LocostUSA.com

The first photo makes the frame look about 1 foot larger

I wasn't sure what you meant until I went back and checked the photo. What a hoot! Reminds me of the Luggage in Prachett's Disk World books.

John

cs3tcr
The Sprite would seem to be a pretty good donor for a "hills and hollers" car until you get into it. Actually I might have guessed by looking at the thing in plan view. That rear track is pretty narrow. No way to get two seats and a drive shaft in the space between the leaf springs. I plan coil overs but it is still pretty tight. I also plan on the driver / passenger space being the same as the Sprite's so if you are a "man of average height" it could work for you. I will put up my rough layout as soon as I can get the file size down,

Warren
Yes I plan the simple panels folded over tubes for the body but frankly I have a hard time with pop rivets as a structural element. As to the tube end restraints, those are pretty hard to calculate and with my fab skills perhaps not to predictable anyway. AND, this is my first car and it might be best if it didn't break.

Here is what I have in mind so far. Quite a few diagonals are missing for ease of visualization.

You might be surprised, but the Eleven has the same axle casing, well almost the same (Nash Met) and is quite roomy. But it also has the wire wheel adapters on it, which pushes the track out a bit. I'm thinking that i'll try some spacers on the hubs along with going with the double row hub bearings, if i get around to building the current idea.

The problem is that the narrow axle won't allow the passenger / driver space to fit inside the wheels. So I have to push the seats forward a little and enclose the inner sides of the wheels (not a big deal). As Sprite axles are a little fragile I am not sure I want to extend them.

SCD,
What are the chances you could expand on this drawing showing the triangulated configuration with other views, especially an isometric view?
Thnnx, Mike Bynum

This should do it. It's a book frame, except for the obvious. Note that in addition to a nicely triangulated top plane, the tunnel is a tall box all the way back to the dash plane. One would want to mock this up, which I haven't, to make sure the steering is high enough... might have to make the frame a little taller yet.


.

Thnx SCD,
It might be time to do a balsa model.
Mike

So I was called bizarre for turning a Sprite into a Locost. True but turning a Miata into a locost make less sense to me. The Sprite didn't have any attaching parts left. Most Miatas haven't come to that stage yet.

I digress. I have just finished sending the Sprite body to it's final reword ($42). The disassembly did not go at all well. I can't get the lower pivot apart because it wore thru the bushing and half way thru the pin. So I am wondering if it is possible to swap for a Spitfire upright using the Sprite brakes and R&P. I see that hubs with the correct bolt center are available. Does this make sense or do I look for undamaged Sprite parts?

Vroom,
If it were me, and i'm actually planning on doing somewhat of the same as you, i would opt for the Spit upright. The Spridget is a very old design with trunnions at both the top and bottom, where as the Spit is a little bit newer and has a top ball joint. As far as swapping the Midget hubs etc, thats a little tricky. You would have to have custom stub axles made for the Triumph upright then figure out which disc to use (disc wheel or wire wheel), then figure out the caliper spacing. I tried all this with the Spridget wire wheel hubs and had nothing but failure. But, now looking at the prices of 4" PCD hubs in the UK, i would think about that option rather than messing about with adapting the Spridget parts to the Spit upright.

But.... Westfield still employs the Spridget kingpin assembly on their Elevens and it seems to work just fine. So, its a matter of working with what you want or how much you want to spend.

Thx again Rod, I think I'll try and make the Sprite bits work. My wife already refers to this as a mocost.
T

Am now in the parts cleaning and repair phase

Just as I convinced myself that I should be using Sprite front end parts (low cost)another problem appeared. It seems the lower trunnion bearing is actually a screw thread. Needless to say this design failed pretty quickly on all Sprites. To make matters worse the mating surface can only be repaired by replacing the lower A frame ($140 ea.). Not locost and not what I had in mind for the lower A arm. So I am stuck with designing and building a new trunnion pin and bearing. The complication is in coming up with a good grease seal. Something I have no experience with.

good luck!

It may be more practical to repair it.
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