Garage Sports car building

[ransackman]

I've got a couple of books about car building but most of them are very general. I'm interested in building (starting in a couple of months) a radical style car (with lot of design tweaks) in my garage .

Does anybody have any resources(books, industries.. etc) that deal with car body. I want something lightweight (aluminium or some other alloy).

Any recommendation, resources, suggestions, references, donor cars, engines? Right now all I know is that I want to build something one-of-a-kind.

[ZAMMY1]

try "locost" on google.
it's like a lotus seven.
just a start.
sam

[ransackman]

I have the locost book (which is really awesome if somebody is considering buying it), I'm specifically looking for people/ materials for body work.

Originally Posted by ZAMMY1

try "locost" on google.
it's like a lotus seven.
just a start.
sam

[Dapcius]

May i ask if you have done any other projects .
Building car takes much more than information you can find in books . You realy have to know what you doing if you want to do any custom fabrication with aluminum . i found aluminum to be one of hardest materials to work with it streches , easily cracks ... My recomendation try working with fiberglass its much easier to corect mistakes making diferent body pats

[ransackman]

none, just ambitious.

Any resources for making shapes with fiberglass?
My concern with fiberglass is that making big shapes (clams) would be something thats difficult to deal with. Thats what I think though, I could be totally wrong.

Originally Posted by Dapcius

May i ask if you have done any other projects .
Building car takes much more than information you can find in books . You realy have to know what you doing if you want to do any custom fabrication with aluminum . i found aluminum to be one of hardest materials to work with it streches , easily cracks ... My recomendation try working with fiberglass its much easier to corect mistakes making diferent body pats

[larez2]

is one of your end goals for it to be street legal? If so I think you're going to have to go with a kit car - perhaps one from factory five or some other manufacturer - pick a rolling chassis that you think would be a good base for whatever design(s) you have in mind and go from there to make it one of a kind.

A kit car can be quite challenging, even if you good with cars. My friend built up one of the factory five ones mk3/cobra, he used a mustang 5.0 engine and transmission. The end result was pretty sweet but it took a long time to complete and ended up costing a lot more than he thought it would (time and money).

Another friend of mine used to make custom dune buggies ala pip bender. Some really cool stuff, but not street legal by a long shot.

Have you thought about the financial part of the equation? or at least a budget? paint can be a big budget item, there's also lots of little things here and there that add up, if you don't have all the tools, perhaps you can borrow some, but you'll most likely inevitible have to buy some, interior stuff can get real expensive too depending on how custom it is.... not trying to discourage you, but just some things to think about before jumping in.

peace

[cudacharlie]

Race-Car-Replicas - 586-329-1573

[akandok]

Search for "attack" its a kit car. Based on a 93 honda accord. Ill try to find a picture.
NINJA EDIT:

K1 Attack 400HP Honda powered kit car - Video

[akandok]

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[ransackman]

awesome, thanks for the links. I really like the K1 attack. I found(more like copy pasting the first google result) this page which has a lot of stuff Kit Car List - Kitcar & Replica Manufacturers, Builders & Dealers Copyright Kit Car List™ .

I know I want to build something off a corvette, although I dont think I'd be able to put that in a mid-engined configuration(unless its easy?) and then maybe make a body shell to match the design I have in my brain (something like a mosler but with a little le mans accent)

Oh and, yeah, I'd want it to be road legal, I've never been on the track, so this answer might change and as far as the time question goes, I guess it could take as long as it takes but as you said the end result should be sweet and one of a kind.

[Rei]

If you want to build a car off the vette take a look at the Futura.

[smokin orange]

Here is a great site to build a Lotus 23B: Xanthos Cars North America, Inc.

[smokin orange]

Here is another great kit car, the lancia Stratashttp://www.aerosim-research.com/stratos/stratos.html

[smokin orange]

Lotus 23B kit

[smokin orange]

One more, sorry for the post just find them so cool. Would love to build one

[glb]

SO -

very, very cool.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[ransackman]

looks very very sweet.

[slaughtr]

Originally Posted by smokin orange

One more, sorry for the post just find them so cool. Would love to build one

I'd love to build a 23b but the Xanthos website justs lists turnkey cars and rolling chassis. It doesn't look to me that I can build the car myself. Am I reading it wrong?

[mopho]

I worked on a story about the K1 Attack last year, here is the link



If you want something that is Corvette like, you should have a look at the Factory Five GTM

Story

[fitfan]

k1 is not based on an accord, its a custom built chassis. but it uses drive train and a very few other bits (like steering column i belive) from an accord - or other engine types as well - K1 has supposedly stopped making kits, and are re-tooling to build cars, they are in bratislava slovakia and wouldn't allow visits or detailed conversations when i was in town... but that was a few years ago.

I would advise building a well developed component (kit) car to start - like a cobra replica - porsche speedster/550, something pretty easy, well documented, and straight forward. then if you felt good about that, sell it and do something a little more fabrication intensive - like a westfield seven kit. then as you build up tools, talent, and time... go for building your own - just my advice.