LocostUSA.com

Learning how to build Lotus Seven replicas...together!
It is currently March 29, 2024, 2:26 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 227 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ... 16  Next
Author Message
 Post subject:
PostPosted: April 7, 2006, 12:40 pm 
picked up one of these yesterday evening to help me with some of the work that needs to be done on the car..

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_SessionID=...TOOL&pid=00918419000

Its an upright 60 gallon Craftsman air compressor, belt drive & twin cylinder. I opted for the oiled compressor, as I feel that the oiled design will last a lot longer. The belt drive will be nice and quiet too. :)

I bought it at full price.. went online and found that its on sale for $100 off! So, I'll go get that back tonight. 8)

and as for build-related updates.. I welded a section of 2x2x.25" box steel to the tops of the uprights with a 1/2" hole through it. This serves as the upper heim mount, keeping the upper heim captive, as I know it will have a lot of forces acting on it in that position.

So, I have the rear uprights done (aside from the brake caliper brackets... Thats what I needed the compressor for). I needed air for the plasma cutter to make some brackets.. I've been without an air compressor for a couple weeks now (see one of my posts above about my roommate's compressor nearly burning my garage down).

Next up will be fabbing the upper rear arms. Then, I can move on to the front suspension. Once the suspension is done, that will be a real milestone in the car's build.


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: April 10, 2006, 6:20 pm 
just won an ebay auction for one of these:

Image

This is the rear shock/coilover off of a street bike. Got it for $15! These seem to be pretty abundant on ebay, so I've got a bid in on one more to match it.. I'll post up the make/model when the auction ends for my second one.

I'll see if I can get some sketches up tonight for the pushrod suspension I have planned for up front.


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Impressive build
PostPosted: April 10, 2006, 8:08 pm 
and inspiring. Your documentation is excellent.

May I enquire what you gave for the donor vehicle?

I have been searching not finding anything yet ... super locost.

TIA


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: April 10, 2006, 11:08 pm 
Wow that sure looks like a mid 90's ZX series shock.


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: April 10, 2006, 11:57 pm 
:) Yeah, off a '99 or '00 ZX7R Ninja.


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Impressive build
PostPosted: April 11, 2006, 12:00 am 
DavidFE wrote:
and inspiring. Your documentation is excellent.

May I enquire what you gave for the donor vehicle?

I have been searching not finding anything yet ... super locost.

TIA


I have several donors. My car is a mix of a lot of different parts so far. The drivetrain parts such as axles, bearings, spindles, etc, came out of a $500 240sx parts car, which also provided a good title for me to use. The engine and tranny came out of a '95 240sx and I picked these up from a local place that specializes in high performance engine swaps (it came out of a customers car) for $650. The seats and steering parts are Porsche, but were about as locost as it gets... free from a friend. :)


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: April 12, 2006, 3:13 am 
Some update photos from tonight...

Got one upper rear arm pretty much finished:
Image
Image

Here are the 90% finished rear uprights:
Image

I was playing around with the frontend tonight and found out that Porsche 914 tie rod ends fit perfectly in a 240sx knuckle end.. might be able to use this to my advantage when buying parts, since I have to get a Porsche 911 turbo rack ball joint & tie rod end kit for the steering rack.
Image

The frontend is going to need some serious widening...
Image

Detail of the welds on the upper mount of the rear upright:
Image

Measuring for a swaged steel tube for my toe adjustment. Looks like a 9"x 5/8" threaded tube will work well.
Image

The backend is starting to look more like a car:
Image

Detail of the suspension geometry. Looks like camber gain is acceptable throughout the travel too. right at around ~0.5-0.6 degree per inch of travel. The arms look like they will provide more than adequate adjustment as well. I was able to go from positive to negative camber just with the upper heim joint being adjusted.
Image


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Impressive build
PostPosted: April 12, 2006, 11:06 am 
Datz510,

Thank you very much for the details. Here in the St. Louis area it could be a combination of no one has a parts car....yeah sure. Or more likely, I am not looking the right places yet.

Looking great. Will enjoy following along to completion.

Thanks again,

David Edwards

datz510 wrote:
DavidFE wrote:
and inspiring. Your documentation is excellent.

May I enquire what you gave for the donor vehicle?

I have been searching not finding anything yet ... super locost.

