ford gpa g504

Here's some interresting pictures, that I've wanted to post for some time, on the forum but neaded some approuval and details about them. :?
These Gpa's were used by salmon fishermen in Girvan near Ayr (south west scotland ) ,in situations were boats nor tractors couln't properly do the job.They were owned by Jeremy Gibson who used them for over 30years ,and later on sold them as a lot to a friend of mine : Steve Cascoine . who sold them ; Or what was left of them !! , seperatly to different collectionners .
As you can imagine in what condition they were after 30 years of hard work in salt water ; and been as well , heavely modified from their origine ! :cry:
- one is now owned by Martin Graber in England who is in the process of an excellent restoration ; (It would be nice to have some comments and details of his part of the story , ....And pictures ..??.!!!!!!! )
-One , Is Fred Smith's or part of it ( Chassis , prop tunnel ,etc .. ) , As you all maybe know , Fred ownes a most unique and fantastic collection of jeeps in the world !
- It seems the last one , went to a collectionner in Holland ???!!!
The last , that I was told ; .... The fishermen in Scotland now uses Gama Goats !!! :shock:






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Hello Dominique,

Thanks for sharing these wonderful photos :!:

The last of these GPA's indeed went to Holland.
It was for sale in March 2004, so I went looking for it. I've seen this GPA with my own eyes and it brought indeed tears in my eyes :(

As you can see on your photos these 3 GPA's look a bit shiny, this is caused by galvanising the hull with the frame still attached to it.
The zinc coat has covered everything and the frame was completely filled with it, so very heavy!

The owner at that time was Roy Stoots and he allready started restoration on this GPA, an allmost impossible job, but Roy made some remarkable progress. Lucky for him he found another frame and also many missing parts.
During my visit I found out that Roy did not really wanted to sell, but just came to a halt on the hull repair work.
I have no more contact with Roy unfortunately, and he is not on this Forum either, so I have no Idea about the progress since my visit. I truly hope Roy and I can have a swim on both our GPA's together one day.

In August 2004 I bought another GPA which is under restoration right now.

Below some photos of the GPA from Scotland taken in Holland March 2004.

:shock:
Indeed the BA361 went to Holland. I bought it from Bob James in England. He bought 3 GPA from Scotland. One he restort, the other two he sold. The restort one he sold one year later to someone in England. I’ve seen this some years ago in Vise a town near Luik (Belgium) with a amphibian meeting.

I did try to post some picture to this mail but no luck???? :oops: :?:

The restoration job is not really going like I would, the hull is the mayor problem. A lot of the missing parts I collect thru all the years.

Hoop one day this GPA one’s will float again, and could join the other GPA's!! :(

Greetings,

Roy
(Leo, I didn’t know of this forum. Hello from here!)

Welcome aboard Roy. :) :D

Hello Roy,

Great to see you on this Forum, I lost your e-mailadress in a computercrash, so no more contacts from me the last time.

I'm glad too hear you still are working on the restoration, if you need any help or info please contact me.

For posting photos you will have to use a free hosting site, like http://photobucket.com you need to register and then you can store photos there. Every photo has a unique internet pathnumber, you can copy that number to this Forum, so the photo will show up.
If you can't get it done, mail your photos to fordgpa@zeelandnet.nl and I will post them for you.

I hope to meet up with you again one day.

Took a while to work it out, but here is is. :D

BA 361 arrive in Holland.

Thank Leo, you will here from me soon!!

Roy, I'm curious how you removed 1-2 inch thick zinc without damaging the hull? David