AH Spares fitment on kits.

My own dream car is still a dream, but when I dream, I dream big.
 The dream, as currently configured, is a Sebring body outfitted similarly to a Works rally car. To feed this dream, I've been perusing my own personal version of the Sears Roebuck Christmas wish-book, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] What I'm wondering is, would pieces like the aluminium boot and bonnet lids, and the hardtop, fit on the kit cars?

(As an aside, don't read anything into my spellings. I'm actually on the Mississippi Coast, but I keep my spell-checker set to British English, just for fun.)

I can tell you that Sebrings are wider than regular AH.  I'm also pretty sure stock AH bonnets,hoods (whatever) won't fit due to size.  I would bet the same with the boot lid.

Sebrings were modified to fit on a VW chassis and the V8 chassis was made to fit.  The wheelbase  and width were modified.  Everything else was altered to keep the overall look in proportion.

The only things I'm aware of that fit are boot hinges and boot latch handle.  The hood scoop trim can be modified to fit and I did this on my car.  The 100-6 windshield posts can also be made to fit.  I used these too.  The 100-6 windshield frame is too narrow so I built my own.  Grilles can be made to work, but it takes modification.  Lots of it.

Not sure what chassis you have in mind.  The MII front end can be modified to perform pretty well. The MX triangulated 4 bar rear suspension is Fox body Mustang  so there are lots of performance parts available.  The leaf spring 5000's will need lots of mods to work for your needs.  I ditched my leaf spring and built a custom 3-link with a Watts link for lateral location.

Thanks Hotrod. Keeping everything fibreglass is much more practical anyway. Still thinking about chassis options. Non-fwd cars with the right steering geometry aren't too common. I wonder if a Fox Mustang front end could work? There must be some reason it won't if they used the rear and not the front in the MX.

The Fox bodies used McPherson strut front suspension and there most likely isn't enough height available in a Sebring to fit the struts.  The Fox rear suspension was an upgrade that was added a few years after the Sebring was first produced.  The original 5000 series used MII front and rear suspensions.  This was the version I started with.  Only "MX" version of the Sebring had the 4-bar setup.  The rear fenders were also wider on the MX bodies.

The Sebrings, like most "kit" cars from that era, were designed around the "donor car" concept.  This was were you bought an old car like a MII and used nearly all the major components off the donor.  Kit cars were expected to be cheap to buy and build.  Performance wasn't foremost, just looks.  Which is why you had VW powered Lambo's.

Even the Factory Five Cobra's started out as donor car kits.  May still be to a point.  They used the Fox front end, but converted it to double wishbone with a new spindle extension and upper A type control arm.  In the rear, FF offered an optional 3-link conversion for the Fox body triangulatd 4-bar.  3-links are one of the most sophisticated solid axle suspensions made.  Not the only one, for sure, but very good. I can tell you that my 3-link plants good off the line and rides well on the road.  I have noticed nothing bad about it at all.  Mine is custom built, so sorry, no help there. It did well at the Cruisin' the Coast autocross last year.

The MII front end is an industry standard design in the aftermarket and has been since the 1980's.  It can be upgraded to just about any status you want to pay for.  The Sebring MII has a few design issues that Classic Roadsters did to make it easier for them to build, but they can be worked around.

A few mods I would suggest:

Replace the control arms with A type arms top and bottom.  
When this is done, reinforce the lower mounting for the CA.  I went with CA's that are 5/8" narrower on each side to allow fitting big tires under the fender.

Convert the upper mount to shim adjustment and add the anti-dive back in.  Not hard to do with brackets.  The drawings are available on this website.

Convert over to Wilwood Pro spindles.  They raise the upper ball joint mount to give better camber gain.

Convert to a fast ratio rack and pinion.  The hydraulic racks are plenty fast enough, but the manual racks are slow.

Run a Fox body or SN95 power rack.  SN95 preferred due to better valving.

Better brakes.  11" minimum for 15" wheels.  13" if you go with larger wheels.

Adjustable coil over shocks all the way around.

I also added an adjustable rack mount so that I could dial out bump steer.  This can also be done with "bump steer" kits, but they use Heim type joints instead of regular tie rod ends.

Front sway bar.  Adjustable preferred.  This will most likely have to be custom built.

In the rear:

Adjustable Fox body track arms top and bottom. MX version only!

Coil overs. MX only!

Disc brakes.  Not because of better braking, better cooling under hard use.

Tru Track type helical posi differential.  Mine works good and you never know it's there.  Quite.  

Better gearing.  3.5+ ratio.  3.73 to 4.10 would be best, but you might need an overdrive trans if you want to drive it comfortably on the street.

Possibly a sway bar.  I don't have one yet.

As to the engine.  Don't get carried away with horsepower.  What ever you run, make sure it delivers power smoothly.  No super radical cams or turbos that come on like gang busters.  I'm running a little over 400 in a 5.7 LS and it works well on the AutoX course with a T56 6-speed.  Very smooth and easy to control.  I could easily add more with a simple cam swap, but I really don't need it.  The car is faster than I am.  At least for now.  So far, i have never gotten out of 2nd gear on the tight AutoX tracks I've ran on. It sure does sound good at 3000+ RPM and the rpm range is good enough that shifting isn't really necessary. The rev limiter is set at 6500.

Hope some of this helps.  Good luck with your project.  Mine was a very loooong build, but it was worth all the effort.

Thanks for the in depth info, Hotrod. Lots to consider.