Dilemmas ?

[Talonmotorsport]

I think you have to work out what you need to spend money on and when, if your picky over your choice of donor this will help alot. My donor cost £150 and was pre stripped but has given me an eng/box running gear and a set of wheels with legal tyres, a full car would have been £300 plus at ebay prices.
There are parts of the build that you don't need to spend a fortune on, yes it would be nice to make every panel in side and out in ali but unless to can either buy it second hand or nick it steel sheet is 1/3 of the price and you can weld it. Who cares if your car ends up being 30-40kg heavier if you've saved £250-300 on the cost and got it on the road 3-6 months earlier.
The costly things like coilovers you don't need untill you have the engine running,main body work fitted (minus rear arches)and can be found as new second hand from people that have given up,you need to watch ebay set your self a limit enter a bid then don't look again untill the auction has finished. Do you really need to have those £600 wheels and tyres before you've brought your lights,seats,body work,exhaust,plumbing,paint......?
The body work does not need to cost £800 plus, I say plus because you still need to collect it if it's all GRP. As said before steel sheet is cheaper and you can make the bonnet,scuttle,sides,rear panel your self. If you think about it all you really need to buy in the way of GRP parts in either second hand or seconds is a nose £60-120 , front arches £20-60 and the rear arches £60-150. My Dads locost now 15 yrs old has a pair of twin wheel Transit spray booth wheel covers used as a pair rear arches, a Robin Hood nose and a pair of £30 cycle wings.
You also need to consider the use of ebay/B&Q ect very carefully, I am guilty of this let me explain. If you find parts on ebay and compare the prices buy as much from the same seller as possible,one is cheaper than the other but if you buy X from here, Y from there by the time you've paid both postage costs you may just as well brought the higher price item from the same seller. Planning is also key when it comes to saving money, say I need another 2x 50mm m8 nuts and bolts to fit this part, do you look on ebay and pay the postage, go to B&Q and pay over the odds plus fuel or when you started planning your build you brought in bulk and over length? You can cut set screws and bolts down but you can't add to them, so you buy 100-200 M8 bolts at 100mm long and cut them to the size you want rather than buy 10x30mm- 10x40mm ect. Pay one delivery cost at the start then it costs nothing in postage or fuel later.
People ask me why I don't have a Roadster after 5 years of building chassis and wishbones, short answer is after making the same mistakes as every body else I simply can't afford to make one and finish it. The other companies that have come and gone have been set up with massive running costs and over heads, an industrial unit round here is £500-600 a month plus rates which brings it to around £1100-1200 a month. When people come and collect their parts from me I can see their faces as they walk in to my workshop which is a former cow shed and on hot days smells like one too, this costs me £240 a month and some periods during the winter I only just make the rent.

The book is called 'build a sports car on a budget' as I tell every body I met it's not called 'build a sports car for free' if you can afford to build a car in 6 weeks then good for you, but if it's going to take you 3-5 years then you need to make more parts your self or save up for them. All you need is a little faith that you will finish it one day and it will be worth it.