I’ve had some time off work so decided to exhume the chassis and get going again.
Having removed al the cr*p that was covering it I wheeled it out into the sunlight for a quick photo shoot. I span it round and wheeled it back in.
I’ve also bought the new Haynes book “build your own sports car on a budget” as it is more geared for using a sierra.
From the book I have used the plans to make my own seats, from cardboard first.
I’ve also started to strip the steering rack. I have the ball joints off and a good idea of how the shortening will work.
Spent 3 hours on the “the Car yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it.
So, I’m making plans for the next steps.
Floor pan has been 95% fully welded in, just a couple of short seams to finish, but the welded had to cool down so I went in.
I have the back end to complete and get the rear suspension made so that will be my next goal…
Well as you can probably guess, there has not been much to report recently
New additions to the family have quite rightly taken priority.
However things appear to be settling in to some sort of routine now, as a result I have managed to get outside
The chassis has not changed, but the donor has lost a good few pounds.
Pics will follow soon
Progress, not a lot, but progress.
The sheet of steel that is to be the floor pan is now 5 smaller pieces. Two of which perfectly fir the appropriate holds in the chassis. Two more to go, then weld ‘em in!
Once the floor pan is done, I’ll complete the rear end..
Photos to come…
So what have I done?
Not a lot actually, I successfully managed to side track myself with my new hobby, air rifle shooting, and have been busy in the garage designing and making various air rifle targets that are now for sale here.
So the car.. what’s happened..?
I have primed the front wish bones
Assembled the hubs and attached the front wheels!
I have also welded a plate of steel to front of the chassis to between chassis rails LD and E
Suspension mount at the front has been fully welded and “mock” springs made to substitute the lack of real ones
Next goal is to weld in the floor pan.
I’m getting into the garage much more at the mo, so with luck and dedication there should be some progress (oh and my eldest daughter Mia will be driving next year, a bet was made that it would not be ready for her to learn in - I don’t want a pile of bits - if I should fail it should be a close thing )
Front suspension… Done. All bar a lick of paint.
Bracket on, welds cleaned up and primer sprayed
I’ll let the primer harden for a bit then pop in the bushes.
Then I have the top coil over bracket to locate and weld onto the chassis.
Well, I failed my target! However I have made some good (for me!) progress.
All wishbones are welded up, the bottom ones have the plate fully welded in place.
All that needs doing is the brackets welding in place, a little cleaning up with the grinder
and a splash of paint.
Then it is onto the rear… or may be the engine.. or the floor pan!!!!!..
Well I’ve done it again… Huge gap.
So what’s happened? Well, Dad has cleaned up the rear hub carriers on his lathe, they look lovely now.
I’ll be reusing the hub carriers from the sierra, they have been cut off from the funny swing\trailing arm thingy that Ford
supply. I’ll be making my own contraption to connect up to the de-dion and trailing arms.
So thanks Dad! they are great.
Picked up some tubing for the de dion bar. It is 2.5mm x 50mm square section tubing.
Not the best solution but should be more than man enough, it’ll be welded in the middle
in a way similar to the GTS tube.
In the photo gallery you can see the progress with the front wish bones, I’m pleased with them.
I have to remake the bottom bones as I messed the first set up.
Still the benefit is I will be using the larger CDS tube (25mm) to prevent the bending
some Locost users have experienced.
**TARGET** - for me!
Get the front end rolling by the end of Nov!!!
Not a huge task but… I am playing with making my own resetting air rifle targets and designing and
making a new stock for my air rifle… so plenty of distractions available!
Spent a fair bit of time experimenting with the foundry and burner
nothing really to show, prototype waste oil burner was cool!
Stripped nearly everything off the engine, jet washed it and managed to rest the chassis over it.
See the photo gallery for this month for more.
Ordered more bits, 2 x Landrover engine mounts at £3 odd each and a Westfield type 9
gear box mount at £12ish see costs page for more detail.
….hmmm..big gap.
