Locost project

Locost project

I've wanted a Lotus 7 since around 1978. Even still have a DSK informational packet I sent for back then. Never got around to it though, mostly because of all the layoffs I lived through. Now, being a retired guy, the price of "real" Lotus 7's is still way too high. A couple of years ago though, I heard about the Locost 7 concept, where you build your own for a considerable savings. True... it may not be a "genuine" Lotus, but it just has to be fun to drive just the same.

I had also admired this beautiful early 60s Lotus 7 owned by a fellow Lotus Corps member for a VERY long time. Another Lotus Corps member restored one, but the price of real ones was just WAY too high and impractical for a regular retired guy like myself. I had heard about the Locost 7 from Don, a local guy and felt this was the only way for me to ever have one.

Since I had over 30 years of manufacturing and welding experience, I figured making my own chassis was possible.... Through the Locost Yahoo list though, I found a guy who started into building a car, but got too busy with his other toy to finish it. I decided to go to Pennsylvania and pick up the chassis and other bits he had accumulated. After the way my projects tend to drag out, I figured I could use all the shortcuts I could get! The chassis was manufactured (with many errors) by Coveland. Since I was going out East to pick up the chassis In Pennsylvania, figured I might as well stop at Coveland (located in New York State) and pick up some other necessary bits too. Met "Mr. Coveland", Jim Chamberlain, who seemed to be a very nice and helpful guy.

We (long time friend John Jamieson went with) left Moline at 4:30am on Monday, February 13, and on the first day drove around 860 miles, stopping in Syracuse, New York for the night around 8pm. That leg of the trip was slightly complicated around Buffalo when we experienced lake effect snow. Traffic came to a complete halt for about a half an hour due to a multiple car accident. Luckily, our only problem there was the inconvenience of being stopped in traffic for about 30 minutes.

Got to Coveland in Schuylerville, New York around 11am on Tuesday. Chatted with Jim and loaded some stuff into the bed of my Ranger. You can see a bit of the nosecone peeking out of the bed of my truck in the first picture. The second image is a Miata based car Coveland is building up. The next step was to head south for New Oxford, PA about a 7 hour drive from Coveland to pick up the chassis.

After picking up the chassis and other bits, we went up to Harrisburg, PA for the night. You can see my Ranger all loaded up for the trip back to Moline. Left there around 7:30am eastern and got back to the Quad-Cities around 9pm Central time, just as it was starting to sleet. The whole trip was 2,200 miles! Made it back almost without incident.... driving along in Pennsylvania and the truck shakes with a big thump... didn't see anything in the road, either falling out of the truck, or that I could have run over.... we were stumped as to what it was.... pulled over and saw that the tailgate had opened up. Slammed it shut and drove the rest of the way home!

My 4AGE gathering trip report:
Friday morning, March 17, 2006 I hopped into my truck at 6:45am and hit the road..... approximately 350 miles later around 11am, in Missouri, I stopped for gas and to pee. Went to a McDonalds next door and had a Big Mac. Hadn't had one in a very long time and it sounded good... guess I'm ok for a couple more years now!

Got back in the truck and drove the rest of the way to fellow turboesprit and Locost list member Doctor Hess's house in Fayetteville, Arkansas... got there at 4:45pm. Fayetteville is just south of Bentonville, home of Wal-Mart, so the roads are very busy down there. He got home at 5:15... we chatted a bit and we loaded up the engine in the back of the truck. I had brought a bunch of lumber scraps... put together a sort of cradle to hold the engine stable and keep it off of the oil pan. Used nylon straps to cinch it from all four corners, and one over the top to make sure it didn't bounce up at all.

Hoped back into my truck and left his place at around 7:15pm. On my way down, I noticed road construction in Missouri on the return trip side, where traffic was backed up a LONG way, so it was my intention to drive back just past that point and stop for the night. Once I got that far though, I wasn't all that tired, so I stopped to get gasoline (at $2.35) for the truck and had a sandwich for me at a Steak and Shake. It was now about 9:30pm as I got back on the road thinking that I would now go just past Saint Louis to beat the potential morning traffic jam there. Got into Saint Louis around 12:30am and there was hardly any traffic, so I blew right through.

