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Goodmorning and welcome. I cant help with the dimensions at the moment but they are both very small cars so are garage friendly.
I built a Spyder as my first kit car build and found the whole process very simple and straight forward. Its not a simple bolt together kit like some of the seven type cars with a detailed build plan but with a little common sense and sometimes the help of this forum its an easy build.
Chances of buying a humpless kit and seperate hump would be excellent I would have thought. I dont see any reason why not if that is what you want.
Spyder is roughly 14' long, 4'10" wide and mine's thirty inches high to the top of the cockpit.
It's not possible to build one of these wrong as there are no rules or instructions. You just build it your way and nobody will tell you you should have done it differently, apart from Micha of course, who nobody listens to anyway.
If you've got a decent chassis to start with you can build one of these cars if you know one end of a spanner from the other and can work out how glue works. If your chassis's rotten, then you'll need to learn to weld if you can't already, or pay someone to do it for you.
As for the removeable hump, I'd buy a standard humped shell, carefully cut the hump out, fibreglass over the hole then put the hump back on with simple fasteners so it can be removed if desired.
Fourteen feet? Are you sure? That's longer than a Vitesse and, as far as I can see, you end up chopping a foot or so off the back of the donor chassis in the end.
Well if it is fourteen feet, it ain't going in my single 1930's garage, as with my workbenches, I only have 3.7m (12 and a bit feet) to play with. Width should be ok for the drive, which is narrower than the garage (?). And I think I'll be ok for height
With regard to building it, my concern was not so much with doing it right, as being able to do it at all. In truth, I'm pretty confident, assuming I can find a decent rolling chassis.
And making my own removable hump was the original idea, but if I can buy it already done then it's just easier.
Oops, sorry, twelve feet it is indeed. Just shows that you shouldn't do anything technical after a glass of wine. I added twenty four inches to one hundred and twenty inches and made it fourteen feet...
I thinks that's probably good advice, Paul. Whilst it's tempting to find a rolling chassis for nuppence, it makes sense to buy a complete, MOTed car and sell off what I don't need.
I'm not a welder, although I'd like to learn. Can't find any classes though.
I am building a G46 based on a 1969 Scimitar which was parked under a tree in 1989. This necessitated a complete strip down of the chassis and engine and rebuild it pretty much from scratch.
My automotive mechanical experience prior to this was topping up the screen wash.
It is taking me longer than it would take a mechanic and I am having to correct my occasional mistake but all good fun so far.
Some very good points raised above - I'd also recommend buying the best donor you can afford as it'll save a lot of time and money later on as I found out when I bought one with a bodged chassis.
I know that a few people have made a profit by selling off their redundant panels and interiors, and I made back about 98% of my initial purchase price. My chassis, gearbox, V5 and reconditioned engine effectively cost me £28.
My previous experience of modifying vehicles was limited to converting a '67 semi-automatic beetle to a manual box, fitting a bigger engine to it and modifying the suspension and brakes to cope with the extra power - a tyre shredding 75bhp!
Oh, and if you want to learn to weld, buy a welding machine, read the instructions and crack on, it's not as difficult as the professionals would have you believe.
I'm not a welder, although I'd like to learn. Can't find any classes though.
Whilst there is no substitute for being taught by somebody that can, this site is brilliant with lots of video tutorials - http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/
And, the forum members couldn't be more helpful. There are also useful sections on blasting and spraying.
I bought a Clarke MIG and lots of offcuts from a local engineering firm and practised until my welds looked like the videos. If they don't look right, and you are not getting penetration, then you scratch your head, read a bit more, and then adjust what you are doing.
It's rewarding........but I should still have spent more on the donor. It saves money in the long run, and loads and loads of time, which in Sammio-world is very very valuable.
Tell me more about these "instructions" of which you speak...
I bought a 'stick' welder (aka, manual metal arc or mma) for about £60 from Amazon (other websites are available).
It came with gauntlets and a face shield with a flip down 'flash' filter, but I spent another thirty quid on an arc activated one as I couldn't see diddly squat through the flip down one.
It also came with a small instruction pamphlet which focussed primarily on safety and outlined the basic principles of welding with the stick welder. I then just got on with it and found it wasn't too difficult at all. A stick welder isn't the best choice for welding thin sheet metal (apparently mig is best for that) but most of what I needed to do was effectively welding girders together on the chassis. The best advice I can give is to make sure all the metal parts are absolutely clean and shiny or you won't be able to strike the arc.
Whilst there is no substitute for being taught by somebody that can, this site is brilliant with lots of video tutorials - http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/
And, the forum members couldn't be more helpful. There are also useful sections on blasting and spraying.
I bought a Clarke MIG and lots of offcuts from a local engineering firm and practised until my welds looked like the videos. If they don't look right, and you are not getting penetration, then you scratch your head, read a bit more, and then adjust what you are doing.
It's rewarding........but I should still have spent more on the donor. It saves money in the long run, and loads and loads of time, which in Sammio-world is very very valuable.
Snap!
I did loads of reading over on the mig-welding forum and also bought the Haynes welding manual, which is quite a good read.
I then talked to loads of people who already weld before i opted for the Clarke (151 or 161 - i can never remember) as it was best quality mig welder for the money and over the last 2 years it's done me proud!
I also got a shed-load of metal offcuts and scrap bits (e-bay has some great companies doing bundles of offcuts!) and I went bonkers sticking different shapes and sizes and thickness's together and then cutting them apart to check penetration and also comparing them to the instructions.
Now while my welds aren't the prettiest i know that they have good penetration and are more than able to pass an MOT inspection, although i can't comment on how they'd fare on the German test <cough><cough>
As long as you do your research and get a "decent" welder then you can't go far wrong. Although from my experiences i would highly recommend getting a flip-up auto-dimming helmet as it's invaluable for while you're learning and they don't cost that much nowadays. Also get some good gauntlets as it's amazing how quickly your skin will tan/burn!
