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Old 30th May 2006, 20:49
sconcia sconcia is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2006
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Question Another newbie needs help!!

First of all, Hello all!!

I'm a newcomer to kit-car building, and have decided that the 5exi is the car for me. If anyone's interested, my main reasons for doing this are that I want a sporty, unique car to drive, and I also want the experience and learning-points that come with building it. I think I need to concentrate on balancing these as I don't want to end up spending 3 years building a car, but I equally don't want to give in and get Marlin to build it for me.

But there are a few things that confuse me so I'm glad to discover that this forum exists, and hope that a few of you won't mind answering some potentially silly questions!! I've been through most of the posts on here, but they seem to cover quite specific issues (which I'm sure I'll be grateful for at some point in the future). What I really want to do now is to come up with a plan in terms of the order I should be doing things but I don't feel I know quite enough yet.

So far, all I've decided is that I'll be going for the Type-R engine option. And this is where most of my confusion lies as the Marlin's website seems geared towards the K-Series option.

So...

1. I'm fairly convinced that I don't want to strip a donor 200. Am I right in thinking that this is a reasonable thing to do seeing as I won't be needing the engine and gearbox anyway? Am I missing out on anything by not doing this? I understand Marlin offer the necessary parts for £350. If I'm planning different wheels and brakes, is this still worth it, or should I just buy the remainder of the parts from a Rover spares retailer?

2. Which Honda bits do I need? Is it just engine, gearbox and ECU or are there other adaptors/connectors that I'll need to connect it all to the rest of the car? Does the exhaust system just happen to fit OK? And do Marlin source all this, or do I?

3. I'm probably being over-ambitious here, but I'd love to choose my own detailing such as seats, instruments, and basically anything visible. Don't worry, I'm not talking Max Power here; just something to keep the artistic bit of my brain functioning. Would this be really stupid for a newbie like me? Would it be better to keep it as standard as possible, get it up and running, and only then change things if I'm still keen?

4. From the website, it looks sensible to buy everything except Module 3. My reasoning is that Module 3 basically contains the body, which will take up a lot of room, and I won't need it for many many months. Is this right? How long should it take to get to the powered chassis stage?

Apologies if some of these questions seem obvious. I would (and probably will) ask Marlin, but being of the internet generation, I like to read a few different opinions before I buy anything. Also, by the time I go and visit Marlin, I'm sure I'll have a whole new batch of questions.
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