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Learning how to build Lotus Seven replicas...together!
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PostPosted: July 24, 2017, 10:19 pm 
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Joined: January 27, 2010, 1:11 pm
Posts: 540
Location: Jefferson City, MO
So lots has happened recently with the relocation, but not much on the car. A lot of work went into the house getting it ready to put up for sale and it was worth it. We had an acceptable offer with in a month of putting it up for sale. New appliances, new carpet, new furniture and curb appeal goes along way. I started my new job on June 19th and it is going well. We have been looking for a house and finally made an offer on one. Unfortunately due to a much higher cost of land, we can not afford as much land as we had in St James, and will have to downsize garage and shop space. We are getting more house, but less garage. We did make sure to at least only look at houses with three car garages so I will at least have some kind of work space. Just hope I can fit all my tools and work benches in it. Since we got the offer I have been going back to the house packing up items the movers wont move and doing some work on the car. I finished welding the frame and finally got the frame primed and painted. I used rustoleum professional oil based paint from lowes primer and then paint. I originally got the light gray top coat but it was the same color as the primer so I went back and got the smoke gray and I am very glad I did. I wish i didnt have to rush through the paint job as there are a lot of runs. Thankfully most of them will be covered up and hidden. Now I can reassemble the car and move it as a runner / roller and that will be alot easier. Plus the car takes up a lot less space when it is assembled. I do need to prep my new engine to go in the car, timing belt, coolant reroute, clutch, etc.

Wish me luck in figuring out how to go from a 30 x 48 two bay plus work space shop to a 1 1/2 bay garage / work shop.

Our last house we bought for us. This house we bought for the kids. At least that is what I keep telling myself. in the right neighborhood and right school district, yadda yadda yadda.....

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PostPosted: August 7, 2017, 8:59 am 
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Joined: January 27, 2010, 1:11 pm
Posts: 540
Location: Jefferson City, MO
I got the car put back together enough that it runs again. the wiring harness still needs some clean up work and I can start working on the body once I move into the new house. But for now it is tucked quietly into my parents garage until we move into the new house. My new engine runs very strong. I think it runs better than the last engine. I took the car down the road and back and it feels solid, badly needs an alignment and I still need to figure out my ackerman issue.

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PostPosted: August 7, 2017, 3:33 pm 
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Joined: February 8, 2014, 10:47 pm
Posts: 781
Location: Cornelius OR
FieroReinke wrote:
Wish me luck in figuring out how to go from a 30 x 48 two bay plus work space shop to a 1 1/2 bay garage / work shop.


It is not possible, add on to the garage.

I would happily downsize to a 2br Mobly Home if I got a bigger shop.

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PostPosted: August 7, 2017, 7:44 pm 
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Joined: March 3, 2006, 10:48 pm
Posts: 1590
Location: Shawnee, Ks
Chris, after seeing your shop the transition is going to be difficult but not unsurmountable. Just get rid of a few old donors and non running cars. Advertise them on here or I can put them on Age and Treachery Racing's website. Russ

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PostPosted: August 7, 2017, 7:46 pm 
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Location: Shawnee, Ks
Bent wrench, I think most people on here would agree with you but our wives might have something to say about that. Russ

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PostPosted: August 9, 2017, 1:02 pm 
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Joined: January 27, 2010, 1:11 pm
Posts: 540
Location: Jefferson City, MO
it will be hard going from the large shop to the little garage, but with the bulk of the fabrication done, i shouldn't need as much space. other than the body and fenders, there is not much left to do other than finish work. We knew going into this new job and location that we would buy a house that was a better fit for raising our kids rather than a good fit for our hobbies. The sacrifices some people make for their kids. My wife was very concerned with me not having as much space. Gotta love her. I can build a detached garage, but due to the HOA it must match the design of the house which means all brick exterior. Not sure when we will be able to afford it and not sure if I want to give up that much back yard space. Also the wife and I know we need to reduce the amount of stuff we have. Lots of the stuff I did have in the shop, I have moved twice now and haven't touched. because I had the space, i collected tons of stuff I don't need and don't have plans for. When you have space even other people seem to give you stuff and its hard to say no to free stuff.

FYI, Russ, the wooden box you gave me at the Sevens gathering in Cuba is coming in very handy on my new desk. Thanks again for that. It was not expected but much appreciated.

