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View Full Version : Haynes roadster Chassis on ebay


geeman
18th July 2009, 08:14 PM
I found this (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/haynes-roadster-locost-chassis_W0QQitemZ120449344270QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK _CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item1c0b57230 e&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1683|293%3A1| 294%3A50) on ebay, They seem to be making the majority of the chassis for a realtively low cost(£350), however, what baffles me if that if they are painting it, do they expect people to gind away the paint in areas to weld on the bits they havent done as said on ebay:confused: . hope someone hasnt already mentioned this on here. Also im having trouble finding anyone from armoto as im looking for their wishbone jig and some m18 and m20 bosses for the top wishbones.

james83mills
18th July 2009, 08:30 PM
they could do with putting some pics up

les g
18th July 2009, 08:47 PM
Flippin heck thats a really good price if the chassis is any good
les g

geeman
18th July 2009, 08:56 PM
COnsidering all the metal costs welding supplies(gas, wire...) Paint for spraying and ebay fees, there really cant be much profit for the ammout of labour required to make the chassis. It seems like a great price, but you never know..

Bonzo
18th July 2009, 09:14 PM
Ronnie the cynic here :rolleyes: :D

I don't like private ebay sales.

Made to order ??? How long will you have to wait, probably longer than you have to raise a paypal dispute ;)

Painted black, that will be that cheap and nasty Rustins garden ornament crap. ( Spend a month, rubbing it all off )

Not good enough to show photographs. After all, the first photo is free on ebay.

All that glitters is not gold !!?? Would any forum member build an almost complete chassis for £350 :eek:

mr henderson
18th July 2009, 09:30 PM
One should never refer to other people as amatures unless one knows how to spell amateur.

I've been considering offering built chassis for sale, and have been wondering if I can get the price down to £650 :eek: (admittedly for a finished chassis, not like chummy is offering), so how he thinks he can do it for that price I don't know.

If it's genuine he must be reckoning to just throw the chassis together. More likely though is that when he gets an order, and finds out just how much work is involved, how much material and other expenses, then he will be re-thinking the whole thing.

james83mills
18th July 2009, 09:40 PM
they do have a good ebay record though

geeman
18th July 2009, 09:41 PM
Yeh, my thoughts exactly, i am not sure if they have acutally built one before, and think that they feel they have the know-how to build one, and just assume there will be a healthy profit in for them at a £350 price, but i dont think the seller has thought it through fully, however innocent until proven guilty. I personally wouldnt ever buy the chassis from someone who isnt reputable and already has a good track record in the kit car buisness as the chassis is really the most important bit of the car.

Bonzo
18th July 2009, 09:44 PM
I have to agree with you there ;)

Would have to think long & hard at building a sub £700 chassis. Heck of a lot of work involved for not a lot of gain :)

One thing that confuses me. Why are the 4 seatbelt mounts not included ??

4 Bits of 40X3 strip steel with a nut welded to it . My 7/16 unf nuts cost me a massive 4p each & took all of 5mins to make ( Perhaps they do not have the use of a drill !! ) :confused:

Perhaps it would be wise to ask a few questions, perhaps ask if you can view a completed chassis ;)

fabbyglass
18th July 2009, 09:49 PM
Someone enterprising could do a basic Roadster kit with bones and 6 piece body set for £1500/£1600 and maybe get more of them out there...

HandyAndy
18th July 2009, 10:07 PM
Someone enterprising could do a basic Roadster kit with bones and 6 piece body set for £1500/£1600 and maybe get more of them out there...


Hmmmmm :) ;)

andy

mr henderson
18th July 2009, 10:27 PM
Someone enterprising could do a basic Roadster kit with bones and 6 piece body set for £1500/£1600 and maybe get more of them out there...

That would be 'kin difficult. The equivalent from MK is £1995 (although that includes mushrooms, rear uprights, suspension bushes and rack shortening) and the Indy chassis is much simpler than the Haynes, mainly because of the clever use of tube bending, so to undercut them by £400 odd would take some doing

Spikehaus
18th July 2009, 10:28 PM
I must admit, that is cheap, but the guy next door fully welded my chassis ( less the suspension brackets in about 4-5 hours. And if they have a large stock of box section the shelf, they may just want to turn it into easy money if other order for other work is slow. If it is anything like the fabricator I know, work is work or no food on the table.

