LocostUSA.com

Careful, Dude... She may decide to go home with the guy that has a finished car....

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JD, father of Quinn, Son of a... Build Log
Quinn the Slotus:Ford 302 Powered, Mallock-Inspired, Tube Frame, Hillclimb Special
"Gonzo and friends: Last night must have been quite a night. Camelot moments, mechanical marvels, Rustoleum launches, flying squirrels, fru-fru tea cuppers, V8 envy, Ensure catch cans -- and it wasn't even a full moon." -- SeattleTom

You bet. I love showing it off. I sent you a PM with my phone number.

The GF ain't going home with the guy that has a finished car. She gets a kick in the bum bum if she's that shallow. My wife was super supportive through the whole build, and every time I drive it I am reminded why I am so thankful to have her as my wife.

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The Lethal Locost
The Lethal Locost 2 - Even More Lethalerer

Pics as promised. Here is the rear section, more or less complete. For the lower curved pieces where the bodywork attaches, I just used a strip of 1" wide sheet (about 18 or 20ga, I'm not sure) as it was easier to bend in a 2" radius than a round tube. It's not very stiff, so I will probably have to add a small gusset to support it.


We added the front suspension support tubes and the S/T diagonals, as well as the O1 and O2 diagonals in the rear. I decided to keep the rear bulkhead diagonals symmetrical as they are close enough to the offset transmission tunnel uprights that bending won't be too much of an issue, and I have the option to move the side of the tunnel back to a normal position if I decide to switch axles.


Here's my friend and his driver test fitting the frame:


Thanks for looking and providing support, everyone. SkinnyG, I'll give you a shout when I'm in town!

I want to see how you attach those wheel pants that are hanging on the wall to the front suspension!

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Perry

'If man built it, man can fix it'
"No one ever told me I couldn't do it."
"If you can't build it safe, don't build it."

Perry's Locost Super Che7enette Build
Perry's TBird Based 5.0L Super 7 L.S.O
Perry's S10 Super 7 The 3rd
Perry's 4th Build The Topolino 500 (Little Mouse) Altered
Perry's 5th Build the Super Slant 6 Super 7
Perry's Final Build the 1929 Mercedes Gazelle

Well, those might be a bit difficult. They are designed to go around 6x6.00 tires, which wouldn't be the best thing for handling.

Posthumane: Could you post an accurate measurement of the offset of the center line of the Ranger pinion please.

The rough measurement I took off of a neighbors 1986 truck is 1.875" which seems a little high to me.
TNX

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"My junk is organized. At least is was when I put it wherever it is." -olrowdy
Completed building GSXR1000 CMC7, "Locouki"
Website: http://projekt.com/locouki/

Sure, I can try to get one tonight. Your figure does sound about right though, I ended up offsetting my tunnel 2" on the passenger side.

Feels like I haven't made much progress over the last couple of weeks, although I've been trying to work at it when I can. Most of the time has been taken up actually welding all the tubes I have tacked in to get the basic frame more or less done. I left out the tubes in the engine compartment for the time being, as those are probably going to go in later on so I can link them to the front suspension tubes and engine mounts properly. I still haven't figured out how to weld the acute angle joints very well yet. It seems like I can't get enough heat in there and end up making a mess. Still more learning to do, I guess.


I also stripped the rear axle, and drew up a template for the mounting tabs to put on it. The ones I drew are a little different than the book ones - they are tabs that weld to the top and bottom of the axle, each about 1/4 circumference around the axle, instead of going around the back side of the axle like the book. I'm hoping this way I can avoid adding toe out to the rear axle which I'd then have to re-warp out.


I'll throw in a pic of the rear axle measurements. The axle is 51" from one brake backing plate to the other, so the centre is at 25.5". The pics show the offset of the pinion.

Thought I should also mention in here, a special thanks to SkinnyG! I was in his neck of the woods a couple weekends ago, and got my first ride in a real Locost. Now I'm really hooked! I actually had never seen a lotus 7 style car in person before that, so I'm glad that it turned out to be just as great a car as I had expected.



Hope you don't mind me posting a picture of you SkinnyG.

By putting a right angle plastic drafting tool on the bottom of the monitor centered on the pinion it looks like the pinion is offset ~1.8125".

Shucks that's even more than I measured which was too much for my present tunnel. I'd have to weld in a piece of square tube to the right of the offending tunnel tube and then cut that tube away near the pinion flange.

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"My junk is organized. At least is was when I put it wherever it is." -olrowdy
Completed building GSXR1000 CMC7, "Locouki"
Website: http://projekt.com/locouki/

I'm obscured enough it's fine. And you can even see chassis #2 in the background....

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The Lethal Locost
The Lethal Locost 2 - Even More Lethalerer

From memory the Ford 8.8 has a 1.75" offset and the 7.5 has a .75" offset. I think older Rangers has the smaller axle, but don't know the track dimensions...

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
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The 8.8 is just too much axle & weight for me. The Mustang rear end would probably be OK for a +4 width chassis but way to wide for a book chassis.

I've got some of the common 7" & 7.5" rear end dimensions (Ranger, Mustang, Volvo etc) on my website but it's not always easy to figure out the offset when crawling under a car in a muddy junk yard.

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"My junk is organized. At least is was when I put it wherever it is." -olrowdy
Completed building GSXR1000 CMC7, "Locouki"
Website: http://projekt.com/locouki/

How does the offset work, and why would you want to offset it?

Does the motor and DS have to be offset also so the tranny and driveshaft line up straight to the diff?


Bob

Common hearsay says yes but as long as the flanges on the transmission and rear axle are parallel and not offset more than some amount of degrees depending upon the maximum speed the drive shaft is going to rotate you should be OK. As long as the flanges are parallel the offset can be vertical AND horizontal if necessary.

You also should have a small amount of offset so the bearings in the joints can exercise slightly to keep them lubricated, 3° or so is OK. We had a big discussion about offset on the forum a month or so ago.

I found a lot of info on the web by going to a few of the universal joint manufacturers websites. That's where you will find the max. offset the flanges can be depending upon the U joint design etc.

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"My junk is organized. At least is was when I put it wherever it is." -olrowdy
Completed building GSXR1000 CMC7, "Locouki"
Website: http://projekt.com/locouki/