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Learning how to build Lotus Seven replicas...together!
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PostPosted: May 24, 2013, 6:27 pm 
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Always Moore!
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA
They're doing some great looking work.

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PostPosted: April 15, 2014, 6:08 pm 
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Joined: March 17, 2011, 9:28 pm
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It's again been a while since we've posted. Progress this year has been slower, with a smaller crew of students working this year. However, they're doing GREAT work. We've been working on making the car street-legal with lights, mirrors and other parts.
Attachment:
IMG_20140415_101738.jpg


The curved scuttle has been a pain in the butt, but after a lot of hours of annealing and beating on aluminum, it fits pretty well. We got it close, not perfect, though. The paint hides a (fairly thin) layer of body filler.
Attachment:
IMG_20140415_102746.jpg


There are still a lot of rough edges (literally) to work on. The hood fits all right, but vibrates a lot. If I did it again, I would put a slight arc in the top edge of the firewall to curve the hood slightly and give it something to pull against. The flat line has too much flex.


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Last edited by CCC on April 15, 2014, 6:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: April 15, 2014, 6:19 pm 
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We've started the licensing process. It's going to be a bit tricky because we're registering it as a school, but the bureaucracy seems to be on board with us putting a plate on it.

Attachment:
IMG_20140415_102645.jpg


There are two categories here, "custom vehicle" and "specially constructed vehicle." While I like the sound of "specially constructed," it requires a safety glass windshield, wipers, and 4.5-inch tall bumpers. I've got nothing against a windshield, but I'm not thrilled about bumpers. We're going to try for "custom vehicle."


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PostPosted: April 15, 2014, 7:41 pm 
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Looks great! That would have been a dream for me in high school to work on car like that. So much more rewarding than changing oil in some coach's car.


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PostPosted: April 15, 2014, 10:56 pm 
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Joined: August 11, 2012, 4:44 pm
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Location: Charlotte, NC
Fantastic build. I'm really liking the hump on the skuttle for the gauges.

Wish my high school had a program like this. We didn't even have a welding program at school. We did have an all electric ford ranger tho.

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PostPosted: April 17, 2014, 4:06 pm 
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Joined: July 29, 2006, 9:10 pm
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Location: Oregon, usually
CCC wrote:
There are two categories here, "custom vehicle" and "specially constructed vehicle." While I like the sound of "specially constructed," it requires a safety glass windshield, wipers, and 4.5-inch tall bumpers. I've got nothing against a windshield, but I'm not thrilled about bumpers. We're going to try for "custom vehicle."
I believe it should be "...and 4.5-inch or taller bumpers."I'll be happy to send you a replacement receipt for your TTL nose, specifying "FRP front bumper".

Before anybody gets on their high horse about deceptive business practices, may I point out that:

A) Dang near all modern bumpers are plastic composites nowadays
B) Dang near all modern bumpers are sacrificial (that is, in an impact, the bumper protects the rest of the car but you'll need a new bumper)
C) At $199, I believe the TTL nose is cheaper than any front bumper assembly on any new car in America

When we, the manufacturer, call it a front bumper, and you, the builder, show the inspector the bumper and the receipt...well, so far they've all been okay with it, but you should probably be prepared to walk the inspector to the employee parking lot and show him that all the cars in his lot have plastic/composite bumpers and you're not the Lone Ranger.

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PostPosted: March 19, 2015, 11:11 pm 
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It's been a long time again since I've posted, but I thought I'd put a little bit up here:

We're street legal! The licensing process took over six months, mainly because we're a school and not an individual owner. We have government plates (!), and had to get a bonded title, and all the back-and-forth just took a while. The actual inspection was no problem.

It was getting cold by the time we got our plates, but we still had enough warm-ish weather to do a lot of shakedown testing and tuning our Megasquirt.
Attachment:
IMG_2531.JPG
(That body panel isn't quite as wavy as this photo makes it seem. Definitely not perfect, though.)

Weighing at local grain elevator. 1360 lbs. without driver, and 48/52 weight distribution. We should have weighed with a driver, though. That's going to move the distribution backward, right?
Attachment:
IMG_2521.JPG
(You might notice I'm editing out our plate number and students' faces. Maybe it's overkill, but as a teacher, I have to be careful with private info.)


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PostPosted: March 19, 2015, 11:20 pm 
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This semester has been about getting some paint on. We had a lot of filler work to do, mostly around bends and rivets. We decided to fill over the rivet holes around the driver and passenger rail, which helped clean up that area quite a bit.

Primer coat is two coats of Kirker DTM Epoxy, which was a bargain and went on really nicely.
Topcoat is two coats of a custom-mixed PPG acrylic urethane, with a matte additive. That wasn't cheap (ouch). I'd go with something different next time.

Still to come - touching up a thin area on the hood and adding a racing stripe.

Attachment:
IMG_20150319_115507.jpg


Attachment:
IMG_20150319_115445.jpg


BTW, the arch in the hood is a "modification" to give the hood some bending stiffness and keep it tighter against the frame. It is going to be hidden by a piece that will serve as our windshield mount. (Think more like air deflectors, really.)


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PostPosted: March 19, 2015, 11:32 pm 
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Joined: March 17, 2011, 9:28 pm
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Almost from day one, the students have wanted to put a turbo in it. I'm not opposed to the idea, but it's going to take a lot of work. This is the start of a turbo exhaust header. Bailey came back on his break from college to get us started on it.

Attachment:
IMG_20150121_153651.jpg


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PostPosted: March 20, 2015, 12:10 am 
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Location: Massachusetts
Thanks for keeping us posted. Your students are doing a great job! :cheers:

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PostPosted: March 22, 2015, 8:57 pm 
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Location: Charlotte, NC
Can I get one of those flanges? Is that for the 1.8 or 1.6? Stainless steel or Carbon/Mild.

Loving the green, yellow strip?

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