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PostPosted: December 30, 2008, 2:39 am 
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I'm off this week and I'm dedicating it to the build so I can finally produce a nice solid update :) .
So, I started today by making the suspension brackets and tacking the tubing of the engine bay and the front end.

As you'll probably notice, it doesn't look like a normal locost and that's because I'm making it more Caterhamish.
I love the way the front end of the CSR is built and given that it was designed by Multimatic I suspect it is a good bit stiffer than uncle Ron's design.
So there you go :D !

Updates will be posted daily in the next few days.

Moti


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PostPosted: December 30, 2008, 10:08 pm 
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Things looked bright this morning.
I was making good progress and was about to get the 4 vertical pieces that connect the upper and lower rails at the nose and work on the attachment of my suspension brackets.
Then I noticed that from some kind of reason my steering rack doesn't align well, and then the upper pickup points didn't align at all with my plan... WTF?!
Turns out I looked at the wrong measurement when I made my sketch which according to I cut all the tubes above the floor level.
Bahhh, I had to cut them off the frame and start over :roll: ..

On a good note, I do like the way my suspension brackets turned out.
They allow for most of the range of motion of the rod ends (which is more than the suspension is going to move anyway) and they are pretty well gusseted.

I did start already v2.0 of the nose part but no pics yet.

Moti


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Last edited by Blackbird on December 31, 2008, 3:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: December 30, 2008, 11:02 pm 
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You're making those of us who had to cut mounts off due to lack of rod-end travel look bad. ;)

Nice work.

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PostPosted: December 31, 2008, 1:01 am 
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Nice work Moti!

The one thing that you may want to consider with your brackets is to notch the other end as well to accomodate the chassis tubes.

This will give you a stronger mount that can be in double shear (depending on where exactly you're mounting it) and give you more weldable area on the chassis rails.

Just a thought.

Cheers,
Mike

PS - Sorry for my poor photo'chop' skills.


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PostPosted: December 31, 2008, 1:34 am 
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Thanks guys 8) .

Mike, that's exactly the idea behind leaving lots of extra material on the to-be-welded end.

Moti

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PostPosted: December 31, 2008, 10:39 pm 
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Happy new year everyone!

I woke up at 5:30am so fired up to get to the work that I couldn't go back to sleep :lol: .
I continued v2.0 of the nose and everything went pretty well today.
By the end of the day I got 2 of the lower suspension brackets tacked in, woohoo!
They are still missing the diagonals that reinforce them, those will probably come tomorrow, along with the steering rack mounting "bridge".

Moti


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PostPosted: January 1, 2009, 10:33 am 
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I'm curious why you used round tube, particularly for the lower front tube?

-dave

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PostPosted: January 1, 2009, 11:23 am 
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Hey Moti..

She's really comming along, and very nice indeed...

Yup I see lot's of Caterham/Lotus influence here...

Keep it up !!!!!

Happy New Year !!!!

Fred


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PostPosted: January 1, 2009, 12:31 pm 
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dhempy wrote:
I'm curious why you used round tube, particularly for the lower front tube?

-dave

The round tubing I'm using is all DOM, so if nothing else than just for the added strength.
My frame is a Lotus / Caterham inspired frame much more than the standard build.
I simply think that Lotus and Caterham make the best frames I've seen for the 7, so I decided to make mine like they make theirs :wink: .

There will be a bunch more round tubing in the front by the time I'm done.

Moti, on his way to the garage for another day of fabrication.

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PostPosted: January 2, 2009, 2:23 am 
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Started the day by decided that my revised front section needs to have another change done to it, but this was a relatively small one, so call it V2.1 :lol:

The front verticals were chopped off and replaced with ones that fit better with my plans.

From there I start (again) doing the lower mounts, I got 3 of them on and the last one will go on tomorrow.
I tried really (REALLY) hard to align them them perfectly in the coordinates I calculated on wishbone.
So far so good, the 3 that are on are lined up p-e-r-f-e-c-t. Phew.
8)

Moti


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PostPosted: January 2, 2009, 10:19 am 
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I was thinking of doing the upper front the same way you did yours (with the X) to clear the radiator mechanicals. Is there going to be a cross-piece at the front?

I love what you've done, by the way. That front structure looks pretty slick!

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PostPosted: January 2, 2009, 10:53 am 
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Those brackets are brilliant! I have some placement questions, but I suspect they'll be answered when the top brackets are mounted.

PS--Boy, I'd sure rather get T-boned in your car than my car.

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PostPosted: January 2, 2009, 12:20 pm 
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weconway wrote:
I was thinking of doing the upper front the same way you did yours (with the X) to clear the radiator mechanicals.

That was my thought too and urrently the radiator fits just fine standing at a 90º angle right behind the lower cross tube, but I need to check clearance with the steering rack on to know if works.

I rather have the radiator tilted with the top towards the front, but the radiator cap and the low Caterham nosecone are trying to share the same space..
weconway wrote:

Is there going to be a cross-piece at the front?

You're probably refering to the top, and no, there won't be one.
Caterham run their sway bar over there, but in order for the rad to fit (hopefully) I was thinking of relocating the sway bar to the back of the suspension box.
JackMcCornack wrote:

I have some placement questions, but I suspect they'll be answered when the top brackets are mounted.

Ask away!
Sometimes these questions make one realize that something was overlooked.
JackMcCornack wrote:

PS--Boy, I'd sure rather get T-boned in your car than my car.

I'd rather neither of our cars getting T boned :wink: ..

Moti

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PostPosted: January 2, 2009, 11:03 pm 
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And here's the daily update :wink: -

Got the last mount of the bottom wishbones tacked in and it's all good.
From there I started working on the steering rack mounts.
My rack is a depowered miata rack shortened to 20.5" (tie-rod to tie-rod).

The mount came out exactly as I was hoping I'll manage to do it and I'm super-happy with it.
I haven't welded the bridge in yet because there's still a little grinding to be done for a good fit, but it's nearly done.

Also you can see my idea how to fit the rad which works well until you try to put the nose cone on it - it hits the rad cap and the little mounting stub.
I think I might modify the rad to fit it that way though, it really packages nicely right there.

Moti


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PostPosted: January 2, 2009, 11:44 pm 
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Nicely done. That rack mount is slick.

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