I don't have a missus that will tolarate a rusting Sierra in the Garage while I pull it apart. If I buy my bits like engine etc as I go along, mainly from flea bay, will I get problems come SVA / DVLA time as I won't have any proper receipts?

Cheers,
Jon

Nope you can work it all out come SVA time if you want an age related pay. There are many ways around it.

Steve

I have no reciepts for any of my donor parts, or for my kit for that matter.

If you dont want an age related plate its not much of a problem.

Excellent - cheers guys. Not fussed about a q plate now.

This will make the missus happy....

There is an alternative

Build your car, then just before you register it, buy a donor Sierra as cheap as possible, register it in your name, scrap it, keep the VIN plates and V5 and tell the DVLA that was your donor (and you work VERY quickly!).

No rusty donor being stripped on your drive and an age related plate for £50.

Not that any of the above is legal.

Mike

Or... (in spite of the missus) get the donor and strip it, whilst organising a scrappie to come and get it two days afterward you get it home!

Depending on what you are using off it, and the tools/axle stands you have etc. -you will have it stripped down in a few hours...

It honestly doesn't take that long...

Steve

I did as above, car was on the drive, stripped in a day and gone in less than a week.
Steve.

[Edited on 28/5/07 by stevec]

Mine took ages. About a month, though an hour here an hour there and a bit of help from Tangoman

Take a few days off work, get a decent angle grinder with a dozen cutting wheels. (I just got the halfords £20 one which was fine). If in doubt, cut the section of car off for finer dismantling later.

Get a wooden dolly /make one up about 2 meters x 2 meters (or just a smaller one with broken fence posts to rest the chasis on). You can haul a stripped chassis easily down a drive on that. (I did).

The longest duration job is getting the wiring loom out. If you are going to buy one/make from scratch then don't bother with anything beyond the engine bay/ dashboard area.

The most akward bit of mine was getting diff out. Once I decided to just cut out the whole of the boot to stand in, it was a doddle (well appart from the tool I got stuck that took about a day to cut out).

Get *lots* of bin liners for bits and wrap/label as you go. If you can take lots of photos of the engine bay for when you are trying to work out what is what and when the labels fall off the wiring

On reflection I wouldn't have bothered with the following:
Body wiring beyond the dashboard
Keeping usefull looking screws/bolts (just keep the essentials and what can easily be removed e.g. what is affixed to the donor parts, espesh prop bolts and diff bolts).
Salvaging parts to sell on ebay (never did it anyway).

I did find it useful taking the back seats out though. They are useful for resting the engine e.t.c on.

If I was doing a BEC I wouldn't have been so bruital with the prop center bearing too

The breakers will take it as long as its on wheels/you can get it to the end of your drive. In my case it was on a small dolly pulled by a rope. The breaker looked a bit perplexed at it when I said that is was still on wheels.

i didnt have a donor, all ebay and car shows for me

Mine lasted 1/2 day, collected on trailer.

Chopped out axle, column and other bits of interest then straight down breakers who lifted off shell leaving the released goodies below and swung it into a skip.

back home, dragged useful bits into garage and lost the trailer.

No need for something to hang around for weeks.

Agreed. Pay somebody if you have to (I had to) to make the tearing apart faster, and the other half won't get too upset, since it will be gone in a day or two.

I think when I start my build, ill go down the donor route, as its bound to be so much cheaper?

Ill want the gearbox, propshaft, diff, driveshafts, brake calipers, steering column, all the guff under the steering cowl, (igniton barrel etc)

Looking at prices for those bits 2nd hand, youd be so much better going donor.

I want to go for zetec power too, looking at the price of a 2nd hand mondeo, I would maybe go donor on it too for the engine, engine loom etc

My only worry would be if the scrappy wouldnt lift it!!!

I've been printing out the ebay ad and paypal info for the bits I've bought. Sure that will be good enough for the pickiest inspector.

On the subject of donor. I bought one and now (marginally) regret going that route. The endless stripping of rusty fasteners and the refurbishment (time and cost) make the cost savings seem less important. Bolting together shiny clean components certainly has it's attractions.


[Edited on 22/6/07 by iank]

I'm assuming that e-bay acknowledgements will be as good as receipts.