6 full months of nothing. I guess I have suffered ‘motivation block’. I’d go into
the garage and be totally unable to ‘get into it’ - the enjoyment had gone…
So I would go back into the house.
I can’t believe its been 6 months though!
Anyway, I’m back!!!.
Had a rustle round the garage and started the jig for the bottom wishbones and…
….enjoyment!! again!!! So motivation is back up - hence the update..
Lets see if I can get this thing rolling over the next few months?@%*&£???
More to come….
Started work on the rear but ran out of tubing so that slowed things down
Completed the bulk of the bending brake, will post some piccies soon…
also did some experimentation with a home made pipe bender, this will be used for the back curves
and possibly the wishbones.. not sure yet…
Made some investigations on home foundries for melting aluminium - this looks cool so temporarily got side tracked onto that..
More on that to come in it’s own little section…perhaps
Engine is out! Stripping final things off the bulkhead… brake cylinder, pedal box etc still needs to be done.
As a result of a thread in the locostbuilders forum I had a kind offer from a local builder
to ream my hubs out ready for maxi ball joints. Very pleased with that.
The big supprise was that he did not want anything for it!!!!!!!
Anyway, as his lovely Leugo is nearly ready to be SVA’d I’d decided a nice drop of Lanson would be in order
when it passes. So I dropped the bubbly off when I collected my hubs.
You know who you are, thanks VERY much!!!
I’ve not mentioned your name as I don’t want you swamped in requests for free-bees, you’ll have your car to enjoy very soon!!!
Discovered that the Transit Track Rod ends are M20 thread… and a dodgy taper…
Dad had a go at cutting the thread but the make shift die was not up to it
so I decided to buy the tubes made up…. £4.00 each from Lolocost while i was there id decided topick up some
lock nuts, Transit DRAG links M18 x 1.5 grand total £31.00.
Order turned up a couple of days after faxing the details over, unfortunately one of the ball joints was missing
So I called Robinhood and spoke to Sheena. Very helpful!!! She did some investigations and agreed to pop one in the post
It turned up a day or two later - Well done Lolocost! (a.k.a Robin Hood Sports Cars)
Now I have all the bits I can start considering the front wish bones…
I have noticed that the taper for the mushrooms is different to the Transit ball joints …
But a quick call to GTS and I was reassured that this was to allow “pre-loading” of the mushrooms?
Not entirely convinced of this, so if you know any different let me know, please
In the meantime, I have been fiddling with the diff and I am pleased with the result. I had to move the back most uprights of the tranny tunnel
to give better clearance and improved positioning of the diff, see July 2005 picture gallery…
I have also started working on a bending brake, this will be used for fashioning brackets, the rear de-dion hub carrier etc.
if it works well I’ll make a larger one to help with the fuel tank. Watch this space!!!
Things are moving on now. We have decided to move house so the car has to be rolling
before the move date (no date yet) so a renewed effort has been put in.
The donor cars has all but gone, just the engine and one wing left.
The rest has been taken to the dump.
Tubes G1 and G2 have been placed and fully welded, allowing an extra inch in the engine bay,
as advised by Mark Allanson on the Locost Builders site,
so that the starter motor will not occupy the same space. - Cheers Mark!
Made up a jig to sort out the alignment of the front suspension, I’m pleased with the way they have
gone on. Bottom brackets at the front are tacked on as is one of the top front brackets.
The jig will help me locate the correct position of the “FU” tubes.
This has been worrying me a little as I have strayed away from the book dimensions
a little and was not too sure of the impact this would have here.
Enlisted some help from my Dad to sort out the bush cases.
I have been unable to source some 21m ID tube so Dad suggested making our own on the lathe
from a 25m bar. We will also use this to make the top ball joint holders one I can locate
an M18 tap (or die - can never remember!)
I have also had problems sourcing the 4″ tube for the de dion hub carriers so I’m
currently considering square section carriers and de dion tube… the jury are out on this one..
