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Learning how to build Lotus Seven replicas...together!
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PostPosted: April 15, 2015, 11:33 pm 
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Nothing really happened today but Tirerack/UPS did show up and left some stick for me when I got home
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245/40/R15 Hoosier A7's on 15x9 Advanti Racing Storm rims. 12.1 lbs / wheel.

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The flares will require a bit of a Roll to get clearance but that is at ride height so they shouldn't need much.

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They look proper big on the car. Can't wait to get the suspension modified and get it on the ground with all 4 to see how my steamroller looks.

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PostPosted: April 26, 2015, 2:15 pm 
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Those look really sharp with your flares.

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PostPosted: July 12, 2015, 1:48 am 
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Made some progress. Lets see.. Since the last update life got busy again and about half the summer has already flown by. But I'm back at it again with some progress. I did some work on the front uprights to finalize the plan for the miata uprights. I basically went as far as I needed to to ensure that my plan would work. The actual modifications to the front are minor so I only fabed what I needed to to more final mockup the 1 side and then I then moved to the back.

As most of you know the Miata uses a ~8" long 14mm OD bolt for the lower ball joints. That sucks because it doesn't fit SAE dimensioned rod ends and you can't just slam a 1/2" bolt through the upright as it's ~.550" ID. My A-arms were built around 1/2" rod ends. The actual pickup points for the lower were nto in bad spots and the lengths were very close. I looked at several options, I thought about building .025" wall sleeves, Cutting out the bushings from the stock Miata A-arms, using the "no bushing" approach and just couldn't come up with something I liked. Then I had a breakthrough. The stock bolt is .550" OD. I'm using 1"x.120 wall (.760 ID) tube for the A-arms and have some left over. I looked at 4130 tube and found that you can readily get 3/4" OD x .095 wall (.560 ID) seamless for $12 for 5'. I decided to build sleeves out of the 3/4" 4130 and just use lots of grease on the ID of the 1" tubes. I built an adapter that lets me keep toe adjustment and welded bungs onto the end of the A-arms I built. This lets me adjust toe by loosening the 1/2" bolts and I get to use the stock Miata lower bolt. The sleeves are slightly longer than the bracket so the Miata bolt bottoms on the sleeves puting no compression on the adapter. Now for pictures.

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Bracket with sleeves. I used equal length sleeves to center the bolt. The 15" rims give enough clearance that you could offset if you wanted to.

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The bracket warped after welding so I cut it to straighten it and then added a reinforcement plate on the open side of the bracket. It moves very smoothly after adjusting the alignment of the two 1" tube sections.

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And IT WORKS!

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I'm going to load my pushrod into the top of the adapter behind the toe link. I probably could have left a rod end on the toe link but I like the rigidity it ads to use a piece of tubing welded perpendicular to the toe link. It sucks because I lose granularity on the Toe adjustment as I can only go Half turns but I will trade that off for the rigidity due to the shock loading.

The tube-in tube bushings on the lowers seem like a good solution for the Miata uprights. I looked around a bit with the Miata upright builds and was suprised I haven't seen it yet. The only real disadvantages I see is it weighs a bit extra. Otherwise the bushings are long enough I don't anticipate wear of the steel on steel will be a concern. I will just take it apart every now and again and neversieze the crap out of the bolt and the sleeves.

So that's all I've done. Next time I get out there I tackle the Rear upper. I have a good idea of what I'm going to do. Iv'e also cut duplicates of everything along the way so it won't take much to pound out the 2nd set of lowers for the other side. I'm going to get the upper and the pushrod done first then do the other side.

Thanks for anyone still following along. I'm going to see this through. My family has committed to ensuring I get time in the garage to hopefully have this thing at and event before the end of this autox season and then have the bodywork done next season to take it to 2016 SCCA autox nationals. It's a goal I hope I meet.

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PostPosted: July 12, 2015, 9:34 am 
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Nice solution on the 14mm bolt. For ongoing lube in the tubes why not drill, tap and install a zerk fitting so that you can hit them with a grease gun whenever you feel the need? Would beat taking everything apart to lube it.

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PostPosted: October 5, 2015, 1:17 am 
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Oh kids.. You take all my build time.

Anyway some more progress. Rear suspension is done just have to final weld everything. The upper alows camber adjustment from 0*-3* negative.
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After a summer of work I'm almost back to where I was when I decided to redo the suspension for Miata uprights.. Oh well. All progress is good progress I guess. I'd love to eventually get this thing running. I've been getting discouraged lately by how little progress I make and how long I have to go. I know the stuff I am doing instead (work, raising kids, house stuff) is important but I still can get frustrated. I'm hopeful the ball starts rolling downhill. I'm trying to do a little bit at least 3x a week so we will see how that goes.

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PostPosted: October 5, 2015, 9:04 am 
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Your work looks really good, man. I love the rear LCA solution, very elegant. I feel your pain re: slow progress -- just keep plugging away when you get the time. Become at peace with the fact that other things, important things, will get in the way of progress sometimes.

