[aumoore]

David
You asked "How much would you pay for an aluminum body with all of the proper hood, trunk, and door, tubes already riveted in and the hood, trunk, and doors already mounted. Hood scoop would be included. All of the riveting would be done and you could rather easily retrofit it to an existing car."

I would say this is worth about 10K for the body but you will find many manufacturers reluctant to sell just a frame as most probably make more on the body than the frame. Now if you would work with a few of the smaller manufacturers so they could offer a Kirkham ready frame sans body that they could make money on then you might have something. For example: Randy Hunter offers a body and frame package for around $6000 and I woudl say most of the cost is the body. Now if you could work with someone like him so he could offer a "Kirkham Ready" frame and inner panel package then he might be able to offer for about the same as what he sells his basic body and frame package. His frame uses C4 corvette suspension pieces which are all aluminum and made for performance. His roller including body goes for about $11k and if he could offer the Kirkham ready package for the same then you could have a really nice start to a aluminum cobra for $21k. There would be less body work I assume on your aluminum body so you could finish this car for around $40k if you were not looking for a 427 side oiler. maybe $50k with a sideoiler.

You should consider working with a few of the small manufacturers who are willing to do custom work. I bet Randy would be interested.

I do not think any of the manufacturers depend on the fiberglass tub to support the chassis. Does it stiffen it? Probably but not by much. Besides the originals had fiberglass foot wells.