LocostUSA.com

Long time no see gents!!

Some of you may remember me. I forgot my login info from the other account hence the "Briggs2". It's hard to believe that it's been almost 10 years since I last posted on this forum. I miss you guys!!

I'll get you all caught up on what all has happened in that time. I was building a Car9 and got the frame done. Around the same time I started a fabrication business. The business grew and I wasn't able to finish the car. I still have all the parts minus the frame as I had do scrap it unfortunately. 8Eight Fab took a lot of my time. In those 7 years I built up a pretty damn good fabrication business specializing in Volvo performance products. You can view the website at 8Eightfab.com. The business is currently forsale as I am going to school for Mechanical Engineering. Im medically retired from the military now so I decided to go back to school. Might as well take advantage of that GI Bill. In those 7 years I've learned a ton about fabrication and welding. I've worked at places like Detroit Speed and other classic car building shops. I went full time with the business 2 years ago. I was going to school part time up until last semester. We won't cover FEA stuffs in my solidworks class so I'll be youtubing how to do that.

I also got married, last year actually. My wife has a 13 year old son who is in 8th grade. He lives with us "full-time" and has shown an interest in cars. We've built a go kart last year. I told him when he started high school him and I would work on building a locost. So here we are!!

This time around I'm going to do things a bit different. I'm planning on building a 442e to keep the nose cone simple. I'll definitely be stealing ideas from the Car9 like the larger 1.25" tubing for the main tubes of the car. I'm planning on drawing everything in Solidworks which I have not started on yet. I will be using miata front spindles, a Volvo redblock turbo with a 5 speed trans (should be good for 200hp) I also plan on using the solid axle rear from a Volvo 240/740 etc... I'll probably use megasquirt to run the engine. Why Volvo and why solid axle? My plan is to finish this car in less than 4 years. Redblocks can be had for cheap, the are simple and SOLID and the solid axle keeps it easy. Keep in mind this is a learning experience for my son and I don't want to overwhelm him with complex suspension geometry. We'll save that for when he's in college or after. Also the solid axle will keep the rear simple and I've built a bunch of 4 link with panhard bars while working on classic cars. The volvo uses a Dana 30 rear diff so I can find lockers for it.

That's my plan for everything. Currently we are in the planning stage. I'll get to drawing this week.

Glad to be back gents!

Hey Briggs,

Great to see you back!

I've gotta ask, did that set of headers you did way back when for someone to pay for your welder start you on your fabrication journey?

Anyway, your new build sounds like a good plan. Keep it simple and have fun. I'll definitely be following you.

You know we lost JD Kemp and Team Slotus, right? That was a very sad day for so many of us.

My journey into one-off land has meant solving a lot of problems that have ready made, tried and true solutions if you choose and established build type. You'll have some variations due to the Volvo equipment, but not too much.

By the way, have you used the Weldments feature of Solidworks? It makes building a tube chassis very easy. I used it to do a version of the Haynes Roadster from the Gibbs book.


Best,

Lonnie

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886

I did. I'm glad I got to meet JD in SC a couple years before he passed. We were friends on Facebook and I heard the news via there. Very sad day indeed.

I was able to pay for my welder from a group buy of downpipes in May of 2017. I sold 10 downpipes in less than a week. I did another group but then after that I was established enough to sell them as an order came in.

I haven't seen that feature in solidworks so I'll definitely check it out. Thanks for the info.

Briggs, I do remember you. Welcome back! Just to bring you up to date on Car9, I'm in the final assembly stage, albeit making slow progress. It's coming together nicely, but not enough time in the garage. I've lost track of Marcus, so I'm likely the only active Car9 builder at this point.

I look forward to following your new project. Keep us posted--with pictures!

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Cheers, Tom

My Car9 build: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14613
"It's the construction of the car-the sheer lunacy and joy of making diverse parts come together and work as one-that counts."
Ultima Spyder, Northstar 4.0, Porsche G50/52

That's sad to hear. I went to check out his build progress and nothing has been posted in a while. I wish I still had his number. Hopefully everything is ok with him and life has just gotten in the way. Glad to see you are still at it. The build looks great and I'm glad to see its on the final assembly.

Already making changes.... It's been a hell of a challenge trying to find a Volvo red block manual trans.I've been looking for 4 months. My 240 is auto and I don't want an Auto locost.

With that being said. I still have my 2.3 duratec and my Ranger trans, as well as the Miata front spindles and the T-bird rear end stuff. I'll stick with the parts I have. It's more locost that way...

My book came in the mail. I was finding a couple solidworks files of frames, but nothing I was 100% happy with. I'm pretty new to Solidworks so I wanted to start from scratch. This way it will be easier for me to edit instead of trying to figure out how someone else drew the frame.

This is just the beginning. I have been doing a lot of research on frame updates and will be applying as much as I can to my frame. For now I have the overall outside dimensions of the 442e.

Do you have McSorley's PDF file for the 442E? If not, I can e-mail it to you. It has all the components, lengths, angles, yada-yada.

Screen shot of a page.


Cheers,

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886

I have the book and the Haynes book. That's the only thing I've been pulling dimensions from. Is the Mcsorley a true 442E frame?

I went to visit Gavin (MNot) and I'm updating the frame with changes that he said he would do.

If you can email those to me I'd greatly appreciate it! 8eightfab@gmail.com

@Briggs2

PDF sent.

Cheers,

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886

You forgot to mention that you finally got to drive mine

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Gavin

My build: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=16005