Dr Dave's 818C #553

[Kiwi Dave]

Hi All

After lurking the this excellent Forum for a year, buying and tearing down our donor, going to the Build School, and picking up my kit a couple of weeks ago, it is time to start a build thread. This is going to be of most interest to novices like me thinking of getting into an 818.

Me: I am a PhD Clinical Pharmacologist working at a mid-large sized Pharmaceutical company in Gaithersburg, MD which is just North of Washington DC. My team and I work on the clinical development of new medicines for cardiovascular, metabolic (Type 1 and 2 diabetes, NASH), and renal diseases. I love my job as the new medicines we develop really do change lives and I get to work with really smart people. I have very little car experience, but I am from New Zealand (NZ) which has a culture of fixing things yourself due to being so geographically isolated and, when I grew up, a penchant for following Mother England which meant we had reliably unreliable British cars that needed constant attention. I also had a 1958 Vespa (made by and English firm called Douglas) which was my Dad's that I pulled out our chicken coop where it had been abandoned after an accident. I fully restored it and it became my primary mode of transport to high school. I could disassemble and assemble that thing from its component parts blindfolded! It was as unreliable as you might expect, but I was able to keep it on the road as we bought 2 others for parts. I currently maintain all of our small engines, lawn tractor, zero turn mower, etc. myself. During Pharmacy School and Grad School, I served in the NZ Territorial Army (like the National Guard) for 6 years, first in the Infantry and then in the Armoured Corps and here I learned the value of a days work, attention to detail, completing mission you have started (e.g., an 818 build!), resilience, teamwork, dealing with people from all walks of life, and self-discipline. I never made it past Trooper (Private) though! My wife is also a Kiwi (New Zealander) PhD (chemistry) and we've lived in the USA for 22 years (SC, NJ, and MD). I am a huge fan of old BBC Top Gear and The Grand Tour. The current BBC Top Gear doesn't get watched as it appears to be only about cars ;-)

Why the interest in an 818?: My son and I were visiting a Kiwi mate in Boston and we went to the Lars Andersen Auto Museum. A lovely small museum that had a FFR GTM on loan. What! You can build your own Super Car? Cool. After some research on FFR, we decided that the 818 was also cool and doable and that the GTM would be too big of a first step. My son (12 years) wants to be an engineer, so I figure this is an opportunity for us both to learn something practical and to keep him off the computer for a while. My daughter (9 years), who once banned me about talking about the 818 at the dinner table, is now taking an active part in this as well.

In my Forum research I have concentrated on the more popular build threads and also some of the local MD and VA builders. Thanks to those early builders who took the time to document the process. I would not be here without your information and support: AZPete, STiPRWD, Wayne, Touchstone, Mikeb75, Metalmaker, Mechie3, Frank818, Rasmus, Insuranceguy, Mike Everson, K3LAG, Bob'n'Cincy, and many, many, more. I also check on interesting threads for other FFR kit types - lots of good experience and advice there, especially from the Roadster guys. I am in constant contact with Scott (Octobersknight) who lives close and who is a couple of months ahead of me with his 818C build.

Aside from the building experience, my goals with the car are to have a safe, fun, reliable street vehicle that can be used year-round which means A/C and heat here (R guys puke now!). Perhaps we'll do some autocross and open track days. Within reason, I am not too budget-constrained and will go with quality parts whenever possible given the time and effort that is going into this. I will outsource jobs I don't have the skills for - engine rebuilding, welding, upholstery, etc. but we will endeavor to do everything else ourselves.

My goals with the build thread are to document the experience and hopefully impart what I have learned along the way to anyone interested. I will, and have, posted specific problems I need the Forum's help with in the most appropriate 818 topic but I will likely ink to them from here for completeness.

Lastly, I recognize I can be verbose at times but here it is because I am passionate about our 818s and I want to communicate what I have learned. Read on at your own risk! ;-)

Cheers

Dave