However, I still believe that the correct cost should be £650 - £850 and I would have to know the fabricator personally before buying at that price. After all, it's your life at risk, but I am sure that every amateur (LOL) will but more love and care into every weld and keep re-doing it until its perfect!

jasongray5
18th July 2009, 10:37 PM
If my Chassis were to fail, I would rather it be a fault of my own rather than scrimping on time to blame it on some one else

HandyAndy
18th July 2009, 10:51 PM
can i ask a rather blunt question please,

whilst i,m one of the many builders that have built their OWN chassis, & acknowledge that is the purpose of "the Book"

but?????

if a chassis was available pre-made at a good price & with good quality steel, welding etc then surely it would give builders the option to kickstart their build would it not?

a price has been banded about of say £650 to £850 for the chassis, poss other options as per Fabby,s post,

given the man hours to get a chassis to the point of almost ready to roll then i believe it can look like an attractive option to new builders.

i would imagine this is how other "kit car" companies started out, from small acorns grow large tree,s so to speak.

your comments welcomed,

andy:)

geeman
18th July 2009, 10:59 PM
can i ask a rather blunt question please,

whilst i,m one of the many builders that have built their OWN chassis, & acknowledge that is the purpose of "the Book"

but?????

if a chassis was available pre-made at a good price & with good quality steel, welding etc then surely it would give builders the option to kickstart their build would it not?

a price has been banded about of say £650 to £850 for the chassis, poss other options as per Fabby,s post,

given the man hours to get a chassis to the point of almost ready to roll then i believe it can look like an attractive option to new builders.

i would imagine this is how other "kit car" companies started out, from small acorns grow large tree,s so to speak.

your comments welcomed,

andy:)

That is always a great idea, and can benifit not only people who dont have the time, it would be a great option for people eithout the equiptment to weld. However, im not sure that the haynes roadster would then be the best option for people who may not build the chassis, as i know there are cars like the robin hood or indy that are 'kit cars' as they are sold as kits, so again, the roadster may not be the best route for those people, however if someone has their heart set on one, i think it is always great to have the option to buy the kit as oppoesed to making it as i gues the advantage of a kit roadster it still gives you much freedom to do as you like with the car.

james83mills
18th July 2009, 11:10 PM
i think it its possible to do

lets imagine that its a steel fabricating firm building it

steel is about a third of the price it was last year, i got given the steel for my chassis but to buy from a builders yard would have cost me about £100. so lets say that they got it at cost £50ish or it could be left overs from other projects/jobs so that would be free then

if they are a steel fabricators then they will have the tools and equipment to build it so no additional cost there

if they are going to be building lots of them then i would imagine that they will have a jig made up for various sections such as the bottom rails and the top rails and then a jig for clamping the top and bottom together at the right distance, then just the simple job of attaching the uprights this would give you the basic chassis and i think that it could be done in a day or less

mr henderson
18th July 2009, 11:34 PM
Most steel fabricators will have to buy in the steel, as they will rarely be using 1.6erw otherwise. In their racks they would be unlikey to have anything thinner that 2mm.

Building a full chassis jig would not be economic unless they were going to do quite a few, but what really takes the time is preparing the stock to the correct lengths and angles. There are just so many different pieces that even if they had a nifty machine for cutting them, something that could do some of the really acute angles in one go, that it will still be very time absorbing.

The Haynes design works because if the bottom is done right, and care is taken with the rest of it then a reasonablty accurate chassis will result, but at £350 for the whole lot, how much care could be taken?

AshG
19th July 2009, 12:01 AM
considering ordering one just to see what it comes out like. anyone wanna go halfs?

Eddy
19th July 2009, 12:13 AM
I noticed this whilst browsing ebay. The guy is only 30 or so miles away from me, so I sent him an email for a bit more info.

Its only the bare chassis and doesnt come with any of the chassis plates.

He gave me an email address that had talon motorsports in it, so I googled it. Found talon sports cars, but not sure if its the same guy.

I'm looking to buy a chassis as complete as possible, and expected to be paying closer to the £800 mark

Bonzo
19th July 2009, 12:17 AM
I noticed this whilst browsing ebay. The guy is only 30 or so miles away from me, so I sent him an email for a bit more info.

Its only the bare chassis and doesnt come with any of the chassis plates.

He gave me an email address that had talon motorsports in it, so I googled it. Found talon sports cars, but not sure if its the same guy.

I'm looking to buy a chassis as complete as possible, and expected to be paying closer to the £800 mark

Perhaps it would be a good idea to ask if you can go and have a look at a completed chassis ;)

If the seller is agreeable to this, feel free to report your findings back to us forum members :cool: :)

mr henderson
19th July 2009, 08:55 AM
Personally I don't see the logic in offering a chassis that needs more welding done to it.

