10 rules of kit car motoring.
Discussion
Well spring is almost upon us, although you wouldn't think it to look at the weather. The new season is about to get underway and by god im excited!
The thought has come to me that with every motor group there are a set of unwritten rules. The caravan club have them, classic car owners have them, but do we have them??
If your reading this you either, have, are building, or want a kit car in some shape or form and that is why i have come to you to get from all marks and makes the definitive ten rules of kit car motoring.
The best ten i will re-post as the unwitten rules as it were, although they will be written! but you get the gist.
So kit car fans give me the benifit of your experience!
Thanks
Daxman.
The thought has come to me that with every motor group there are a set of unwritten rules. The caravan club have them, classic car owners have them, but do we have them??
If your reading this you either, have, are building, or want a kit car in some shape or form and that is why i have come to you to get from all marks and makes the definitive ten rules of kit car motoring.
The best ten i will re-post as the unwitten rules as it were, although they will be written! but you get the gist.
So kit car fans give me the benifit of your experience!
Thanks
Daxman.
1 - Buy what you want NOT what you can afford. It will be cheaper in the long run when you modify/replace what you lost blood building.
2 - Join a vehicle recovery organisation, your car WILL break down.
3 - Never be the first person to build a particular car, let someone else find out what the manufacturer forgot/got wrong.
4 - Produce a budget for your build, then double it.
5 - Don't panic, you'll only make things worse.
2 - Join a vehicle recovery organisation, your car WILL break down.
3 - Never be the first person to build a particular car, let someone else find out what the manufacturer forgot/got wrong.
4 - Produce a budget for your build, then double it.
5 - Don't panic, you'll only make things worse.
denisb said:
1 - Buy what you want NOT what you can afford. It will be cheaper in the long run when you modify/replace what you lost blood building.
2 - Join a vehicle recovery organisation, your car WILL break down.
3 - Never be the first person to build a particular car, let someone else find out what the manufacturer forgot/got wrong.
4 - Produce a budget for your build, then double it.
5 - Don't panic, you'll only make things worse.
BRILLIANT. :O)
6) get your other half involved, then you avoid getting nagged for spending too long in the garage (note: this doesn't work if you use your kit as an excuse to avoid the misses!)
7) if in any doubt that your welding or glassing is not strong enough re-do it, there is nothing like having something break lose when at full tilt.
8) If you have bought secondhand check throughly all the vital parts (you never know if some tw@t has used a copper plumbing nut to hold on your steering wheel...).
9) regularly check your sump as it will inevitably sit lower than in the original vehicle and WILL get caught on speed bumps causing older ones to hole.
10) drive the route first to check for speed cameras....
7) if in any doubt that your welding or glassing is not strong enough re-do it, there is nothing like having something break lose when at full tilt.
8) If you have bought secondhand check throughly all the vital parts (you never know if some tw@t has used a copper plumbing nut to hold on your steering wheel...).
9) regularly check your sump as it will inevitably sit lower than in the original vehicle and WILL get caught on speed bumps causing older ones to hole.
10) drive the route first to check for speed cameras....
1. Thou shalt have two spreadsheets, one for the Mrs and one for you to frighten yourself with.
2. Thou shalt always find tools that you "just cant do without" which then break.
3. Thou will run out of plasters and use black insulating tape instead.
4. Thou will covet thy kit cars neighbour's BHP figures, exhaust note, instruments, paint job, etc etc.
5. Thou will fit all components at least twice....and a third time just to make sure.
6. If something breakest when you are fitting, or fettling it, thou needest a new one anyway.
7. Cable Ties are made in heaven by angels to get Kit Cars owners mobile once again.
8. Cable ties, once melted, stick to stainlesss steel exhausts like the proverbial to a blanket.
9. Thy mother in law will view your Kit Car as a work of the devil taking food out of her children and grand children's mouths
10. Aldi and Lidl tools are made in China out of cheese.
11. When driving thou Kit Car you will grin like a befuddled fool and shout "Bought Car, bought car " at any decent machinery when it gets close.....
2. Thou shalt always find tools that you "just cant do without" which then break.
3. Thou will run out of plasters and use black insulating tape instead.
4. Thou will covet thy kit cars neighbour's BHP figures, exhaust note, instruments, paint job, etc etc.
5. Thou will fit all components at least twice....and a third time just to make sure.
6. If something breakest when you are fitting, or fettling it, thou needest a new one anyway.
7. Cable Ties are made in heaven by angels to get Kit Cars owners mobile once again.
8. Cable ties, once melted, stick to stainlesss steel exhausts like the proverbial to a blanket.
9. Thy mother in law will view your Kit Car as a work of the devil taking food out of her children and grand children's mouths
10. Aldi and Lidl tools are made in China out of cheese.
11. When driving thou Kit Car you will grin like a befuddled fool and shout "Bought Car, bought car " at any decent machinery when it gets close.....
Cable ties didn't fix a broken gear linkage for me (despite how hard I tried) - although a battery terminal did: http://locust.tribbeck.com/gearbox/br
My three rules are:
1) Always carry a toolkit (the first time I drove my first kit car, bolts were falling out, and I didn't have a toolkit to tighten them up - this was pre-SVA)
2) You will always injure yourself, or break something if using tools the wrong way (I broke a finger after making some extensions to a rivnut gun to make it "easier" to use).
