv]

g'day,

you can make steel bumpers fit to a Nuova GTV. However you will have to deal with missing front indicators, missing lower rear beaver panel (which covers the tank and spare wheel well on early cars) and a weird looking lower front end if you dont keep the front air dam.. Now the car looks a bit odd as you have steel bumpers but plastic rear quarter vents, side mirror, vents below front screen, and at least plastic side skirts plus narrow and wide door strips depending on the year model. I had a couple of cars like this incl a GTV6 which ended up bumperless with an early nose conversion and cleaned up side and rear bodywork. Unless you enjoy mucking around, and since you dont have a Nuova yet I recommend you track down a GTV 2000 IF you want that look. They do come up and they dont fetch that much more than a Nuova in identical condition, IMO anyway.

Very early Nuovas had the split dash with two tone GTV 2000 seats and no plastic crap on the sides, just side skirts. Then came the slim door trim strip (like Mile's car), and then came the final series with Recaro style seats and single dash in late 83/84 with grey plastic trims that covered part of the lower half of the doors and rear quarter panels, which gave the car a two tone look...

Hope this helps..

[scuzzyGTV]

So basically, if I do opt to try and make it look like a steel bumpered car, then it'll end up looking like a bitsa!

Best no to go with that plan then 

[116gtv]

So basically, if I do opt to try and make it look like a steel bumpered car, then it'll end up looking like a bitsa!

yes sir!

[scuzzyGTV]

thanks for the offer paul, but now i've got my grubby mits on mile's old car, it looks like one hell of a job to convert it!
i'm starting to like some of the newer features, although i still love the split rear lights, gtv metal c pillar inserts and generally metal trim rather than plastic.