Where to Draw the Line for a Home Build?

[Adam-Hamill]

Hi all,

I'm interested in hearing opinions on where to draw the line for a home build. At what point does the knowledge required and level of work needed become too extreme to undertake at home and should be given over to a specialised builder to carry out? Obviously this will be different for everyone depending on skill level, time and resources available but I'm interested in hearing everyones take on the matter.
It's quite hard to quantify, but when looking at the breakdown of a future project, what piece of work makes you query wether or not you should be doing it at home? If it was only one piece that you weren't confident with and wanted a professional to carry out, would you get them to complete the rest of the project also or bring it back home for you to complete?

Looking froward to hearing your responses.

Cheers,
Adam

 

[Lyons]

When you say doing it at home instead, do you just mean to extend your current place rather than build new? Or to build a new house at your home site?

Also, this thread may be of use;

https://rmsmotoring.com/forum/threads/building-a-house.122391/

 

[dh1079]

I bought land to build on and being an electrical engineer I was for doing majority of 2nd fix finish myself and mate is joiner etc but I know I’m anal with finish and line of things so paying a supposed professional to do things would be argumentative lol just my two penny’s

 

[RevT]

I think he’s talking about a car project?

If so, I’d be willing to tackle most things with my limited knowledge but an engine rebuild and any welding is where I’ll stop. I’d give the rest a try.

 

[Adam-Hamill]

Apologies, I have completely mislead you both, I'm talking about building a project car.

 

[Adam-Hamill]

I think he’s talking about a car project?

If so, I’d be willing to tackle most things with my limited knowledge but an engine rebuild and any welding is where I’ll stop. I’d give the rest a try.

Yes car project!

Brilliant, I suspect that may be the same for a lot of people, not wanting to mess with engine internals and want good quality welding from a certified professional. Thank you!

 

[Apis]

Apologies, I have completely mislead you both, I'm talking about building a project car.

Which is why you posted it in the "car chat" section, lol.

Project car to me could anything from a kit car, classic restoration, modern modified, race car...etc
I'd say look at you skills, tools and budget and let that persuade you. Bodywork is a whole lot different from building an engine.
As far as suspension, brakes and engine externals, a lot of it is hand tools and common sense. (or Youtube)

 

[andy9eleven]

This channel might help you decide what you have the capabilities for.

Home Built By Jeff

I love classic cars, and I love building every aspect myself at home in my garage. Follow my Porsche 911, Datsun 240z and Alfa 105. From panel and rust repai...

www.youtube.com

 

[Adam-Hamill]

Which is why you posted it in the "car chat" section, lol.

Project car to me could anything from a kit car, classic restoration, modern modified, race car...etc
I'd say look at you skills, tools and budget and let that persuade you. Bodywork is a whole lot different from building an engine.
As far as suspension, brakes and engine externals, a lot of it is hand tools and common sense. (or Youtube)

This channel might help you decide what you have the capabilities for.

Thank you for your replies!
I am trying to gain replies from other people and find out whether or not there is a strong market for people wanting to bring their visions to a company to have them carry out the work and complete their dream project for them.
The likes of Retropower do similar stuff, carrying out full projects to a high quality but also doing smaller odd jobs for people, allowing them to get some work carried out professionally, then bringing their projects back home for them to complete themselves.

Of course, the problem with asking on a forum is the nature of people that are active on forums are those that generally are up for doing a lot of work themselves and want to share their experiences of doing the work. So the audience to the question is already tainted towards one way of answering.
However, maybe asking on a forum presents the perfect audience for the question, as you guys are the people that will have a dream build in mind and are the people I am interested in targeting, so finding out what level of work you're willing to carry out yourselves will answer my question perfectly.

 

[southsky sunrise]

Car sausage. Currently throwing myself down the stairs

 

[cauld1]

Personally happy to do everything at home baring paintwork or retrim of the interior (those are the only things that either me, my dad or mates didn't have a hand in at the home garage on my e34). At that the interior went over to Scotland rather than locally. To be honest I dont think I could pay someone an hourly rate to do that as it would get very pricey very quickly. For the next stage it'll be getting turboed and definitely looking to send the engine to Hack Engineering to get some of the build work done, if it wasn't for the addition of the turbo I'd be happy to do it at home.

Also for the likes of a rollcage I would also take it to someone I know does quality work and an awareness / understanding of Motorsport UK Regs.

I do think a local version of retropower is a fantastic idea though! Big issue would be the cost of it, as people by and large in NI would be shocked at the cost and time involved in something like one of their builds.

 

[mark19]

From experience. And my home build was engine swap respray etc
Whatever you think it will cost
Double it
Then double that

And tbh im not joking

 

[Eddies]

Have a go at anything, things can always be fixed or replaced loads of help online too. Space would be a factor if you have the room to leave something sitting up for x amount of time. If you've the space to have something taken it up, crack on.

 

['96dc2]

@pablo

 

[Adam-Hamill]

Personally happy to do everything at home baring paintwork or retrim of the interior (those are the only things that either me, my dad or mates didn't have a hand in at the home garage on my e34). At that the interior went over to Scotland rather than locally. To be honest I dont think I could pay someone an hourly rate to do that as it would get very pricey very quickly. For the next stage it'll be getting turboed and definitely looking to send the engine to Hack Engineering to get some of the build work done, if it wasn't for the addition of the turbo I'd be happy to do it at home.

