Hello Keith my Alpha body will be fitted to a spitfire mk IV 1500 chassis. I guess if you ask Mike at sammio hq he will be able to confirm what chassis options are available for the Alpha Spyder.
wharfedale the SAMMIO ALPHA is designed to fit the Triumph Spitfire chassis using most of the original floor-pan and bulkhead so a solid donor is needed.
The original SAMMIO SPYDER is still available and is designed to fit the Truimph Herald chassis using just the original bulkhead.
Both the ALPHA and SPYDER bodies are constructed from a single skin lay-up so can be chopped to fit a lot of different chassis
Well some good news today from Mike. My Alpha body will be ready for Monday 26 march. I now need to get home and get the garage clear, moving the sammio spyder out but that won't be while at least the 4 April and crew change fingers crossed
Thanks Paul I spent some time looking for a doner. i wanted to limit the build time and I needed a good base to start with due to the construction. This spitfire ticked all the boxes so I think the extra outlay was worth it.
So these photos that follow are the first fitting of the body to the spitfire tub
As you can see from the photos the body is sitting high at the rear and also at the front so a steady aproach with the grinder removing small amounts untill the body sits correct.
First photos show the top of the dashboard.
Working towards the back of the spitfire this was the next area to be trimmed.
finally the back of the car. There was much more trimming and body trying before I got to this point as my lift assistant for the body pointed out to me.
I Now turned my attention to the fuel tank and repostioned and trimmed away the rear top pannel to give better acess for the boot area.
looks so different from the steel subframe build, I will be interested to see how the wheelarches meet the existing steel, are you going on wires, I got my second hand ones powderchromed at cas coatings near you £26 a wheel, cant tel it from chrome and it washes in two minutes. I have a couple of 72 spoke ones spair if you get stuck, keep up with the info, and good luck!
Wharfdale I will take you up on the offer of wheels. As you can see below I have managed to collect a few different styles of wheels over the last year so maybe its a bit early till the cars painted. but I am thinking minilight or 14 mgb wire wheels.
I guess the biggest decider will be when the arches are finished.
Barber Micky1mo Thanks for the reply I welcome your icons of suport
Paul L Yes Paul the build for the main body was much quicker and simpler than the sammio syder. However the next challenge will be the doors and fitting the bonnet.
Thanks for the info on wheel size Mike. I will fit the wires on the car to get the wheel archs gap right.
With last trial of the body. it was time to prepare for bonding.
Which means the grinder was out again.
I then prepared the area and cleaned and got all the drills ready, screws and back up drill as the cure time for bonding was only 20 mins.
The time taken was about 1 hour the front panel where the windscreen use to be was the trickest to grind the longest to grind was down the two sills. To grind the lower sill area that meets the lower bulkhead I had to lift and remove the front wheels to gain acess. I consider I was lucky as removing the paint i found good steel. otherwise it could have involved welding in repairs. However removing the paint will require major touching up once bonding and body work is complete.