Probably more research to do regarding this
Bought the Transit track rod ends from Camberley Auto factors - £6 a piece, they had to order
them specially and needed payment up front, which annoyed me as they could not take a credit card
over the phone, so it took two journeys to pick them up
Interestingly Camberley Autos could not get the Maxi ball joints until July 2005…!
So I dropped Darren at GTS an email enquiring on the current stock levels at GTS Tuning….
.. the response was “we have tons in stock, P&P £6.50″. So an order was duly placed on his site
for two Maxi ball joints at £16 each, 2 working days later they tuned up - Excellent service - again!
I can certainly recommend GTS!
Still slow progress.
Removed the front hub from donor and discovered someone on Locost Builders who was local and happy to ream out the hubs
Bought the metal from Metal Supermarkets for the suspension and a few other bits.
Did loads more pondering on the jig to get the front brackets right.
I think I’m happy with what I have.. (can I phone a friend or ask the audience?)
Still undecided on size of De Dion tube to use, or whether to use round or square.. Watch this space
Well it’s been a long time.
Not a huge amount of progress, the donor has lost a few more pounds
I’ve changed my mind on IRS. Hacked off some tubes and decided to go the de dion route instead
picked up loads of good info from Craig Chamberlains site
Replaced the hacked off tubes and spent ages mulling over the pros and cons of
how I should locate the front wish bones.
Bought the suspension bushes from Quiller Triumph
These arrived promptly.
Not a lot really for 4 months…..
Seems like there has been no update in ages.
Well things are progressing …..slowly
The Sierra is now just the engine bay, dash board, steering wheel and gear lever
everything else has been removed and stored or dumped.
The chassis is progressing well too. The main chassis section is pretty much fully welded
I’m going to have another look at the sub assembly at the front, being the first thing
I welded it is not quite up to scratch so I will whip it off and re-do it
I need to grind flat some of the welds and may give others another shot if they
don’t look good enough. Next will be to consider either the rear frame for the IRS or mount the front suspension brackets
Made some progress this month, but not a huge amount..
More of the chassis has been welded, I reckon I’m about two thirds of the way through
I decided to remove the 8x4 chipboard from the chassis and take it off my turntable
as it weighed loads and I was swinging it one way then the other and it was constantly in the way.
I half expected it to go “ping” and twist like a banana when I removed the clamps but it just simply sat there
That was a relief!
So the chassis is sat on the garage floor at the mo. I’ll probably mount it back in the turntable
but without the board, this will allow me to get inside it to complete the welding of all those hard to reach
areas. I also removed the back end of the Sierra, this was fun!
I spent ages with a jigsaw (and a VERY long hacksaw blade made to fit) and a disk grinder
trying to get through one of the chassis beams. Eventually I gave up and had go with
a hand held hacksaw…. It went through it like a hot knife through butter!!!! Couldn’t believe it
Still, the back end is off and ready to take a trip to the dump.
I’ll be making a start at getting the engine out soon
Ordered the cheep mushrooms for the sierra front suspension. These came through GTS Tuning
no problems with the order, the only comment I’ll pass is that it was a little peculiar in the buying process
I placed the order for the mushrooms £24.95 for the PAIR, then after payment confirmation for those
a separate email appeared with a paypal bill for £3.50 for the P & P.
the site advises that this will arrive separately, it was just strange placing the order
and not having any idea how much I would be stung for P&P, as it happens it was not too bad.
Mushrooms arrived a couple of days later… easy.
I’m pretty impressed with the quality of these. They come highly recommended … by me!
Not such a good month this month
Only had an hour or two in the garage as domestic chores were pressing..
Welded a little more of the chassis - there are more joints than I thought!!!
You spend a few hours welding and think, “yeah I must be nearly there now”,
you look down and still see just as many tubes needing welding as have been welded!!!
Still, I’m enjoying it! Found a good source of cheep mushrooms for the sierra front suspension, GTS Tuning
these will be ordered shortly…
Good month this month!
Completed the tubes for the transmission tunnel.
