This part of the site shows a broad view of the steps involved in building the car. Much of the information and many of the pictures by kind permission of Chris Humphreys are taken from his Excellent Web Site. I'll certainly be using it as a reference source for my project.

The kit can be purchased complete, or as a number of packs. Buying the complete kit is cheapest but does mean you need room to store the parts until you are ready to use them, and finding all the money at once may be a problem too. A complete build manual is provided by Findhorn cars and this gives lots of useful advice about safety, painting, engine options and SVA compliance in addition to the detail of the build process itself, a workshop manual is also essential.

The next item on the shopping list is a donor car similar to the one shown right.

Ebay is a good potential source for a donor car, which should ideally be a chrome bumper type from the early seventies. Expect to pay anything from £50 to £1,000 for one depending on what it has, and what condition it's in. The Donor car is stripped and all the useful parts are 'rescued' the remainder goes off to meet its maker.

With the main components removed and the shell disposed of providing some valuable space, it's a good time to re-condition useable parts and maybe replace some of the parts that are worn out. The picture to the left shows the front suspension parts refurbished and ready to install.

Now its time to start the actual build. First the chassis is purchased and equiped with the front and rear suspension. The engine, gearbox and overdrive, prop shaft and back axle follow. Last but not least the wheels are added to create a rolling chassis.

The Exciting bit !

With the rolling chassis complete the GRP bodyshell goes on. At this point it starts to look like a car. The body tub needs to go on to provide fixing points for the pedals, brake master cylinder, heater unit and radiator. From this point on the work that is done will be removed again later so that the body can be painted. What other hobby allows you to build your kit twice (in two different colours)?

Now the remainder of the body can be fitted, wings, cowl, running boards and the bonnet which is made from aluminium. Various tasks need to be done to these components to ensure that there are no sharp edges otherwise it will fail the SVA test.

The remainder of the components are fitted to complete the main car, these are wiring looms, battery and cables, lights, fuel tank and filler neck. etc.

The last part of the build is to fit the screen and interior. The walnut dashboard is equipped with the original instruments and any additional switches/instruments required. Seats are a special design which includes one of the anchorage points for the seatbelts. Carpets and wet weather gear complete the build.

All that remains from here on is to set everything up, get it painted and through the SVA and MOT tests.

The world is then your oyster as they say!