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Learning how to build Lotus Seven replicas...together!
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PostPosted: July 15, 2019, 1:21 pm 
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Location: Kamloops, BC, Canada
GonzoRacer wrote:
Kristian, et al-
Wow, great pictures! And even better "history lesson" about Canadian cars/trucks. Cool stuff, and I wasn't aware of almost all of it.

I love this forum!!!
:cheers:
JDK

Thanks JD, I learned some new stuff too.

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PostPosted: July 15, 2019, 1:27 pm 
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Location: Kamloops, BC, Canada
We ended up with a few coupons for free DQ cones from the car show, so after the show we went to the drivethru just for giggles and brought them to the square dance festival my wife was helping at. Turns out the drivethru window is above my rollbar, but we made it work. We waited quite a while at the window though, they were probably wondering why we hadn't pulled up to the window yet. I'm pretty sure they couldn't see us until they looked out the window and the icecream was already getting pretty melty. My son got covered in icecream on the roughly 8 min trip, and more melted on the way inside. My wife doesn't even like DQ cones, but said she just wanted to see how much of a train wreck it was going to be. It was pretty entertaining.
Attachment:
IMG_20190713_145349-1600x1200.jpg

Attachment:
IMG_20190713_145359-1600x1200.jpg

Last night on the way home we stopped at Wendy's for dinner, and my wife was towing the travel trailer so she waited at a nearby empty parking lot while I did the food run in the locost. No drivethru this time, but we got some funny looks driving around town with the smell of fresh cooked fries following us. Got home about 10pm, so I've driven the car at night a couple times now too.
Kristian


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PostPosted: July 15, 2019, 11:47 pm 
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Great photos, Kristian. Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

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PostPosted: July 17, 2019, 4:40 pm 
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Ditto. Been a long time since I went to a car show. :cheers:

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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
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360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
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PostPosted: July 18, 2019, 12:55 am 
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Was that Slant 6 an aluminum block? Very rare if it was. The Aluminium blocked ones were the performance versions.

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PostPosted: June 20, 2021, 5:02 am 
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Location: Kamloops, BC, Canada
Well this has been hugely neglected for a while now. I didn't insure my 7 last year, but it's on the road now for the next 3 months. I could have insured it earlier in the year, but about the only place I go is work, and it's been single digit morning temperatures until now. Feels good to drive it again. I forgot how tiny it is though, and tried driving it while wearing hiking boots. Oops, had to dig out some smaller shoes. Since getting it registered I've put a bit over 2000 km on it, that should go up a bit this year.
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It hasn't been sitting for quite two years, so I didn't have to do much. Checked the oil, coolant, and tire pressures, and installed a new lawn tractor battery to replace the one I bought way back in 2013. Turns out they last pretty good in a car, and they're light.
Kristian

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PostPosted: June 21, 2021, 11:05 am 
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Thanks for the good pics. I love carbs. You could cut about 1.5 inches out of the upper with a little rotary filing of the lower if you wanted to. Almost fitting under the bonnet of a book/cmc chassis. Sweet.

Probably can remove the wide dizzy cap adapter for the old school female socket small cap and rotor of you wanted to shorten that too. Maybe a set of bike carbs over a valve cover with an elbow upper intake?

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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12


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PostPosted: June 21, 2021, 3:57 pm 
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Location: Kamloops, BC, Canada
Holy crap the pictures I posted are huge. I didn't mean to do that, I just posted from my phone. The original plan was to use fuel injection, but the carb was a quick and easy way to get the car running temporarily. As in this is only temporary, unless it works. I thought it looked cool in a Rat Fink sort of way, so I've left it, and it works. My brother built the upper intake that the carb sits on, as well as the distributor to run a Duraspark ignition when he put the same 3.0 in an offroad truck project. He had originally tried to get it running with a couple Mikuni carbs from a snowmobile, but that didn't pan out, so he switched to an Autolite 2 barrel. He promptly blew it up and decided a 5.0 was going to be a better option for him, so gave me the intake and distributor. And the distributor is kind of old school, at least it's older than I am. The top half of the distributor came from a 1978 Fairmont, and it's still got the cap that was on it in that car. I probably should look into converting to megasquirt, I think I'd be able to keep everything out of sight then. The factory intake manifold from the Taurus could probably be trimmed down to clear, but it also wouldn't be difficult to build one from scratch. I've got room under the scuttle for an air filter and air box, and its already walled off from the engine compartment, so it would be pulling cooler air from the passenger footwell. But then there's so many other things that I wish I'd done differently that it would almost be easier to start from scratch.
Kristian

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PostPosted: June 22, 2021, 2:52 pm 
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I think a couple changes are in order. Most important, I need to make some sort of heel rest so that it's a bit more comfortable to drive, and I need to take my mirrors offand snug up the pivoting adjustment. The passenger side one especially, as it's loose enough that the wind blows it out of position on the highway, and I can't reach it to put it back in place. It would also be nice to have mirrors that stick out further so I can see better behind me, but if I can get the passenger side one to stay in place properly, that will help. I should probably come up with some sort of pedal stop for the throttle as well, the only stop it's ever had is hitting the end of the cable. I may also redo my steering shaft to get rid of the steering quicker. That will also get rid of a couple ujoints and some slop in the system that I don't really like, and I don't need the steering to be that quick for street use. And if I were to do things over again, I would definitely try to make the trunk big enough for my helmet. It's a pain having to carry it with me everywhere I go.
Kristian