TIA


I have several donors. My car is a mix of a lot of different parts so far. The drivetrain parts such as axles, bearings, spindles, etc, came out of a $500 240sx parts car, which also provided a good title for me to use. The engine and tranny came out of a '95 240sx and I picked these up from a local place that specializes in high performance engine swaps (it came out of a customers car) for $650. The seats and steering parts are Porsche, but were about as locost as it gets... free from a friend. :)


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: April 13, 2006, 12:38 pm 
Welp, I finally got the last rear upper A arm done last night!!! Its sortof a mini-milestone for me.

I'm now starting to plan out the front suspension. Need to do some math for the front geometry, as I hear the 442 chassis is a real bear to make it proper.

The chromoly swaged steel tubes for the rear toe adjusters were ordered yesterday. Once I get those, the rear arms will be finished.

Also, I have two of the ZX7R Ninja shocks on their way, so I can start working on that portion of the suspension.


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: April 13, 2006, 1:05 pm 
Here is what I have in mind for the rear coilover arrangement. Tossed some numbers in there to get an idea of approximate dimensions and whatnot.

Image

What do you guys think of this setup? One real advantage is that it will allow easy accessibility for fine tuning, since it'll all be on top of the differential cage. Its also a lot more simple than a pushrod, which I was contemplating (will still do pushrods or mabye pullrods up front though). Shouldnt be too difficult to fabricate either.

Will the 5/8" heim on the top of my uprights be able to handle the forces generated by this arrangement?


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: April 13, 2006, 2:28 pm 
That's a very similar design to what I plan on doing in my mazda based locost.

You can also see some picture of a complete setup here:
http://www.fiaccone.com/Aug_updates.pdf
http://www.fiaccone.com/media/Feb06/Dri ... eMount.JPG
http://www.fiaccone.com/media/Feb06/DamperFinal.JPG

-Erik


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: April 13, 2006, 2:43 pm 
Nice! Those photos give me a few more ideas for my setup! I really like the adjustable links for fine tuning the ride height. Those would make my setup a lot easier to implement.


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: April 13, 2006, 11:41 pm 
Yes,

Both the front and rear look good to me on Chris's implementation.

One thought, the fuel tank looks really really small. I sure want a bigger one.

Wonder how much room Chris has and you will have.


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: April 14, 2006, 12:34 am 
I've made room for a summit racing RCI aluminum fuel cell that I have my eyes on... not exactly Locost, but for a fuel cell, I want to go with the best I can get.. This particular cell comes with a 0-90 ohm level sender and has a capacity of 15 gallons, which should provide excellent range for a car this small.

Image

This cell is 9" wide and will fit perfectly behind the diff cage in my car. I've measured it out and I have exactly 9.25" of room before it hits the top member of the diff cage.

Speaking of senders, I have been seriously thinking about instruments to monitor everything. Thinking I'll go with a set of these Nordskog gauges in the dash along with a standard analog tach and speedometer:

Image


Top
  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: April 14, 2006, 12:47 am 
Soooo.. I'm in the planning stages for the front suspension and steering now...

I measured out the rear trackwidth based off the WMS (wheel mating surface) and mocked up the frontend with the same measurements. Here you can see the knuckle sitting about where it will with the finished suspension.

Total measurement is 31.5" to wheel mating surface from the centerline of the 442 chassis:
Image

Front view of the same..
Image

Worked on dismantling the steering rack to see how it goes together, and came up with a great idea on how to put the steering together without a lot of expensive parts...
Image

Found that the end of the rack sports an M14x1.5" threaded hole. This will allow me to secure a clevis to mount a high misalignment heim joint on the end of the rack:
Image

This heim joint will then allow use of a swaged chromoly steel tie rod adjuster for a standard sprint car application. At the knuckle, I'll drill out the tapered tie rod end hole to accept a 1/2" or 5/8" bolt on which another high misalignment (left hand threaded) heim will be mounted. This will really simplify things and I wont have to bother with making a custom tie rod nor will I have to purchase the Porsche 930 turbo tie rod kit for the 914 rack.

Here are the ends of the stock Porsche 914 tie rod ends:
Image

Here are the Nissan 240sx control arm ends. I hacked these off to start making the lower A arms for the frontend:
Image

And heres a shot of the backend with all the A arms in place:
Image


Top
  
Reply with quote  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 227 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ... 16  Next

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 62 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to:  
POWERED_BY