New Sammio Alpha build
 

Hello to the Sammio Forum. My name is Dave, I thought it was time to introduce myself as I am about to start building an Alpha. I have Now have a suitable doner and hopfully some spare time over Christmas to get started and the spitfire up to mot passing spec.

Welcome aboard ...Good luck with the build Dave and please keep us updated with lots of pictures ..we like pictures !

Yorkshireman Again many thanks for your order and welcome to the forum.
As I have said the kettle is always on when your down this way.
Your body conversion will be layed-up in January so plenty of time to prepare your car. :wink:

Lancelot link I'll be making sure plenty of pictures will be added. :thumb:

Yorkshireman - Welcome to the forum Dave. :cool:

Although the photos are very small for some reason, it looks like you have a good donor car.

Good luck, Paul. :)

Thanks for the warm welcome and the invitation Mike I am to be down your way next year. I do intend to photograph the build. It was the main reason I visited the mad about kit cars website watching the progress of the sammio spyder various builds. New photos of the doner once l get home. I think the limited wifi in the Norwegian sea resulted in small photos.

Well after a busy Christmas moving houses for 2 of the offspring and called back to work early. I thought it was time to clear the garage and make ready for the Alpha body.

Wow! so you have converted your Spitfire to a Herald and dropped an Alpha body on top!!! LOL. It is amazing how family and work seems to get in the way when one has a project in mind. Good luck.

Looks like the Alpha has regressed to a Spyder too ....

The Sammio was an unexpected project that I was lucky to get last May. I had just completed a spitfire rebuild and was ready to move on to a new project. I believe I am the third owner of the spyder, I bought it from I guy called Fabio but I am unable to find any previous history of the body origins or build number.

I was needing the build to be complete for July this year and I realised this was not going to be possible with the time and finish I was wanting for the sammio. So I ordered a Alpha spyder and got a good spitfire base to give me the best chance of completing the project on time. Fingers crossed it will be swapped over and into the garage by the weekend.

Dave - I remember a Fabio building a 2CV Sammio.
http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/foru...ead.php?t=5623

Hope things come together now for your Alpha build, as July is a very short deadline. :eek:

Good luck, Paul. :)

I have a spitfire spyder, I bought as an abandend project, I understand the body had to be legthened as a spit is 4 inch longer in wheelbase than the herald

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ie33tt2lug...00.26.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pzls0aque7..._9793.JPG?dl=0


PS im in otley if you need any help or info, Keith wharfedale@btinternet.com

https://www.dropbox.com/s/akwnemfdiw...875.JPG?dl=0l]

these are the seats I had made

A Herald wheelbase is ~8" longer than a Spit - ~91.5" cf ~83". I say "approximately" because anyone who has worked on early Triumphs no longer believes in exact measurements.

spit
 

its 4 inch wheelbase the leghth my be 8 inch, my body was streached by 4 inch at the bonnet, and the seats were a real problem, no buckett seats would fit, i had bench seats made, ill try to find the build thread, Keith

If it is a Spitfire chassis and it is longer than a Herald then it has been stretched. This could cause you problems come MOT-time.

A Herald is definitely notably longer than a Spit.

As Oxford says ...Spitfire is definitely around 7.5'' shorter in the wheelbase than a Herald or Vitesse ...I recently fitted a Cordite Spitfire body onto a Herald chassis and have had to stretch the bonnet around 7-8'' ....

The only approx. 4'' stretch I remember was Chevaux , the 2CV version of the Spyder body that was around 95'' wheelbase ...the scar from the extension is pretty obvious on the Chevaux bonnet , so you may have one of those ...
If the chassis has been stretched to compensate for the longer wheelbase , I would at the very least make the stretch not very obvious and get the V5c amended , if not already , whilst no inspections are being done ...

Seats not fitting is odd ..its snug on a Triumph but they definitely fit a standard chassis unless an extra outrigger has been added or side rails pinched in etc ...

