Over the past 2 years, I have been working on an Electric Locost 7 the Frame was a custom build. Looking back if I truly understood how much work it was going to be I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have started. The whole system is based on an ADC 8in with a ZEVA MC1000C from Ian Hooper in Australia (If you guys are looking for serious DC power his controllers are the best you can buy)! The frame was fabricated as per the book's instruction until I saw it called for a solid rear axle, at that point I decided to depart from the book and work Miata gear using a 1.6 diff with NA CV joints as well as hub carriers front and back. The battery pack was from a wrecked Chevy volt and I took apart the pack to repackage in order to fit in the car as well as hack the BMS plugs to use the ZEVA BMS system all interfaced through CAN bus. I used TIG and MIG to weld the chassis and the use of a plasma cutter made the bottom pan and easy endeavor. The roll cage was a completely different story too as I decided to take on the project of making my own hydraulic bender as a break from the Locost for a bit. The bender is made of a hydraulic Ram from harbor freight and the die was from JD I believe. It is hard to summarise all the little humps in the road over such a long time and sadly the pictures only show the final product but hopefully the YouTube video that I threw together sheds some light on the whole process. I have serious respect for people who have gone the full fabricated frame route on any car definitely an experience of a lifetime! Plus I'm pretty sure I haven't seen an electric Locost so something unique hopefully. Please don't hesitate to ask questions about the build I encourage anyone to try this out! I have a plate and insurance on it so now its on to the next project.
YouTube Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C2fl4Afbhs Big thanks to my Dad for helping me finish it up when I broke my wrist and had to go through surgery it was painful not to be able work on the car he helped so much with the bodywork and getting it on the road through the nightmare at the DMV!