LocostUSA.com

Funny you mention "paralysis by ANALysis".. Until recently I was stricken with the 'perfectionist' gene- that can be both good and bad of course.. I promised myself on my current project, that every time I'm standing around thinking about what to do for more than 10 minutes, to knock it of and DO something! I can say that while making my fair share of mistakes, things are moving along, and no more lost afternoons to standing around the project 'thinking' about what to do next- Just do it! Nice work by the way

ccrunner, your mention of the "perfectionist" gene brought to mind a conversation I was having with my wife on the weekend regarding the car. I mentioned a quote I'd heard and she suggested I print it out in big letters and put it on the workshop wall

"Perfect is the enemy of good" - Voltaire

It's important to remind myself often that I'm not building a space shuttle or a heart-lung machine. Good enough is fine - perfect is basically impossible

Dominic

Yo, Gecko!
The foreman of a construction crew I used to work with would say, whenever somebody got overly "fussy" over some detail, "We ain't buildin' a church, ya know!" That translated to "Just nail the damn thing together and keep movin!!!"

To my knowledge, none of our projects ever fell over or sank into a swamp....

You never built at Discovery Bay Isle. .. we were losing utility vaults because they sank over the weekend

No, but I've been in the drilling bizness in Florida... Drill rigs can sink in a matter of minutes...

Oh, wait, are we s'posed to be talkin' about cars or sumpin???

Well, in the pursuit of some progress, the chassis has moved to a friend's workshop where I have access to better tools but more importantly his much better expertise which will hopefully nip any "analysis paralysis" issues in the bud. There's plenty going on in his shop already - and there's another car behind were I was standing too!



D

Love that shop, pretty good environment for progress by the looks of it.
Your car looks well thought out and built so far.

Don

Looking good Dominic. I have a question. What is the formula car frame behind yours? It looks a lot like my formula frame which I have been trying to identify. Any help would be great. Thanks.

Graham, the little formula car is a new construction of the old ASP330 F2/F3 car from 1971. See http://www.asp-racing.com for more info on ASP in general. Given that only 4 of the 330's were built, it seems unlikely that that's what you're trying to identify.

This car (and another) are being built under licence to the original plans and have been issued continuation chassis numbers. Very nice construction, with brazed frames, bespoke front & rear uprights, custom made racks etc. I'll see if I've got some more pics I can send you.

Dominic

Some pics would be great. I have been trying to identify it for a couple of years. I traced it back to 1982 but can not get back further. It has some unusual characteristics to it. Any thing would be great. I had a look at the site and the ASP 330 has a very similar look. Mine has a modified Lotus 61 body but it is definitely not a Lotus chassis. Thanks.

Graham, I don't seem to have any recent photos but here's some shots of the bare frame before all of the brazing flux etc was cleaned up.





Hope this helps,

Dominic

Thanks Dominic. It is close but is not the same. The front suspension pick up points are similar as with the sloped nose tubes and many other items but mine is all round tubes with the exception of the roll bar bulk head and the rear trans bulkhead. Thanks for the help though and good luck with your project.
Graham.

Have had a couple of bursts of productivity over the last few weeks.

Mocked up the position of the inner toe-link mounts at the rear. Used the engine hoist to run the suspension up and down through full travel while checking bump steer. Waiting on some LH female rod ends to arrive now. Will add some pics of the final bracket and adjuster once they're done.




Today was rack positioning. After some faffing about, took the 9" grinder to a pair of diagonal tubes that were in the way Made things much easier after that. Stuck some temporary rails under the rack and fiddled with various packing pieces until the right position was established. With a small laser pointer strapped to the stub axle (pointing out to the side) total bump steer (all toe-in) was 5mm measured at 3.6m away. That'll do alright Next step is to mount the column again and find the correct rack angle, then make permanent mounts.





Dominic

A few quick updates:

- made some rack mounts from bent 20x3mm with 1.6mm sheet stiffening webs



Looks like Gemini (Chevette) and Escort racks share basically identical mounting dimensions so quick-rack upgrades should be a relative doddle

- today, cleaned up the remains of the cut-off diagonal tubes, fitted the two 20mm cross rails, and made a stiffening web to tie the two rack brackets together. Dry fitted for now, will post another shot without the rack once it's all welded up.






Dominic

Getting there Dom