LocostUSA.com

I like how you are connecting the inboard suspension points from one side of that chassis to the other with straight horizontal tubes, eliminating "suspension brackets" altogether. I was going to try to use that concept where possible also, but I have only ever seen it done with square tubing, I'm interested to see how are you going to capture the rod end inside the round tube? (if that's not jumping too far ahead)

no, that is next thing on the menu.. I will have small inserts that will be welded in the tube.. simple really.. the only problem is that the bolts have to be accessed trough other tubing that is connected to that joint... I guess, you will see it in about a month..

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Building a single seater middy BEC with GSXR 1000 power
build log: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5899

day job: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/

Your build reminds me of the Nemesis by RCR. Have you seen this?

Not trying to hijack

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www.KitSpeed.com

yeah, saw it.. looks nice although I am not a fan of curved tubing..

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Building a single seater middy BEC with GSXR 1000 power
build log: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5899

day job: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/

went to buy some argon yesterday... usually I just exchange bottles for full ones, but since I work with smaller 10l bottles they did not have them in sotck... so had to leave them to be filled up.. that is one more 20 mile round trip..
however, they then discovered one of my bottles (that they gave me last time) did not have a valid certificate anymore and had to be serviced... another 100 bucks down the drain..

to relax a bit, did some fitting today...

first I cut the lower rails according to the stickers I made..
I then proceeded to drill a hole in the rear to weld in the coupler for the rails that will be under the engine.. Last time I did it I completely messed it up and drilled it wrong by 90 degrees..
so this time I took care, made the jig and all..





of course, I made another mistake by doubling the angle at which it has to sit in the tube...




it was supposed to be paralel with the bulkhead but is just 1.3 deg off.. well, I can live with that... I now need to get to my fathers place of work and use his lather to make the adapters..

the rest of the fitup was plain sailing... made the jig in no time, and had to dress up some tubes a bit for everything to fit perfectly..


then I drilled some vent holes and prepared all joints for welding..

the vent sits inside the tube on the left of course..

just need the argon and I can move on..

_________________
Building a single seater middy BEC with GSXR 1000 power
build log: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5899

day job: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/

welded up the lower frame..


finally can move onto the 3rd dimension..

I made some wooden tepmplates to keep the bulkhead geometry..


it will also serve as a provisional frame, to make life easier when doing the final fitting of the vertical connecting tubes..

_________________
Building a single seater middy BEC with GSXR 1000 power
build log: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5899

day job: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/

Its funny how the 95 percentile male lives his life a 1/4 mile at a time and likes to give people the finger.....

Great job so far, good luck with the build.

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If it has tits or tires it will cost you money.

thx...

wooden template idea is no good.. accuracy is bad and I seem to have used scrap wood that is bent, etc, etc,.. have to make a different steel frame today...

_________________
Building a single seater middy BEC with GSXR 1000 power
build log: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5899

day job: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/

slow progress.... with my own business, two kids and a wife (who doesn't know about the build ) I get to work very little..

made a simple jig from steel, to hold the upper frame in it's exact position so that I can fine tune the vertical tubes.. do not have a pic for some reason..

I had a specific problem.. I have lots of big joints with 3 or more tubes joining... and I wanted to have all of them welded togeather completely... meaning that I could not just stick a couple of tubes in a joint togeather and weld what I could see, but rather weld them one at a time... This is a problem when you have X braces and stuff as you can not really add tubes afterwards..

so here is how I did it...

First, I fitted the 4 vertical tubes.. just fine fitting so that all of them would fit. I marked a centre point on the upper and lower frames, both front and rear, so that I could track their relative positions and adjust the frame for potential wrappage..



with the verticals in place I welded the joints A, B, C fully.. (ok, not 100% but 4 tacks and a full weld which goes under the DIAGONAL1 tube)
then I "opened" that frame up a bit (joint D is still oppen..) and inserted the DIAGONAL1 tube... and tacked the D joint...
The new vertical frame was wrapped a bit, so I used some straps to bend it back into position and tacked the DIAGONAL1...
Two smaller diagonals that form a X were inserted later, I had to make a straight cut at one end, to be able to push them in.. but I will weld those pieces back in and add an external piece to add strength...


side triangles were done in a similar fashion..
First, I put in the rear part of the diagonals, and welded in the F and G joints


then I added the front vertical pieces, and welded the upper E joints fully


the H joints were left unwelded, so I simply lifted the front upper frame a bit (not easy at all) and inserted the front diagonals.. and welded the H joints..
First measurements show very little wrapage. Next on the list is side pods, and rear triangles that will hold the engine...

