Bill's Extended City Goblin, 2009 SS/TC donor

[Astraeus]

Hey everyone! I suppose it's time to start my build log here. A bit of a back story:

I first learned about the Goblin about 2 years ago after seeing a post on Reddit about Adam and his dad making a fiberglass nosecone for a kit car. To be honest, I completely disregarded the car at first because of the Cobalt. Having owned a tuned Honda for years, and seeing the Ariel Atom use a supercharged Civic Type-R engine, I thought whyyyy, of all the options you have, would you pick a Cobalt as a donor car? Granted my only interaction with a Cobalt at the time was with a roommate's girlfriend's gray base model automatic. You couldn't get more boring. It wasn't until I too saw the Off The Ranch videos and really gave it a second look that it made sense. Now I get it.

I have placed my deposit on a extended city frame, have a donor vehicle on the way, and am excited to start the build process! This will be the third "kit" vehicle I have built, the first two being a single seat turbine-powered helicopter, and an ultralight aircraft.

I had typed out a whole story of the trouble I went through getting a donor vehicle, but figured that a wall of text wasn't a good introduction. If anyone is interested, or thinks it might be useful to those in the future, I will gladly post it.

 

[theeulogy]

Welcome to the community! The Aerial atom also comes with the LSJ that is in the earlier SS cars such as the one I am using for my build.

I would enjoy hearing about how you came about your donor.

 

[BaltimoreHokie]

Welcome, where are you located? Whats the story with your donor?

 

[ctuinstra]

Oh, we all have stories about the donors, some good, some not so good. Share away. Sometimes your learning experience can help others and possibly prevent such issues. Getting a donor shouldn't be much different then buying any other car, you have to use good judgment and do your homework and I'm sure what you have to offer will help to others.

Welcome to the build. The forum is growing with many that have gone through the build and there is a lot of knowledge to be shared.

 

[KJP]

Welcome!
I am very happy Honda's aren't being used as a base for these. Dealing with the cobalt crowd was frustrating enough getting rid of the donor parts I couldn't have taken the Honda crowd!

 

[Brian74]

Would love to see pics of your helicopter build if you happen to have any. That must have been a big undertaking; do you still have it?

 

[Astraeus]

Welcome to the community! The Aerial atom also comes with the LSJ that is in the earlier SS cars such as the one I am using for my build.

I would enjoy hearing about how you came about your donor.

Thanks! I knew the US spec Atom used an Ecotec engine, but at the time I did not know it was also in a Cobalt.

Welcome, where are you located? Whats the story with your donor?

Cocoa Florida, hoping to combine shipping with Lethalcast and CncMan333 since we are all getting extended city frames shipped to Florida.

Oh, we all have stories about the donors, some good, some not so good. Share away. Sometimes your learning experience can help others and possibly prevent such issues. Getting a donor shouldn't be much different then buying any other car, you have to use good judgment and do your homework and I'm sure what you have to offer will help to others.

Welcome to the build. The forum is growing with many that have gone through the build and there is a lot of knowledge to be shared.

Definitely looking forward to that. Forums are an awesome information source, and I hope to be able to contribute.

Welcome!
I am very happy Honda's aren't being used as a base for these. Dealing with the cobalt crowd was frustrating enough getting rid of the donor parts I couldn't have taken the Honda crowd!

I've got a spare H22A4 on a engine stand in my garage right now. That would have made things a lot easier! But yeah, I understand the Honda crowd. I try to distance myself from them, but I do own one haha

Would love to see pics of your helicopter build if you happen to have any. That must have been a big undertaking; do you still have it?

I've got some on my desktop PC. I'll post some up later. I had just obtained my Airframe and Powerplant license and it was an awesome project. I was not the owner, and it has since been sold.

 

[Astraeus]

Incoming wall of text:

I'd been browsing for a donor car for a while. I knew I wanted an SS, and went back and forth between the SC and TC versions. I've been looking on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, Copart, IAA. You name it I probably searched for a Cobalt SS on it. I eventually decided on the LNF platform with the LSD.

My first attempt at purchasing a donor was on Copart. I signed up, added a deposit and my drivers license, and found one I wanted to bid on. It was a 2009 SS/TC G85, salvage title, no license required, had the keys, but had been rolled. The body and engine bay looked totally fine, but the roof had been caved in. I hired an inspector from URIS to check it out for me. He called me the night before the inspection and I explained that it would be a donor vehicle for a kit car and we went over everything I wanted him to look at. Super friendly guy. Anyway, he gets to the car, and there is a small orange sticker on the hood that says "Biohazard - steering wheel". The Copart employee with him would not allow him near the car. Couldn't open any doors, no popping the hood to check out the engine, no attempt to see if it runs, nothing. Complete waste of an inspection, and I'm out $120. Off to a great start. There was no mention anywhere on the Copart auction page of a biohazard, and it had plenty of pictures of the interior, the engine bay, everything. So be aware, if the car you are interested in looks like theres a possibility someone may have been hurt in it, there's a chance your inspection will be denied. The car sold for $900 at auction.

