Hello All,
My name is Lance and I'm going to be undertaking my first lambo build. To make a long story short on how I ended up here, I just thought it looked the most active and helpful, and to be honest I really liked the layout of the site. I expect to have to ask a lot of questions along the way and I'll try my best to put them in the right sections.
About me - I live in Alberta, Canada. It's not really feasible for me to spend 100k on a car that I can drive maybe, and I say maybe, 6 months a year. Oh yeah, and I don't have 100k
. What I do have is a serious fetish for cars. I can't help myself. My dad loved cars and when I was 16 we bought a '69 Mustang to restore. We did everything but the final bodywork and paint on it. So, when I graduated high school I went into Auto Body and spent about 5 years getting my full ticket with a Red Seal (just means it's a Canada wide ticket). I worked my way up to head painter of a shop and got pretty decent at working on cars. Due to some big changes in life I left auto body and got a Bachelor's Degree in Business from University. I'm now self employed and find I have enough time to get back to what I really love - CARS! I've spent the last year doing research on the process, and the kit manufacturers. Even with all the time I've put into researching, I'm sure I only have an idea of 10% of the stuff that will come up. I hope that people will lend me a hand, and then down the road I can do the same.
Where I'm at so far - I purchased a Toyota MR2 with a non-turbo engine. Where I live Fieros are pretty rare (not unseen, but not common) and when they do come up they are not cheap. I thought I would be spending about 7k on a donor. I lucked out and found a MR2 in really rough shape for 3k. Not a steal, but for here pretty good. A turbo would be 7-9k. Donor car - check. I found out that stretching the car is legal (will probably require an inspection, but I'm sure it'll pass when I'm done), and there are insurance companies that will cover me. Administrative work - check. After contacting a couple of different kit car companies, and looking all over the internet for months I decided to buy my Reventon kit from CarKitInc. The good news, my kit arrived today. Bad news, I haven't opened up the crate as it was delivered to a warehouse, but I hope to go asap and check it out. Car Kit - check.
My plan so far - I am moving at the end of the month, so I won't be doing anything until then except checking out the kit. Then hopefully starting as soon as I can. Feel free to tell me if this is a stupid idea, but my plan of attack is:
1) Disassemble the MR2
2) Stretch
3) Rough fit
4) Doors
5) Doors
6) Break from doors and do some electrical, specifically headlights and taillights.
7) Finish Doors
8 Glass all around
9) Bodywork
At this point it should be getting close to drivable. I'll need to decide here if I want to start messing with exhaust, buying spacers/adapters depending on wheels. and what I want to do about the interior. I want to be clear so people don't think I'm delusional (well, I hope I'm not) since this is my first build. I am aiming for drivable/safe/legal first, then everything else. Would I like it to be 600hp? Maybe eventually, but that seems a little daunting to me right now. I'm sure I'll lose the respect of some members for looking like I just want to slap a kit on, but I'd like to take it one step at a time.
I do really well with blunt talk and will not take it personal. If something I post is a bad idea, let me know. I am used to putting cars back to factory original, this is very very new to me. I intend (and we'll have to see how it goes) to take pictures and videos to track my progress.
Thanks all, and I look forward to hearing feedback.
