Hello all,

first post!!

I'm seriously considering putting a cobra together and am currently at the stage of having lots and lots of questions, so this seems like the place to ask them;

I've no experience of building kits and little mechanical knowledge, but am quite handy at most things and fairly patient, I can also read and use a forum, so I recon I'll be ok, whats the worst that can happen!! (I also have a father with lots of tools and some mechanical knowledge who I'll invite to stay for the odd weekend )
I've still not chosen a kit, from reading various things, Pilgrim is looking good, they seem cheap(ish), helpful, sell a good kit and are local. I went for a visit and was very impressed with the demo car!! I know everyone has an opinion on which is the best, but would I be right in thinking Pilgrim are a good one for novices with a tight buget?

Next, engines, the buget will stretch to a Rover V8 , can anyone recommend someone who can supply a recon V8 that I can drop straight in, with gearbox, I'd love to do an engine rebuild myself, but wont have the knowledge to do it (properly at least). The chap at Pilgrim has recomended Jv8R (perhaps JRV from N.I, any thoughts?

Next, tools, father christmas will be visting me soon, hopefully with a sack of new tools, I have the basics, spanners, torque rench, sockets etc. What might I need, on the list so far are axel-stands, first aid kit, swear box.


Prices, two queries here.
Pilgrim can supply pretty much everything, I plan to get a sierra/granada off ebay (some there for £1 ) and get the donor bits myself. The rest (excluding engine and g/b) they'll supply, however I'm sure some bits are overpriced (perhaps not), anyone know of any bits they sell for too much that I could get somewhere else? For instance 4*shocks £360, this seems a bit steep? Radiator £125 etc.
Also on price, I recon the total will be around 15k, 11.7k for the kit, 2.7k for the engine + a few bits extra. Is this about right? Also, what will it be worth once its done, Pilgrim sell complete cars for £18,6. I was surprised to see this within this website:

http://www.cobraclub.com/classifieds...hp?product=259

this looks great to my untrained eye, and about the spec I'll build, going for £11,5 am I missing something here?

Lastly, is there anyone out there from the Farnborough,Hampshire area? Having contacts locally could be very handy.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Cheers

Graham