Regarding hand and wrist protection, under the new rules and I am sure that Sparky is aware of them you have literally multiple restraints on your arms, wrist and legs. I help Steve Nelson with his lakester and with the new strapping for the legs, the wrist/arm restraints and the Hans type device, Steve uses one that is a head/helmet devise that uses straps and a shoulder harness that is SCTA approved and much easier than the composit Hans type device for getting in and out, anyway with all of this restraining it took us about 20 minutes the first time we tried to get Steve strapped into the car! With practice it got down to around 5 minutes. So it is very important to have these devices available when you start deciding where things like the steering wheel, gear shift, brake handle, chute release etc are going to be located as your hands are going to have a pretty limited range of movement.
Sparky, I am with you regarding construction methods, I missed the "computer revolution" when I was doing engineering and am still pretty much of a "pencil CAD" engineer. I do make a pretty detailed 1/4 scale dwg of what I am going to build but after that it is fab and fit and make drawings of detailed parts as I see them needed. My son is in engineering at Chico State and is pretty good at Solid Works and I should probably make him do some drawings and assemblies as he is going to be the driver and probably do most of the welding. Just need to finish the wiring in my new shop, paint the floor, move my office out to it and then I can get started.
Rex