problem is, as this thread shows is going it alone, and fair play for having a go, is huge risk and hassle compared to goign to those who have done it before, and learned thehard way themselves..
to do all this, get unlucky with supplier choice and components, trying to do "his own thing" has resulted in poor old Hooch suggesting he will break the car now as its been too much hassle. that has to be gut wrenching and a lesson for others.
I feel hooches pain, but I'm afraid some of it is self inflicted. learnt a lot along the way mind you I bet, and what/who not to use again.
I hope it has'nt put him off.
Knowing Hooch, I doubt it will have put him off .... engine going bang on the first go would put most people off but he's still here.
I think the main thing with anything like this is being honest with yourself, what have you got the time to learn, the money to buy and can you afford to run another car whilst the one you're working on is off the road.
Then you have the problem of tools, access and storage space as well as somewhere warm and dry to work.
Personally as far as major mechanical work goes, i'd always leave it to someone else but then again as others have found with companies they've used, that's not always any guarantee of a good end result.