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PostPosted: June 23, 2021, 11:12 pm 
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I got waved at by someone in I think a Supra, and someone else in a 911 on my way home from work today. I also ended up sitting at a red light next to a Tesla, and left him in my dust. I have no idea what model or if he was racing me, but he took off way quicker than the other traffic, so I'm going to say I beat him. We left the line normally, and he seemed to be giving it the beans, so I figured what the hell. I filled up the car today too, which was interesting. The guy at the next pump asked if I built it myself, said it looked like something that someone could pull off in their garage. I don't have a fuel gauge, and wasn't really sure what to expect for mileage, plus I'm not sure how big the tank is. Turns out 4 trips to work and back is about 275km, and I put 28 liters in, so about 24 mpg with somewhat spirited driving. I think the tank is around 33 liters, but I've never actually measured it. That's the number I came up with based on dimensions way back when in my build log. Mileage definitely isn't great, but I usually drive around 110-120 km/h on the highway, and fuel economy isn't really all that important anyway. I smuggled up a couple brake line flare fittings that looked slightly moist, pulled the rear wheels and adjusted the brakes, and fixed my floppy mirrors today. I think if I'm going to put miles on it I need to ditch the Heim joints in my suspension, a couple of the rear ones are sloppy. They're probably not the best for the traditional locost 4-link anyway, what with the binding and all. Maybe I'll just pull one of the uppers to see if they last longer. The noise they make is annoying. In the long term, I'll probably replace them with rubber bushings though. I'm going to have to change an axle seal soon too, the left side brake shoes had gear oil on them. Rock auto has them for 73¢, $15 for shipping though. Maybe they're not always the answer.
Kristian

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PostPosted: June 24, 2021, 9:40 am 
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Your mileage is on par with the originals with much smaller 4 cyl engines. I like the stainless marine senders for about $20 on ebay. You match the ohms sweep range and direction to the gauge you will use and the length to the tank depth. Much better than the swingarm universal senders that corrode quickly.

Good heims are not cheap. I’d look at truck tierod ends to replace them, reaming rod, extra thick wall pipe or plate for the taper seat. To eliminate bind, you could fit an tunnel A arm around the diff and use single outboard links like the 99 and older tracker/sidekick.

The 224210 seal is about $5 each free ship on ebay.

Since you are eventually going ms efi, you could go ahead and fit a yard pull EDIS system, cut and shut the dizzy just above the retainer slot, leaving the bottom to drive the oil pump off the camshaft, then turn the carb around to eliminate the spacer and the rear bowl won’t hit the dist cap.

If you were staying carb I’d suggest a weber solex type 34 or 38 two barrel or a conservative better low rpm response 32x36 progressive. These keep the barrels in the best location over the lower intake ports yet bring the linkage to the side to clear the upper intake. They are common on straight and vee sixes and often an upgrade on larger six jeeps. May be able to find used to rebuild in a yard or new for about $100 free ship on ebay. Holley made great progressive carbs too based on the normal two barrel body but the linkage was turned 90 deg since there are two throttle shafts versus one. Rare carb these days but mine worked great on a chevy 2.8l.

Pricey used 32/36 dgav but showing design and filter:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/194213402821?_ ... 1822981495

returned new 38 for $75 free ship:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/154307374511?h ... SwvwRgEB4f

new 38 for $100:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313473911509?_ ... %3A2047675

New 34 for $100:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/123758336571?e ... SwaplcpPwj

_________________
Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12


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PostPosted: June 25, 2021, 11:51 pm 
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Holy information overload! Lots to digest there. The mileage isn't really unexpected, these aren't real aerodynamic cars. It runs good with the current Holley 4 barrel, so I'll keep that, at least for now. I've got a complete factory EFI setup including sensors and harness from a donor Taurus, plus the cam sensor that they used once they ditched the distributors in the later engines. Plus a Ford Explorer parts vehicle with a V6, and an EDIS ignition system. There's just never enough time to really get to it, and it runs good the way it is anyway. My brother has built a couple 4x4's using truck tierod ends, and they work great, but they're way to heavy duty for something like a locost. I think ditching one of the upper links is probably the best bet, just getting rid of any binding should make the heims last way longer. I've seen the seals for them before, might be worth looking into for street use.
I also adjusted my clutch pedal so it sits a bit higher, matches the brake pedal now. Much easier to push the clutch all the way in and not grind gears if I'm not concentrating on making sure I do it just right.
Kristian

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PostPosted: June 26, 2021, 8:04 am 
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Kristian
If you are looking for seals to fit Heim joints, search Seals-it. I'm a BIG believer in them. I got over 40K on my rear joints and just replaced the front steering joint at over 55K. They where still good, but felt bad having that high of mileage on them. The only thing I did was to clean and coat them with a small amount of EP-grease every 10k.
Davew


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PostPosted: June 29, 2021, 11:56 am 
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@davew

I found a video on the Seals-it products at Summit Racing. They were new to me. Very interesting.

Cheers

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

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PostPosted: July 1, 2021, 8:11 am 
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turbo_bird wrote:
Plus a Ford Explorer parts vehicle with a V6, and an EDIS ignition system.
Kristian


No interest in a 4.0l ohv and M50 5spd? The top end lube can be fixed with a better pump and less rockershaft leakage while the head cracking can be fixed with a lower operating temp.

A little carbide rotary file bowl work with a drill does wonders in most older fords.

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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12


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