Matra Jet 6

It has Landed

Hi All,

Happy to say that the Matra has landed and is awaiting clearance.

I have just filled in the Customs forms and emailed them back to the agent. Should be released Thursday or Friday.

Regards
Frans.
 
Frans said:
Hi All,

Happy to say that the Matra has landed and is awaiting clearance.

I have just filled in the Customs forms and emailed them back to the agent. Should be released Thursday or Friday.

Regards
Frans.
Click to expand...

Congratulations! We are all waiting for photos and comments on what you find!
 
At Home

Allright,

The Matra is parked and safe and sound. No shipping damage nor transport damage. Thanks to Ross for the use of the trailer and Prado.

We had a quick look last night and did some stock taking on the spares in the boxes. First thing I noticed was that the motor was newly overhauled and hasn't run yet. (visible on the dry rockershaft and clean exhaust ports). I will open it up in any case to see how it was put together and what the internals look like. Brand new pressure plate and clutch. Distributor a bit surface rust as we saw in the pictures posted previously. Original Matra extractors as seen in Google images. Missing is an alloy pipe that goes above the waterpump with a little air bleeding pipe and the pressure tank. Fuel tank is rusted inside, will need tips on how to fix that!

Upholstery is new but done many years ago still in good condition. Carpets are new. The change over to Right hand drive, badly done. Dashboard badly done. Door panels good and new. All door handles present and in a good condition. It has a oil temp gauge but no oil pressure gauge. Left hand door window missing. At least we have a sample from the other door to duplicate. Wiring needs attention and tidying up. At first I thought it was very much a backyard job but then I noticed that the wiring is of a very thick gauge and as it comes out of the loom it does look original and whoever did this didn't use thick wire because he got it for a bargain. That looks like it was done at assembly.

All new rubbers in the windows and new rubbers in a box. That still needs to be sorted and hopefully it can be used.

Body in good shape. Missing the whole sunroof. That will need some detail pictures and manufactured. A little grill at the air outlet is missing, will need detail pictures so that I can manufacture. The covers over the headlights are there and brand new! A small paint defect above the righthand front wheel. It looks like bad preparation.

The chassis is in a very good condition. We had it up on the hoist at Ross's work and found no rust at all. One dent in the chassis right below the side shaft where a CV joint broke or maybe an engine mount. Other than that we could find no faults. A very strange type of front rotor and caliper setup. I will take some pics and I know that 4cvg has mentioned that his has a funny rotor as well. Rear brakes are R8.

So that was the first view and impressions of the baby. I am thrilled to bits for seeing this for the first time and never realised how small it actually is. Restoration won't be a huge problem although I will need a few detailed pictures and I will need to know the small differences between the Jet 6 and the Djet 5. Most pictures is that of the Djet 5's.

I will soon start a new thread as the restoration begins and thanks for the good words and comments.

Regards
Frans.
 
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Frans said:
A very strange type of front rotor and caliper setup. I will take some pics and I know that 4cvg has mentioned that his has a funny rotor as well. Rear brakes are R8.

Regards
Frans.
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turns out that the front calipers are R16 earliest type. I bought some spares from ebay.fr while they are still available. not sure yet what the (surprisingly small) rotors are but I have joined club djet in france and will ask in due course. peter
 
So, Frans, long time no update. How's the Jet going?

I continue to enjoy my Djet with 6k of fanging over the past year which makes me its most intensive user. (The previous 5 owners managed 38k over 46 years.) You just have to get the Jet on the road, it's a hoot to drive.

I've reverted to some 4.5x14 rims (reversed R16TX) which a previous owner had made up & they are a great improvement (with 165/65 Conti PremiumContact2 tyres). Still, even the 15s (with rubbish Vredestein tyres) were fun; &, if yours are 4.5 (mine are 4), then 170/65-15 TB15s from Longstones in the UK would be an attractive option.

And yes, I've seen the later thread but it's quiet too; I thought I'd resurrect this one.

cheers! Peter
 
Hi Peter,
I did updates in the "Restoration Projects" division about a fortnight ago.

I'm glad you're enjoying it and I'm burning to drive it! I will have to wait, but the time will come.

Regards

Frans
 
Frans said:
Allright,


I will soon start a new thread as the restoration begins and thanks for the good words and comments.

Regards
Frans.
Click to expand...

Continued best wishes for the work and the outcome!

I know that I'll probably be passing through Auckland in November 2013 (staying in Takapuna) - could I make a rough date for a viewing? I was there last week but no spare time or I'd have been in touch.
 
You're welcome any time John!

Frans.
 
With the www available and emails all over the great continents, I have traced all the previous owners. I will not name the owners although I have them and has contacted three of them. The tracing led me as follows....

First owner buys it in Germany in 1968 and moves to ZA in 1969 taking the car with him. He changes the colour to red and sells the car to the second owner in 1980 with a broken engine.

The second owner has the car from 1980 up to 1997.

The third owner had the car up to 2007 when he sells the car to owner number 4.

Owner number 4 sells the car to owner 5. Owner 5 had finance issues and owner 4 gets it back.

We bought it from owner 4.

The German guy who was the 1st owner is now in his eighties and he has sent us some pictures of the car. Both the pictures shows the car when it was red. He has had 2 more Matras when he went back to Germany.

Regards
Frans.
 
Frans said:
With the www available and emails all over the great continents, I have traced all the previous owners. I will not name the owners although I have them and has contacted three of them. The tracing led me as follows....

First owner buys it in Germany in 1968 and moves to ZA in 1969 taking the car with him. He changes the colour to red and sells the car to the second owner in 1980 with a broken engine.

The second owner has the car from 1980 up to 1997.

The third owner had the car up to 2007 when he sells the car to owner number 4.

Owner number 4 sells the car to owner 5. Owner 5 had finance issues and owner 4 gets it back.

We bought it from owner 4.

The German guy who was the 1st owner is now in his eighties and he has sent us some pictures of the car. Both the pictures shows the car when it was red. He has had 2 more Matras when he went back to Germany.

Regards
Frans.
Click to expand...

I found it to be a very nice thing indeed to know the ownership history of my Djet & to speak with previous owners. cheers! Peter
 
I have just had the pleasure of making an appointment with the editor of the Classic Driver here in NZ. He will be doing a "under restoration article" of the Matra and on completion a full article on the car. Thanks to kiwia110!

It looks like the article could appear as soon as end September. I will keep you informed.

Regards
Frans
 
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