what do i have to do to start a kit car build?

[Ryland06]

hey,
i'm writing from ireland and am interested in building a kit car.
i was lookin at MK motorsport's site and am interested in Building an MK Indy. i'm just lookin for some advice on how to get started. do i go find a doner car first? and if so, a sierra? ( according to the site they're all sierra's really, not interested in building of a motorbike engine) If anyone one can help, please do as i dont want to get the build off on the wrong foot. cheers

[Ferg]

Hi Shane!
I'd look closely at what you actually NEED from the Sierra and decide whether you want to break a donor car OR buy what you need either from a breaker or elsewhere on the 'Net for example.
If you don't have a registration document for a car it will impact on what sort of plate you get (at least here in England it does...), but if you aren't bothered it might be preferable to having a rotting steel hulk on your drive for a while.....

[Jon Ison]

Hi,

I strongly recommend you sign up on www.locostbuilders.co.uk

There is an MK section in there, the MK owners club is pretty much based on there to, you will get all the answers you need on there plus there are a few builders on there from Ireland so it looks like you will soon be off to see them as I'm sure you will be invited to.

[andygtt]

When I bought my Indy I purchased all the sierra bits I needed from MK themselves for about 200... and then of cause you can get cheap recon bits from ebay etc... like Ferg says you don't really need to get a donor and I'd only go that route if you are on a really tight budget.
Unless of cause you find a donor with really nice wheels and a really sweet engine.

[GuinnessMK]

I'd second Jon's recommendation about joining locostbuilders.

I bought a Sierra as a donor, stripped it down, labeled all the parts, saw how they went together etc etc. Once it was stripped, I placed the order with MK for the chassis.

The advantage of using a single donor, IMHO, is that to this day I can go to Ford Spares, or Halfords, or any motor factors and tell them the reg number of the donor (even though it's been scrapped) and they can sell me parts for it!

Obviously this only really applies if you have a good donor. Things you don't want are power steering, ABS, 4x4 front hubs, go for a poverty spec car if you can find one.

HTH

Mike