I bought the book today!

[Cfnteabag]

Hi all

After stumbling over the original Ron champion book when someone left a copy at work, I read it from cover to cover then discovered the cost of escort bits I found out about the chris Gibbs on Wikipedia and ordered a copy online. I also joined the forum a little while ago when I was first looking at kit cars but found myself rebuilding a land rover series three instead but am finding my enthusiasm waning with that as u have made a poor choice with an engine swap so am now considering building a seven type car. I can't actually weld myself so I am considering a ready built chassis or an abandoned project and I am hoping to use an mx5 as a donor as I know how good a sports car they make themselves as well as the obvious availability bonus!

I should have probably introduced myself! My name is Adam and I am a REME vehicle mechanic currently based in Woodbridge so the mechanical side shouldn't be a problem!

[K4KEV]

welcome to the forum Adam......a mechanic that cannot weld wow
which ever way you choose it does not matter you still b e able to say at the end of it all " I built that " with a huge cheesy grin.
get stuck in bud, get stuck in

[robo]

REME fitter!! You might need to get some spanners smaller than 2"af If you have read the book you probably have had a nose around here and realise that none of us wired up right, welcome anyway.

Bob

[Cfnteabag]

Unfortunately the army doesn't teach us to weld as we have metalsmiths and I have already retraded from 'A' mech so had to downsize from a toolbox only containing 3 types of hammer and now you say I have to change it again!

[twinturbo]

Buy the part built car that's up for sale. More than worth the trip up to Strathclyde.

TT

[will_08]

Welcome and good luck in your future build

Will

[alga]

Welcome to the club!

Don't let not being able to weld stop you from building your own chassis. It's a fun part of the project, albeit somewhat dirty. You can teach yourself MIG welding by spending some time on http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/ tutorials and forums, then practising for several hours on scraps, destructively testing your welds until they're good enough. Build a rack or a welder trolley and see how it goes. Building a chassis will completely solidify your skills, and by the time you're done you might feel confident enough about building your own wishbones.

Welding is a skill that will come out useful on many occasions: making an alternator bracket, getting out bolts that are stuck or have sheared off, making solid shelves for the garage, fixing garden gates...

P.S. I'm speaking from experience. I bought a welder a couple of weeks be fore starting the chassis.

[Cfnteabag]

I would love to be in a position to buy that at the moment but need to get my land rover running properly before I can look at selling it to raise roadster funds!

I am considering learning to weld, I could probably get the metalsmith at work to give me a few pointers!

[Not Anumber]

You certainly wont ever regret the time youve invested in teaching yourself MIG welding and in my experience is it's something you can put down and easilly pick up again years later without losing the skill.
Ive played with gas and arc welding but always go back to MIG as its so straightforward to use and the most practical on car body thickness steel.

Spend time reading through the threads and posts on the forum as there is some excellent information here. Dont be afraid to ask questions when something isn't clear.