Self build or pre built?

[Martin Young]

I bought my car secondhand.

I probably have the ability to build one myself but the major stumbling blocks were that I nowhere to actaully build the thing (my lock-up has to power and therefore no light) and I couldn't afford it. My car came withloads of receipts that total some £5K more than I paid for the car with 5000 miles on the clock. I'm not trying to put you off building your own as ideally I would have loved to go down that route, just adding my opinion thats all.

All the Best in whatever route you take.

Regards

Martin.

[juansolo]

I bought mine 2nd hand as a track car.  Would love to build one but I wanted to be up and driving very quickly as I'd sold my previous track car some months before.

I've logged my expenditure on it here.  We've changed it quite a bit and spent a small fortune on it but it has been worth it and I wouldn't change a thing.

My brother has just bought one also.  I've started logging expenditure on this one also here.  The difference this time is that most of the work required is being done by others as we simply haven't got the time and to be honest, our work tends to be more fuctional rather than pretty which is fine on my car but not on someone elses.

When I have a bit more cash I'd love to build a car to my spec.  But I'd probably go for a Sylva Phoenix built as a pure race car or something like that as I wouldn't be selling the Westie and fancy something a little different.

[david.c]

I bought mine prebuilt almost a year ago, and have enjoyed every (almost) moment.

I have played with cars a lot years back, which included many engine swaps, suspension mods etc so knew I had the ability to do my own build. It was not knowing how much time I would have to spend on the car as I am self employed that made me go the prebuilt route.

As others have said, you will have fun whichever route you go.    

David

[Hanslow]

Thanks a lot for the information folks

As much as I would like to do a self build, I think I will be on the lookout for a pre built or part built westie to start with until I become more mechanically minded

From what you have said, we will probably end up tinkering with it anyway and chopping and changing bits, so for a starter it will be good to just jump in and drive (if it's fully built ) and then take apart the bits we want to.

I have to build up slowly to these things and get use to the expertise required to build one Besides, I need as much fun as I can get out of it sooner rather than later as the missus' biological clock is ticking away  

Thanks again

Steve

[steppenwolf]

Hanslow,

Just for your information, I now have a reasonably complete list of the tools that I used to build my Westfield and I have set them out on a page of my website. It is amazing how they add up!  :-

Tools required to build my SpeedSport

Hope that helps you or others wondering the same thing.

[peterrosey]

This self built or pre-built arguement seems to come up a lot, but having recently built a Megabusa to a rolling shell (everything done, apart from engine), I honestly think that ANYONE can build one.

This is the first Westfield I've built and it took nine (long) days to get it to the rolling shell stage (body on etc), followed by a couple of weeks to do the fiddly bits such as fit lights, dash, seats etc.

The thing is it doesn't matter what your skill level is when you start - you'll automatically know how it all works when you finished and have the satisfaction of driving something you have screwed together.

You really shouldn't be put off by having little mechanical experience - the only barrier is in your head. Anyone can build a Westfield.

If you wait until you have sufficient mechanical knowledge, you'll never build one - the only way to learn is to simply get stuck in!