More importantly you might have some problems with wheel alignment!!
Chopping a chassis is not simple and can be very difficult to get right. :suspicious:

Could it be a 2CV chassis? That would explain: A/ why it's 4" longer than a Herald and B/ why the seats wouldn't fit as you can't lower the tin snail's floor. Just a thought.

could be ..very distinctive chassis ...a picture would confirm ..

Hello Keith thanks for the offer of help and advice. Otley should be in my range once the sammio is roadworthy at least driving down the Chevin.

After doing a trial fit of the sammio body today on the herald and storing it on the spitfire tonight. I agree with everyone else the herald is longer. This also confirms to me that the sammio body I have is for a herald and not a 2cv as I found out the previous owner had plans to fit it to a 2cv chassis. I will try and upload some photos tomorrow.

spiy
 

sorry I got it wrong the herald is 91.5 inch and the spit 82.9, this resulted in my cab been shorter and the difficulty in fitting standard saets,

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5z6onasjhx...%2017.JPG?dl=0

you can just about see thejoint in the bonnet.

http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/foru...ead.php?t=3380
this is the thread showing how the spyder body went on the spit chasis, Is the new alpha spyder for spit or hearald chasis?

Hello Keith my Alpha body will be fitted to a spitfire mk IV 1500 chassis. I guess if you ask Mike at sammio hq he will be able to confirm what chassis options are available for the Alpha Spyder.

wharfedale the SAMMIO ALPHA is designed to fit the Triumph Spitfire chassis using most of the original floor-pan and bulkhead so a solid donor is needed.
The original SAMMIO SPYDER is still available and is designed to fit the Truimph Herald chassis using just the original bulkhead.

Both the ALPHA and SPYDER bodies are constructed from a single skin lay-up so can be chopped to fit a lot of different chassis :icon_lol:

Well some good news today from Mike. My Alpha body will be ready for Monday 26 march. I now need to get home and get the garage clear, moving the sammio spyder out but that won't be while at least the 4 April and crew change fingers crossed

Delivery of Sammio Alpha
 

Well 19th April is the day I took delivery of the Sammio Alpha

https://preview.ibb.co/gPtsb7/DSCI0261.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/bFTm3n/DSCI0262.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/d1YVUS/DSCI0265.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/gTMvw7/DSCI0266.jpg

So with that the build has officially started.

I'm pleased to see you'v got to grips with the photo editing. :icon_smile:

Thanks for that Mike, but I am still in the learning process with this photo uplink.

Well due to skill or luck I will try and upload some photos of the Sammio Alphas Doner which members of the household have nicknamed Harry.


https://preview.ibb.co/dqisb7/DSCI0249.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/cS2kw7/DSCI0250.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/kvP4pS/DSCI0252.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/dcyVUS/DSCI0253.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/n7eb3n/DSCI0254.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/mvoQw7/DSCI0255.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/mck5w7/DSCI0256.jpg

So after a first trial fit of the body and photo.

https://preview.ibb.co/gxRpOn/DSCI0257.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/f1PFw7/DSCI0258.jpg

it was time to move Harry to start the stripdown.

https://preview.ibb.co/ipqYin/DSCI0259.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/mWu9On/DSCI0260.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/ivDQw7/DSCI0268.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/d8BCb7/DSCI0267.jpg

Which also required emptying the car of spares and trying to find locker space for them.

Goods like you have got a very tidy Spitfire donor there. :cool:

Thanks Paul I spent some time looking for a doner. i wanted to limit the build time and I needed a good base to start with due to the construction. This spitfire ticked all the boxes so I think the extra outlay was worth it.

So these photos that follow are the first fitting of the body to the spitfire tub

https://preview.ibb.co/nNnTR7/DSCI0270.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/f9gNm7/DSCI0271.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/h22pYn/DSCI0272.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/g5cOtn/DSCI0273.jpg

As you can see from the photos the body is sitting high at the rear and also at the front so a steady aproach with the grinder removing small amounts untill the body sits correct.

