Nosbod
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| posted on 22/9/07 at 07:49 PM |
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Donor Car - Worth it or not?
After my visit to MK this weekend i'm set on building a BEC Indy and will be ordering the kit next week (once ive chosen a colour). I have
decided on an R1 as the lump.
My question is should I be looking to buy a donor car or just the relevant parts from scrappies, ebay etc. ?
Also should i be looking to use a LSD?
Cost isn't so much of an issue.
I've had a good trawl on the forum and not really found any conclusive posts.
Thanks in advance.
Chris.
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StevieB
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| posted on 22/9/07 at 07:55 PM |
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I got my donor parts from MK for an R1 Indy build for £250, which saved me a load of hassle with the donor car etc.
Didn't get a V5 though, but never thought to ask for one either!
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jacko
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| posted on 22/9/07 at 07:58 PM |
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HI Chris if i can help in any way just shout out. there is quit a lot of mk oners live around Hull
Graham
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Paul TigerB6
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| posted on 22/9/07 at 08:01 PM |
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First thing you might want to do is work out what differential ratio you will want for your R1. There are programmes online (somewhere) that will
allow you to put in your engine (with gear ratio's / final drive ratio of the common engines), wheel size and diff ratio so that you can
calculate speeds in each gear. 3.62 (LSD) is likely to be a good choice for an R1 anyway.
Might be worth looking out for a rear assembly for an XR4x4 (diff, driveshafts, disk brakes etc) and then pick up a set of front uprights / brakes
from a breakers / here, or just look at saving a chunk of weight and fit Raceleda uprights instead (
http://www.locostparts.net/product_info.php?products_id=385&osCsid=6do3hs5t7et4she491khog4ca4 ) along with some lightweight 4-pot calipers if you
have the budget.
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richardR1
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| posted on 22/9/07 at 10:46 PM |
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I'm only down the road in Hull and have built an R1 Indy. Bought a 4x4 sierra so I had 3.62 LSD and all round discs. Got some regular front
uprights as the 4x4 ones are no good and bought a brand new quick rack from MK as the PAS one is no good. Gearing is a pretty good compromise on that
ratio and having V5 gives you the option of an age related plate.
MK Owners Club Member 1015
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Guinness
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| posted on 23/9/07 at 08:07 AM |
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I went the donor route. I bought a Sierra off ebay for £75. Stripped everything down, partly cause i didn't know whether to go car engined or
bike engined (don't tell hellfire), partly because it was educational (seeing how things come apart helps you visualise how they go back
together) and partly to sell the rest on ebay!
I bought a Sapphire for £75, it had £15 of fuel in the tank (even though the gauge was reading empty), £25 of tax left on it, sold the gearbox for
£25, got a case of beer for the engine, sold the lights for £17, kept, re-used or scrapped the rest.
The list of parts you need / can re-use is pretty long:-
front hubs, brakes, steering rack (manual), steering column, the steering wheel (for sva), column shroud thingy, stalks, handbrake, all the fuses out
the box, all the relays you can find (inc the flasher one above the column but behind the clocks), the bulbs out of the lamps, any nuts, bolts etc
that aren't rusted up, prop shaft, diff, rear drive shafts, rear brakes, brake master cylinder (not ABS). Wheels to roll the car round on.
There are four advantages of using a donor that I can see, firstly cost. You have said that this isn't such an issue to you, but adding all
that lot up is going to cost you a lot more than £75. Secondly, delivery. All the parts you need are there in one package. Think of the number of
trips to breakers yards / ebay / motor factors to pick that lot up. Thirdly, loads of projects get abandoned due to people not seeing progress during
the build. My advice would be get the chassis to the stage where you can get it on it's wheels and get it rolling up and down the road (with
your mates pushing you) as quickly as possible. If you can't get it to a rolling chassis stage because you are waiting to afford / delivery on
a new set of £500 alloys & tyres you can loose heart with it. Finally ease of getting parts. I can go along to Halfords or any motor factors,
and give them my donor reg, and they can tell me it was a 1.6l '92 reg Pinto powered Sierra. I can get replacement brake discs, pads etc
without any bother about sizes etc etc.
All IMHO.
Oh yeah, and because I'm tight / skint, I'm still running round on the donor alloys!
<<<--------- See
HTH
Mike
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Nosbod
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| posted on 24/9/07 at 08:54 PM |
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Looks like a donor is the way to go.
Thanks for all the advice 
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