Still wasn't all that tired, so onward I continued..... even as I got to Springfield, Illinois I was feeling fine! However... as I passed Peoria, I began to feel weary.... considered pulling into the rest area outside Peoria for a bit, but my fatigue went away, possibly due to the music cassette I was playing? Got back home at about 5:20 am, nearly 24 hours after I left. Went to bed for a 2 hour nap, got up and unloaded the engine.... the rest of my day went pretty much normally. Sure am tired and yawning now . Bet I sleep good tonight!

Picked up yet another pile of parts from a Locoster in Minneapolis! Another 4AGE, along with a transmission, 2 Limited Slip rear axles and more! I had tried to get this stuff when it was offered before, but was beaten to the proverbial punch. Nabbed all the goodies this time.

Finally getting back to work September 9, 2006 on this thing after a very long break due to the health of my Mother. Setting up the brackets for the rear axle and pretending to go for a drive. Long time friend, Vipermax Dwight taking some pictures for me.

My next step for Monday, September 11 is to try sliding the Toyota 4AGE engine and T-50 transmission into place.

These pictures also give you the chance to see my new haircut.... my first one in about 1.5 years!

The chassis with the engine sitting in it. Right now, it's supported by a 2x4, but you get the idea...

Finally got the 220 volt hook-up wired in my garage September 29, 2006, and fired up the welder to weld up a motor mount on the Locost...... It came right on, with no sparks shooting out from my wiring job!

Grabbed my helmet, and turned it on to make sure the batteries were still good... it seemed to work ok.... so I hooked up the ground, grabbed the gun and tried to tack the motor mount together....

Tried is right, couldn't see what in the heck I was doing! Dialed down the darkness number, but it didn't seem to help much..... put one weld on, but still couldn't see worth a dang.... Have my eyes degraded that much in the 2 years since retirement?

All of a sudden, it came to me.... the answer to my sight problem.... When I brought the helmet home from work on my last day, I put in a new clear lens, but left the protective film on it to keep it from getting all scratched up. Once the film was removed (from both sides), I could see quite clearly!

<blush> a welder for 35 years and I make that mistake..... doah! :-)

A guy I knew actually talked a friend of his into lending me a welder. A nice 220volt Lincoln unit. Thanks Blaine, I'll treat it well.

This is the homemade motor mount on the left hand side. Of course, I know they aren't welded to the chassis at this point

This is the homemade motor mount on the right hand side. This one was much simpler to figure out than the other one.

November 16, 2006... spent quite a bit of time in the garage welding. Lots more fun than it was when I did it for a living!

Bought a pair of Miata seats on eBay. Since Keith used them in his build, figured they would work for me too, and offer up at least a little comfort for my old body. They will require some modification though....

December 1, 2006, Friday. Rather than work on the Locost seats, I'm stuck for 8 hours blowing very close to 9" of snow! Clearing our alley, street, and sidewalks for us, several of our neighbors and a relative. WHEW!

Got to work, on Saturday... December 2nd, stripped off the original leather covers, and removed all the foam rubber. Can you hear Ruth? "You paid money for these seats, and then tore them all apart?"

I cut about an inch or so right out of the middle of the base to make it fit. The right hand side of the chassis is pretty narrow. All of the surface rust cleaned up with a wire brush wheel on my drill.

This is the bottom tube on the seat back frame. My original plan was to take a different approach than Keith. He bent his into submission, I figured might as well just cut the excess out, pull the whole thing inward, and then weld it back together.

Little did I know at the time, that the seat back had other ideas. Another metal reinforcement ran across the width, so I had to cut and reweld it too. Oddly enough, I had to take more out of the seat back than the seat base.

The seat back frame is not as wide now, so should fit into the chassis

The seat back used to adjust, but there is no room for the adjuster on a Locost. This bracket is probably overkill, but I bet the seat won't budge!

In this picture, I try to show how close the metal bottom of the seat frame is to the floor. I would estimate about .5" to .75" of clearance maximum. I know I can't stick my skinny fingers under it. Note the shock bushings used as spacer between the seat rail and floor pan.

Sort of shows how the seat fits in the 'narrow' side of the chassis. At the front of the seat, the chassis measures 17" wide. At the rear of the seat area, the width is only 15.5". In this picture, the seat back appears to be offset inwards on the left side. Not sure why it looks that way in the picture, because it doesn't in real life.

