Buy or Avoid?

[slogger]

I've been sent a few more pics of the suspension by the seller. I'm mainly interested in the usability of the chassis itself, but obviously anything salvageable from the current state would be a bonus.



Obviously been stood around a while!!

Dan
Hi and welcome to our corner of the web.

You obviously are taken with the idea of building a Sumo and are developing a very blinkered approach to building the thing. Can I ask how much money you think you will be spending to build your car? Also what do you want to do with it? How much have you got available now to get yourself started? What are you like with a set of spanners and can you fabricate parts and weld?

Answer these questions and allow the very helpful guys to help. Only with this info can any of us stand a chance of helping you.

[Purple AK]

Probably no components would be needed now (dependent on how much the original builder replaced them as he built it) But in the future?????????????? You also need to address whether the chassis comes with a V5 document for the Granada donor!

[Se7enS1ns]

Dan
Hi and welcome to our corner of the web.

You obviously are taken with the idea of building a Sumo and are developing a very blinkered approach to building the thing. Can I ask how much money you think you will be spending to build your car? Also what do you want to do with it? How much have you got available now to get yourself started? What are you like with a set of spanners and can you fabricate parts and weld?

Answer these questions and allow the very helpful guys to help. Only with this info can any of us stand a chance of helping you.

Hello
Thankyou for the welcome. I'm not intentionally developing a blinkered or nieve view. My initial post was to ask if there are any issues with the early Mk2 Sumo chassis which would prevent a "completed" car passing a current IVA test. So far, if I've digested the responses correctly, the replies have been "parts are hard to get" and "it'll cost you lots of money". I don't think anyone has given a definitive answer of "no, because the mk2 chassi lacks suffient structural strength to pass the test" or something along those lines. If there is a very legitimate reason to not pursue a build based on a second hand mk2 Granada based Sumo build, I'd obviously take this fully on board.

My current mechanical experience is limited to 15 years of bare shell restorations / rebuilds of around 6 minis to date, from rollcaged pocket rockets to concourse originals (currently own a lovely '78 1275GT). Oh, and about three years of BMX's before that My angle iron and box section fabrication skills are amateur at best, but passable - the plus side to working with production cars is that I rarely have to fabricate anything beyond the odd bracket. My mig welding skills are not too shabby if I do say so myself. I have the luxury of having a dry garage to work in, and a respectable ever-growing collection of tools.

I'd rather not get into the finer details as to my savings account, but lets just say I'm under no illusion as to the final build costs, labour time, and resale value (or rather, lack of).

Hope this helps somehow,
Dan

[Se7enS1ns]

Probably no components would be needed now (dependent on how much the original builder replaced them as he built it) But in the future?????????????? You also need to address whether the chassis comes with a V5 document for the Granada donor!

The chassis does not come with with a V5 - I assume this would mean issuing a Q plate?

[Purple AK]

Welcome Dan. I guess you'll have to go with gut feeling on this one. I've tried to give the feedback of 10+ years on here, but heh.........

[Se7enS1ns]

Well, I'm not going to attempt to argue with countless years of experience vs my zero, so due to the overall negative vibe, I think I'm going to pull from the sale.

Shame, I figured it would be worth it for the chassis alone. Still interested as to definite reasons a Mk2 Granada based chassis build cant be done though.

Ah well, back to the original plan. Thanks for all the help

[slogger]

The chassis does not come with with a V5 - I assume this would mean issuing a Q plate?

Dan,

Have a good read on here and gain from the wealth of knowledge available. If that chassis was given to you for free you would be making quite a small saving on the total cost of your project.

Wasn't asking for your savings account number, just trying to see where you were with the reality of the costs involved when building one of these cars.

Have a look at this project found on ebay and posted on here today and see what you think!

Dax cobra kit car project with 5.7ltr small block chevy and 5 speed tremec gbox | eBay

[slogger]

Well, I'm not going to attempt to argue with countless years of experience vs my zero, so due to the overall negative vibe, I think I'm going to pull from the sale.

Shame, I figured it would be worth it for the chassis alone. Still interested as to definite reasons a Mk2 Granada based chassis build cant be done though.

Ah well, back to the original plan. Thanks for all the help

There are no definite reasons why it can't be done! As Chris said, go with the gut feeling on this one. There are just better and more logical reasons why you should spend your hard earned cash on something else that makes more sense, will be worth more and more rewarding in the end.

[KevinW]

How do you mean? Could the chassis be stripped back to bare and start again with donor parts more readily available, say Jag or Sierra? Or is the chassis just no good "to man nor beast" as my dad would always say??

you will need about £12k+ even if you are really scrimping to put a cobra on the road.
the chassis is a tiny fraction - about £1.7k i think atm. so even if this chassis was only a few hundred quid, you just bought yourself a load of heartache stripping it back and re-working it.
... and for what? to build up an inferior chassis.

if you spend another £1k or so it will be clean, ready to go and with sierra bits more easily available, you will have so much more fun during the build.
the mkII had a few issues, which were addressed with the MkIII, which is in a different league handling wise, and your resale value would be significantly enhanced with minor extra outlay i.e. just the difference in chassis price. MkII can take a rover on low bhp but thats it i think. hi power rovers and big chevy's are a no no.

swapping to sierra will not just be a case of swap over the wishbones. at the back you will have a fabrication and geometry job to sort swapping over axles. just seems like a lot of heartache for nothing to me.

btw i think that chassis is missing a front cross-brace.
if it was an abandaoned project with body and lots of items, then that is worth a punt. but given a chassis only with a few odds'n'sods, id leave it.

just my humble... fwiw,

[TINKA]

On reading this thread it would seam that you have been told,

1. the chassis is not strong enough as it is for an American V8 ,
2. the parts for the donor are getting very hard to get hold off,
3. there was a good reason why Pilgrim developed the MK3 chassis,
4. the chassis won’t take anything other than the suspension it is designed for and based on what I have seen of the Sumo it is a big job to try and make something else fit.
5. it will cost you if you are not a good welder to upgrade the chassis to handle a V8’s power,
6. after any welding you will have to do something to seal the chassis again against rust as the galvanizing will have to be removed for any welding,
7. if you take short cuts you will never be able to sell it for any thing like what you have spent on it.

On the plus side you can get it through an IVA if it’s built right, is that really the only thing you are bothered about?


You asked for advice but don’t seam to be listening. Most of us have built cars and speak with some experience.
If you just ask questions and ignore the answers just because they are not what you want to hear eventually you won’t get answers.