_________________
Building a single seater middy BEC with GSXR 1000 power
build log: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5899

day job: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/

slow progress..

I am missing the tubing sizes needed for the front so that will have to wait, and also need to use a lathe to turn out some adapters so that I can make the two tubes below the engine removable..

in the meantime I decided that this is a good time to completely weld up the centre part of the frame, as this required a lot of turning it around and it is easier now than after I add some more tubing..

Then onto the sidepods..


the rear triangle is 40mmx1.5 but the sidepods are 40mmx1.0 and it is a B%^&$# to weld.. I need some thiner rod but there is none to buy..

I mocked up the rear triangle and sidepods.. it is upside down..






there are some funky cuts...


due to the fact that the welded part of the frame is not 100% correct, the tubing cuts need a bit of an "adjustment" with a file now.. ..
I positioned the rear triangles 1 cm wider, and I will have to reflect that in the SW file so that the next bunch of cutting templates are geometrically correct..

This was also a perfect opportunity to check out if my GSXR1000 radiator will fit into the sidepod..

Of course... the various water inlets are in all the wrong places... so I cut them off... I will weld them on later to the correct positions..


here it is... will fit like a charm.. There will be a fiberglass / CF duct around it later on.. It is a bit of a tight fit but I am too lazy to enlarge the sidepods righ now..

_________________
Building a single seater middy BEC with GSXR 1000 power
build log: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5899

day job: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/

Had too much on my hands in the past months, but did some work on the project... but that update will have to wait for some parts to come back from machining...

In the meantime I did a lot of work on the front uprights and brake packaging.. which took me on to the problem of the ammount of lock I needed.. as all my outside joints are inside the wheel the ammount of lock I design in directly influences the way the upright will look... which takes me directly to the two toys I had the pleasure of driving recently..

Westfield is a relatively big "seven" manufacturer in the UK, and is more like the traditional "locost" but this car gave me a good idea of what I wanted and gave me some more motive to finish..









I still have to measure how much lock these have, but I figure that I will need less than 30degrees to either side that I originally intended.
Second, I will need to pay great attention to throttle cable routing as these things often do not have smooth throttles..
Third... 190 BHP on 580 kg is FUN..

I am also having their "road" model to use for a few days...


Unfortunately, I found out that two seaters are fun for the kids... and mine will be a single seater.... oh, well....

and a little video..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzR6Ht4Nvb4

_________________
Building a single seater middy BEC with GSXR 1000 power
build log: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5899

day job: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/

ok,

got the first batch of parts back from machining.. One of the ideas behind the build was to be able to do most of the stuff on my father's lathe but since that one broke down I had to give it out to be done... luckily, CNC ended up being not so expensive so I'll be using some tasty cnc parts..

Anyway... one of the biggest problems was what part of the complicated frame to make detachable so that I can put in the engine and take i out..

At firts I wantd to make the whole rear section removable, but I have no real use for that feature. Then I decided to make the two tubes below the engine removable. Those two will be connected togeather by a flat steel sheet, to provide torsion rigidity for the frame.



I thought hard how to do the joint, and ended up with this.



The horizontal tube going under the engine to be welded onto the little piece of tube that is held by a ziptie in this photo.

After welding I added an additional gusset..

_________________
Building a single seater middy BEC with GSXR 1000 power
build log: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5899

day job: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/

Are you going to weld the removable tube right to that sleeve? Same setup on both ends? I wish you luck reinstalling that after you remove it the first time.

on the rear the setup will be a bit simpler.. I allready removed it so it works, for now, I can always file a bit off the sleeve for added clearence.. in fact it works much more easily if you do not add the gusset..

_________________
Building a single seater middy BEC with GSXR 1000 power
build log: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5899

day job: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/

_________________
Building a single seater middy BEC with GSXR 1000 power
build log: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5899

day job: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v723/turbolimac/portfolio/