Donor Cars

Sumo's MKIII's can be based on either Ford Sierra or Granada, or Jag but most built are based on a ford donor, this is cheaper and far easier to get hold of than a Jag donor.

Suitable donors are available in most local papers or Ebay for very little money, though its worth trying to check out the basics of the car before buying anything. Brakes, steering, wheel bearings etc. Alternatively you can get a donor package from Pilgrim which will save you the hassle of finding and stripping down a complete donor vehicle and being left with something like this to get rid of:

sierraskel.JPG

Stripping the bits you need from a donor is not easy, taking the suspension off a car really does need proper lifting gear to allow access to the underside of the vehicle, another option is to do this: (If you do this BE VERY VERY CAREFUL)

sierraup.JPG

You likely need a long bar, blow torch and lots of WD40 to get some of the nuts undone so be prepared.

What bits do you need:

From a Ford Sierra/Granada

  • Rear swing arms and hubs
  • Front uprights/hubs.
  • Brake calipers/drums (suggest these should be replace or refurbished)
  • Door striker plates
  • Diff
  • Steering column, surround, switch gear, steering wheel (for SVA only)
  • Red wiper Relay
  • Pedal box (all 3 pedals)
  • Brake servo and Master cylinder (don't forget the servo pipe and inline valve) Not suitable if your donor has ABS.
  • Heater - optional and will need significant mods.
  • Wheels - useful during the build.
  • V5 document - you will need this to avoid a Q plate when registering after SVA.

Once you've got these bits from the car and declared it SORN to avoid a fine, you can get the local scrap yard to come and collect the unwanted parts. Remember that you are not scrapping the car, just the unwanted bits, you should not give the scrap man the V5 or you will have no identity to pass onto your Sumo after SVA at the DVLA inspection.

Here is a picture of the removed rear end of a Sierra, note that you need all of this except the rear subframe (the large inverted V part)

rearend.JPG

Here is a picture of one of the front uprights/hubs that you will require:

frontupright.JPG

Brake/Steering parts

The calipers, master cylinder and servo and some steering components are all reused from the donor, these parts are extremely important to the safety of the completed car and so extra care should be taken with the inspection and renewal of these parts. If in any doubt seek expert advice or better still, use professionally reconditioned parts which are readily available and reasonable prices, especially when exchanged for your old bits from the donor car.

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