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