anduril3019

I actually considered the RX7 axle and almost bought one I found on Craigslist. In the end, I did have access to a Cortina axle, and wanted to stick with the Ford bolt pattern.

Build Table and First Tubes Table is built from 3/4" MDO and 1 x 2 poplar ribs. It lives outside, the MDO has held up surprisingly well and the surface is nice to work on. Not much rain to worry about in California, but it did get caught uncovered in a couple of storms and still remained flat through the crucial build stages. It's about 2 years old now and has about an 1/8" droop over its length, but is still usable as a level work surface. On hindsight, I'd make the section taller, but it's worked well as is. After a lot of planning, the first few tubes have gone in place.

I'm interested if you're selling. Sent you a message.

Well, I was more like a serf in the Kingdom of Bean. But, to be fair, he was a benevolent monarch.

Thanks for the tip! I've spent a bit of time there and locostusa.com, as well as some of the UK sites. I'm playing catch-up on the build log here, I'm actually quite a bit further along than my posts imply. Chassis is pretty complete and tack welded. Currently finishing up welding and moving on to suspension pick-up points. Should have posts caught up over the next few weeks.

Design intent is for a somewhat traditional build, styled similar to Series 2/3 Sevens from the mid to late 60s. Engine: Cortina pre crossflow, tuned as budget allows. Mainly want to get it on the road! Transmission: Cortina or Pinto 4 speed, standard ratios. Have both, not sure which I'll use yet. Front Suspension: Triumph uprights, Lotus lower wishbones, custom upper wishbones, anti-roll bar, Triumph steering rack. (Wishbones courtesy of Xtra Special Sevens) Rear Suspension: Cortina axle, trailing arms, Panhard bar. Wheels/Tires: Cortina GT, steel, 13 x 4.5, 175/70-13. Frame design is a hybrid of the plans, mods, and specs floating around online. Stretched a little so I can fit "comfortably."

I think he passed those math skills on to me. I started an engineering degree but gave up on the math pretty quick. 81 times 136 divided by 137 times 119x over W equals... Multiple drivers sharing a car for SCCA driver school.

Ha! Yeah, looking at the photos, it is definitely the tiny Turner. Not to be confused with Tina Turner.

I've been gleaning here for a long time, so time to start a build log. (Semi-parallel thread over at locostusa.com) Some quick history. My dad raced a Turner 950S in the late 60s early 70s, from when I was around 2 to 12 years old. The Turner was awesome and unique its class (sadly, it came to an untimely demise), but even as a kid, I couldn't help noticing these weird cars that I couldn't quite figure out always lurking in the background. To my young eyes they kind of looked like a formula car, kind of like an MG TD, kind of like a squished Model A, and they seemed to be everywhere! They looked fast, fun, and completely useless. I knew I would have to have one someday... Fast forward to college, I ended up getting into Cortinas by accident (literally by accident, but that's another story). That eventually led to me working for Dave Bean in Santa Barbara for a little while and firmly established my love for all things Lotus and English Ford. Still no 7, though) Fast forward another pile of years and jobs, and one of my kids wanted to spend the summer building a go-kart from scratch, not a race kart, just something to impress his friends and annoy the neighbors with. While building that, I taught him a little bit about 7s and some kit cars I was thinking about building "someday." Wise-guy that he is, he said, "Why someday?" After running through the excuses (work, family, money, time, space, priorities, etc.), we decided to just go for it. After all, we built a go-kart, right!? How hard could a 7 be? I can't find the thread, but not too long ago, someone was asking on one of the forums here whether they should build or buy. Someone answered that if you go the build route, be prepared for it to take about 10 years, and cost around $20,000. I've got to say, that's proving to be pretty accurate. It can certainly be done faster and cheaper, but I'm building to my taste and having fun in the process. A timeline goal is to get it done while my dad can still take it for a spin. It's going slow, due to work and a side business that's threatening to turn into a full-time gig (more excuses), so posts may be few and far between, but I'll keep them coming as I make progress. Special thanks to many here who have supplied parts for the project through sale, trade, and donation! You may see them turn up here and live again. Sorry for the long intro, actual build log coming soon!

