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PostPosted: January 22, 2017, 8:11 pm 
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@TRX
Nut on a stick? Man, for a minute there, I thought you were talkin' about me. :mrgreen:

No, that is an excellent idea. Thank you very much for it.

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


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PostPosted: January 22, 2017, 9:08 pm 
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Guess what? I just rolled over onto page 100. Watch out, JD, I gainin' on ya!

I did get the passenger side "gusset" fitted into place and decided to try and implement my coaming idea on the driver's side. I used some cut strips of Bristol Board to determine how long a strip of metal I'd need to do it. It's about as stiff as 22 gauge steel, I'd say. Anyway, I let the end of it overlap about 3/4" onto the start, thinking I'd mark and trim the free end as I fed it around and tacked it in place. Tacking be be a little challenging if it causes the steel strip to twist, but I'll just have to try it and see what happens.
Attachment:
DSC03561.JPG


It turned out I needed about 27" of material. By eyeballing, if figured a strip just over 1" wide would do it. Cutting a strip like that (27"x1") by hand would be very tough to do. I do have a 3-in-1 machine that I bought on a super sale at Harbor Freight some time back. I'd made a nice stand for it, but hadn't used it yet as I wasn't really doing any sheet metal work. Well, necessity being the Mother and all, it looked like a good day to start.
Attachment:
DSC03563.JPG


Most of the day was spent cleaning all the red, "chicken fat" grease off the sheer components of it, and aligning the blade, adjusting the work holder setup, and so on. The user manual is very brief, but better than most Harbor Freight manuals, so I go the job done. With some test cuts on cardboard and then metal, I could see that the workholding component was not working like it should. The cut was not square.
Attachment:
DSC03565.JPG


OK, I know, Harbor Frieght units are really a kit and you need to fiddle with them to get them to work. The first cut was not good enough because the workholding setup was not adequate. I put some washers above the springs on the unit, and that helped, but I was worried that at 27" of material, I needed even more help. I ended up using some strips of wood and some quick adjusting clamps to hold the end of the sheets down. It was the best thing I could come up with at the time.
Attachment:
DSC03566.JPG


There is a back gauge with the unit. I went to mount it on the 3-in1 only to find the screw-in knobs used to secure it onto two metal rods you screw into the back side of the unit did not actually fit. Argggh! There's that "kit" factor again. So I just had to use a cut piece of cardboard and my eyes to line it up as square as I could, and add in my temporary work holding setup. The cut ended up being off slightly, about 1/64" over the length of 27", and that's acceptable for this application.
Attachment:
DSC03567.JPG


I figured that was about enough excitement for the day, and I didn't want to set up a temporary fixture and then break out the welder today. So, I'll get back on it tomorrow afternoon when I have more time.

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


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PostPosted: January 22, 2017, 10:59 pm 
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Man I wish I had your energy.
From leaving sea level and going back to 2200' FASL, I am LAZY!
I truly believe man was meant to live at sea level.
You truly give me inspiration and hope on completing my current build. :cheers:

Word of the day "truly"

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PostPosted: January 23, 2017, 9:19 am 
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Guess what? I just rolled over onto page 100. Watch out, JD, I gainin' on ya!
Congrats on reaching that particular "Century Mark"! Hope you had as much fun getting there as I did. I do have to point out, as a matter of pride, that I don't think your log has any sausage recipes or nearly naked Chinese chicks... But it does contain lots of truly fine work. 8)

Pssst! Hey Perry! I said "truly"... :mrgreen:

:cheers:
JDK

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"Gonzo and friends: Last night must have been quite a night. Camelot moments, mechanical marvels, Rustoleum launches, flying squirrels, fru-fru tea cuppers, V8 envy, Ensure catch cans -- and it wasn't even a full moon." -- SeattleTom


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PostPosted: January 23, 2017, 12:28 pm 
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horchoha wrote:
Man I wish I had your energy.
From leaving sea level and going back to 2200' FASL, I am LAZY!
I truly believe man was meant to live at sea level.
You truly give me inspiration and hope on completing my current build. :cheers:

Word of the day "truly"


You're not lazy, Perry. You're retired!