I assume that the main reason for buying rather than making a chssis is that the buyer doesn't have welding or fabricating facilities, and doesn't want to acquire them.

Bonzo
19th July 2009, 09:29 AM
A fair point is that one

I am not feeling in such a cynical mood this morning :o

After digesting spikehaus's comments. Yes any income is better than none :confused:

If you are not looking to make a bundle, do not have any overheads, I suppose a modest profit could be made. !!

This is assuming the following

The build table is made & jigged up for the base rails, jig for front frame is to hand.

Then perhaps by doing a special deal with armoto for a pe-cut chassis pack. sub £200

A skilled fabricator should be able to construct the basic frame & fully weld within 2-3 days

Deduct £50 for a few consumables & ebay fees

That will leave a very modest £100'ish for a couple of hard days graft :)

I would definately like to see the product first hand & gauge the sellers skill level, before I commited to buy though ;)

Talonmotorsport
19th July 2009, 11:12 AM
Hello to all that have commented on my ebay listing it's always a good idea to do market research before throwing money and time down the drain. So for the 40p that the ebay listing has cost me so far I'd says it's money well spent.
I've taken on board your comments about having to add the welded parts to an already painted chassis. The reason for suppling a chassis in such basic form was intended to be a starting point to take the difficult and most daunting part of the chassis construction off the builders mind.
As for the quality of the materials it's all as it should be 16 gauge box section and would have been a light dust over with satin black as most cars seem to take over two years to complete.
My usual line of buisness is as a Autograss fabricator and painter building cars,rollcages,fuel tanks,resprays etc. My over heads are very low due to being a one man band and unlike large company's with air craft hanger rent and 10-20 wages to pay I am able to under cut them some what.
As for getting what you pay for I might as well put the prices up now knowing what people are willing to pay for what should be a 'locost' product, So less 'locost' more kit car?
Thank you all for your input and comments I'll will get some pics posted on ebay or on here in the next week or so.

jasongray5
19th July 2009, 11:52 AM
Hi and welcome to the forum!

les g
19th July 2009, 12:39 PM
Flippin heck thats a really good price if the chassis is any good
les g

i hope Mr talonmotorsport took notice that i was the only one on here not to be cynical ............:D
perhaps i,ll get a discount on my next project????? :cool:
cheers les g

PS: Welcome to the madhouse

mr henderson
19th July 2009, 12:45 PM
Is Talon Motorsport related in any way to Talon Sportscars?

These are the people I mean
http://www.talonsportscars.com/index.php

HandyAndy
19th July 2009, 12:48 PM
welcome to the forum to Talon motorsport,

as has been said regarding your prices, keep them at an attractive price for future new builders, good luck with your new venture of The Roadster :) .

the reaction to your listing on ebay is more a case of the "unknown" & so folk maybe a little apprehensive of the product you offer, but if the product is as good as can be achieved at a fair price then the orders will come in i,m sure.

all the best
andy

fabbyglass
19th July 2009, 12:58 PM
About 6 or 7 years ago I was making two chassis kits with front and rear wishbones, uprights, engine mounts for both bike and car motors and pedals....cutting the steel myself and welding it all together in 4 days yes 4 days as they would be collected by the firm I made them for on a Friday with their customers collecting their kits on a Saturday...easy if you have worked as a fabricator since leaving school;) Grp came about because I shared a workshop with a mad laminator and just fancied a change.

les g
19th July 2009, 01:09 PM
About 6 or 7 years ago I was making two chassis kits with front and rear wishbones, uprights, engine mounts for both bike and car motors and pedals....cutting the steel myself and welding it all together in 4 days yes 4 days as they would be collected by the firm I made them for on a Friday with their customers collecting their kits on a Saturday...easy if you have worked as a fabricator since leaving school;) Grp came about because I shared a workshop with a mad laminator and just fancied a change.

I really doubt the laminator was madder than you lol lol

mr henderson
19th July 2009, 01:15 PM
About 6 or 7 years ago I was making two chassis kits with front and rear wishbones, uprights, engine mounts for both bike and car motors and pedals....cutting the steel myself and welding it all together in 4 days yes 4 days as they would be collected by the firm I made them for on a Friday with their customers collecting their kits on a Saturday

Were Dutton still going 7 years ago?







Only joking!

fabbyglass
19th July 2009, 01:31 PM
Twas Mac1 motorsport...:cool: