Hello! I got a vandenplas from 1982 for free and I decided why not take it. It doesnt look so messed up from the pictures but it really is. Luckily I have one spare part chassis laying around so im going to build it into that one. Heres the pictures.. their bad because I took them with mobile phone camera. I have to bring real camera with me sometime to take some good pictures of it. Its in running condition and isnt too badly rusted anywhere but the front part. All parts are going to be sand-blasted and powdercoated when they go to new chassis. I have big plans... maybe too big for SD1. Not sure how many of them are going to be true but hopefully as many as possible. My plan is also to make it faster to go from 0-100KMH than my dads Esprit turbo. Oh yea and originality isnt my goal.. only to make it go fast and look like it goes fast. And no streetglow.. thats for hondas.





This is my first post. Im from finland also so I dont have as great part supply as you guys got.

Excellent mate
Sound like a guy after my own heart

Keep us all updated.
What are your performance upgrade plans?
Engine suspension and wheels etc etc.

Way to go , like savage widearch says keep us posted on the progress .

Cool! If my car wasn´t a Twin Plenum, i would build something like that. You say there is a lack of parts in Ireland, but you still have E bay and Rimmer Brothers who have a load of brand new cheap parts. as for the 4.6 well mine is a stiff block, one of the late ones. You will be fine with that and and it is the best way to start off with good power already, except the 5.2 which is very expensive!
Wouldn´t it be mad to see an SD1 in something like Max Power again?! most of them would be wondering what the hell it was.

I would love to see one in Max Power or something
So long as it was not overly 'chavved' up
When i eventually build mine i want it in all the mags,
I want to shock the world as it were

As for the 4.6,they are a good motor and an excellent place to start

I used to work at

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Give them a ring,speak with either Chris (Owner and Boss) or
Holy (Main engine builder) and they will give you so much quality advice etc

The Boss is running a Morgan with a 4.6 with looooads done to it and
on its first outing it ran a 12.5, and that was launching in 3RD as he dint have a LSD!

You could even go for a 5.0,5.2,5.3 and now they are even developing a 5.5 i think
Very pricey though
A 4.6 will do the job for ya

Chris is waiting for one of the new 5.5's for his Morgan
And he has now fitted an LSD

Also i would say,go for wide wheels as the improvement in grip is incredible (much needed if your running big power) and improves the handling a sh*tload

I run out of work with the car today. Im waiting for my spare part chassis to be delivered so I can start fiddling with that. Meanwhile I made some cardboard templates of a front strut brace mounting plate... I put my buddy who goes to a technical schools metal fabrication line to make me the mounts out of my cardboard templates. But now I took little bit more eye into the chassis structure it starts seeming a bit unnecessary as the front is pretty stiff looking.

What do you people think? Will a front strut brace just give it that bling-bling race car look and doesnt do anything there really but just add extra weight? It is going to be aluminium so I hope it wont be too heavy.

BMW guys talk how their strut brace affected handling positively so you could notice it clearly. This might just be that their BMW cars are messed up design so they need lots of bracing so the chassis doesnt give in all the time.. Who knows.

I will put some pictures of the plates and the finished product if my friend ever gets time to make them to me.

Something nice came today...

Spare part chassis... new hood and a new RL door. Hopefully I can source a new trunk door somewhere as the current one I have looks like some grease monkey has been doing some fix-it-fast-with-bondo and its all rusted out. Also need new front doors and rear right door because I dont see any reason using the old rusty ones with a brand new chassis.














Work can start now...

Nice work there...Looks good ...

cars looking very nice
thats gotta be the tidiest garage iv ever seen

I,m stripping mine out but nowhere near as much as you as the guy I got it off has already put vitesse suspension on it so its only the interior I really need to strip (see project rover) . Did the windscreen come out easy .

Pictures dont work

Hmm.. They should work. I uploaded pics to photobucket... Heres the link to the album. Also some new pics added. Some of them are pics of the old vandenplas which is very rusty.

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There isnt much progress on the new chassis as I havent had time to work on it too much lately. What I have done so far is I took all the paint out from the inside floor (along with the minor surface rust) and put a zinc primer on it. Then I put base coat on the zinc because otherwise it will drink all the air moisture and start flaking. Some friends of mine asked "Why did you put the zinc there?" so my simple answer to that was "well.. the old chassis has that area rusted out pretty badly so im doing just trying to make it last longer".

BTW... has anybody tried to fit a T5 or a TKO into the transmission tunnel? Im bit worried how the old 5-speed Im going to fit there will hold up behind a tricked out V8. I dont really want to hack the transmission tunnel for a new transmission too much. Im going to use the old cars chassis for seeing how different parts fit after I have gotten all the parts out from it and to the new chassis. First thing to try is going to be XJ40 rear end, we have few complete ones laying around. If I cant get it to fit neatly.. then I will have to just ask some machining shop if they could machine my wheel hubs to have a new bolt pattern. Like 5x 120.75 or 5x 114.3 because I really want some rice burner rims like TE-37 under the car.

T5 is a popular thing to do and i have been looking into it myself. It is a near bomb proof box and will take high powers as it proves in a multitude of applications like the Cosworth and TVR's

Okay I have to keep that in mind. Im not yet sure will I keep the rover engine. Atleast for first MOT I have to use the stock engine as the car has been unregistered last 10 years. Luckily it doesnt affect insurance here if you change anything in your car so you can plant a big block chevy on the nose and nobody cares.

Oh and what is that hole marked with red made for? The speaker hole marked with blue is 4x6inch sized right? Im very unfamiliar with the imperial system.

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