Started playing with getting the steering column mounted.

It can be difficult getting it where you want it, and keeping it there when you do this by yourself. I got pretty creative with my engine hoist and some ratchet nylon straps.

One of the things I got done with my build during the winter "down time" period was to acquire a nice set of Revolution wheels from the friendly people here at
S & S Performance Motorsports. I HIGHLY recommend them.

February 10, 2007: Over the time period, I've worked on this project, I've found that patience is indeed a virtue. Suffered many delays due to enforced "vacations". My most recent vacation began back during the end of December 2006. Was helping a friend move his business, and he was very badly injured. He ended up in the hospital, so another friend pitched in and we moved the rest of the stuff. After that, I went over to the new location daily trying to set things up and get him operational so when he was ready to come back, he could do some business. Moving things around in a semi-logical location, running Cat 5 cables and hooking up phones, etc kept me busy for some time. It all worked out in a way, because this winter has just been WAY too cold to get out into the garage.

About mid-January, I developed a nasty cough and tried to see my Doctor. Due to the sudden death of his brother, he was out of town, so I was referred to a 'quick-care' facility. A 10 day course of antibiotics was prescribed. With 2 days left of that, I really wasn't doing a whole lot better, so went to see my Doctor. He listened to my lungs, but didn't seem concerned and told me to call him in a couple of days if I wasn't doing any better. I actually did start to feel better, but on Sunday, February 4th, everything went downhill. Monday, I made a Doctor appointment. He listened to me breathe and looked all concerned, then sent me to the hospital! Turns out I had ended up with pneumonia, and spent 5 days in the hospital. Of course, that means no garage work for a while again. <sigh> Good thing I'm patient, sure hope I live long enough to build this darned thing and get it on the road.

Friday, February 12, 2007.... You know, it's a little sad too..... I was sitting around the house yesterday, thinking about my car and thought, 'hey, why not start building my mega squirt system'! So, I got the box and my soldering stuff out.... got busy building the relay board... when the phone rings..... Ruth's (my wife) elderly brother-in-law had decided to fix his leaky sink drain.... tore it apart.... but couldn't figure out how to get the last bit off, or get it back together..... so, my mega squirt project goes back into the box and I end up spending around 3 hours getting him taken care of.

Saturday, February 24, 2007...... Been going to the local mall daily and doing some walking to try and regain some of my strength. It was pretty tough going for the first week. Had to ask Ruth to slow down so I could keep up... the whole time, my legs felt like rubber. The first day, after a walk of 20 minutes wore me out so bad, I had to take a 30 minute nap to recuperate from! After about a week of this though, I'm doing much better. One slight problem though, I've got the rattle beginnings of a cough again. Depending on where that goes, a Doctor visit on Monday may be scheduled.

I've done a bit more work on the MegaSquirt Stimulator board, but knocked my soldering pencil onto the floor and broke the tip off of it. I'll say that my old eyes make doing the work a bit harder than it was back in the 70's when I built a HeathKit color tv.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007..... what a crappy winter this has been... here I am, the guy who NEVER gets sick... I was just starting to feel better, and getting over the pneumonia... but then my window rattling cough comes back. My Doctor sends me for another chest x-ray, but my lungs looked okay this time. Turns out, it's "only" bronchitis this time.

<sigh>, if it isn't one thing, it's 13,000 others...

Saturday, March 10, 2007...... Well, I'm feeling MUCH better finally... plus, the weather is improving. Still taking meds, but am having physical difficulties with arthritis-like hand cramps (where my fingers twist up like pretzels) and crippling leg cramps.... most likely (according to what I've read on the net) due to the anti-biotic Levaquin I've been on. Heck, I've been on various anti-biotics since the end of January, and on prednisone since the beginning of February. Makes it difficult to do much like that! Still taking the mall walks, and have started going back to my friend's computer shop as of yesterday when I hung a ceiling fan... but I find I sure still get worn out quickly. I recently found some hardware for the car.... have been searching high and low for months for some 1/2" X 20 in left hand thread to make some really cool adjustable rear trailing arms with. Got them ordered and they should be on their way to me very soon. I'll have some details and pictures up here when I make them.

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