First photos show the top of the dashboard.
https://preview.ibb.co/ieNWw7/DSCI0278.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/dHdh3n/DSCI0279.jpg

Working towards the back of the spitfire this was the next area to be trimmed.

https://preview.ibb.co/nbdUYn/DSCI0274.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/k2y7KS/DSCI0275.jpg

finally the back of the car. There was much more trimming and body trying before I got to this point as my lift assistant for the body pointed out to me.


https://preview.ibb.co/mV56US/DSCI0277.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/mVg23n/DSCI0280.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/eDLUin/DSCI0281.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/imuBw7/DSCI0285.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/gWuBw7/DSCI0286.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/fs3ApS/DSCI0289.jpg

I Now turned my attention to the fuel tank and repostioned and trimmed away the rear top pannel to give better acess for the boot area.



https://preview.ibb.co/ndrKin/DSCI0284.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/nrVJb7/DSCI0287.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/mPVvOn/DSCI0288.jpg
[url=https://ibb.co/h3DX3n]
https://preview.ibb.co/exG8b7/DSCI0290.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/kcEGUS/DSCI0292.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/md7aOn/DSCI0291.jpg

more to follow on the build.

So after the first day the photos below show how far I have got.

https://preview.ibb.co/nshv67/DSCI0269.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/nNnTR7/DSCI0270.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/iuDFOn/DSCI0294.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/fK8h3n/DSCI0293.jpg

Iam happy with progress so far and now before the body can be bonded i need to sort out the arrangement for hanging the doors and the hinges.

So car pushed in garage and beer sought to help with thinking process.

:rockon:

looking good
 

looks so different from the steel subframe build, I will be interested to see how the wheelarches meet the existing steel, are you going on wires, I got my second hand ones powderchromed at cas coatings near you £26 a wheel, cant tel it from chrome and it washes in two minutes. I have a couple of 72 spoke ones spair if you get stuck, keep up with the info, and good luck!

Looking good. :rockon::rockon:

I really like the way this kit seems to go together. :cool:

As there is a lot to be said for keeping the donor car as intact as possible.

Good luck, Paul. :)

Wharfdale I will take you up on the offer of wheels. As you can see below I have managed to collect a few different styles of wheels over the last year so maybe its a bit early till the cars painted. but I am thinking minilight or 14 mgb wire wheels.
https://preview.ibb.co/kmtg3y/930ccc...5f32815d26.jpg
https://image.ibb.co/jvsVwJ/David_Tetlow_BH.jpg
https://image.ibb.co/eFrZOy/download.jpg
https://image.ibb.co/jB9M3y/images_1.jpg
https://image.ibb.co/jhq5Vd/images.jpg
https://image.ibb.co/eW8QVd/Steve_Kimball_MG_MGB_AM.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/iu4M3y/TR7wheels_on_Spitfire.jpg

I guess the biggest decider will be when the arches are finished.

Barber Micky1mo Thanks for the reply I welcome your icons of suport :smile:

Paul L Yes Paul the build for the main body was much quicker and simpler than the sammio syder. However the next challenge will be the doors and fitting the bonnet.

The ALPHA's wheel arch was curved to suit 14" wheels.

This ALPHA is fitted with VW 14" wheels and 185/70/14 tyres


https://i.imgur.com/fG1SeBTh.jpg

:icon_cool:

Thanks for the info on wheel size Mike. I will fit the wires on the car to get the wheel archs gap right.

With last trial of the body. it was time to prepare for bonding.

https://preview.ibb.co/cFcd3y/DSCI0313.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/i14fGJ/DSCI0315.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/frJROy/DSCI0311.jpg

Which means the grinder was out again.

I then prepared the area and cleaned and got all the drills ready, screws and back up drill as the cure time for bonding was only 20 mins.

The time taken was about 1 hour the front panel where the windscreen use to be was the trickest to grind the longest to grind was down the two sills. To grind the lower sill area that meets the lower bulkhead I had to lift and remove the front wheels to gain acess. I consider I was lucky as removing the paint i found good steel. otherwise it could have involved welding in repairs. However removing the paint will require major touching up once bonding and body work is complete.

Did you get a chance to bond the body shell on?

The very short time from body shell arriving to bonding is amazing. :cool:

At this rate, you will have got further in months than I did in years!

Good luck, Paul. :)