LocostUSA.com

Here is the radiator overflow tank I am using, Speedway Motors part number 911-02213. Second picture are the front signal lights I bought. They have a dual filament bulb in them, like the front signal lights on the Miata, which serve as the daytime running lights and the front turn signal. I got them from the Old Car Centre, part number 7617M.

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Photo gallery of my completed Locost:
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Here is the headlight and signal light mounting brackets, tacked into place, and the test fit of the headlight and signal light.

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Photo gallery of my completed Locost:
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Lower control arm set up in the assembly jig and test fitting the lower control arm.

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Photo gallery of my completed Locost:
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Here is one of the upper control arms, ready for welding. The ball joint is offset 3/4" from center, to create 5 degrees of castor when installed. The upper ball joint can be threaded in and out to adjust camber. The second photo are the front right upper and lower control arms in place, with the Miata spindle and the shock test fitted. If you look closely, there is a stack up of washers on both inside faces of the upper control arm bushings. I can shuffle these washers front to back to fine tune the castor angle.

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Photo gallery of my completed Locost:
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Here is a CAD model showing the rear shock mounts. The red plates are bolted to the grey brackets. If I need to raise the rear of the car, I will install a spacer between the red plates and the grey brackets. Also shown are the 2" X 2" angle iron pieces that will support the gas tank. The second photo are the rear shock mount brackets, ready to be welded to the frame. The third photo is the gas tank and battery in their intended position. The rear bench seat will be installed in front of the gas tank.

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Photo gallery of my completed Locost:
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Rough positioning of the rear bench seat, which is from a 2004 Jeep TJ, and its position in relation to the gas tank. There will be a firewall between the two.

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Tires ready to be mounted. They are Dunlop Direzza DZ102. Size 225/50R16. The chassis is starting to take shape!

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Photo gallery of my completed Locost:
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Looks good, I'm excited to see this build progress.

Mark,
great start to a good looking build. Really looking forward to it.
Maybe I can stop in some time and see it in person. Not that I get to the Lower Mainland very often, but I thought I saw you leaving Metal Supermarket in Richmond the other day, if that was indeed you.

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Martin


My build log:
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14520&start=0
My build video:
https://vimeo.com/143524140 password "matovid"

Thanks for the comments everyone.

mgkluft, yes, that was likely me that you saw leaving Metal Supermarkets. It would have been between 12:30 and 1:00 during my lunch break. Small world! My daily driver is a spitting image of the donor car I bought. I lucked out with finding a donor that was the same color as my daily driver, so I took some of the panels from it that were in nicer shape than what I had on my daily driver, and transferred them to my daily Miata. It had nicer wheels too, which I switched over. You're welcome to come by and check it out some time. I'm building it in my parents barn in South Surrey, since I don't have the room at my place. I usually head out there to work on it a couple evenings a week.

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Photo gallery of my completed Locost:
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I like what you are doing and will be watching so I can steal ideas. I mean borrow, yeah that's it borrow. I'm going to try using the front subframe complete. I have more room to work with so I think it will be fine but in case it doesn't work out I can copy yours, I mean borrow the idea. I made the gas tank on my Locost and it has given me fits. My next tank will be like yours, using the Miata fuel pump instead of an external one.

How do you like the XXR wheels? I was thinking about putting Rota wheels on my Locost but I've seen some complaints that they don't always balance well. Are you going to use the Miata power plant frame? I used it shortened on my Locost and plan to do that on the one I'm building now. It takes up extra space but you don't need to design mounts for the diff or worry about aligning the drive shaft angle.

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My car viewtopic.php?f=37&t=16434
1930s Style Sports Car viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16888

Thanks Run87k.

After staring at the stock Miata subframe for a while, I decided that I would not be able to use it as-is with the frame and body style that I am going with, so I ended up making my own. I replicated the stock Miata lower and upper inner control arm pivot locations, minus the anti-dive angle of the upper control arm inner pivot axis. If you are able to use the stock Miata front subframe, it will save you a bunch of time, but I'm happy to share my dimensions with you if you want to make your own.

I chose the XXR wheels based on the style and size that I was looking for, and the price. I bought them online from Next Level Motoring which was the best deal I could find:

http://www.nlmotoring.com/Default.asp

The tire shop that mounted the tires didn't mention any issues with balancing them, but I noticed that they had to put what seems like a fair number of weights on them. It'll be a while before the car is on the road, so I'll have to wait to see if there is any vibration in them.

I am planning on using the Miata PPF, but it looks like I'm going to have to add a section in it to lengthen it in order to give the rear seat passengers at least some usable amount of leg room.

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Photo gallery of my completed Locost:
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Here are the brackets that allow the Jeep TJ rear seat to attach to the floor of the car, using the existing clamping mechanism that is on the rear seat. The 1/2" bolts are just temporary, and will be replaced with 1/2" steel bars welded into the brackets. Picture 2 shows the rear seat clamped in place. Being mounted above the rear subframe and frame rails, the rear seat ended up being pretty high, so the roof of the car is probably going to have be higher than I think would be aesthetically optimal. It's a necessary compromise, since I don't want the rear passengers to have to crouch (too much).

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Photo gallery of my completed Locost:
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Dude, you're building a custom. Aesthetics ALWAYS trump comfort

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The B-3 build log: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=13941 unfortunately, all the pictures were lost in the massive server crash

The beginnings of the Jag Special,
https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19012
Again, all pictures were lost.

I used seats from a Hyunai that I got from a junk yard in my Locost. I took the seats completely apart and rewelded the seat frame to make it narrower. I redid the mounts to make it lower. Then I cut the seat foam to match the revised frame and sewed the covers to match. I ended up with seats that appear to be stock seats but are about 4" narrower and 3" lower. You could do something similar to get the people in back to sit lower without causing them pain.

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My car viewtopic.php?f=37&t=16434
1930s Style Sports Car viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16888