I'm Building a Car: How to build a car

By Andrew Davies

If you have ever dreamed of building a car then this book will delight.
I took the path off, "Don't just buy a car - build one", so I did.
The joy the frustration of building your own classic replica car.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tablo Publishing
• Release date: Dec 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781649693945

Andrew Davies

Andrew Davies has written a variety of comedy books for the Portico imprint including the original When I Were A Lad and its successors; School Lad, Nipper, Lass and Meerkat. He's vented his fury in the Ivor Grump books, including The Grumpy Drivers' Handbook and The Grumpy Golfers' Handbook, and some sports nostalgia books under the alias of Captain William Featherstone-Dawes.However the most fun he's had was writing the captions for 101 Sports Not To Try.

Book preview

Don’t just buy a car, have one made!

So I made one!

That’s the statement that I feel inspired me to build a car, it was featured in a 1976 advert for a gold Aston Martin V8 Saloon, I had cut it out and placed it in an old frame it hung upon my bedroom wall as a lad.

Made a convincing case!

Where to start, well I guess the desire to build a car has been floating around in my mind since around that time, I have always had an interest in the UK Kit car scene and over the years I visited several Lotus Seven replica makers, including PBR, Fraser, Caterham and Westfield to name a few, but that thought never went any further, all a bit of a dream.

After completing the full restoration of my 1974 Aston Martin V8 Saloon in 2002, I began looking for something else; a friend had built 2 Hot Rods, a 38 Ford Tudor and coupe, investigating the Hot Rod scene left me impressed and eager to learn more.

The king of the hot rod scene is the Boydster a highly developed 36 Ford coupe developed by the late Boyd Cottingham a USA hot rod guru, interestingly the GRP body of this car is build in Ferntree Gully and exported to the US. I went down this path looking into crate engines, chassis, body etc. Only trouble was I didn’t have the beard, tattoos and couldn’t speak the language F* this and that – but make no mistake these guys build some magnificent vehicles and I have a high level of respect for there capability.

Further cars which I looked at and costed included: -

Ronart; a somewhat loose recreation of a 50’s Mercedes open wheeler racing car, very well engineered, a visit to the factory and I was almost sold but then what’s a Ronart.

Marlin; neat looking 50’s MG type of car, using BMW engineering, again it was neither a BMW nor an MG but engineered very well, early Aston look?

Other options include,

I then figured maybe a C-Type: there’s several manufactures and again available in kit format just needing donors, extensive information available, that sound like it, so I did extensive costing, emails a visit to the preferred builder (circa 2004) in a factory or should I say barn near Stratford upon Avon UK.

That’s it,  it’s a C-type and I began looking for a manual XJ6 to canablize, I checked out a few local donors, I recall Rosa and the boys being quite disgusted at dirty neglected cars we looked at, a few offers but no sale, it was not to be!

The UK kit car market is amazing, it’s a real mature cottage industry and the information available on line, in magazines is invaluable. Be it a Seven replica with a V12, a Lamborgini or Ferrari, even dare I say an Aston Martin V8 Volante based on an MX5 (available in Aussie too). While flipping though the latest edition of kit cars at my local newsagent, (circa 2005), out of the corner of my eye I noticed an Aston Martin DBR2 replica, yes that would be nice. The very brief article announced the arrival of a new manufacturer ARA Racing, but stressed the cars were only available fully built to the manufacturers specification with either AM engine or Jaguar engine, the article lamented that no kit will be available these will be finished registered cars only. Dam that’s not what I want.

Never, give up!

I began communicating with the builder, he asserted that he had no desire to component the car, it was not a kit, it was a specialist build replica with custom engineered parts using some bespoke components. No this is no kit it’s all or nothing he said. Dam – now what!

If you have ever investigated bringing a car into Australia you will know it’s fraught with hurdles, at that time it was just not cost effective (read too expensive were talking $1 = 42p), too complicated and putting it bluntly too damm hard to bring in a custom built car let alone try to register it.

Never, Never give up! 

After reaching a dead end I figured I’d develop the ideal concept, in other words start at the end and work backwards to make it work.

The Street Rod experience had been beneficial, and a couple of letters to Vic roads and the ASRF indicated that should I build a replica along the Street Rod program that Vic Roads would accept the car for SR or CH registration. (this is another story for another time), Yer, but I though, so I researched this further and after several letters and a few meetings I got the approval from the local ASRF accessor, follow my instructions he said don’t deviate or argue!

Back to the DBR2 creator, I put my case, I think I had worn him down, he reluctantly agreed to consider it, next a trip to the UK and a visit to Brands Hatch (2006) to have a look at the DBR2, after a few flying laps plus a detailed look at the car and I was convinced this is it! A follow up visit to the factory, shack in a very ordinary estate looking at the chassis, parts etc and the owner ultimately agreed to break down the parts, Ok tell me what you want and I’ll cost it up!

I think I took about 200 photos of his cars, I got hold of his Bill of Materials and broke it down as to what I wanted. Plus what was economic.  

Display car at Brand Hatch

Race car, lap around Brands Hatch was the deal!

Shortly afterwards I ordered the components, in February 2007 a container was arranged to ship the parts, my customs broker was alerted and my project was on it’s way.

Detail: the plan, the goal.

Wisdom suggest always begin with the end in mind, just like a trip have a destination planned out so you know where you are going. Building a car requires much the same planning however decisions along the way can dramatically change the path of construction effecting not only the build process but the appearance and the ultimate value of the project.

From the on set I am building this car for me, not for anyone else, I do not intend to sell it, at least whilst I can drive it, so I don’t need to apologise to anyone for what is my interpretation of an Aston Martin DBR2. Nor for that matter should anyone else, even the replicas with modern Japanese engines have their place.

Heres some thoughts, it is possible to create an exact replica, materials, construction methods, you could use period parts, donor parts from a like vehicle, even some original DBR2 parts if one were so inclined, but at the end of the day the distinction between what is a (the) real car and a replica is huge and certainly open to discussion, I’m not about to enter that argument here.

From the on set my project car has different front suspension and in my case