Hey, yeah, I had seen the MEV kits when looking around.
They are all rear' engine jobs with what looks like gearbox to hub drive, minus the steering gear, which is up front. they don't look too much different from the Haynes, just with slightly different frames and more modern appearance.
The problem with them of course is cost though.
I was looking to spend around £500 on the build (not including the documentation afterwards), so they are fairly pricey.
I'm kinda in the frame of mind that I'd like to keep the haynes appearance as much as possible and keep the rear engine as a kinda 'mod'. I really love the classic shape, and would go ahead and build one as per book right away, but with my budget, I am really going to struggle with a donor rear wheel drive.
Talking to others, they are finding the same issues now with Sierras, and I guess an element of this would be that the cossies are being restored, and the rest are being bought in bulk by the big kit car producers? I've noticed that some companies are very interested to sell reconditioned units to use from sierras, but at a cost of over 1k for engine and running gear, and then ideally, you still need a donor for little tid-bits like steering, hubs, etc etc etc.
I was looking at sourcing a non running engine, finding a box and diff to suit (or machine some plates to make them fit) and then picking up other parts from various cars as need be, but it becomes very expensive, and also I'd like to keep some continuity in parts, so that If it needs a bearing or bush or joint in the future, there's only one car it came from, as opposed being from a large inventory of cars - i.e. peugeot hubs, ford steering, vauxhall this, daewoo that lol
Pete