Added the triangulation tubes and now I have started the process
of fully welding all the joints.
This surprised me just how many there are!
I have been working with the chassis on a pivoting table (see gallery)
and welding four joints on one side the swinging the whole chassis over
and welding the matching joint on the other side
Currently I have only done the sides, this is to minimise the chance of heat distortion
Once all the side have been done I will repeat the process with the
chassis off the board and weld top then bottom.
I feel that if I did the sides then the top before starting the bottom I could end
up with a banana shaped chassis…. Better safe than sorry…
Broke up the rear suspension assembly too. Loads of pics in the gallery - sorry
but I wanted to mull over how I was going to do the hub carriers while
I was at work, so I took loads of picture and chucked them on the server…
Well I’m back from my 1 month holiday in the good ol’ US of A
Welding course finished at the end of Jan too - this means that I will be spending more time in the Garage
Apart from that, not a lot to report for the last 3 months.
Well this month has seen some action.
I have made a start on the tunnel, this is coming on very well.
I decided that the rear of the cockpit was no good so I abandoned that and
went back to the book layout.
My welding is coming on in leaps and bounds! I think I may write a hints and tips
page to try and help others who follow the same path - watch this space!
I also had a go at the Sierra. Rear suspension is out along with prop shaft,
fuel tank and most of the exhaust.
Nearly all the wiring has been removed from the back of the car
and I made a start cutting the whole boot off :-p Pics will be in the gallery.
I was also chatting to one of the guys on my welding course. He races a Sierra
as a Stock car. I mentioned that I had just cut the front bumper into
small pieces when he commented that he is always looking for Sierra
panels, suspension, bumpers etc. So rather than dumping the waste
I may have discovered a buyer (or buyers) for it!
Well after the little blip of activity in the last update not a lot has happened.
I started doubting the plans I had downloaded.
Something just didn’t ‘feel’ right.
So I studied ‘The Book’ and studied the IRS plans and eventually discovered what it was.
The IRS plans have the cockpit back at a much shallower angle than the one specified in the ‘The Book’.
I can see why they were drawn this way, the shallower angle allows the for better positioning of the top shock mounting when using IRS.
Unfortunately, I have already committed myself to ‘The Book’ angle so I have put the cockpit back on hold
and started to add the tunnel made from the 19mm tubes. This is great as I can again see some evidence of progression!
17th Sept I started the welding course at the Southampton City College.
First appearances are that it will be a very good course.
I have already picked up a couple of good pointers that will help me avoid some
of the mistakes I had been making so I am really looking forward to the next week.
Happy Birthday to me….!!!
It was my birthday at the end of Sept.
My wonderful family decided that the best pressie for me would be an automatic Welding Helmet
This coincided with me learning that the ‘12′ rated welding
lens I have been using is probably too dark for MIG work.
I was advised to use a ‘9′ or ‘10′.
So their timing was perfect…. like the present!!
As my new helmet is adjustable I can try all sorts now. I’ll report how I get on when I have tried it.
More picture will be added to the new look gallery very soon.
With the recent purchase of a cool digital camera there should be no end the photos. :-0
I had a really good session in the garage early in May;
I spent about 10 hours pondering and head scratching how the hell I
was going to do the rear of the cockpit.
I have downloaded some plans for the IRS
suspension but they have all sorts of what I call “compound angles”.
Where the cur needs to be in two planes rather than the easier one.
Anyway, I have made a start on this, once you get going it not too bad
Measure twice.. etc. and take your time, lots of it.
To lighten things up I also took the air saw to the sierra…
BIG GRINS!!!!!!!! Some how it is very therapeutic!!
So the Sierra had had it’s nose cut off. while doing this I discovered something
That could have been worrying if I had wanted to keep the car.
One of the main front members had had a knock, that had creased it the cross member
I eventually removed enough filler to plaster a small room!!!
It had been well done, in as much as you wouldn’t have noticed it if you were simply
giving it the quick once over.
Still the whole cross beam is now in bin sized pieces ready for removal.
