LocostUSA.com

Well, I'm now ready to share my build experience. I've been lurking and learning for a couple of months now and finally decided it's time to give something back. But before I start, let me give a little background info about me. There may be someone out there who doesn't know whether they can do this or not. Maybe I can help you decide.

My name is Rod. I live in Tennessee. I am and have been a professional photographer and studio owner for about 40 years. I've been interested in cars, especially performance cars since I was a kid. I've kinda always liked driving something a little different. I had a 53 Studebaker at one time, then I found out about sports cars. I bought a Triumph TR-4, then a TR-4A(independent rear),TR-250(6cyl.),TR-6,TR-7(what was I thinking), then I jumped over to a Fiat 124(nice car, more refined than the British cars of the time), then a Fiat X-19(mid-engine), and a little later, a LOTUS EUROPA JPS TWIN-CAM(I think all were twin cam) actually. Great handling car but it had it's quirks. At the time I lived in Houston, it tended to over heat in Houston's weather. Anyway, later, I had a first generation Masda RX-7(great car) and then a NIssan 300(another of those "what was I thinking" cars), and later a Honda CRX(fun car) Anyway thats who I am. Oh, I forgot. Back in the 70s(does anyone remember the 70s) I photographed all the Indy car races as well as all the NASCAR races for a couple of years. I photographed most of the famous and not so famous drivers of the time. A.J.Foyt, Al Unser,Richard Petty, David Pearson and hundreds more. I even photographed the great Mark Donahue.

I've always dreamed of building my own car, but of course never had the money, or time, or know how, or place. Well, you get the picture. Of course, over the years, I considered a kit(maybe one of the Cobra kits) or something. I even dreamed of building a mid-engined car, somewhat like a Mclaren Can Am replica, but building a kit, it's not really the same as building your OWN CAR. So here I am. I don't even have a garage, but I do have a basement. People have been asking me how I'm gonna get the car out of the basement. Well, If I can build a Locost 7 myself, I figure I can get the thing out, one way or another.

Since I'm a pro photographer, please don't expect great photographs. Too much work. I'll just post snapshots, at least until maybe the car is finished and outside, Then I'll get more serious about the photos. However, if anyone needs a better view of anything I've posted, just let me know and I'll be more than happy to supply better quality photos, or different angles, etc. Just ask.

All comments, good, bad, or otherwise are welcome. All help is appreciated.
Thanks.

Well, I've decided to build a Lotus 7 replica. After discovering this site and also the Jim McSorley site, I've decided to build a 442. At first I didn't know what donor car I wanted. I was willing to consider just about anything. Was considering a Chevy S-10 with the V-6, and the Mazda Miata or anything that just jumped out. In August, my son was looking on Craigslist, where he found a Mazda Miata parts car. Had been sitting in a field for a while, but still had the engine, trans, rear, etc. Even had all the wheels. So I called the guy, and he wants 350 dollars. Not bad. Couldn't go wrong at that price,I'm thinking. So my son and I go to see the car, and it's actually in not too bad shape. Hit on the front corner, but still not bad. We settle on 300 dollars, and the car is mine. Yea. Couple of days later, my brother and I borrow a trailer from his friend and go pick up the car. It's about 80 miles from me. We get there, and of course, all the tires are flat, it's been sitting out in a field for a couple of years, at least. We put air in the tires, and to our amazement, they hold, at least long enough to roll it on the trailer. We tie it down and away we go. Get it home and unload it on my carport. Now I'm committed. People have said I need to be committed.

Now it's time to start stripping her down. Actually, I've never stripped a car down, but I figured, all I have to do is loosten a bunch of bolts, and try not to drop anything too heavy on myself. Since I don't own a hoist or a engine lift, it's decided to take the Mazda over to by brother's garage to pull the engine. He has a hoist. So we take it over to his house and pull the engine and trans. No problems, so far. We then tow the engine-less Miata back to my house for further dismantling. The tires are still holding air.

My wife(yes I said my wife) and I are going to put the engine in our basement. How will we do that? Well, Jethro and me have to do some cyphering. We come up with a plan. Our basement is an old fashioned basement. No garage door, but it does have an outside door with steps leading down. I decided to use a piano dolly. I hooked the engine-trans to the dolly using some chain and cable etc. Then I had to figure a ramp system down the steps. Well, plywood would work for that, I think. Yes. But how will I keep the thing from flying down the plywood ramp and possibly destroying the engine or the basement. I thought about using a come-a-long, but I didn't have one. I finally decided to just get a rope, a little longer than the length of steps. Tie the rope to the dolly and to the truck. Positioned the dolly at the top of the steps and the truck extended for the full rope length. With my lovely wife at the controls of the truck, I had her ease the truck just enough so I could start the dolly down the make-shift ramp. Once all four wheels were over the hump and on the dolly, it was a piece of cake, easing the truck slowly as the engine loaded dolly eased it's way down. I was pretty proud of myself.

