New 403 owner

[Hydroglen]

Hi Hal,
I have not seen any pictures of your car. A modern BMW has absolutely no
connection with the original BMW based 6 cyl engine.
Others on this chat page may have done a conversion and can advise you more
accurately. It may also boil down to what is available in your area at a
cost that you are "happy" with. Remember that in an engine / gearbox
conversion, many of the original intruments such as speedo and tach will not
work and will have to be adjusted.
A body shop can give you a general cost on their work based on pictures. If
they are shy and moan that they need to "see" the car, ask them the cost of
painting the car you are driving and tell them you are wanting a color
change. Door jams and other detailing add $$. It will at least put you in
the general price area and if your Bristol is rougher than the car you are
driving...well the price just got higher!!
Your VW man should be able to, via connections in the trade, give you an
approximate engine installation charge / cost.
Presumably you will need brakes + exhaust possibly interior work. Fiddly
things like wiper motor and lights. They all add up in the red math section
of your ledger lol.
And of course the price you paid for the car, and do you REALLY want a
Bristol 403 in the first place?
Depending on what part of the world you are, in will make a BIG difference
to the cost. In Europe you will pay double what you may pay in North
America. There was a 401 or 403 for sale last year in the USA with a Ford
6cyl engine. They virtually give these away, so a relatively inexpensive
transplant. It was Hyman motors that had the car. He usually has something
for sale on EBay in the collector car section, so you could try and contact
him and see if the car sold and for how much. It will help you with your
math.
Back on Wednesday....looking forwards to exciting news.
Good luck
Dorien

[Hal]

Bob,

Thanks for your information.

Its beginning to dawn on me that there was a good reason why the car i bought did not come with an engine and gearbox, and the cost of buying these items is expensive.

Thats why i'm considering using an alternative setup that would be more readily available and a lot cheaper.

I'll try and not give up, but everyone keeps on telling me that its a hard road ahead (sigh).

[Hal]

Hi Dorien,

Ouch its sounding more and more expensive.

It was an impulse purchase, but that impulse was based upon it being such a lovely shaped car.

I want to restore it myself, and farm as little of the work out as possible.

Yes its a tall order, and perhaps i'm being stupid, as all my family and friends keep on telling me, but the car has character and if i can persevere, it would be an interesting project.

I want to keep the cost down to a sensible level, which is why a non Bristol replacement engine and gearbox sound appealing.

If anyone has any ideas of what combo's i could use, that would be most helpful.

Hal