geek49203 wrote:
Do you have any more data on the Lola-perspired body?
Good questions, Tim. And now, for some good answers:
- How many pennies will I need?The first three builders will need two hundred thousand pennies total, and fifty thousand of those at time of order. It's conceivable that I'll be able to hold close to that price in later production but it may go up as high as a quarter million pennies after those three are shipped. The initial pricing is a reward for being an early adopter, which means A) being a beta tester, and B) having the nads to commit before I have the parts in stock. I know this is a big departure from the usual Kinetic policy but there's a reason*.
- About what date do you think you'd be ready to ship?I predict three months after the third guy signs up. I intend to install the first set of parts out of the molds onto MAX, because A) I'll need to dismantle MAX for mold patterns, and B) if you're going to be beta testers, the least I can do is be an alpha tester.
- Hell, for that matter, how would you ship?Here's my What You Get For Your Two Grand list: Two rear fenders, two front fenders, a nose center section, two fiberglass-front-of-pontoon-thingies-I-haven't-named-yet (a combination inner fender liner and pontoon streamliner; you'll note they don't exist on the prototype but they're Under Developent), two door skins and frames, either a set of scuttle bulkheads for a sheetmetal scuttle or a two part scuttle a la the current Superscuttle (I haven't decided which one is best yet), bulkheads for the sheetmetal pontoons, Dzuses and hardware and hinges oh my, and sufficient fiberglass mat to get you through the assembly and fitting process.
The main reason the nose will come in three pieces is to greatly reduce the size of the package. The box will still be too big for UPS but it won't be as big as a nose box, so truck freight shouldn't be a killer. And there are a couple more reasons...
- Most importantly for me now, what are the chassis dimensions that you'll be building for? I'd rather spend my time driving instead of learning to cut up a body that I just got for $$$...By making the nose in three pieces, the pontoons and stern simple curves of sheetmetal, the scuttle either sheet-and-bulkhead or superscuttle-style, and the doors as skins to be cut to length and reinforced, is that (within reason) you'll be able to make the body fit whatever chassis you like.
You can widen the body by moving the fenders further apart from their L-or-R opposites, by extending the rear panel in back, as on the prototype, and trimming the center section of the nose to fit, as also done on the prototype and alluded to in MAX Update No. 50: How to Make a Fiberglass Mold** and you can lengthen the body by extending the pontoons and doors. Of course if you get silly it'll look like your car was built by Big Daddy Roth, but in the range from original Locost to +442 (which includes the Haynes Roadster) it blends nicely (same as the Se7en inspired bodies do now).
The third reason for a three part nose (basically two fenders and a hood) is that engine variations can be accomodated by modifying only the center section The fourth reason...dang, I said three reasons***...is you'll have the option of a flip-up nose or fixed fenders and a hood.
And now, on to the asterisks:
*I'm proposing the county grant Kinetic some of the state lottery funds which are earmarked for local economic development, in order to do tooling (among other things), including molds for this body. To qualify I have to convince the County Commissioners there is a demand for these products, and nothing says market demand like orders with pre-paid deposits.
The Locost industry has a well-earned horrible reputation for sucking up deposit money with no intention of filling orders, which is why Kinetic hasn't called for advance payment or deposits in the past, but I figure I've got a reputation of my own by now and won't get lumped in with the carpetbaggers. Besides, I'm only going to take a maximum of three body pre-orders, and I'm not likely to bail with a modest $1500 in ill gotten gains.
**Go to
http://www.motherearthnews.com/blogs/bl ... 00&tag=MAX and scroll down to Update #50. And if you read the latest entry (#92)...
horizenjob wrote:
Jack - you drive around in a car you make and at some point women just drape themselves over it?
...you'll find that, yup, that's pretty much what happens. I try not to encourage them, but you know how kids are, crawling all over everything--what's a fella to do?
***Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.