The next car I found was another 2009 SS/TC G85, this time on IAA. 125K miles, has the keys, runs and drives. Salvage title, a bit of damage to the front bumper, a dented drivers fender and a scratched door. This car requires a broker to bid on, which complicated things for me. I went through the list of brokers listed on the IAA site, most of which are geared towards exporting cars out of the country. USA Automarket will not bid for the public, so I decided to try SalvageBid. I called them, asked a bunch of questions, and was satisfied with their answers. The process seemed easy enough. I called back URIS to setup another inspection, but for IAA auctions they require a broker number. So I call back SalvageBid and ask for their broker number. They tell me they don't allow inspections on cars sold on the East coast, but can't give me a reason why, and won't give me a broker number. I called back a second time to get a different person, but am given the same answer. So then I decide to try "RideSafely". I sign up on their site and give them a call. They gave me the same answer. No inspections on cars sold on the East coast. I don't get it. "it's just a rule" apparently. I give IAA a call to see if they know what the deal is. The lady on the phone said she hadn't heard of that before but wanted to check with her supervisor, asks to put me on hold, and promptly hangs up on me.

The inspection company has called me a few times at this point. I tell them the trouble I'm having finding a broker, and they recommend someone for me. I call the guy up and explain what I'm trying to do. He sends me some info on how the process works and gives me his broker number. I am then able to get the inspection done. This time there were no issues. Guy says the car starts right up, he is able to drive it around, goes through the gears, fluids look good etc. It's even got the owners manual, some maintenance documents, and the wheel lock key in the glovebox. I was a bit worried about the front drivers suspension, but the inspector said it all looked fine and the car didn't pull or drift to one side, so hopefully its all good. I let the broker know I want to bid on it and give him my max price. Long story short, no one else bid during the live auction and I won the car for $2025. Add in a $335 IAA buyers fee, a $59 "service fee" (IAA), a $69 "internet fee" (also IAA), the brokers fee of $325, and $525 for shipping, my total delivered to my house is $3,338. The car was picked up this morning and will be delivered to my house on 05/02. I'm pretty happy with that considering the number of cars I looked at, and the broker I used made the whole process very easy. I'm hoping I can sell the parts I don't need and make some of that back.

I'll give another update when the car gets here.

Photos of the donor attached.

 

[BaltimoreHokie]

Well that looks like a really clean car to start with you should be able to sell some of the additional parts to recoup some of your cost. The wheels are nice added bonus in case you want to use those for the Goblin

 

[Lethalcast]

Looks awesome Bill, glad your interior is black since mine is red and we'll be selling interior pieces a few miles apart from each other lol.

 

[KJP]

Reading that story just made me feel good about how easy my donor purchase was. Looks like a good car for a donor the damage looks pretty minimal.

 

[Astraeus]

So had a bit of a surprise today. Got a call at work from the shipping company driver saying he was an hour away. So, it's here!

On the delivery truck:


And in the driveway:

It appears to be in great shape. Runs and drives no problem. Quite a bit faster than I expected. The Goblin is gonna be crazy...

 

[theeulogy]

I got to ride in one exactly the same setup as mine when I picked mine up at DF, a lot faster than I had imagined. I am about 10 days from mine driving around, I am excited. Drive your donor as much as possible, get it sorted before you tear it down.

 

[Lethalcast]

Lookin good Bill, I drove mine around with one door and no front end. Finally had to tear it apart before I got in trouble lol.

 

[Astraeus]

Making some progress!:


I've got one rusty used-to-be-an-exhaust-nut left to remove, and I should be about ready to lower the engine.

Also got a nice shot of my chassis on the rotisserie today courtesy of Adam:


Looking forward to getting it delivered!

 

[Astraeus]

More progress! Engine out:

Stripping the interior:


I also got a quote from a local powder coating shop to have my chassis done. Hope to start on video #6 tonight.

 

[BaltimoreHokie]

Nice work. I think it takes just as long to clean and prep as it does to rip it apart.

What color you going with?

 

[Astraeus]

Finished stripping the donor last night. Now on to the wiring harnesses!

What color you going with?

Not 100% sure yet, but I think it will be a color called Argento (silver in Italian) by Tiger Drylac. It's like a dark gray fine metallic. Supposed to be super durable and was highly recommended by the owner of the shop. It's also a neutral color so I can accent brackets/the body panels whatever color and it will still match.

 

[BaltimoreHokie]

Finished stripping the donor last night. Now on to the wiring harnesses!



Not 100% sure yet, but I think it will be a color called Argento (silver in Italian) by Tiger Drylac. It's like a dark gray fine metallic. Supposed to be super durable and was highly recommended by the owner of the shop. It's also a neutral color so I can accent brackets/the body panels whatever color and it will still match.

I was close to getting a very similar color. It's a good route to go to have a lot of options for the body panels down the road.

 

[Astraeus]

So I'm going through the dash harness. If I were to keep the wiring for the traction control button and the wheel speed sensors etc, would that and launch control still work? Also looking to keep the left side steering wheel controls. Anyone have luck with that?