Originally Posted by Three Peaks
After seeing the Factory Five offerings, which I think are an excellent kit and well built, there are many differences between them and an original style body. I am building (almost finished) an Exact Carbon Cobra built on Roger's original spec'd frame and the differences are huge. Since this is splashed off an original body, it isn't symmetrical so copying an original will be an exercise in futility, IMHO.
Better to simply copy the Factory Five body completely or do like the Kirkhams and do a scan and clean it up side to side and make the body symmetrical- then try to figure out how to fit it to the Factory Five chassis.
If you go original with the body (albeit making it symmetrical ala Kirkham), you would need to make modifications to the Factory Five frame to make it fit. some of these modifications may end being pretty substantial, some are more minor.
For instance, the outriggers would need to changed and/or shortened and the mounting points relocated to accomodate the wrap around at the rocker that the originals had and the Factory Five doesn't. The Mark IV does have some wrap around at the rocker- more than the early models, but not to the extent the originals had.
The birdcage is already in place in the Factory Five chassis, but will it fit your original style body? Probably not, unless it closely matches the Factory Five body to begin with. Otherwise, more time and money would need to be spent altering the birdcage. For a kit builder, these two items would be a huge undertaking, not to mention expensive since most would have to take it to a welder to have the modifications done. These are not easy modifications to do, as I have done the bird cage and most of the smaller tubing modifications/additions on my chassis.
In my opinion, if you want to go forward with this idea, you need to basically copy the body of the car you intend to replace the body with. If you wish to go with FFR as your first foray, your best bet would be to buy an FFR base kit Mark IV, bring it to your shop, and do some homework to see what is the best way to proceed. You may scrap the idea, you may produce a matching body, or you may decide to offer a kit with the necessary parts to adapt your body. If you are planning on offering a complete car, you may need to familiarize yourself with US laws and regulations regarding selling complete cars. There is a reason the Kirkhams, ERA's, Shelbys, and other kits are sold as rollers as there are extensive rules and regulations in place that would make selling a complete turn key car cost prohibitive.
On top of everything else, I think at your price point of $85K turn key, I think you are painting yourself into a very small niche corner where you won't make enough money to be able to sustain your business model for very long.
Bob
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