S'pose I should get the ego/self deprecation bit over in one fell swoop. You will probably realise from these pages that I am very pleased with what I have built!
The car is not a kit.
Apart from the Henry Ford donor parts, I virtually hand-made every bit. The chassis (under the skin) is a tubular steel space-frame. It started life as 60 metres of 25mm square tube that, after I learned to MIG weld at the local College, I cut to length then welded into a frame.
The aluminium panels (sides, bonnet etc) were all hand formed (round lamp-posts, knees or whatever had the right contour).
The nosecone and front and rear mudguards are made of fibreglass. I couldn't find one good source of guidance on how to form parts in fibreglass - and many of the references I consulted contradicted each-other. I therefore dipped into as many sources as I could and came up with what proved to be a fairly good process.
Many, many, other aluminium and steel parts were formed by putting them in the vise and hitting them with a hammer. Really great therapy (when it works!). But I think I may have injured my shoulder in the process.
It is really gratifying to have people come up to you in the street and start talking to you about the car. Sometimes I can't get them away! Also, for some reason, some people even think they can conduct conversations about it while they're standing on the pavement and I'm driving by!
What I've done is far from unique. Lots of other people have built them too. An ever increasing band of people have been inspired by Ron Champion (who published the book How to Build a Sportscar for £250) to build Lotus 7-type cars. Full credit has to go to Ron for motivating so many people. His book came out just at the time I was looking for something to build. I wanted something that I could put some time into - not simply a kit that I could chuck together in a month of weekends.
What you see in the car on the road might not be "professional". But (I think) it's not a bad effort for someone whose technical training dates back to his school-days (about 40 years ago) and who has spent most of his working life sitting on his backside taking decisions in public administration.