bobc wrote:I'm converting a reliant kitten - they were pretty light (650kg ish from memory) & can be picked up reasonably cheap.
They were fairly ropey when new mind you, & will not have improved in the 30 odd intervening years.....
Doing up seems fairly reasonable though, parts seem easy enough to get.
Please check very carefully that the steel reinforcement that goes up the door pillars and provides the seatbelt mountings has not rotted out. This is quite common and is sometimes VISUALLY repaired (like re-wiring a house by replacing the last foot to the socket).
The lower wishbone ball joint can be a problem. They go slack (even when new) when the car is up on stands and fail the MOT. You need an MOT tester old enough to remember Vauxhall Chevettes (or even Vivas) or persuade them to get the testers' manual out. I've sucessfully rebuilt them if the play really is excessive. The last time i tried to buy one, they were about £100 each because Reliant were only having them made in batches of 10.