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PostPosted: August 28, 2017, 1:26 pm 
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Joined: January 27, 2010, 1:11 pm
Posts: 540
Location: Jefferson City, MO
Finally in our new house. The seven is tucked tightly into the upstairs garage until I get the basement shop/garage cleaned and organized enough to move it down there. We still have a ton of unpacking to do and that will take priority over working on the car. today is my birthday so I am going to take the car out for a drive through the neighborhood.

the new shop is going to be very tight. I need to build some shelves and will put more of the big equipment on casters so I can move them around to make room. I also need to have an electrician install a 100 amp sub panel in this shop so I can get power for the 220v compressor and welder.

Also the day before the movers were supposed to load our stuff onto the moving truck someone broke into our house. They mostly were looking for jewelry and electronics. they took the TV, dvd player, stereo, class rings and tore through a bunch of other boxes so not sure what else they got. Fortunately, they didn't touch anything in my old shop so no tools missing. Other than class rings, that they took, everything else is just stuff that we can easily get replaced by insurance. That is after we pay the $1k deductible.

Moving sucks. Luckily everything else is going well. We still like our house and neighborhood. I am doing well at work and my oldest daughter is doing great at her new school. Hopefully this is the last time we move for a while.

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PostPosted: September 18, 2017, 4:51 pm 
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Joined: January 27, 2010, 1:11 pm
Posts: 540
Location: Jefferson City, MO
can I say it again, I hate moving and unpacking. At least in between unpacking, I have taken the car out with the kids for a few quick blats through the neighborhood. We get some weird looks from the new neighbors that have no idea what I am building. There is one highway patrolman that lives in the neighborhood. I should probably avoid his house.

Over the weekend I did have three firsts with the seven. First car show. First trophy, I won my class, Foreign Customs. And, first time running out of gas...to many blats with the girls and no fuel level sender yet. I received a lot of good comments, questions and compliments on the car. It was a local community college that put on the show, so lots of kids in automotive classes.

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PostPosted: September 18, 2017, 6:38 pm 
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Joined: December 24, 2007, 5:11 am
Posts: 1307
Location: Seattle area
:cheers:

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PostPosted: June 1, 2018, 11:25 am 
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Joined: January 27, 2010, 1:11 pm
Posts: 540
Location: Jefferson City, MO
Long overdue update.

Not much physical work on the seven lately. Still working on making the new house our own. I now have 220 power for both the compressor and the welder in my shop so I am a happy camper. The welder and the compressor use the same feed so I have to be mindful of what I do but at least I have access to both again. I poured a 30x20 concrete pad outside the shop to replace a bunch of gravel. Now I have a space to work on cars that isn’t in the front driveway which the neighbors don’t like. I miss living in the country where I didn’t have to worry about what my neighbors thought of what I did on my own property. Once the concrete was in, scope creep came into play and then I had to put in a 2’ tall retaining wall with landscaping around the concrete to finish it off and give the wife space to add some plants and next I have to do a matching landcape wall in the front.

There has been a little bit of work on the seven, and most of this was done since the Midwest gathering as those always give me a motivation boost. I fixed a fuel leak at the Jaz fuel tank bulk head fitting. While putting this back together I realized I had the fuel pump leads connected backwards. What is a little bothersome is that once I swapped the leads, it took me another 15 minutes or so to figure out why I couldn’t get any fuel to the engine. Obvious reason is I was pumping into the tank not pulling out of the tank. Apparently you can run the e2000 fuel pumps in reverse and they will flow fuel. Its all fixed now, other than rerouting the fuel lines a little to account for the new flow through the fuel pump.

My second donor miata was a 96 M edition and it came with the 15” M edition wheels. I sold these to offset the cost of the car, but I kept the tires. They were decent looking 15” tires with tons of tread left. They are only 195/15R15 not the 205/50R15 I plan to run but close enough for dialing in the car. I went ahead and got them mounted onto my Advanti Storm S1 wheels so that I can start working on the fender mounts.

I also now have my 6 point G force harnesses. Once I get these in and finish weld the roll bar, I am considering contacting the local SCCA autocross group to see if my car is far enough along to pass tech. I need to double check their rules in regards to fire walls and trans tunnels. I don’t have a full firewall or a trans tunnel cover. I have the driveshaft hoops but you are still exposed to the spinning driveshaft so they may not like that.

