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I did a half ass drag everything out of the garage and into the driveway cleanout today. Swept out what I hope are the last of the metal shavings and even tore down the build table too. I'm not sure what to do with all that extra space in there now. Wait, I know! I'll stack junk there. yay!

I washed the car for the first time ever, then winterized it by filling up with 93 octane and treating it with Stabil. I flushed the water from my coolant system and filled up with 50% water/antifreeze since on the coldest days of the year the little sports car might have to sit outside on the parking pad while my daily driver gets the garage. Don't worry I'll throw a blue tarp over it in typical appalachian fashion. I friggin' hate getting into a cold car in the morning, and I've been doing it now for the last two winters while I worked on it.

Whoever it was on this board who said water cools better than antifreeze/water mix was right on the money. I went out for an end of season blat to "mix in the stabilizer" etc. I actually just missed the sensation of sheer locostering hooliganism. Anyway I ran it pretty hard and when I glanced down at the temp guage it was higher than usual. When I got it back in the garage and was sitting there idling with the fan whirrling away I noticed it continued to climb until it was obvious the fan was incapable of cooling it down on its own and I shut it off.

What's strange is with straight water in it I could sit in long staging lines idling for long periods of time between runs and it never came close to overheating. I never dreamed the antifreeze would make such a difference. I suppose I need to put shroud around my fan to seal it to the inside of the nosecone to better duct the air.

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Thats why for performance tweaked engines, you run as little antifreeze as possible. I run about 25% and thats only for the anti-corrosion stuff in the antifreeze. Of course I also dont have to worry about freeze here much.

Also, many racing organizations do not allow traditional coolant on-track. In the event of a spill, coolant is as slippery as oil. Water + WaterWetter is what everyone runs.

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Midlana book: Build this mid-engine Locost!, http://midlana.com/stuff/book/
Kimini book: Designing mid-engine cars using FWD drivetrains
Both available from https://www.lulu.com/

What do they do in the winter?

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

So I'll be bringing this thread back from the dead for the next few weeks. As most of you know Jack McCornack bought my locost. He has however yet to take posession of it. He has informed me that he will be here to pick it up mid April and he will be driving it home. I am in the process of tearing it down and repainting the frame since my POR15 paintjob proved very POOR. (In POR's defense I never used their prepping agent, I just washed, degreased, washed and painted) It didn't stick for crap, and it didn't do anything to prevent rust. After one year in the elements and being flat towed over salted roads it had a lot of surface rust in areas under panels and where gravels had chipped the brittle surface.

I'm grinding all of the old paint and surface rust off and recoating it with "Rust Bullet" that I bought from Summit. I did some testing this winter and it looks to perform much better than the POR15 crap (sorry, IMHO) in several ways. Painted a couple cutoffs of 1" square tubing with POR, Rust Bullet, and Rustoleom and left them outside in the elements all winter. The rust bullet looks as good as the day I painted it, zero rust and incredible adhesion-will not chip off. The POR has some rust through and is flaky and chips and peels pretty easily. The Rustoleum did pretty well (good in fact) but doesn't display the same incredible adhesion and scratch/chip resistance that the Rust Bullet does. Now before you POR devotees flame me I know they recommend a "metal-etch" surface prep with their proprietary chemical and I skipped that step, and instead used some "metal-prep" phosphoric adic compound I found at Lowes, so that may effect the result. Regardless the Rust Bullet stuck incredibly well and dominated my primitive test, so that's what's going on the frame. *edit*- Also forgot to mention the Rust Bullet is UV stable and doesn't need to be topcoated like the POR15.

I had planned on installing some swaybars so I went ahead and executed that plan on the front today during the tear down. I already had the design in my head so it went quite fast. All I did was adapt a factory Miata swaybar by mounting it to the front of the frame above the upper control arm and then extended the links down to the lower control arm. It fits nicely behind the radiator and only required some slight notching of the nosecone. The pics and video below should illustrate it well. I will mount the factory rear swaybar in similar fashion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHfc43wVq-g

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Hey, Chet...thanks for the update. I think I'll still use the POR-15, just because I've got two quarts waiting on the shelf. I bought the same metal prep from Lowe's...think I oughta spring for the POR-brand prep?

BTW, you've got a lot of thread showing on that upper ball joint. How much thread is in the arm?

-dave

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...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

Not enough. That's my "autocross" alignment which will be tossed in favor of a more streetable/safe alignment for Jack's epic voyage.

At my last event I was experimenting with how front track change effected my times. What you see there is my max front track width.

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Chet,
I was really hoping to get down there and see your car sometime. It's been a long time since I've see one up close. It's a bummer that you had to sell it!

SamM

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1964 Lotus Seven Replica

You are welcome to come see it anytime, as long as it's before April 14th.

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Thanks Chet!

I may try to get down to see it. I'll let you know.

SamM

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1964 Lotus Seven Replica

Hey Chet thats a really nice build. I'm sorry if I didn't notice but what size is the chassis on you car?

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A MAN'S GOT TO KNOW HIS LIMITATIONS!

I did virtually the same test. Brushed some Rust Bullet onto a rusty tube then left it in the yard for four years - yes, four. Looked good as new.

Of course I then went and powdercoated the frame because I didn't want to spray Rust Bullet on and (IMHO) the brush marks looked bad. Oh, and that stuff smells NASTY.

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Midlana book: Build this mid-engine Locost!, http://midlana.com/stuff/book/
Kimini book: Designing mid-engine cars using FWD drivetrains
Both available from https://www.lulu.com/

Indeed. The stuff does reek.

And it's a book sized chassis Locostspeed.

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Thanks for the info Chet, I think I'll rust bullet my suspension arms, the uprights and some other parts with the rust bullet.

Moti

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Moti

My R1 powered Locost build log

Visit the Blackbird Fabworx Facebook Page!

And if you're anywhere south of Charleston, I'll swing by and show it to you--my first stop is the Sun 'N' Fun festivities at Lakeland Florida.

Man, I'm excited about this.

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles