LocostUSA.com

It took me most of several days, working in 105F sun, plus greenhouse effect from all the glass. Even with destructive disassembly it was a pain in the posterior, with brackets blocking other brackets, all of which needed to come out before the others did, like some crazy M.C. Escher 3-D puzzle.

Since I wanted the ball joints to use with the Geo struts, I just whacked the ends of the front A-arms off with the angle grinder. Hmm... the A-arm *is* the ball joint, it's all one piece. Fortunately Jack has already sorted out some Isuzu joints that will work.

TRX, I have been wondering about your build and how it is going. I am counting of being able to steal ideas form you and Jack to get my car built since I have no experience at this. Do you have a build log for it or postings on some site? Unfortunately, (due to my wife's health) my project has been put on the backburner for the time being. I am her prime caregiver.

I just happen to have a brand new "in-the -box" set of front control arms of a Geo Metro that you can have if you'd be interested. If so PM me and we can work out getting them to you.

I could be moving to Searcy in the future. How far is that from you?

My friend Lauren came over today to give me my first MIG welding lesson. She is a professional welder who used to build barges but now mostly TIG welds stainless steel pipe. One of these pics shows her with her sister Alex (who happens to be my stepson's girlfriend). It was Alex"s first time ever to try welding. She started off with a nice weld and just got better....boy, that girl really irritates me. Anyway, here are a few pics. About all I can say is "eat your hearts out guys", but no inappropriate comments please.

Not yet, just some threads on ideas and details scattered about. I had just announced beginning the Geo midi project when a friend died, leaving behind his unfinished Locost project. His wife gave it to me, and I decided to finish it since it's quite far along. I managed to find most of the bits, but the frame and rear end are in a storage shed 20 miles away, blocked in behind a defunct Lotus Eclat with three flat tires. Some of their relatived are supposed to come down from Chicago to get it, but you know how that stuff goes...

If I had three friends who weren't all greybeards with bad backs (like me) we could pass it hand over hand and get it out of the storage unit. The tires on the Lotus won't hold air and the brakes are stuck. Plus all my time has been dedicated to house rebuilding, so anything other than keeping the Carfleet going is stalled.



It's about half an hour from here. If you wind up moving there PM me and we can meet up.

If you can get a couple of floor jacks under under the lotus, you can move it around using those.

Haven't done much lately because my wife was placed under hospice care on Jan. 18th and I was the prime caregiver. She passed away this past Saturday after a 6 year battle with cancer. Hopefully this project will keep my mind occupied.

Very sorry to hear of your loss. Cancer claims far to many.

My thoughts are with You and you family.

I too am sorry for your loss. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.

I'm sorry to hear this Bob. .. it's taken my father and several of my closest friends plus I'm a 10 year survivor, you might say that I've looked at it from both sides now.
It's a horrid feeling, watching someone you love fade away and knowing that you can't do a thing about it hurts deeply.
A survivor will tell you caregivers are angels. Yes, that means YOU Bob!!!!

Was she and/or are you a member of http://csn.cancer.org/? (The Cancer Survivors Network of the American Cancer Society)
If you aren't then I highly recommend it, there's nothing like having someone to talk to who can honestly say, "been there,done that". ......
You'll find a lot of us there, survivors and caregivers, we do our best to look out for each other.
And yes you will be welcomed on board, probably rather noisily as we tend to be quite loud in our efforts to scare away the dragons.
You can find me there with the same user name.

My condolences on your loss Bob.

Bob, I'm sorry to hear of the passing of your wife. I can't even begin to imagine the loss of a Spouse.

I lost my Father-in-Law last Fall. By the time he got into the local Hospice care center, he didn't last the night. We were fortunate that his pain was short.

I guess you'll be busy in the near future. Stop by the board here now and again to give yourself a short diversion.

Hi Bob-
It's odd, talking to a "friend" that you don't know, about personal things. I am truly sorry for your loss, I'm sure it hurts. I wish I had something constructive to say. Stop in and say hello now and again, maybe do a little fiddling on the Geo when you feel like it... We'll be here to welcome you back when you get ready.
Take Care-
JD Kemp

Thank you all for your condolences, they are certainly appreciated. Been trying to get things straightened up and taking care of business so haven't had a chance to get up to the shop. Plus, I started welding classes last night. The local community college had a mall show and I stoped by the welding table and talked with a couple of kids. They told me they thought there was an adult-ed welding class so I stopped by the college and sure enough there was a class in session. It was into its fourth night but they let me join. Last night was their first actual hands-on welding session and we did stick welding. The instructor gave me a bunch of hand-outs so I have to "hit the books" this week.

I'll be watching your build. This was my original idea,a metro powered locost,but as fuel prices went down my engine ideas got larger. Starting to think small again. I couldn't come up with a good RWD tranny to match the suzuki 3cyl. Figured middy would have to be the way to go but haven't quite wrapped my head around it. One performance issue that I noticed is the weight saving will be minimal, metro's tip the scale at 1680 lbs as I recall. Still sporty and thrfty though. I'm also considering CNG fuel for a massive price saving.
Are you going to fab new A-arms or reuse the old ones? The death knell of a Geo is the rust at the A-arm mount area.

Suzuki Samarai 2WD. Bolts up and it's nice and light, something around 65 lb's iirc.
Decent ratio's; 1st 3.652 2nd 1.947 3rd 1.423 4th 1.000 5th 0.795 Reverse 3.466 in 1986. .. 5th went to .865 around mid 88.