Hi all, Having replaced my garage roof and evicting the kids crap to the shed.. I am now in a position to star my locost build ...i have a ton of questions to ask before i start so please forgive my ignorance...i would like to build the chassis from scratch (good heavy engineering background) i am looking for cutting lists and plan drawings for as much as possible ...based on a granada ..if anybody has an alternative donor idea i would like to hear of it...i will leave it at that just now itching to start but want to do my homework first !!

there is a guy on ebay who sells the full chasis packs all cut correct angles etc. you can buy the Haynes locost book (Chris Gibbs) this is slightly wider than the majority of locost builds

Hi and welcome

Fisrt decide what you want of your car, road toy, track weapon, cruiser etc in order
to help narrow your choices. Chris Gibbs/Haynes book is the modern bible
based around Sierra donor. As Austinman says there are people selling chassis packs.

The Locost is now a minefield and not allways Low Cost

Oh and be prepared for the Bike engine (BEC) v Car engine (CEC) debate

mmm have seen the bike engine an although i am tempted with a bike engine i have no experience with them ...but by god do the sound the muts nuts ...can strip and rebuild fords with my eyes shut !!

oh aye..it will hopefully be a road car for me and my son to buld together he is only 8 but a petrol head already !!

[Edited on 8/10/10 by Andy_B]

Hi and welcome
Any particular reason for a Grandad? Have you got one already?
Either way Haynes has got to br the (modern) way to go
Trawl and search around this site, let us know where you are etc and help will be on it's way

Hi and welcome,u2u (message) another user on here called Handyandy he's the co owner of Saturn Sports Cars and does the flat pack Haynes roadster chassis packs for not much more money that it would cost for joe bloggs to buy the steel! Well worth it. Saying that I made a McSorely +442 plans available from Jims Site you will also find bom lists on there too (material list), I choose the +442 as I'm a fat B%^$£rd and the +442 is 4" longer,4" wider and 2" higher than a regular Ron Champion chassis fyi.

Make the search button your friend as most question have already being asked many times before. Heard of BMW 3 series starting to be used, I would try and find a sierra 1.6 with a type 9 box (reverse top left) still but would stick a zetec engine into it,1.6's still seem to go fairly cheap and come up pretty regular.

Anyway welcome to the mad house.

Take care

Rich

[Edited on 9/10/10 by RichardK]

The new Haynes book is a very good step by step guide for a scratch build with cut lists order of construction etc etc.

its designed to take sierra parts but is very easily adapted to take granada parts there are a couple of people on the Haynes forum using granada parts.


click link to haynes forum


click link to haynes book

[Edited on 9/10/10 by ashg]

Welcome to the mad house, Andy!

If you add your (rough) location to your profile you might find someone local to you comes along with offers of having a nosey around their car (or even rides).

Try the search button (not the easiest in the world to use) to have a read up on various chassis options. Exeter show is coming up if you're down that way and could give the possibility of looking at a few cars and quizzing their owners.

Adrian

PS... bec, bec, bec...

The Exeter show is a good idea if you can make it. There are finished chassis there from the suppliers and peoples cars to look at. There is also the time cost and skills equation to look at which in my case said buy the chassis. Also consider the integration of parts this can eat budget and time. It may be better to start with a turn key solution. Regarding having your son help I startd on that line but found the build demanded a lot of thinking time to work out how I was going to do something which caused him to get bored. My build eventualy ended up with 3 hours planning and thinking with one hour doing but I did eventually get there. Enjoy it.

Ian

Many thanks for replys...currently bidding on a G reg sierra on a well known auction site, will know in a day or so if i win it...seem to be as rare as hens teeth these days !!!

Strathclyde rules out Exeter show then!

The increasing rarety of Sierras is why several kit/chassis suppliers are starting to use MX5 or BMW donors.

adrian

Welcome to the mad house of car building Andy

Thanks for the kind words Richard K

Saturn are currently making a Roadster with a RX8 engine, should be one nice car when its finished ,

Best wishes for your upcoming build,

cheers
andy

well thats he sierra out of the window it went for 850 quid ...not paying that to rip it to bits....however have found a cosworth 2wd box and diff local to me ...have emailed for type details...can see this becoming a frustrating task !!

You could try here