I'm glad I'm a positive influence on you in some way. Based on experience with your past builds, some weekend you'll get motivated, and in a couple of days you'll whiz past where I am with my build. I hope to be on the road with mine by the end of 2017. You'll probably have your 5th build done by then.

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


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PostPosted: January 23, 2017, 12:33 pm 
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GonzoRacer wrote:
Quote:
Guess what? I just rolled over onto page 100. Watch out, JD, I gainin' on ya!
Congrats on reaching that particular "Century Mark"! Hope you had as much fun getting there as I did. I do have to point out, as a matter of pride, that I don't think your log has any sausage recipes or nearly naked Chinese chicks... But it does contain lots of truly fine work. 8)

Pssst! Hey Perry! I said "truly"... :mrgreen:

:cheers:
JDK


Yup, I've had fun. And, I've learned a whole sh*tload too. This year is going to be the year, I think. I don't have a lot of other distractions anymore other than the ones my dear wife thinks up for me. :roll: I'm making progress every week, and sometimes every day. So "God willing, and the creek don't rise", I'll have a running Locost in the near future. Man, that will be nice!

Thank you for the nice compliment about my work too.

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


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PostPosted: January 24, 2017, 11:29 pm 
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I was able to return to the garage today and try out my coaming idea. It seemed like a reasonable thing to do, but most of these fabricating task are new to me, so I just have to give it a try. I decided to elevate my gusset plate 3/4" off the surface of my welding table using wooden blocks, and place it upside down. I used the metal surface of the table as a means of keeping my margins for the engine bay side even. I only wanted enough margin on the footwell side to permit a decent weld bead. Keeping it small will also keep me from skinning my hands as I work on the steering gear, pedal box or accelerator pedal mechanism.

You'll see the 20 gauge strip overlaps itself, and the reason for that will become clear later.
Attachment:
DSC03569.JPG

After a little fiddling around, and looking through my various scrap boxes, if found an ABS pipe with a radius close to that of the corners on my gusset plate. After some experimentation, I found some scrap angle iron and 1/8" plate scraps that gave me a way to pull the strip up snug in the corners use a arc-slice out of the ABS pipe.
Attachment:
DSC03568.JPG

It took some patience, and some careful checking that the strip remained touching the weld table surface, but a few strategic tack welds held it in place beautifully as I fed the strip around. I just kept working it until I reached the overlap of the strip as you can see below.
Attachment:
DSC03570.JPG

Here's why the overlap was used. I just made sure the loose part of the strip was help tight with clamps, and then clamped the overlap itself. I use a Sharpie to mark tacked end position onto the free overlap section.
Attachment:
DSC03571.JPG

Using my grandfather's old tinning shears, I cut at the mark, giving me a perfectly fitting butt joint.
Attachment:
DSC03573.JPG

A few quick tack welds along the inside an doutside of the butt joint gave me a continuous coaming ring around the gusset opening.
Attachment:
DSC03574.JPG

Here's what the unit looks like in place. At a later date, I'll split some rubber surgical tube with an razor and place along the upper edge of the coaming as a gasket. I'll weld in some "L" brackets, and make a lid which will be fastened to them with screws, giving it a nice tight seal, but easy access to the footwell for maintenance. I'll use seam sealer on the top surface, and keep all the weld bead on the underside of the plate.
Attachment:
DSC03575.JPG

This access hatch should give me plenty of room to see, and work on, the pedal box, steering gear, and accelerator pedal mechanism.
Attachment:
DSC03576.JPG

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


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PostPosted: January 28, 2017, 2:21 pm 
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Well, it looks like I'm off to designing stuff again. There are some small things I can do still, but I need to create some designs for the pedal box, cable clutch mechanism, accelerator pedal, dash hoop, steering wheel mount (to carry the Tilt/Telescope/Quick Release steering wheel stuff I did back on page 78) and then make up a mock-up or two of them to make sure they'll plausibly work before I build the real deal.

