Hopefully you’ve gathered by now that the Pie Valley chassis isn’t a typical kit car build. There’s a lot of flexibility to build a huge variety of different vehicles, but it does mean that each builder will have to adapt their shell to a degree to make it fit. VW based shells are obviously rear-engined, so most will have either a bulkhead or rear seat where our new mid mounted engine wants to sit. Cutting a chunk out of your body shell is daunting at first, but with some careful measuring it’s quite possible to mount a body on to the chassis in a leisurely day. Pie Valley Buggies can supply a fibreglass panel to cover the chassis bulkhead once the body-shell is in situ, and if a marginally dyspraxic veterinary surgeon can manage to do it, then so can you!
The mechanical side of the build is straightforward and MG parts are widely available. These days the K series engine needn’t be as fragile as you may have been lead to believe, either.
A few items, such as the roll-bar, the steering column mounts and the wiring loom will depend to a great extent on the body shell being used, so these are best sourced or made by the builder. This needn’t be too difficult – the
steering column support is a very simple design, and generic wiring loom kits or wiring modules are available from several sources. We find the Car Builder Solutions wiring module particularly helpful.
We don’t plan to supply lots of different seat packs, lighting packs and suchlike, because there’s already huge industry devoted to doing exactly that, and, after all, you know better than we do how you’d like your car to look.
We’d also rather supply the chassis in bare metal, although we can apply a temporary coat of paint if you wish. During the build process the chassis will have a hundred or so holes drilled into it (there are 90 for the aluminium floor, for instance), the body will need taking on and off several times and you’ll drop several heavy items onto it into the bargain. We’d suggest carrying out final blast cleaning and top coating once the majority of parts have been located and their mounting holes drilled. We’d also recommend a hard two-pack or stone chip paint finish, which can be retouched when damaged, rather than powder coat, which can’t.
Hopefully you’ve gathered by now that the Pie Valley chassis isn’t a typical kit car build. There’s a lot of flexibility to build a huge variety of different vehicles, but it does mean that each builder will have to adapt their shell to a degree to make it fit. VW based shells are obviously rear-engined, so most will have either a bulkhead or rear seat where our new mid mounted engine wants to sit. Cutting a chunk out of your body shell is daunting at first, but with some careful measuring it’s quite possible to mount a body on to the chassis in a leisurely day. Pie Valley Buggies can supply a fibreglass panel to cover the chassis bulkhead once the body-shell is in situ, and if a marginally dyspraxic veterinary surgeon can manage to do it, then so can you!
The mechanical side of the build is straightforward and MG parts are widely available. These days the K series engine needn’t be as fragile as you may have been lead to believe, either.
A few items, such as the roll-bar, the steering column mounts and the wiring loom will depend to a great extent on the body shell being used, so these are best sourced or made by the builder. This needn’t be too difficult – thesteering column support is a very simple design, and generic wiring loom kits or wiring modules are available from several sources. We find the Car Builder Solutions wiring module particularly helpful.
We don’t plan to supply lots of different seat packs, lighting packs and suchlike, because there’s already huge industry devoted to doing exactly that, and, after all, you know better than we do how you’d like your car to look.
We’d also rather supply the chassis in bare metal, although we can apply a temporary coat of paint if you wish. During the build process the chassis will have a hundred or so holes drilled into it (there are 90 for the aluminium floor, for instance), the body will need taking on and off several times and you’ll drop several heavy items onto it into the bargain. To save damaging your final chassis coating, we’d suggest carrying out final blast cleaning and top coating once the majority of parts have been located and their mounting holes drilled. We’d also recommend a hard two-pack or stone chip paint finish, which can be retouched when damaged, rather than powder coat, which can’t.
Pie Valley Buggies, Dearne Works, Scissett, Huddersfield, HD8 9HS. 07545716503T