hi, i am a kit car virgin but would love to have a go at building a mk indy with a bike engine, preferably an r1 engine. Been to a few kit car shows and have a basic knowledge of cars, but i want to know is it best to buy a part built or start from scratch. My dad has just built a kit car from scratch, he works for chisel speedsters in devon and says i should buy one part built and strip it down as it will be easier. so does anyone have a part built mk indy? or should i buy new? ps i dont have a massive budget but have enough to get started. regards scott
Trust me part builds are sometimes not as good as they sound. I bought mine as a so called 95% part build but have now spent over 300 hours rebuilding
it and an extra £2.5k to the budget.
Do plenty of research into the parts and how expensive those small extra parts can add up too!!! 
If you can pick one up one cheaply enough then you could save some money in the long run. If money is tight then i would go for a blade as they are
cheap as chips to buy and go well.
i bought my Indy part build (also 50% built badly) spend 2 months taking it apart and then had to rebuild it correctly.
on the other hand i saved around £1k
if i did it again i would buy new.
I went to look at a locost advertised on ebay. Looked OK so got it BUT when you get it home you find the worms. Would suggest an experienced builder
of your car to check it over first. 6 weeks and have finally stopped taking apart to start building
Welcome to the madhouse. First of all, congratulations on your choice of engine 
It will probably work out cheaper to buy a part built kit, strip it
down and rebuild it, if you can get your hands on a decent one for good money. I'm sure if you take your dad along with you to buy one, he'd
be able to give you some good advice (having already built a kit from scratch).
Keep your eyes on the 'For Sale' section, they sometimes crop up there from time to time. 
Phil
quote:thankyou for all your advice much appreciated i will look into a new built kit but keep an eye out for a good part built. hellfire 0to60 3.9 secs would love to have a go in that!!! very nice
Originally posted by scottydog
hi, i am a kit car virgin but would love to have a go at building a mk indy with a bike engine, preferably an r1 engine. Been to a few kit car shows and have a basic knowledge of cars, but i want to know is it best to buy a part built or start from scratch. My dad has just built a kit car from scratch, he works for chisel speedsters in devon and says i should buy one part built and strip it down as it will be easier. so does anyone have a part built mk indy? or should i buy new? ps i dont have a massive budget but have enough to get started. regards scott
Easier, doubtful, more likely to be more difficult unless it's been exceptionally well done and if it has it is unlikely to be on sale.
Cheaper, possibly as the summ of parts is rarely worth as much a s the individual ones, so you could get some choice parts
at a good price.
Timewise, there's probably not much in it if you want to do a good job. The first few weeks will be taking some one elses work to pieces, then
spending extra time working out how to cover previously drilled holes in wrong place etc.
Theyre not hard to do so you might get more out of doing your own thing from the start
It depends on your budget...
Go new is my best advice, and the reasons for it have already been stated above!
Steve
Excellent choice of car, but please buy new. I have tried both ways and believe me it so much easier with a new kit and usually not that much more
costly, if any.
Welcome to the world of kit cars.
Barry