I have myself booked and confirmed on a welding course at the local college.
17 weeks of training from mid Sept should do wonders for building up the old enthusiasm.
By that time some of the other chores will have been completed hopefully freeing up
some garage time. more soon!!! (
Well, I’m back!!! Megan is doing fine, most of the domestic disasters have now passed and I have managed to get into the garage!!
The chassis is not too buried so I think I should be able to get things up and running quite quickly.
I have decided to have a change of tack, during the break I have been thinking about my welding and decided that I should do a proper job.
I tried to book myself on a basic welding course at the local college but unfortunately they were over subscribed.
Looks like I will have to wait until Sept now..
In the mean time I will busy myself with the chassis construction with tack welds and disassembling the Sierra.
Not a very productive month at all.
I had two weeks off work that were dedicated to decorating the nursery and spending some time with my daughter.
As a result the base board with the chassis on has become a little buried in crap, see pic.
toward the end of the month I did get the chance to unbury the chassis and restore some order to the garage.
So with a little luck I may be able to get something done next month.
I did read in the Locost group that some people were experiencing problems with the chassis going banana shaped as they tack it together.
I checked this with mine and I too had some bend in the board and chassis.
Fortunately I am no where near the triangulation stage and most of the bend was in an area with only the bottom rails.
So three 8ft lengths of 4x2 later I now have a base board that is dead flat and far from being banana like!!
I am really pleased I checked that before I had gone much further.
I also received a mail from an other local builder informing me of a meeting of locosters in a local pub,
unfortunately I checked my mail a day late so missed it May be next month…
The start of the month went well, had another evening or two in the garage and managed to get the chassis rails tacked in behind the seat area.
Unfortunately I had a couple of “wasted” weeks where I was working in France and Germany so I managed to get nothing done at all mid month.
I have started a new ‘domestic’ project which is also eating up build time - We are decorating the nursery.
It should be lovely when it is finished…a lot of work to go yet!!!
The bike passed the MOT! Good news I’ll look forward to evening spins and commuting to work on that now.
A great month for the car this month. I really feel like I have moved
forward. I have had a few good evenings and managed to get the front assembly LA,LB,LC,LD remade
(the right height this time!) That has been tacked on. From there I have added J1&2
One of the most time consuming parts this month has been checking the frame is square
time and time again. Still I am happy with progress.
You will also notice that I have some pictures up now. More will be added as each day is finished
This should create a complete history of what I have achieved.
I had a really good session in the garage early in May. I spent 10 hours reassembling the bike engine.
The cam covers were on and I was working the water works when I accidentally dropped a screw into the head…
Followed by many words like “Oh dash!”, “Whoops!” and “Deary me!”
It meant taking it all off again, retrieving the screw and starting from scratch on building up the head. I was not a happy bunny.
Still I have the bike assembled now and managed to make
the front “LA,LB,LC,LD” assembly.
I thought that this had gone particularly well until I clamped it up to the front.
It was then that I realised that I had had a momentary lapse in reason.
The height of the assembly was different to the height of the H bars at the side!!!
It was then that I heard my Dads voice in my head
“MEASURE TWICE…. CUT ONCE!!!
So out came the hack saw and in two minutes.. I had four separate tubes again.
We are pregnant!!!!
We have hit the second trimester and so are past the riskiest stage - all is well.
We are expecting our little bundle of joy mid to end of Oct.
(This year? Yes!! - as my grandmother had to ask!!)
Where does time go?……And yet another month bites the dust and the car has not progressed at all…
With the sun coming out all my efforts have been in getting the pool ready to open and fixing the bike.
Pool should be full and ready to go this weekend (27th April) current water temp is around 18º C.
Should be a gooooood summer!! I am trying to devise some good pool games for this years frolics - pool jousting looks to be on the cards.. He He
The bike has the head off, valves are out and cleaned and the head has been cleaned.
It looks like the exhaust valves on the second cylinder had been stuck open 1.5 - 2 mm.