Also while at the gathering I was looking at Tailspin’s car and saw that he was using stock miata front spindles with stock miata tie rod ends. On my car, I reamed the steering arm to use a top mount tie rod end and ever since I have had reverse ackerman. After seeing Tailspins car, it may me think I might have room for the stock tie rod ends. I heard others try it and have interference between the tie rod and the control arm so I didn’t originally try it. Last night I swapped on the spindle and tie rods from the M miata donor that I had not modified yet and everything clears. My ackerman looks a lot better. I will try to do a quick string alignment this weekend to get the toe/camber better and see what it looks like.

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PostPosted: September 10, 2018, 11:35 am 
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Joined: January 27, 2010, 1:11 pm
Posts: 540
Location: Jefferson City, MO
Finally after another hiatus, back on the seven project. The wife unit asked me what I wanted for my birthday back in August, and her response was "should have known" when I told her car parts. What else would I want. So I finally the the aluminum paneling for the body. 2 sheets .040 painted white was in stock at the local sign shop. I didn't want them sitting around to get damaged and coordinated pick up for Friday before Labor day. The wife and kids were going to visit her sister for Labor day weekend, so 3 days in the shop for me. Lucky me.

First made the panels for over the driver's foot well and painted them, along with the pedal box. After that I reassembled and took the car for a short drive to bed in the new stop tech brake pads.

next I moved onto the body panels. Started on the rear driver's side, then the side panel by the cockpit. It all turned out really well. the only thing I am not happy with is the way the lower rear corners turned out. I used SS 1/8" sealed rivets from McMaster Carr and a pneumatic rivet gun along with tons of clecos. I wrapped the panels under the bottom tubes but have not riveted through the floor yet. I am not sure if I am going to or not. I know the rivets I have wont work as they don't have the grip length to go through the body panel, floor and 16 ga lower rail.

Yesterday I opted to stay home while my wife went and watched the Cheifs football game and knocked out the passenger rear panel and the rear center panel. I made this panel removable so I can access the fuel pump and fuel tank fittings.

Another minor thing I did was to run the wires for the third brake light through the roll bar and make it functional.

I have a car show for a local community college that has done some work on my nose cone and my father's cars. I hope to have the body panels done in time for the show, except for the hood and scuttle. I will also start the legalization process as the car will look enough like a 7. time to start organizing that big box of receipts.

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PostPosted: April 10, 2020, 11:45 am 
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Joined: January 27, 2010, 1:11 pm
Posts: 540
Location: Jefferson City, MO
A little bit of recent work on the car. I now have a hood, panels on the sides of the engine and my a little wind screen. Hood still needs some tweaks to improve the fit.

Attachment:
April 2020 03.jpg


I also finally removed the suspension arms and painted them and then did my first string alignment. I created a jig for that ties into the two rear hitch attachment points. The car feels much better after an alignment. I need to recheck the alignment now that I have driven the car around the neighborhood a few times to see if it settled any. The steering wheel isnt perfectly centered and needs to be addressed. At least at the low speeds of the neighborhood, I have no complaints on the alignment. Unfortunately, autocrosses have been cancelled due to COVID so I cant test it at speed and DMV is shut down so I cant try to get it legal. I did pick up some 205/50R-15 Bridgestone RE-71Rs for the car, but haven't had them mounted yet.

Attachment:
April 2020 01.jpg
Attachment:
April 2020 04.jpg


Next step is better fitting of hood, adding hood vents, fender mounts and painting the nose cone white to match the car. Eventually the whole car will get painted Jaguar Velocity Blue.

Attachment:
April 2020 02.jpg


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PostPosted: May 6, 2020, 4:57 pm 
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Joined: January 27, 2010, 1:11 pm
Posts: 540
Location: Jefferson City, MO
Big day today. took the car to the highway patrol with all my receipts, build log, and DMV forms for the first step in legalization. After an hour or so they gave me the signed form. All they cared about was the vin on the engine matched the title and the title cleared a check to ensure the car wasnt stolen. next step is the dang DMV. I am going to go early tomorrow to try and beat the line.

DMV will need pictures so I snapped a few pictures of the car.

Attachment:
Seven 01.jpg


Attachment:
Seven 04.jpg


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PostPosted: May 6, 2020, 5:54 pm 
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Joined: August 2, 2009, 3:34 pm
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Location: Alberta
You may have mentioned this earlier, but are you planning on putting fenders on at some point in the future?

Looks pretty good. I like the rivet stitching on the side panels.

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PostPosted: May 7, 2020, 8:50 pm 
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Joined: January 27, 2010, 1:11 pm
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Location: Jefferson City, MO
Yes I am. I have the fenders but haven't made the mounts yet.

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