Hi everyone. I'm Jon. I'm 18 and I am building a Locost from a 1989 5.0L Mustang. This was my donor:
My mustang is has an automatic, so I will need to do a trany swap on it. (Mechanically, its very simple. Electronically, its complicated) I'm using the Mustang front spindles (which needed to be modified to have an upper balljoint).
I started building the frame in September and have been working on it ever since. I'm making it out of 1x1" .100 wall square (because it was 3x cheaper than what I was suppose to use). I started building the frame before I had a donor and I had no idea that I was going to buy such a big engine. I was originally going to buy a 4cyl Mustang, but this v8 Mustang was found for $300 and it ran perfectly. I couldn't resist. I've had to modify the frame by making it 2" wider and 4" longer to fit the engine. (I cut the frame down the center and welded in 2" long pieces to make it wider. As you can suspect, the frame is a little twisted, but will be straighted before welding the diagonals on the transmission tunnel. (Its off by 1/2")
So far, I have the rear end in, the motor mounts have been started and yesterday, I started the front suspension. I have started making my own seats out of sheet metal. They are shown in the picture, partially painted. They still need padding added to the bottom and back. (waiting till January to do that) I've managed to buy a nosecone mold from a fellow builder in my city (Guelph, ON, Canada) and I used the mold in the picture below, so I could get an idea of what it will look like.
Now, I imagine that some of you are wondering who I am. I'm probably the youngest person on this board. I've always loved building things and this project seems like its the perfect project for me. I've built 7 Go-karts (4 for me, 3 for friends), a boat and hundreds of other little projects. My dad isn't interested in cars, so when I started high school, I took auto shop and learned everything I could. So, I only have a basic knowledge of how cars work. One of the reasons I am doing this project is to broaden my knowledge of how cars work. I have learned so much already. I have built up my own little shop in my parents' garage over the past 3 years, and have all the tools needed to do this project. Its been a big financial stretch for me so far, but I'm doing it! I have graduated from high school and plan to go to college next year for Manufacturing Engineering.
Questions/ comments are encouraged and I hope to bring frequent updates. I haven't taken many pictures yet, but I plan to start taking more pictures, now that I have somewhere to post them.