Guest livewire23 Posted December 13, 2003 Share Posted December 13, 2003 I recently find out, to my great joy and surprise, that my girlfriend has always wanted to build her own car. You can imagine how happy that made me. So now I'm out and about, trying to find as many books as I can on the subject, so that we can be educated. So far I'm looking at Maximum Boost, The Car Builder's Handbook: Tips and Techniques for Builders of Kit Cars and Street Rods, and maybe Chassis Engineering/Chassis Design, Building & Tuning for High Performance Handling Right now she doesn't really know what kind of car she wants to build, she just wants it to be structurally solid. Basically, a good car. Gots to look good to. She has very little auto experience, I got a tore up Z in my garage back home, and Im looking for books that will help both of us. Right now we're stuck in college, so its pretty much time to just sit and dream and learn, because we can't really do any wrenching here. On a side note, I'm trying to learn how to build kit planes now, because if my Z ever gets done, I'm moving on to bigger and better things. And we're both Aerospace engineering students, so it ought to be a relevant pursuit. So if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to load 'em up... I'm also interested in magazines, and even forums. (Street and Custom rodding has some really interesting articles). I should check out the kit Z section here. ... good to be back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedRacer Posted December 14, 2003 Share Posted December 14, 2003 Cool! She might like a Classic Roadsters Saxon, Sebring or Sebring MX. They are all variations of an old 60's Austin Healey. We have about eight of them in our club (GTSCA) http://www.usol.com/~hutch/ and they are really nice kit cars. BTW, Bob has used the red one in the picture as his daily driver for about six years now. They are kinda the poor man's (women's, person's? ) Cobra. The kit uses a custom frame set up for a small block Chevy or Ford. You can even get the body in various colors of gel-coat so you don't have to paint it. Here's another example http://www.cars-on-line.com/62healey5501.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest livewire23 Posted December 14, 2003 Share Posted December 14, 2003 I think one of the requirements is that it be a car that lends itself well to technology. Hot rods are cool, but it'd be nice to have a car that you could put GPS and climate control and maybe even a twin turbo engine in, without a quarter of a million purists lookin at you down their noses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vashonz Posted December 14, 2003 Share Posted December 14, 2003 Check out the Locost, its a build it yourself lotus 7 replica. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest livewire23 Posted December 14, 2003 Share Posted December 14, 2003 I should be coming out of school with a double major in aerospace and mechanical engineering, with composites/structures and vehicle stability/engine design as my tech. specialties, so something a little more complicated isn't a problem. At the very least I'd like to go with a semi-custom to all-custom body. Somewhere between a crazy flared car, like dan juday's Z, to a full custom, like dave tucci's cyprus. I guess that's pretty big range there. For now this is a pipe dream, since I still have my Z to finish, but I'm trying to get her to the level that she'll understand what's involved in a build like this. Besides books about the tech aspects involved and the design process, it'd be cool to look around at what other kind of custom projects have been done. The coolest example i can think of, and closest to what we're trying to achieve, is the kimini 2.2 http://members.cox.net/kimini22/car/ Trying to start studying so i (oops, I meant we... , I think I'm turning this into my project) can build a one-off car like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timh Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 Go Cyclones! I graduated in '93. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest livewire23 Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 It's finals week, don't get me started on this school... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tim78zt Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 hey, LiveW! A lot of the bookstores around here carry Kit Car magazine. Look for it! That is how I got turned on to the James Dean-style Porsche Spyder 550 replicas. Slam a twin-turbo 996 motor in that kit and your girlfriend will love you 4-ever. It'll make you forget all about airplanes too! Happy Reading!! Tim78zt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nic-Rebel450CA Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 Sounds like fun. Be careful though! Not to rain on your parade, but me and my ex had similar plans about a year before we separated. We went and got a 1967 Firebird from the original owner with plans to restore it. Now it is sitting in a storage yard just collecting monthly payments with her still in debt to me for never paying me back for the purchase. For the car itself, take her to some auto shows and browse a bunch of websites. Try to figure out what she wants without influencing her. Also find out exactly how much work she is looking to do, dont try to get too much of a basket case. Try to find out what she wants for performance, and maybe start her out a little low. Adding power later is a lot easier and safer than taking away power later because it was too much. Good luck and have lots of fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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