Hello,
I am new to Kit Cars and have been doing some research on them recently, but I seem to be running into a little bit of a wall. I would be interested on building a kit car but am on a very limited budget. I do not know much about kit cars, but I enjoy learning new skills and am willing to put time into learning a new skill. I have read that if you can build a chassis you can save a lot of money. This does not interest me due to the fear of messing something up ad then having it fail on me while driving the car. Please respond to me with any car ideas or a book or anything to help educate me and guide me in this process.

Thanks,
Jim  

Hi Lucktennis what your refering to is a scratch build ther are skills you have to know  not that someone cant learn it many have ther is a scratch builders forum on clubcobra.com Steve Smith has some books on chassi development.Im mostly a racer that loves to drive cars and my skills were limited thats why I chose to buy a kit that was allready mostly worked out.So assembling the kit and doing the body work was much like building a race car,getting the detials right has been my challenge going beond race ready to refined.Do you weld?If you can read a blue print and have a flat place to jig up a chassi it might be a neat project.ther are books on building a body buck to form a body over,you can buy most all of the bolt on suspension parts even designing them around OEM peices to make it less expensive.I beleive the build is worth the jurney and the driving is like the frosting on the cake.good luck... WB3  

I do not currently weld and have heard before that if i can learn the skill it will reduce the price greatly, rather than having to buy a pre-built chassis. I do have some friends that weld that would be willing to help teach me the skill. Do you feel this is a necessary skill or am i better off just buying a pre-built chassis?

Thanks  

I would vote for buying a pre-built chassis.  There is a ton of engineering goes into designing a chassis.  You need to make numerous fitments for attaching suspension parts, all must be pretty darned precise.  By the time you get all the engineering done, build a jig, and make one chassis, you will be an old man.
I vote for using the engineering and jigging from someone else that had a goal of making many more, and get on with your project details, which will be plenty to keep you busy for a long time.  I am a certified welder, but I don't want to make any chassis for my kit cars.  

I agree with TXDon. For your first build, you should take it easy on yourself. Building a car from scratch is not an easy undertaking. A good place to start would be to go through the 2008 KIT CAR Buyer's Guide. There's an electronic copy of it on this website. Browse through the various companies and write the web address and phone numbers of the companies that have car kits that you'd be interested in building. Do some research and discover the company and kit that you think would be the best. You could purchase a roller and simply install the engine and transmission. Or, you could build an entire kit. There are a myriad of kits available for purchase. Do the legwork of selecting the one that's best for you. Remember, you want to pick something that you'll finish. You don't want to get half done and then be forced to sell it. Happy hunting!    

I would also advise initially trying to keep your costs down, commensurate with what turns you on, nothing worse than $40000 worth of parts and you are in far over your head.  Not sure what trips your trigger, but stuff like the old Mercedes Gazelle, Bradleys, and a few more are always on EBay dirt cheap.  You can't really lose money, just finish assembly and sell it, profit from your fun, or decide it is not for you. I still suggest something like my ol SL500 or something similar that is at $1775 on EBay, one you can drive and have fun with even as you finish it!  

I would have to agree with these gentalmen this is a huge undertaking with no experience.Plus the results may be disapointing for you and push you away from further building in the future.Its no small thing to build a complete car even with a large instruction manual I had many ????? Im sure if you take your time and hunt around something will catch your eye that will be good for your skill level.If your still shure you want to go for a complete build I would go spend as much time with a Qaulified welder as posible and get every book on chassi building I could lay my hands on,  remember its your butt in the seat if it fails somehow  so be carefull...WB3  

thanks for the advice guys, and I have purchased a couple of books on kit cars just to make sure I know what i am getting myself into before I start it...the building my own chassis had been a part that I have decided to try and avoid due to the fact that if I mess something up and it fails then there goes the car, and I'll most likely be in quite a bit of pain...and I have checked ebay for a starter project, or something similar to that, but haven't been able to find anything, any ideas on what to search or what fields to look in??
thanks  

All of them are listed in the heading "replica/kit", you can set your options to get an email whenever a kitcar is added to the auction.  I love to follow the auctions just for fun and games mostly, there are usually around 80 projects in various states of abandonment or completion listed.  Here is a link, http://search.ebay.com/replica-kit_W0QQ_trksidZm37QQfromZR40QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ2QQsatitleZreplicaQ2fkitQQsbrsrtZd
I see there are 85 listed this morning.