LocostUSA.com

Last winter I purchased a plug in heater from Harbor Freight. Actually, I think they were on sale, two for $9.95. Anyway, I didn't have much faith they would work very well. Guess what? I was right. Pretty useless. Plug the thing in to the cigar outlet, turn the thing on, place your hand at the heat outlet and you Might, feel a slight bit of warm air. Probably get more heat on your windshield using your warm breath. Just my opinion.

Yeah, you side curtain guys, you might as well just drive something with doors and roll-up windows! (grin)

Thanks for the offer, but unless someone comes up with something more on the "highly effective" side of the scale, I'm not feeling much love for the electric thingies.

During my teenage years I drove a VW Beetle. For a car made in a country that gets pretty cold in the winter, the VW's heater was nearly useless. (yes, I replaced the rotted-out heater tubes; it didn't make much of a difference...)

I remember driving with the seat slid all the way forward, left arm out the vent window with one ice scraper, right arm with a scraper removing my frozen breath from the inside of the windshield.

My Dad also drove a Beetle. After noticing that the ducts under the back seat blew hot enough to melt sneakers on the back floorboard, he made an adapter for one side and ran a vacuum cleaner hose forward and used that as a hand-held defroster. He hung it from the rearview mirror with a bent coat hanger when not in use. By then I'd already gotten rid of mine. I drove my Dad's Beetle quite often, and had liked it enough to buy one of my own. But *that* Beetle... if there was a poster car for "lemon", it would have shown that car.

Useful only for getting through the equipment inspection in those states that demand a defroster. In practice, se7ens would be better off with windshield washers on both sides of the windshield, rather than bothering with a defroster--frost on the inside doesn't seem to be much of an issue for open cabin cars, but rain gets everywhere if it's raining hard. I carry (and use) a squeegee.

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

I tried to weigh some of the suspension bits on my digital bathroom scale, but apparently it's not programmed to weigh anything less than 20 pounds.

Off to Amazon, and then to eBay, looking for a spring platform scale good for twenty or thirty pounds. As usual, the world is out of sync with my desires; other than some expensive cookery scales or "collectible" old postal scales, all the platform scales are digital. The hanging scales are way cheaper, but they're basically just fish scales.

I'm old enough that I've had enough fancy electronic measuring tools bite the dust to make the move back to mechanical tools. That, and the @*(!&*! batteries always being dead when needed to measure something... I finally wound up buying a digital hanging scale. $3.04 coming out of Hong Kong. A replacement battery probably costs that much at the Wal-Mall, so at that price, if it quits I can just throw it away.

Oy...

Get on scale, record your weight
Get off scale, pick up car part, get back on scale, record weight
Car part = (you + part) - you

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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/

Also, here is the instructional video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_moUFQAlbc

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Photo gallery of my completed Locost:
https://plus.google.com/photos/10397358 ... banner=pwa

You guys just don't get it. If I can't come up with a working rationalization for a $3 scale, how am I ever going to justify a TIG welder?!

In other news, it looks like the rear end width is going to come out okay. I finally managed to measure the flange-to-flange width of the Geo driveline, subtracted the backspace for the new wheels, used the section width for the chosen tire size (195/50-15), subtracted a SWAG for using a 7" wheel instead of the 6" checking width, subtracted another SWAG for tire-to-body clearance, and came up with a figure of 44-3/4" for the chassis width. Subtracting two inches for a 1" chassis tube on each side and 2-3/4" for the center spine, that leaves 40", for 20" of occupant room on each side.

I knew I had some wiggle room with tripod joint plunge and wheel spacers, but it looks like everything will bolt right up. This now gives me the first fixed dimension; now that I know the width across the firewall I can start working forward.

This wins the locostusa.com reply of the month.

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-Keith

You mean I was supposed to "justify" that?

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Chuck.

“Any suspension will work if you don’t let it.” - Colin Chapman

Visit my ongoing MGB Rustoration log: over HERE

Or my Wankel powered Locost log : over HERE

And don't forget my Cushman Truckster resto Locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=17766

So you are wanting us to become ENABLERS!?

DONE!

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mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

You guys are *already* a bunch of enblers...

Justify? What's that? Why would you want to do something like that? I gave that up for Lent and never went back!

K "unmarried, DUH" S

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Check out Firearm Finishes & Coating for options to ceramic coat your Locost parts. Hundreds of stock or custom colors including Chrome and Clear Coating options now available! High Temp options for hot bits!! Plastics too!!

Never become a pessimist. A pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.-Robert A. Heinlein

Leaders... the right word is leaders and we're "leading" you down the path. Whether it's the right path is up to you and those whom observe you!!

Lead me not into temptation, Shhhhhhhh Follow me... I know a shortcut!!!

K "Bad Influence" S

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Check out Firearm Finishes & Coating for options to ceramic coat your Locost parts. Hundreds of stock or custom colors including Chrome and Clear Coating options now available! High Temp options for hot bits!! Plastics too!!

Never become a pessimist. A pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.-Robert A. Heinlein

Forums need "like" buttons!

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Check out Firearm Finishes & Coating for options to ceramic coat your Locost parts. Hundreds of stock or custom colors including Chrome and Clear Coating options now available! High Temp options for hot bits!! Plastics too!!

Never become a pessimist. A pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.-Robert A. Heinlein