MadaboutKitcars

[Mark Evans] Hello my Sammio building chums and welcome to Another Cordite Is Born. [/Pete Mate]

Sorry, I couldn't resist a small tribute to those inspirational TV shows.

But jokes aside, a warm welcome to my Cordite build thread.

I will use this for both my own record and hopefully a guide for others.

Here is my time line so far:

11/02/12
Joined this forum purely with the intention of doing research for a future build.

Unfortunately, the Sammio enthusiasm is very contagious and before I knew it...

13/04/12
Visit Gary & Mike at the Poole workshop & reserve Cordite kit No.7.



20/04/12
A day that can only be described as a "moment of madness".

Phoned a guy about an ebay ad, went to bank, drove to meet him, bought car!

A 1980, V Reg, Spitfire 1500 which was an unfinished project.



22/04/12
Car was delivered to my house.









It included lots of new bits including this steering wheel.



It has also got new foam sets & leather covers to rebuild the seats.

I just hope the restoration work done on the rolling chassis & engine are good to go.

( I keep getting a sinking feeling that I am in way over my head here )



Those with a keen eye for detail may have noticed this now stored on my drive.

Unfortunately, this will also be my garage & workshop for most the build.

Next Steps...
Do nothing for a while on the car whilst I tackle some chores around the house & garden.

My family must come first and the car will be done in spare, not family, time.

I now need to agree my kit configuration and put the final order in with Gary.
( At this point I'm leaning towards a double hump, with doors, but no tail fins )

I will also get a new "ageless" registration number before I'm finished.

That's all for now, cheers, Paul.

So much sounds so familiar good luck mate and if I were you the first thing i'd invest in is a pop up gazebo for those moments when you want to "pop to the garage"

Double humps are the wat to go!

Mmmmmm I remember promising my wifeI would finish her herald before I laid a hand on mine...... they are so appealing these Sammio builds the Heralds not finished yet.
Pops

welcome to the "build-it-on-the-drive-club"

Looks like a nice donor, so you should have minimal prep to do before you can build the Bond-mobile....

Paul ...go girl !

That looks like a decent donor ...love the steering wheel too.....

Will keep you posted on no. 7

Hi Paul. Donor looks very tidy, I hope the chassis is as good as the bodywork...

You should get a fair bit back when you sell on the parts you no longer need.

Good luck with your build and I look forward to seeing some pictures of your progress.

Thanks for all the encouraging comments gentlemen.
I'm sure I will be relying heavily on this forum's support in the months to come.

I've haven't slept properly since I bought the car as it was all a bit of a blur.
I think the size of the challenge ahead is giving me mild panic attacks!

So I need to break this down into small steps that will build my confidence.
Therefore I have now set myself two simple (ish) tasks to start the project off...

Construction:
Work my way through all the parts (new & old) supplied to rebuild the seats.
Order any missing bits & pieces, then clean & Hammerite the seat frames.
Put everything back together to give me two, as new, tan leather seats.
Obviously seats are not an urgent priority, but a start, no matter now small, is.

Destruction:
Start stripping off the parts I want to sell to reduce the overall build cost.
I'll start with the doors, boor lid, windscreen, front & rear bumpers and bonnet.
Plus soft top, frame is in place, but it came with a brand new cover, still in its box.
As mentioned before, I'm new to ebay, so still lots of things to learn here too.

Timing:
To avoid adding to my stress levels, I am not putting any deadlines on the above.
This makes sense for me given the current weather and a family birthday this weekend.
Once I get a feel for how long the "simple" tasks take, I can form a better project plan.

So until then, take care, Paul.

Gary - I'll drop you a PM next week with some ideas about my final kit spec.

paul you might find that your spitfire seats will be to big for your cordite.

there`s very little room in the sammio. and im guessing it be roughly the same... but good luck with your build

gary and mell

Greatest thing about the digital age is you can take loads of pictures of every little bit so that when it all goes back together (in about four or five weeks!!!!) you'll have all the reminders you need and plenty to upload on here for those of us who are trailing behind you.