Luckily there was no collision with the piston and no damage - just loads of grot to clean off. Lovely.
While I was doing this it occurred to me that my first estimation for completion of the car may be a little optimistic - 2-2.5 years..
I have found that in my ‘old’ age I have developed a desire to ‘do it right’ rather than a ‘that will do’ attitude.
Still best do it right first time.
I am also some 8 months down the line and only just have a 3D chassis!!
Still the current major tasks seem to be nearly over - then I can crack ahead and get things really taking shape…
Made the key.. Piece of cake!! Well, a piece of tubular steel and a hammer!!
That was fun ;o)
Couple of hours more practice and I think we are there!!
I can now tack two bits of 1″ square tube together
so well that the metal will rip rather than the weld breaking!! I am one happy chappie! ))))))))
I can move on with the build..
After a few weeks of dealing with other tasks,
making some cupboards and finishing the pool cover roller I eventually got back into the garage to work on the car.
My first task is to grind off all the crap welds from the previous attempts - what a lovely job that was.. Not!!
Still I made it a little better asI used a pair of motorcycle ear
plugs to reduce the noise - I had previously been getting
some awful headaches that would last a day or two after I had been on a grinding session.
No problems this time.
With the old welds off
I re-welded the ‘internal’ joints and ground them flat.
Around this time I got fiddling with the welding mask I had been given by my father (a well used one).
I had been unhappy with the view through the glass.
While I could see the arc and sometimes I could just make out the metal, most of the time
it was a case if line myself up before the weld started and guide myself as best I could with very little vision.
I had cleaned the outside and inside of the lens a few times but with very little improvement, however this time I discovered that there were in fact two lenses.
One was clear and I guess is heat
resistant as it is on the outside, the other is the dark glass on the inside.
When I took these apart and removed the gunk between them I discovered that it is actually possible to see what you are doing while you are welding!!!
Another breakthrough - I feel much happier with this whole welding lark now. :op
Anyway I am now the proud owner of a 3 dimensional chassis!!!
I successfully added the four uprights (H) to my lower rails.
Unfortunately the evening was over by the time I finished the last of the uprights but I left the garage itching to get back in and crack on.
I had been feeling a little despondent when things had been going pear shaped, but that is sorted now, the chassis is starting to take shape!!!
On the third week of the month I picked up my old motorbike a Kawasaki EN450 Ltd, this had
been with my brother-in-law as it was overheating one of the new twin exhaust pipes.
He had drawn a blank and concluded with either the pipe is blocked or
there is a stuck exhaust valve - I’m going with the second
as it had been laid up for a couple/3 years.
This is going to take a good few weekends looking at, as I want it on the road for the Summer, unfortunately
the car will have to wait…
Though I may find time to add a few more chassis rails…. : ^P
We shall see..
After another slow start to the month I did manage to spend some time in the garage.
Determined to crack this welding problem I started from scratch.
With all dials set to 0,0,0,0
I slowly incremented them up to see what changes occurred.
After some time I managed to get the weld so that I could actually see the metal melting and the weld wire filling the gap!!!
This was all done as straight lines on flat 1.6 mm thick metal plates.
Having practiced and proved the penetration was good by cutting the plates in half I decided to have a go on some tube off cuts……
I tacked the two tubes together then prepared to run a bead across the joint…..
I pulled the trigger and…….
A great shower of red hot blobs of metal sprayed everywhere!!!!! Bugger!!!! I had run out of gas!!!!
A trip to BOC and £40 odd later I had a new cylinder time to try again…
… I got home all excited, connected the gas and…. no bl**dy key!!! I can’t turn the gas on!! How frustrating is that?
I popped to B&Q and they looked blank when I asked for a gas key. Looks like I will need to make one..
Wow!! Where did that go??
It seems only yesterday I was updating this page for Dec and
now I am more than just late for Jan!!
The really bad news is that as time has flown away I have had very little time in the garage.
