too late to start a build?

[s1im]

i've been a member here for a while now... seen companys involved with the roadster come and go.... builds start and then get passed around..... my own jobs change... move house..... and now i'm settled and finally ready to start a build!!
Am I a bit too late to the party? will iva's etc change by the time i get it built? from your guys experiance, would you start new build now???

Based in north essex, wit a currently empty ish garage (mini in garage would go!)
cheers!

[jps]

i've been a member here for a while now... seen companys involved with the roadster come and go.... builds start and then get passed around..... my own jobs change... move house..... and now i'm settled and finally ready to start a build!!
Am I a bit too late to the party? will iva's etc change by the time i get it built? from your guys experiance, would you start new build now???

Based in north essex, wit a currently empty ish garage (mini in garage would go!)
cheers!

Where in North Essex? I'm just outside Colchester.

I've wondered the same, as i'm not exactly leaping forward with my build. I suspect it'll be a long time before legislation really does wipe out the kit car though, practically speaking it's all wrapped up in the kind of law that allows people to convert cars to carry wheel chairs, etc, and obviously that's not likely to be swept away.

Knowing what I do now about building a kit car I don't know if i'd go with a Roadster if I were starting today. It's not likely to be as cheap as i'd hoped - so other things might have appealed more.

But I wouldn't say there's any good reason not to build something!!!

[BORNXenon]

I have started, as far as cleaning my donor engine and that is it!

We moved into a new build in January 2012 which had a large plot of wasteland for a garden, as a result all the gardening stuff we had from the other house was in my garage.

In a bid to clear my garage of this stuff I decided to sort the garden out and buy a shed. This project is taking much longer than expected and as a result the shed is currently in the garage along with all sorts of other stuff relating to sorting out the garden!! :(

Think there might be light at the end of the tunnel now though, so hopefully a build table will be errected with a Talon chassis on it before the year is out! :D

[s1im]

just to the left of braintree.
The main reason i fancied the roadster is (sounds rubbish i know....) it just had the right look!
and fancy doing it how i wan't it rather than following a strict build (meccarno set)
how far have you got?

[s1im]

Think there might be light at the end of the tunnel now though, so hopefully a build table will be errected with a Talon chassis on it before the year is out! :D

I'm eyeing up talon bits i have to admit!

[Not Anumber]

I got as far buying a donor car and was about to order a pre cut chassis at which point the neighbour's garage I was planning to use for the build ceased to be available. My own garage sandwiched precariously in a tiny gap between my 1920's Southend semi and its neighbour is woefully several inches too narrow to even get a Roadster chassis in with it's wishbones on.

A lightly damaged MK Indy came up on Ebay that looked practical so I sold the donor car to another Roadster builder and went the repair and restore route instead. Of all the kits, the MK is the most similar to the Haynes as the same man, Martin Keenan, did much of the design work on both. To date it has worked out at very much the same cost as building a Haynes and though i didnt build it there is some satisfaction in pulling something apart to rebuild it better than it was before.

I go on the Locost Builders forum a bit but it's surprising the large budgets that many over there spend on their builds. Here on the Haynes forum it's all much more on an affordable scale - it's not about cutting corners and doing things on the cheap but doing things as well as they can be done, making as much as can be made and then spending only the money that really needs to be spent.

If the space became available in the fuiture I would either build a Haynes or a GBS Zero.

[jps]

I'm eyeing up talon bits i have to admit!

Gilham are Braintree based? Might be worth a look at what they are doing too.

I bought a rolling chassis someone else had given up on, which apparently is a Talon one. Then got a Sierra so I could get age-related plate come registration.

Got the chassis end of July last year. Have kitted out the garage, stripped the engine and gearbox from the Sierra, welded together pedal box, plonked the engine in situ and started making engine mounts, have made a bunch of minor plates which weren't in place and a new steering rack frame, bought a fuel tank / seats and a bodykit (Equinox) and have cut panels (going to cut out the floor this weekend hopefully).

Slow progress at the moment as i'm reliant on my brother in law for the welding and he's rebuilding his house at the mo... I've also moved house over the winter - which has robbed a lot of weekends!

Only really get a few hours on a Sat or Sun to make any progress. So tend to get one job done a week at best!

[s1im]

at the moment my rough plan....
1. build table
2. get a flat pack kit, start welding
2b decide my welding isn't up to scratch and buy a talon premade jobbie
3. going mx5 route, but with talon diff housing
4. get mx5 (as by that point mrs will be sure i'm doing it and its not a whim
5. build her
6. iva
7. possibly a supercharger.

this is a really rough plan!!:o

[s1im]

I look forward to doing the fiddley jobs, and could quite happily spend ages fiddling with the smallest part!! i've restored a few cars before...but with this I want to build it from scratch... but with the welding ,my main priority would have to be safety. So id like to have a go, but i'm willing to accept that the work of a professional will always be better than myself. the wishbones would be 100% purchased.

I tend to always have expensive hobbies, i'd be cutting down on them to make space/money for this.... did at one point have 23+ paintball markers !

I'm not looking at this as a cost saving project..... more a "i made that":)

I'm not rushing it..... its taken me since sept 2008 to get this far!!

[vmax1974]

Flat pack or fully built is the way to go I have built my chassis with only an angle gauge and a grinder and I gotta say although its been rewarding so far its been bloody hard work and I been on it over a year and i now have my donor and I am a few ball joints short of a rolling chassis I am just on with doing the wiring as I have no build budget at the mo and the wiring is free and has so far kept me busy for weeks

[The V8 Files]

2 years since getting the bug and I've only just built the table lol :D

Never too late, there's a wealth of knowledge and experience built up accross the forums, personally I chose the Haynes route as its more of a hobby for me.

[Johno]

+1 with the above.:D

[SeriesLandy]

4 years on an I'm still not finished. It's part 5 of your plan most people get stuck on!!

It's good fun and then you WILL want to smash it to pieces.

[Numplumb]

I bought a part built chassis and mx5 donor parts last October and have only done some cleaning up and alterations to the rear as it was built for Sierra donor, I've been looking at the build threads on here for ideas CTWV50 for his original ideas I like the way he is using the mx5 pedals, I'm going to try that, Johno thread is so perfect but I wish he would make up his mind with those wishbones though LOL, and that Stot's thread he has some great ideas with the mx5 dash and badges etc, I keep changing my mind which way to go I have thought about buying a already registered one or something else like a DUtton or the Mev ideas Exocet etc but keep coming back to the Locust don't know yet what to do
Regards MIck.

[alga]

4000 quid and 700 hours of labour, that's all it takes.

[thailoz]

Its never to late to start....I started mine a few months ago and because I live in Thailand I dont have the luxury of pre cut or pre built chassis (unless I wanted to pay a fortune in shipping etc)I am just taking it one step at a time

[deezee]

My shock was how long it takes to fettle everything. Its soul destroying taking things off and on a hundred times to make sure everything fits properly. Making a chassis was easy and quick compared to other jobs.

I did mine as a true self build. Aluminum panels, my own exhaust and inlet manifolds, my own dash, wiring, engine choice etc. I'd never do it again. Its just a lot of work to design something from scratch. I'd buy as much as I could on my next build.

Oh and use an engine someone else has done before. As far as I know I'm the only guy with a RS2000 16V engine and I've no one to ask for advice :(

[s1im]

thanks guys for all your input, I've decided to do the stupid thing..... i'm starting my build!!!:D
I'll start a new thread so I can keep track of things!