Best of good luck with your cordite.

Len.

[SIZE="5"]D'Oh![/SIZE]

Thanks for the advance warning Gary.
In which case, I guess the finished seats will become part of the ebay sales.

Len - Thanks, digital photos are a great invention for this sort of project.

Cheers, Paul.

what he said .....They are snug little cars ....seating options range from tractor seats ....don't laugh thats what I put in number one to set her up and also in a later one for MOT...
Through Clubman Classics , Sammio home grown created from Ikea breakfast bar stools , Modified Minor , homemade benches , DAX buckets , boat seats etc etc...

The Dax seat as recommended by Towed , isn't the cheapest option but they are a bloody good seat and fit well...

Slow Progress Report:
It has rained pretty much every day since the Spitfire arrived on my drive.

Which is why I wasn't supposed to buy a car until I'd moved to a house with a garage!

I've really only had a few hours to get anything done.
At least this allowed me to start stripping my donor.
Nothing too exciting, but I cleared the boot of parts.
Removed the boot lid, rear bumper, rear lights & headlights.
I had to clean paint over spray off the side windows to take ebay 'before' photos.
I'd just started to unbolt the doors when the rain started again.

So not much of a start, but at least it is a start.






Next Steps:
Remove the doors, hood frame & bonnet.
Then get myself organised on ebay & start selling bits.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

Looks like a perfect donor car, dare I say it, almost too perfect. I'd be so tempted to get the Spitfire back on the road as a runner.

John

Paul, has it stopped raining yet!

Progress Report:
There was a strange yellow thing in the sky this weekend!
So I finally got the chance to remove more parts from my donor.
This included the doors, front bumper, hood frame & bonnet.
Thankfully getting a decent donor means no problems with unbolting.
I haven't even had to use so much as a squirt of WD40 (touch wood).

And this is what my donor looks like now:



Project Timing:
The Good news - It took me less than 6 hours to get this far.
The Bad News - It took 21 days to rack up those 6 hours!
Finding spare time when it wasn't raining was pretty demoralising.
But hopefully we will eventually get a summer & my pace will pick up.

Next Steps:
I now need to sell these parts ASAP as storage space is a real problem.



I will move all this stuff as soon as I've taken the photos ebay.
So that will be the main focus of my efforts in the next few weeks.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

Replies:
JG - I hope a nice donor saves time & money on the rolling chassis.

GaryH - Thankfully the rain finally stopped & I got some more work done.
I was considering switching my build form a Cordite to a Sammio ARK!

With 20/20 hindsight if I'd spent double what I did on a donor I'd have been on the road months ago and it would ultimately have cost only a couple of hundred pounds more. But then I wouldn't have had all the 'fun' of repairing my rotten chassis.

I'd advise any new builders looking for a donor to do what you've done and get a really good car with an mot that someone else has spent their money on. It'll pay dividends in the end.

I agree completley!

Paul, looks like you've got yourself a really nice looking donor there, I'm jealous of all the shininess!

Great donor by the looks of it Paul, you should net a profit from selling all the bits and buying your Cordite kit.

I had a good donor and the money made from selling the bits I didn't need, paid for the kit and some materials. I reckon mine has cost me about another £1000-£1500 with new parts and paint etc, so all in all a cheap way of enjoying the summer - cheaper than a family holiday!

All progress is positive Paul ...keep it up , its looking good so far !

Progress Report - Ebay Sales:
First of all, thanks to donnysoutherner & tritone for their Ebay guidance.
This is all new to me, but my first batch of donor parts are now finally for sale.
Plan A was to start with lots of small items to help build my feedback up.
However, my sixth sense went for Plan B, selling most of the big stuff first.

I blame subliminal "Get those bloody car parts out of the house now!" messages.
But sometimes it does pay to remember who is really in charge at home!
As part of keeping a record of this build, I'll list all my sales when complete.

Project Timing:
In terms of workload, I spent a few minutes removing the last mounting brackets.
( These will be sold with the front grill and rear bumper )
Then it was a few hours cleaning and taking photos for ebay.
My youngest daughter (10) has been very keen to help out.