As stated above, it kind of comes down to priorities, especially with safety equipment. A roll bar's first purpose is to prevent/reduce injury in a roll over situation, If it can also be designed to increase chassis stiffness, great! A harness is also meant to first prevent/reduce injury in an accident, if it can also improve your driving by keeping you from flopping around, great! Likewise, a fire extinguisher/system has a primary purpose of extinguishing fire, preventing loss of life, preventing further property damage, preventing spreading of the fire, etc. If it can do all those things and be non-corrosive, great! So, just letting it burn kind of misses the bigger point I'd say, but he gets extra points for drama!

If you're looking to stay original-ish, WOSP Performance, and a few others, make an alternator housed inside a Lucas generator case. Available from Moss and most of the Spridget specialists. Not the cheapest route but good looking.

While we're on the subject... Any rod and flux recommendations for brazing without a gas fluxer? I'm thinking non-critical things like tabs and brackets.

Yeah, I know what you mean, but don't think too deeply about it. Basically as I was drawing, I ended up with an empty space there and was trying different things to fill it. My sketches slowly morphed into the all-seeing eyeball. I thought it was fun and a little silly so I went with it. Maybe it's searching the road ahead, warding of danger, and leading toward adventure... (or not)

I wonder about durability also. I'm obviously not worried about mechanical failure on this part, but curious to see how it holds up to UV.

Craftcloud was great. A wide selection of materials and processes and pretty fast turnaround. It's a crowd sourced service, so once you set all your parameters for materials, finishes, quantity, etc., you're given a choice of vendors. I've printed the same model with several different vendors to test consistency between them, and have been happy with the results. I've also done another project through them where I needed 1000 prints of something, and was also happy with the results. One glitch I had was that the first time I uploaded a model, it said my file was corrupt. My friend who built it couldn't find a problem with the file. It turned out that Craftcloud wasn't interpreting the scale, so the solution was just to click through the warnings and manually enter the overall dimensions, which then sets the scale in Craftcloud.

Well, here goes, I'll take a stab at the first post. I'm working on a long term Locost build dubbed the Fauxtus 7. I'm a long way from completion, but thought it would be fun to take a little diversion from fabrication and work on a hood badge. Full disclosure, I did the 2D design, a friend did the 3D modelling and some of the prints, other prints were made using an online service. The goal was to try and come up with something that could work as an old-school enameled badge. Mainly, that meant making sure all the elements were completely bordered and isolated so they could be paint filled. The 2D design was extruded, then the foreground and background intersected with a sphere to get the domed shape but keep all the lines parallel in the Z axis. The model was printed by an FDM and an SLA printer (I don't know any detail about the printers). The line work ended up being too fine for the FDM to hold the detail, and even though the resin printer reproduced all the detail, I'd make some of the line work thicker next time. Using the resin prints, we painted some directly and also made a silicone mold and cast a few using metal filled epoxy, with varying results. Again, as with the initial prints, the silicone had trouble with the fine line detail and began to deteriorate after several castings. I also sent the model to craftcloud3d.com and tried a few different materials including a bronze filled PLA. With this material and the metal filled epoxy, you can get something approaching a polished metallic surface. The red and blue version is the bronze filled PLA print painted with Testors model paints in candy colors which are a little transparent and let some of the "metal" show through. Top surface was wet sanded and finished with fine scotch bright. Next I may try completely filling the recesses with clear resin then sanding it flush and polishing to get a completely smooth top surface. Overall diameter is 2.5" There you go!

Just messaged you. I'd love them. I think it's a good home, jury's still out...

Here's a great source for Cortina parts: cortinaphil@cox.net I bought a complete rear axle from him a few years ago, he had several at the time.

Here's a nice little project for some brave soul. Looks like an early Series 2 with drum brakes up front. https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/pts/7572270477.html

Here's a manufacturer that list by size. Something I've been trying to find for a long time. If you click through on the dimensions, it will also give you the original application it's from. Champion Cooling Systems

Great looking car! What's your radiator from? Is it custom or something off the shelf? Thanks!

It'll be fun to see how the power grid holds up, as well.

Or not move back...

This is not meant to be a political discussion, so posting here. I'm interested in hearing peoples thoughts or inside knowledge on how this might affect the specialty, classic, and used car markets in California. For now, the ban is on new car sales, but I could see restrictions on older combustion engines, such as yearly mileage limitations. Specific to special construction vehicles and California's SB100 program, I wonder if this will be targeted and become stricter. I'm building a Locost that will need SB100 to title, but I'm probably a few years away from having it road-worthy. Guess I better get a move-on!

Can you give approximate dimensions and weight so I can estimate shipping cost to the other side of the country? Thanks!