3) You never think something obvious is going to happen until it does (for example, levering out a windscreen with a screwdriver /will/ break it).
(last two aren't only related to kit cars).
My three rules are:
1) Always carry a toolkit (the first time I drove my first kit car, bolts were falling out, and I didn't have a toolkit to tighten them up - this was pre-SVA)
2) You will always injure yourself, or break something if using tools the wrong way (I broke a finger after making some extensions to a rivnut gun to make it "easier" to use).
3) You never think something obvious is going to happen until it does (for example, levering out a windscreen with a screwdriver /will/ break it).
(last two aren't only related to kit cars).
If you want to drive your kit car: build it simple, build it standard, then get out and enjoy it.
If it's the building experience you are doing it for: make sure you plan all your modifications before you build it then; if you do ever start it, you'll never finish it, and you'll get that maximum build experience.
Never leave home without your mobile phone, a torch and your AA card.
Find a group of like minded fools who are/have built the same car - they will get you out of all sorts of problems.
Keep a constant trickle of parts arriving at the door, then it will become a normal thing to happen. If you do suffer a break in the flow of deliveries, then get a trickle of low value items going before you order the expensive bits. It's a behavour change which will alert suspicion with the senior manageress.
Don't let the successful sale of any components go un-noticed, do find an off-site storage area for purchasing mistakes, and introduce upgrades as safety items.
Overtrousers are cool
If it's the building experience you are doing it for: make sure you plan all your modifications before you build it then; if you do ever start it, you'll never finish it, and you'll get that maximum build experience.
Never leave home without your mobile phone, a torch and your AA card.
Find a group of like minded fools who are/have built the same car - they will get you out of all sorts of problems.
Keep a constant trickle of parts arriving at the door, then it will become a normal thing to happen. If you do suffer a break in the flow of deliveries, then get a trickle of low value items going before you order the expensive bits. It's a behavour change which will alert suspicion with the senior manageress.
Don't let the successful sale of any components go un-noticed, do find an off-site storage area for purchasing mistakes, and introduce upgrades as safety items.
Overtrousers are cool
Daxman,
a few extra ones :
1. When first firing up thy engine in your new kit car, thy bottom will be twitching and thy heartbeat will be increased .... but it will not start no matter how much thou prayest.
2. Having found that starvation of thy fuel be thy problem, and thy motor starts on the second attempt, thy will run round the garage with arms held aloft..... and thy motor will stall , because thy choke has flooded it.
3. On the third time of starting your new engine, it runneth nicely for long enough to overheat and boil coolant all over thy garage floor, for thy hath forgotten to bleed the air out of thy new cooling system !
4. When first road testing thy nearly completed kit car, it shalt hath no number plates or bodywork, and thy trousers shalt be brown for parcticalities sake.
a few extra ones :
1. When first firing up thy engine in your new kit car, thy bottom will be twitching and thy heartbeat will be increased .... but it will not start no matter how much thou prayest.
2. Having found that starvation of thy fuel be thy problem, and thy motor starts on the second attempt, thy will run round the garage with arms held aloft..... and thy motor will stall , because thy choke has flooded it.
3. On the third time of starting your new engine, it runneth nicely for long enough to overheat and boil coolant all over thy garage floor, for thy hath forgotten to bleed the air out of thy new cooling system !
4. When first road testing thy nearly completed kit car, it shalt hath no number plates or bodywork, and thy trousers shalt be brown for parcticalities sake.
or another couple rather close to home :
Thy shalt check the electric choke cable on thy 4 barrell Holly hath been securely connected, lest it shall fall off when reving thy new engine, and burn all the casing off the wire right back to thy fuse box ! PS it takes ~ 3 hours to unbind a dax rush loom, replace a wire and bind it back up again !! Doh.
also one that many will recognise :
Thy new kit car shall maketh you lie down in ungainly positions, and thy shalt require a physiotherpist before thy kit is complete.
Thy shalt check the electric choke cable on thy 4 barrell Holly hath been securely connected, lest it shall fall off when reving thy new engine, and burn all the casing off the wire right back to thy fuse box ! PS it takes ~ 3 hours to unbind a dax rush loom, replace a wire and bind it back up again !! Doh.
also one that many will recognise :
Thy new kit car shall maketh you lie down in ungainly positions, and thy shalt require a physiotherpist before thy kit is complete.
ferg said:
"Those people staring at you ARE jealous of your car. The fact that you are standing on the hard-shoulder with the bonnet up is just incidental"
Yep; Good 'un, Ferg, and you WILL be spotted then.
I had to do kerbside butchery of my exhaust system on the way to and from SVA. I rang the Factory the next day, and got the 'Oh it was you, was it? we heard about someone on the hard shoulder'.
during a build, only AFTER the perfect spray job will that bucket of rusty nails, that has sat quite contentedly on the shelf for 15 years, lose it's grip, falling majestically in slow motion toward the largest/hardest to spray panel, while you are at the furthest most possible point from it while still within the confines of the build area.
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