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PostPosted: October 5, 2015, 10:37 pm 
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nocones wrote:
I'm trying to do a little bit at least 3x a week so we will see how that goes.


It looks good and this is the important part. A little progress is still progress. Earlier this year I switched positions from one where I worked 7 out of every 14 days to a normal M-F 9-5 job. It felt like all garage productivity ceased since I didn't have less occasional but larger blocks of time to work. Now it's a matter of making the most of evenings and weekends as life permits. Keep doing it little by little and it'll get done. Don't miss out on life in the mean time.

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PostPosted: October 6, 2015, 8:09 am 
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a.moore wrote:
nocones wrote:
I'm trying to do a little bit at least 3x a week so we will see how that goes.


It looks good and this is the important part. A little progress is still progress. Earlier this year I switched positions from one where I worked 7 out of every 14 days to a normal M-F 9-5 job. It felt like all garage productivity ceased since I didn't have less occasional but larger blocks of time to work. Now it's a matter of making the most of evenings and weekends as life permits. Keep doing it little by little and it'll get done. Don't miss out on life in the mean time.


during the B-3 build, I was maintaining two jobs - my 40-a-week daygig, and my 6-12-hour a week guitar teaching gig (in fact I still do). so I made sure I worked on the B=3 at least every other day, for even 5 minutes. I'd get a couple nice blocks of time on saturday and sunday, but doing the little bits during the week kept the motivation and productivity up nicely.

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The B-3 build log: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=13941 unfortunately, all the pictures were lost in the massive server crash

The beginnings of the Jag Special,
https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19012
Again, all pictures were lost.


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PostPosted: October 6, 2015, 2:29 pm 
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"Doing a little bit every day" is the best thing for everything that is important, IMHO.
That applies to, but not limited to, relationships, work , home, and hobbies, in the order you choose. In order to keep things alive and vibrant they need tending to every day. In the case of our cars even if it's just surfing the web looking at parts or research, it's progress toward the goal.
Wow, my students would never believe I had a deep side!
Cheers,
Stewart.


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PostPosted: November 12, 2015, 3:21 pm 
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Back on the ground. Still need to fix the front lower arms but the rear is done. Hope to have the front done this week and then on to the next thing. Threw the fender on to check final position. It appears the uprights are in the right spot. The car is now 1" lower at the designed a-arm positions but that should be fine. Just may need to add rub strips to keep the underside from getting chewed up.Image

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PostPosted: November 17, 2015, 2:10 am 
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Sunday I pushed the car outside to do some cleaning before I move on to the next stage of brakes/MC/Diff mounts.
My son who is 3 got to have the honor of "driving" the car out of the garage. While it was outside I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the car from a little distance and some different angles. Most of the pictures the little guy is climbing on the car in some way. He calls it the "green car".
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It's got a good stance on the new 15*9 rims and shorter 22" diameter tires. Ride height will be adjusted upward some.
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It makes the miata look Gigantic. The Miata is overlowered and still the MG looks tiny compared to it. It's quite funny.
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No real progress but thought I would share some pictures.

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PostPosted: November 19, 2015, 12:24 am 
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Cool 'glamour' shots...And I can't believe how fast that boy is growing up! Looks like he'll be a chip off the old block. :cheers:

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PostPosted: November 19, 2015, 5:54 pm 
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A few years ago I picked up a Midget tub for a few pieces of sheet metal. After I took what I needed I found someone else to take it. He showed up in a pickup with an 8' bed. It was scary how well the body fit in the bed.

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PostPosted: February 13, 2016, 2:32 am 
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So of course I decided you know whats a good idea? Move the engine back 5". So I had to remake trans/engine mounts clearance some tubes in the tunnel, notch some things here and grind some things there but it worked! Success Enigne is 5" further back. Which is kinda a big deal as it moves ~20lbs from the front axle to the back. Given that the car should be ~1420lbs with driver that's almost 2% weight movement.
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The engine used to sit on top of that angle iron with the hole in it. Now it is on a new mount.
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The engine is almost completely behind the front wheels. It looks more like a locost now with the engine/front wheel positioning. I hope it will prove worth the effort.

I also purchased some closeout HoHo R25B Formula Atlantic front tires. I had to buy some rims for them so I got some Kosei K8R on clearance. OMG those rims had the hardest to seat beads I've ever seen. I intend to do a back to back tire test this spring of R25B non-DOT slicks vs A7 DOT Rcomp tires. I also bought some Hoosier wets because when I run nationals this year I didn't really want to have to run completely outclassed tires if it rains.
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I now have 10' of Indiana's finest. This makes a little more work for me due to E/Dmod rules requireing scatter shields if you run slicks. Honestly this is part of why I moved the engine. I was going to hack up the tubes in the tunnel to make room for 1/4" thick scatter shield so I might as well have moved the engine too. The scattershield is next.

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PostPosted: March 14, 2016, 11:33 am 
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Scattershield done. Just needs finish welded. I couldn't help but feel like I was making some sort of armor plating.
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The top is removable to allow for engine removal. Sides are welded on, there is no bottom. Now I am ready to mount seats and pedals then header V3. It never ends does it.

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