I spent the last two days going through my brake design stuff. I actually did it all by hand using Fred Puhn's "Brake Handbook" a couple of years ago. I needed to proof read and check all my calculations again and make sure they were reasonable. Also, I had a spreadsheet of Puhn's method that SeattleTom had updated from an earlier one published here on LocostUSA, and I wanted to use it as a second check. Once I got all the assumptions the same (by hand I assumed 0.30 for the brake pad coefficient, found out 0.40 is more realistic today and in the spreadsheet), both cases worked out to a very close degree. So, that one is "in the bag."

I bought a Wilwood bias bar setup and needed to refamiliarize my self with it. For the most part it's OK. However, I'm not fully happy with the way the remote cable adjuster works. It's rock solid in one direction (threading the nut on), but can come unscrewed going the other way. I think putting a set screw in the cable end nut will solve the problem, but feel like they should have figured that out a long time ago and I shouldn't have to.
Attachment:
Brake-Bias-Components.JPG


These design tasks always take twice as long as I expect. I'm expecting it will take me two weeks to noodle everything out, so that probably means it will take 4 instead.

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


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PostPosted: January 30, 2017, 2:27 am 
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Does the cable end thread into the bias bar? If so, is there enough thread for a jam nut? That and locktite should be pretty solid.
Kristian

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PostPosted: January 30, 2017, 11:16 am 
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Those are good thoughts, Kristian. I really won't know how much extra space I'll have on the end of the shaft (where the remote adjuster cable end attaches) until further along in the process. A jamb nut might be possible.

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


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PostPosted: February 24, 2017, 9:24 pm 
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You'll have enough room. I had a Wilwood bar on the Locost and currently have one on the Sprite - both have more than enough room for a jam nut even if the bar is cranked all the way to one direction. I could have sworn Wilwood included one with the remote adjuster.

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PostPosted: March 7, 2017, 11:46 pm 
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@a.moore
Thank you, Andrew, for that information on the Wilwood bias bar.

I thought I'd be doing a lot of design work, but a review of my "task list/pseudo project plan" got me thinking differently. I felt there were too many "infrastructure" issues hanging out on my list, and that I needed to get some of those things done and finalized before designing new things. So, I've been working on some un-glamerous tasks like what do do about jacking points for the car, and routing the exhaust system, braking & fuel lines and so on. Here's a little of that stuff.

I saved the donor scissors jack, lug wrench and space saver spare tire. Given the low nature of the car, and the fact that so much has to be routed in such a small space, I wanted to make sure my jacking point(s) were really functional. I also knew that the exhaust system had a big chance of interfearing with access due to mufflers and side pipes hanging low. My original desire was to run 6 pipes, one for each cylinder, back to the rear of the car. I let go of that because the muffler construction (I was going to build my own, a 6-chambered one, hung under the rear kick-up) was just too involved and difficult.

My alternate is to use the donor headers (they're pretty good little shorty headers) and run two pipes to the rear of the car, one on each side. Easier said than done, especially with the need to jack the car up from the side.

The Mustang jack is very compact and has a built-in handle.
Attachment:
DSC03614.JPG


It has a really deep and handy little valley at top that went under specific sheet metal reinforced areas of the monocoque. It obviously can handle a car at least twice the weight of my Locost and I felt the valley was a natural fit for some of my small angle iron in my metal inventory, and that the round nature of the angle iron would keep it centered as the jack deployed upward.
Attachment:
DSC03615.JPG

Attachment:
DSC03619.JPG


Using the single jacking point of my 1972 MGB as a model, I made a plate to fit under a very strong part of the chassis, that would involve at least 4 chassis members. It attaches to gussets previously welded into the chassis.
Attachment:
DSC03618.JPG

Attachment:
DSC03648.JPG


In order to make the exhaust system work, I'll keep the pipes and mufflers up above the bottom chassis rail until it goes past this jacking plate. I'll make another log entry to show that. I can't post enough photos in one entry to make it a continuous entry.


