Help, builder needed

[chart7]

Can anyone recommend a company (or individual) who might be prepared to take on building my Classic Replicas Viper for me.

I bought it a few years ago direct from Ken Cook, but due to a number of reasons have been unable to really get anywhere with it.

I've looked at selling it, but ideally I would like to get it built for me so I can have a few years of driving it before selling.

To-date it has had the suspension, diff, axles, calipers, and steering rack fitted, but that's about it, and that probably all needs removing and cleaning up.


Any suggestions would be great.....

[westborne]

I would suggest you let people know roughly where you are based

[chart7]

I'm based in Essex, but to be honest, hiring a trailer and taking the car to anywhere in the UK isn't a problem if it gets my car on the road !!!

[Neil O]

Dave? Antony? where are you guys?

Chart7, sorry chap but you're going to struggle to find someone willing to build it for you. The Viper kit is well known to be a huge amount of work to complete. The labour for the job would probably outweigh what you could sell it for.

You may be better off selling it to someone who is willing to put the time to it, but it will need to be cheap I'm afraid.

Sorry to be bearing bad news................

[chart7]

Neil. Thanks for the comments, I'm finding out more and more just how difficult the Viper is to build !!

I'm not so worried about getting my money back - but I tried to sell the kit a while ago and got no interest at all.

I'd rather pay someone to finish it, drive it for a few years, and then sell it, than GIVE it away !

Hopefully there's someone out there....

[kayjayd]

There are a few guys who frequent these forums who will give you an idea of how much work is left to do on your Viper. I've seen a Viper build in progress (Kevchard in Doncaster) and he's put in an extraordinary amount of time and effort into it and he's still got a little way to go.

I would concur with Neil that it'll cost you an arm and a leg to get professionaly finished off simply due to the number of hours required.

You never know - Dave Brookes or Anthony might do it for beer money?!?!

[tonym]

Probably best to speak to other viper builders and try and work out how many hours it'll take to complete, then multiply that by a mechanics hourly rate to work out whether it's worth finishing or not. for example if it's going to take 300 hours @ £30 then thats £9k just for labour, if it's more like 500 hours then.......well you get the picture. For the cost involved it may be better to sell the kit "as is" and buy a ready built car, just my opinion :thumb:

[dave]

Hi Chart7
I'd have a go but I'm pretty sure you will be looking at between £10 and £15K for the labour.
The less parts you already have the better as I will almost certainly be able to get them at a better price than you and then I can pass the discount on to you.
If you have not already run off to hang yourself drop me a line with a list of everything youhave and I'll try to give you a ful quote if you'r interested.

[chart7]

Dave,
Would appreciate a full quote, but it looks like the general concensus is that I'd be better off trying to find a buyer for the current kit, and buying an "easier" build for me to do (now that I've admitted that I'm not experiecned enough to do this one myself !!)

Very short list of what I have:
Chassis
Body (good to start with these on the list, I thought!!)
Jag front and rear wheels and hubs
Jag diff and drive shafts
New Gazshocks suspension front and back
Modified Escort steering rack
Jag steering column
Rover 3.5V8 and autobox (in process of rebuilding this)
Jag brakes (need to be exchanged for recon parts)

I'm not necissarily looking for a completely finished car - it's more the mechanical side that I can't / don't have the time to do

Can be contacted directly via email on "chart7@ford.com" is you need any more info.

[dave]

To build the car to the same sort of finish as one of our std spec. cars but using the parts you have you are looking at between £21 and £26K on top of what you have already spent.
When completed the car will probably be worth £12 -£16K:boohoo:

Cobs with auto boxes do not command good prices at all.