Then I spent a few more hours getting everything set up on ebay.
I'm sure it gets quicker when you know what you are doing.

Next Steps:
Keep on top of this first batch of Ebay sales until they are all sold & collected.

I'm going to ask my usual garage to give whats left of my donor a professional once over.
I'd trust them to give the rolling chassis an MOT level inspection & identify any problems.
If everything is in order, I can start the final 'destruction' job of removing the body shell.
I'll also ask them to tune the engine to meet an MOT emission test while they are at it.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

Replies:
Mister Towed, DaveCymru & tritone
Thanks chaps, I really hope this proves to be the best approach for me now.
But when I have a garage to play in, I do want to learn the "joys" of welding / repairs.

Gary - Cheers, my basic plan is to simply keep moving forward one step at a time.

Ahh, welding's not so hard. After all, I managed it.

Progress Report:
My first batch of Ebay sales have just ended, after what seemed like a long week,
I've spend hours answering questions and dealing with potential buyers / offers.
But in the end I raised £673 from 7 lots and I still have some good stuff to sell.
( I'll produce a comprehensive list of all my sales when the last parts are sold )

The oddest part of the process was the interest in parts I wasn't actually selling.
There are already four people forming an orderly queue for the body shell.
One guy has already made an offer for it based on two of the photos from this thread.
( The 'what it looks like now' after removing parts photo & the empty boot photo )
So with a bit of luck, the last part to be taken off my donor will be my biggest sale.
I'm also going to use this as an excuse to test 'posting a video within a post' tomorrow.

But it will take me a while to get used to the last minute nature of the Ebay bidding.
For days it looked like the bonnet, 2 doors & boot lid would go for £3.96 in TOTAL!
Which means I should have sold them for scrap metal, rather than car parts.

So a pox on the IT geek who invented item watching and automated bidding!
It took all my nerve not to accept other offers in the days before bidding ended.
Thankfully I got more money than I'd been offered, so it was worth the anxious wait.
Once all these parts are collected, I will go through the next batch of stuff to sell.

Although I'm hoping my 1st Ebay buyers will want some of these other parts too.
So, with my wife's permission, I've turned our dining room into an Auto Jumble!







Brand new items include leather seat covers, double duck soft top & seat foams.
In fact, the Rimmer Bros price list for the stuff piled up on the sofa is over £1,400.
I'm still gutted that I can't use these rebuilt Spitfire seats myself in the Cordite.

More Stripping:
I removed the stereo surround, under dash storage bits & the last of the carpet.
I was also able to remove the speaker cables and radio aerial lead too.
It is starting to look very bare inside the car now.



Donor Inspection:
My usual garage collected what's left of my Spitfire earlier today.
The pick up lorry seemed to fill up most of the street!



This Spitfire is definitely turning into a bit of a trailer queen!



So they will start to check it all over next week for me.
I've been getting MOTs there for 24 years and they are very good.
They will look at the rolling chassis, drive chain, engine, etc.

Bed time reading / viewing:
Whilst I'm still currently focused on the donor 'destruction' phase of my build...
I'm also starting to plan ahead for the construction phase of this project too.
So I took advantage of an offer in CompleteKitCar and bought a book & DVD.
I've seen Mark Evans make things with Fibreglass on TV & am keen to try it myself.



Next Steps:
More Ebay selling (once I've had my limits increased as I am an ebay novice).
Wait (with my fingers crossed) to hear back from the garage about what they find.
I've also sent a PM to Gary with my latest thoughts on my kit order.

So until next time, take care, Paul.

Replies:
Mister Towed - Don't put yourself down, normal people learning to weld give me hope!

Ahh, now I never said I was normal...

I love the concept of changing the the dinning room into a auto-jumble! what could you do with the kitchen and other rooms in the house?

I am just about to start fibre-glassing the G46 after a 42 year gap between my last fibre-glassing project being a chassis strengthing exercise on a Moggy Minor (how MOT standards have changed) so reference to the books is very helpful, many thanks