I'm new to this site and want to get some feedback on what car kit would suit a novice builder.

I haven't had many performance cars, and have little to no background building a car...

My first car I ever drove was a 69 Firebird that had a 350 Chevy motor in it that was taken out of a 72 Caprice. It had a 2 barrel carb and single exaust. My Father and I replaced the 2 barrel carb and manifold with an Edelbrock 4 barrel carb and manifold, and took it to a local mechanic to beef up the suspension with all new swaybars, bushings, etc. Other additions included a set of Cragar SS wheels on Brigstone radials, a rear spoiler, headers and dual exhaust, etc. It was a fun car, but the body had some small rust areas and it needed to be completely rewired. After my high school days it sat in the garage for several years and I decided to sell it to a relative since it wasn't being used..

Now that I'm over 30, I'd like to start saving up and get back into the hobby. However, I don't want to get into something where the level of fabrication work would overwhelm me..

So I think I've settled on buiding a 23T. I like those because there's not too much to them, and minimal bodywork is needed compared to say, a 60's musclecar...I'm thinking about a turtle decked, track roadster style of car with a rollbar behind the body (not in it, since they're short on room anyways..)...I just get a little nervous thinking about what could happen if somehow you get flipped on your lid (of course, getting hit in the side probably wouldn't be a day in the park with that ride either.. ).

I'm leaning towards a Total Performance ride since their kit seems to have detailed instuctions and you can get a lot of the pieces predrilled and such. But after reading some of these posts regarding some of their customer service and parts fit, I'm not so sure now...

The other builder that hits me is CCR. I'm 5"11 and like the streched body idea a lot.. The interior kit looks a bit simpler to implement as well. But I'm not sure if they have good instructions with it for a noivce builder like myself or if they can predrill parts, etc...


I have a new engine sourced out..., I'll have to assemble it..my first engine build (a 400CI Mouse motor with a lot of neat stuff... ) That should be interesting in itself

It seems like there's a catch 22 in the hobby...at least for me... you can get a 60's or 70's musclecar, 50's truck, etc. that already runs and tinker with it, but in order to avoid a lot of fabircation that a novice may not be very skilled at, it seems you pay nearly as much as building a Bucket T kit or other low buck street rod from the ground up that wouldn't require as much body work, etc. But without detailed instructions, how is a novice going to build a ground up rod from scratch??? LOL... It's enough to to make your head spin....


Any Thoughts???