What's nest? Well I have to get the Mazda stripped down a little more. I've decided to use the rear sub-frame. I discover it's attached to the car with only six(6) bolts. So I spend a couple of hours disconnecting the brake lines and fuel lines etc. Put the car up on jack stands and go to it. The bolts are supprisingly easy to remove. Jack the car up a little more and just wheel the entire rear away. Nothing to it. How the heck am I going to get this thing in my basement. Its way too wide to roll down my steps. My door is only 36 inches wide and the steps just a little wider than that. I decided it was going to take some drastic measures. Kinda like building the pyramids. Not quite that drastic. I decide I'll just walk it down. I rolled the thing to the top of the steps and turned them almost sideways and rolled one wheel off the top step to the next step down. Then twisted the subframe slightly the other way and walked the thing until the other wheel dropped a step down. Continued this all the way down the steps. Back and forth, turning slightly one way, then the other, kinda like parallel parking into a tight space
A lot of work, but it worked. How, oh how will I get this thing out of my basement..

Now that I've got all this Mazda stuff in my basement, it's time to actually start building.
Please, start building something. Anything.

First step is to build a build table. Did I say that right? Build a build table? Anyway, I built my build table, after seeing Jim McSorley's site. I didn't even know what a build table was before that. I decided to build it out of 2x6's with 2x4's as the legs. I used particle board as the top. I think most people use MDF for their table, but I decided to go cheap. Got the table built and took pains to level it. Decided to paint the top white. I figured my marks would show up better.

Following his plans, I marked the center line of the table, and proceeded to mark off all the lines for the lower frame tubes. But wait. There's one small problem. I don't have any steel. Even if I did, I don't know how to weld. What to do, what to do? I tried welding about 30 years ago. Stick welding. I didn't do that very well. Haven't tried since. I've been told that MIG welding was easier. Heck, I thought a MIG was a Russian airplane. I didn't know they changed it. Anyway, I'm looking at Harbor Freight welders, and Norther Tool, etc,etc. I didn't even know whether I needed a full MIG set-up or a Flux core. The web is a great thing. I went to you-tube and watched some welding demos. Even learned how to make a tack-weld on a piece of steel. I don't have a piece of steel. Luckily, just a couple of miles from me is a place that has steel. Sheet, tube, angle. You name it. I know the guy who owns the place. I go over and he gives me a couple of pieces of scrap to practice. If I ever get a welder. Back to craigslist, I find a Hobart 140, brand new, with auto-darkening helmet. $400. I figure it's a pretty good deal. Northern Tool sells it for $489 without the helmet, which runs at least $50 for the cheapest auto-darkening one I could fine. So now I have a welder. My local hardware has the gas, so I'm ready to become master welder. Over the years, in my photography business, I've photographed in a lot of industrial settings, so I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty. Some of the people here have probably used some of the machines I photographed. National Sheet Metal Machines( which make sheet metal brakes, sheers etc), Tennsmith(which also makes similar machines), Powermatic Machine(mostly wood working equipment) are some of my clients. Anyway, now I'm ready to learn to weld.

Now, it's time to weld. . My plan was to just tack the frame together, and my friend Ray (who is a certified welder) was going to do the real welding. He comes over to check out my new welder and of course discovers that I'm using the wrong wire. How would I know(besides reading the label)? I get the right wire and now I'm ready to go(or so I think). Ray comes back over. I've been practicing with the right wire. They didn't look too good to me but I assumed it was because I couldn't weld. Ray discovers another problem. No gas. What? No Gas? I know I have gas. The bottle shows 2000lbs. Well, the solenoid valve on the welder has a wire disconnected. No Gas. Ray fixes the problem, again. Sure is good to have friends. Now I'm set.

Now that I got my welding problem somewhat sorted out, its time to make a car. Here's the build table.

After I got the gas problem fixed. A better looking weld.

I decided to use wooden blocks to hold the tubes in place while tacking.

Attaching the rear bulkhead was not so easy. I built the wooden jig to hold the tubes in place.

Once I got the basic perimeter frame tacked, it was time to tackle the rear sub-frame attachment. Here is what I did. I decided to use a 1x2 tube to attach the sub-frame to the car. I did this because I thought drilling a hole of that size into a 1 inch tube might not be a good idea. I was going to bring the angled tube back to the rear of the 1x2, but that interfered with the rear attachment bolt, so I brought it to just in front of the rear bolt.The top of the sub-frame as at just the right height to attach to the cross piece on the rear bulkhead if I used about a 61/2 inch ride height. I had planned to use a 6 inch, so rather than moving the cross piece up I just changed my ride height a half inch. This is a car for the street only, so I wasn't worried about being that low.

I plan to use the stock rear springs. I measured the spring rate to be 300 lbs. This seems to be about what other builders are using on the rear, so they should work ok. If not, I will replace them later. I have yet to determine where the spring perch should be, but based on my best guess, they should work ok with my frame tubes.

Here is the spring perch.

Since I didn't know exactly where the perch should be, I made a spacer, which will give me a 1 inch adjustment. Just flip it over and it changes the height one inch.

My welder friend Ray determined that I should weld my frame. On his advise, I did. Now, it's time to paint it, but first, it should be primed. Here it is in all it's primed glory.

After priming, of course it had to be painted. I chose black. I decided to do some mock-ups for the body. I just wanted to see if it was going to look like a car. Made scuttle support from masonite and used posterboard to make the top. At the rear, I just used some 1x1 pieces of wood to make a support for the rear. Not too sure about the rear bodywork just yet(looks a little heavy), but I'm liking the scuttle profile ok. With the dash and interior, I positioned the seats such that the gear shift would "fall readily to hand". You might notice the lack of gauges. Well, it's a British inspired car.(the gauges don't work anyway).