You'll be prouder of the finished product if you do most of the building yourself.

Millions of young auto enthusiasts get hooked on cars by building and collecting plastic models, and adult car lovers can get an even greater thrill. By building your very own working kit car, you can experience the joy of creating a real auto from its basic parts, spend your free time in a satisfying and fascinating hobby, and end up with an amazing one-of-a-kind vehicle to drive around and show off with pride.

Greg Rardin is a custom car collector and Avid editor in Carrollton, Texas. An auto fanatic since his high school days, Greg has owned, restored and built some 30 cars over the past three decades. Here he shares tips and information for auto fans hoping to build a car from the ground up:

• Daily driver or show car? Before you start building your car, you've got to decide what you really want. Do you want something you'll be tooling around in every day, or something that you'll keep in the garage and bring out only for special occasions?

• Auto shows. Rardin sees auto shows as a great opportunity for kit car builders to look at what others have built and come up with ideas for their own projects. Hot rod shops are another great resource for inspiration and information. Take your time, look at a lot of cars, and don't be afraid to get down and look underneath them or to ask lots of questions of the builders.

• DIY. The real joy of kit cars comes from doing the work yourself, and the less expert help you get, the prouder you can be of your finished car. Still, kit cars aren't just for expert mechanics, and if you're unsure of you're abilities, you may want to get some help by having someone else build the chassis or do the body fitting. Just don't let the experts do everything, as this would defeat the whole point of do-it-yourself!

• Acquire the pieces. As your car begins to take shape, you can start acquiring the pieces for the next step in the building process. Builders typically start with the chassis, then a body, and then move on from there. On Rardin's project, the very last pieces he added were the tires.

• Safety. Don't overlook safety when you're building your car. You'll need great brakes as well as properly functioning seat belts to ensure that your car is safe to drive on the streets. This way, when you fire up that engine and take your beloved creation for a spin, all you'll be thinking about is how proud and happy you are!

KitCar Online
www.kitcaronline.ca

KitCars.com
www.kitcars.com/kit_cars

KitCars.org
www.kitcars.org

Yahoo Kit Car Links
dir.yahoo.com/Recreation/Automotive/Kit_Cars

Kit Car Builders
www.daxrush.co.uk