Which kit to buy?

Any reason your looking only at kits from companies located in the UK?

Never heard of those two companies before you listed them. There are many other companies producing and selling kits.

What type kit and model of car are you looking for?

From what I've read (as I've never actually touched either), the Pilgrim body sits on an un-shortened VW pan/chassis so you end up with a car slightly longer than "normal".  

The Chesil, OTOH, sits on a shortened pan and is the right length, but IIRC they move the headlights up 2" higher than "normal" to comply with later MOT regs.  Both of them are available in left and right hand drive.

And THAT, is the extent of my vast knowledge.  There are a few folks on here from Europe (Richard Maxwell - mail code de143gx - and Gerry from Scotland come to mind).  If you click on the "members" tab in the black bar up above and mess around with the member search function you can see members in the UK and maybe email or PM them for more info.

I don't know if Vintage Speedsters produce a right hand drive body, or if Carey Hines at Beck does (carey@beckspeedster.com) but an email query is cheap.

Good luck!

While a right hand drive kit might be enticing for down under, there are a lot more left hand vw based kits available for 1/2 the cost (and 1/2 the shipping distance) from the US.  Moving the steering to the "wrong" side would mean a different front H beam and moving the gauge pod from one side to the other - a day or 2 of fiberglass work.

I'm amazed at the number pristine 1980 kits still sitting around unbuilt in US.  Are VW pans available there?  Alternative is a custom chassis which gives an unlimited option of engines and transmissions. 

Here's an example for $3750 (NOT MINE) -

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/cl...etail.php?id=2036090

Note - Doors and hoods are there but appears other parts are missing (windshield, chrome, bumpers).  You could stage it with someone on SOC and add the missing parts to the shipping crate.

Pilgrim was recently re-launched.  They did make a 4 seater years ago - calling it a speedster was an insult to Ferdinand.

I hadnt thought about kits from the US mainly due to the having the steering on the wrong side! Plus I'm not sure how the comply with the local certification, the UK and NZ are fairly strict.

I was looking to use a VW shortened VW floorpan with IRS on the rear and beam axle on the front.

Whilst surfing the net I also found that Vintage Speedsters were been imported by a UK company so maybe Vintage Speedsters is a good place to start.

I agree with you that with a little work the steering wheel and dash binnacle could be moved to the right side.

I know that Beck has made RHD cars, although their cars are mostly finished at the factory.  You can get them to leave out the drivetrain.