Also for the likes of a rollcage I would also take it to someone I know does quality work and an awareness / understanding of Motorsport UK Regs.

I do think a local version of retropower is a fantastic idea though! Big issue would be the cost of it, as people by and large in NI would be shocked at the cost and time involved in something like one of their builds.

Think you hit the nail on the head there with residents in NI generally don't like forking out money, we're a stingy bunch haha.
Hack engineering appear to be a BMW specialist is that why you're interested in sending to them? If there was a well rounded, modifying orientated engine specialist in NI would you consider sending to them?

Thank you for your feedback!

 

[FM155]

There are already a few engine builders in NI such as Powermax etc. TBH, the market for people doing things properly is pretty small unfortunately.

 

[southsky sunrise]

There are already a few engine builders in NI such as Powermax etc. TBH, the market for people doing things properly is pretty small unfortunately.

To be fair the markets big enough for it all but our finances don’t match the prices asked for the majority of us. Nothing I’d like more than to farm out my projects but just haven’t the ££

 

[FM155]

Yeah I didn't word that well, lots of people wanting to do projects including me but lack the money to farm it out. There are quite a few companies that have the capabilities to do the work here but not a lot of customers able or willing to pay.

 

[Antoin]

Things I won't tackle;
Engine mapping - complete gobbledegook to me
Engine boring, skimming etc - don't have the tools/machines for it
Tracking/alignment - again don't have the equipment.

Everything else il have a go at.

 

[pablo]

@pablo

here is my driveway/garage home project

2003 Vauxhall VX220 2.2

So with moving house and the addition of a detatched garage that CANNOT become a half laundy room, I was on the lookout for a bit of a toy. I had a few criteria in mind: - it had to be "reasonably" practical - in that I can take my kid in it without him dodging death - had to be special enough...

rmsmotoring.com

 

[FM155]

To answer the OP's question, I have done just about everything but it's always time or the lack of it that stops me doing more.
You can either have money or time but not enough of either to do the sort of projects that are in my head.

 

[surprising_skoda]

The question has been answered well a few posts up. Paying for the work is the sticking point in almost all cases. Its a very niche area and I can't think of one business doing something that does it all. I tried, and we built a few cars, but it does NOT pay. Specialising in one single area can work, and does for quite a few businesses - there's Powermax, Bradley's, C&C, Gault, and some others doing engine work. There's various painters around. There are welders, and there are a couple of trimmers (not near enough mind).
NI isn't set up for this. While Retropower is an almost all-in-one-stop, you can still poke holes in the quality of some of their work. And they are one of very few places. What you have in England is a much larger market who will travel further. Their catchment area is some 30m people. Ours is under 2m. Consider a big town or small city in England can be central to a 2m catchment - if every business in NI was within a 30 miles radius, you would be well served for engine builders and trimming and paint. Being so spread out makes our little businesses all far away and limited in catchment. We're also desperately under-served in metalworking and fabricating - people who can turn up a new spindle or mill out a bracket. We dont have little engineering operations like that as they're all doing subbing work for machinery manufacturing.

You might need to rearrange some of those sentences to make it coherent. The point to take away is, be specialised. I don't think NI can keep another Retropower afloat, but there are plenty of small 2-5 enterprises kept going that don't try to do it all in-house. It doesn't matter which section you specialise in, because one person will find engines simple but paintwork terrifying, and another person will have no issue painting at home but think upholstery is one of the black arts. Entusiast three is daunted by fitting new wheels but will 3D print an entire new centre console for their car and hardwire a tablet. Everyone has different capabilities.

 

[zafturbo]

What type of car are you thinking of doing .?

 

[cauld1]

I think compared to any other builds I've seen done by other people you would be hard pushed to poke holes in their work. Having had a tour round their workshop and the stuff they were working on it is a very impressive setup.

Think you hit the nail on the head there with residents in NI generally don't like forking out money, we're a stingy bunch haha.
Hack engineering appear to be a BMW specialist is that why you're interested in sending to them? If there was a well rounded, modifying orientated engine specialist in NI would you consider sending to them?

Thank you for your feedback!

I'm thinking of Hack as BMW engines are their bread and butter and I've seen their work first hand / know them and buy parts from them so it's handy that they have a lot of the parts I need to hand. The fact that they have the machine shop to do the required machining also makes me want to go with them.

Possibly for a local setup, but I would need to see what they have done previously to be confident it would be a reliable work. To be honest Id rather do it at home but time will tell whether I do farm it out.

 

[surprising_skoda]

I think compared to any other builds I've seen done by other people you would be hard pushed to poke holes in their work. Having had a tour round their workshop and the stuff they were working on it is a very impressive setup.

Was that in reply to me?
My point wasn't necessarily to poke at RP, moreso that no matter what place you choose and no matter how impressive, they still are not perfect.
Neither am I trying to run anywhere down, you know I don't do that. Just dont assume that everything they do is amazing and the best quality possible, because it's not. Same like everywhere.