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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


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PostPosted: March 8, 2017, 12:48 am 
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I wanted to make sure my exhaust system routing made sense and that the attachment points were not a clumsy after thought. I had some gussets in the chassis I felt would make good mounting points. Also, I wanted the exhause system to be modular and one that I could easily repair or replace over time. To make it easy to attach, I decided to use weld nuts place on the exhisting gussets, so there would be not need to "reach around" and place nuts on the inside of the chassis. I had 2 different types; one type for 1/4" and 3/8" bolts and another type for 5/16" bolts. I'm using the 5/16" as the main hanger bolt and the 1/4 inch to stabilize the mount. Here is one gusset after drilling/reaming for both types. The 5/16" is on the right. The 1/4" is on the left.

The 1/4" is a type that drops into a hole and has little feet and a circular barrier that keep the weld out of the hole. Th 5/16" is a flat plate, which I've shortened here, so that it fits the gusset. You're looking from the inside of the chassis here. This is the driver's side of the chassis and the vertical 1"x1" RHS is coming out of the picture.
Attachment:
DSC03650.JPG

Attachment:
DSC03652.JPG

I bolted the exhaust hanger plate base onto the gusset and used the compression of the tightened bolts to allign the weld nuts in the holes. Then I rotated the chassis and welded them in place. The wooden piece is a spacer that I'll have to supply for the final build in another material, maybe hard rubber. The flat plate will go over top of the body aluminum panel. An exhaust hanger of some type (TBD) will be welded to the flat plate.
Attachment:
DSC03646.JPG


The configuration will be like this:
Attachment:
DSC03654-A.jpg


I put a new set of gussets/mounts at rear just behind the seatback to hold the pipe as it rund under the bottom chassis rail. This shows a mock-up using a 1-3/4" OD plastic pipe. My real-life one will be 1-1/2" OD, so should fit. This may cost me an inch on each side for the Panhard rod, as I'll have to make sure nothing can hit the pipes with lateral motion, but that's a compromise I'll just have to make. I want the exhaust to exit at the rear, not the side.
Attachment:
DSC03649.JPG

Attachment:
DSC03653.JPG


To finish it off, I'm going to run the pipes at an angle, towards the center of the car, parallel and just below the kick-up. I'll put a small resonator inline on each side, then run the pipes straight back at the end of the kick-up. Think of it as a variation of the old E-type Jaguar exhaust system. With a short (20") muffler, the resonators should drop the noise level and get rid of the typical V6 exhaust drone. At least that's the plan.
Attachment:
DSC03655-A.jpg

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


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PostPosted: March 8, 2017, 10:06 am 
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Lonnie, XK-E style exhausts are 'neat' but I recall a builder saying that a centreline exhaust resulted in fumes being sucked back into the cockpit. It might be better to leave the exhaust running straight back to the outboard corners so there is less chance of the exhaust products being trapped in the car's wake.

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PostPosted: March 8, 2017, 10:29 am 
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@Warren Nethercote
Wow, that's surprising news, Warren. I won't have any kind of flow data or a CFD program to use, so I'll just have to weigh my chances of success and pick an option. I'll probably pick the center placement still because I think I'll need the diagonal run to have enough room for a resonator, but we'll see. Maybe it's possible to run it straight out also.

Thinking about it, someone did a CFD flow using an add-on to Solidworks on this site. It was a sort of generic Locost as I recall. However, it had some very pretty streamlines in color. Maybe I can find it with a search and see what it shows. But, your concern is exactly why I'm doing the exhaust in modular segments. If I need to change something, I can do it without replacing the whole exhaust system.

Thanks for point this out, Warren.

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


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