Domestic chores have to come first and they
have really been lined up this year in anticipation for a good Summer
As the old school reports used to say - “more effort needed”
I suppose that I am a little flat after the welds were not as good as I had hoped.
Once I crack this welding issue I will be up and running again..
Lets see what Feb brings….
As predicted in Nov I have done loads of travelling with work,
I have been Xmas shopping and had little spare time to go in the garage.
The physio did a cracking job (literally!!) so hopefully I will be able to progress some in the New Year.
I had time off between Xmas and the New Year, this I spent in the garage.
Having tacked the bottom rails together I realised that some it the
joints need a full weld as they would be ‘hidden’ with the addition of other tubes.
To my horror, after grinding flat a weld I again noticed
very little penetration - the look is greatly improved but
the depth is far from adequate.
I need to practice a fair bit more before I will be happy to use anything that I have welded.
Hmmm. Not a very good start.
Quite literally I have not stepped in the garage this month!
I have developed a pain in my neck that is aggravated when it gets cold and the garage is COLD!
I have an appointment with the physio early next month.
I also started the new job late this month and found that I had to travel
to Stevenage for the next month to complete the handover process!!
This has resulted in 4-6 hours a day travelling as I live in Southampton!!!
I have done exactly nothing this month and cannot really see much being done next month either
October started off as a slow month. Work on the our second car to get it
passed the MOT has eaten a weekend and preparation work in the garage
with additional lighting has meant that progress has been slower than I had planned.
I am currently waiting for a letter of offer from a local aerospace company.
This will mean that instead of spending 3-4 hours travelling to and from work each day, I will be able to do it in less than an hour.
This will give me more time for me, my family and the car!!
The travel really takes it out of me - often resulting in me being no good for anything once I get home.
Progress should pick up considerably once I start my new job
I had a day off towards the end of the month and managed to get all the bottom rails cut and clamped on the board.
With help from Liam’s “Guide to MIG welding” I have now successfully welded two
pieces of metal together that don’t fall apart with the slightest bit of pressure!!!
A BIG thanks goes out to Liam!
I was still not getting the penetration (oo er!!!) I needed, the guide has helped immensely.
It is stored on the Locost groups files section (this may be members only)
Having got married on 1st Sept and enjoyed 3 weeks in Aruba, Dutch Caribbean on honeymoon ))))
I decided that the last weekend of Sept, my 31st birthday, would be “The Start”
So full of cold I set to work for an hour or so marking out the lower section of the chassis on the 8 x 4 piece of .75″ thick chip board.
That was it, back to bed, but feeling better… I had started, no going back now.
I have decided make the chassis 4″ wider than the one in the book and a slightly shorter
cockpit area as both my wife and I have short legs - this will make the engine bay a little longer and hopefully help fitting the pinto engine.
I will be using a 2.0l Sierra ghia as the donor.
This was purchased from Adtrader (see links) for the grand sum of £35.
It has 5 alloy wheels with 3 good tyres, a new battery, 5 speed box and an engine that appears fine.
I picked it up on it’s last day of MOT so drove it home… The long way.. ….so I could see if there was anything wrong with it. Everything appears hunky dory.
We moved house in June 2000, the house not only has a garage but also a brick ‘workshop’ behind it,
this has been knocked through to create a good working area.
We also have space on the drive for 5/6 cars so
storing the donor will be no problem.
Shortly after moving I picked up an ex-demo welder from my brother-in-law and ordered the metal.
Fitting welding practice in between the other
jobs I made a start on a pool cover roller (saving us some £250-300,
this made the project a little more appealing to my wife! - Welding can have its uses!!)
I did have some problems with settings on the welder - I found that while I could get a nice neat bead I had very little penetration.
After half a dozen books from the library I was still none the wiser!
I tried all sorts of combinations but was still a little unhappy with the result - more practice I think!
Things seemed to slow down for a while, this was due to preparations
for getting married and a big job…. replacing the roof of the sun lounge.
….so I could see if there was anything wrong with it. Everything appears hunky dory.