An Old Dream; The Plan

So here's my plan.

I'm very close to having my shop ready to begin work. I have, or have access to, most of the equipment that I need. The next thing that I do need to get done is constructing a frame table so I can actually start assembling my frame. I was fortunate enough to acquire some sturdy channel iron from the scrap pile at work when they replaced some of their big walk-in freezers. This material will make for a rigid frame for the table that I plan to top off with some heavy plywood. I realize that a metal top would probably be preferable, but the plywood should be adequate for the construction of a couple of frames. Yes, I said "couple". Back in '07, "Grassroots Motorsports Magazine" did an article on Locosts and in a subsequent letter-to-the-editor, someone suggested building two frames since you would already have your jigs and "sure as the world", once you got your car built, your next door neighbor (or somebody) would want one just like it. You could sell him that extra frame that you built, and help pay for yours. Well, this train of thought made sense to me so that's what I'll do. Even if we don't sell the extra, we do plan on racing our car, and since accidents DO happen, it won't hurt to have a spare frame on hand.

As soon as I get a little more channel, I will start on the table. In the meantime,I'm working on my drawings of the chassis. While I have been inspired by Keith Tanner and Jim McSorley, I do have some ideas of my own as far as the design of my Locost. Like I said in my last post, "MY car, MY way".

In addition to the channel iron that I got from work, while they were remodeling the store, they replaced the shopping cart corral. The new corral was made of 1.5" pipe, The old corral was tossed in the scrap bin. It was made of 16 ga., 1" square steel tubing! I gladly gave it a new home. Now, I know that I still need more tube, especially if I'm going to build two frames, but this will allow me to get started as soon as the table is ready.

Whenever you attempt a project like this on a shoestring, you are always looking for ways to offset your expenditures. Selling an extra frame is one way. In his book "How to Build a Cheap Sports Car", Keith Tanner talks about selling off parts from his Miata donor that were not needed for the Seven. This is one of the reasons that I will probably go with a Miata as My donor car, too. Now, I realize that this will work (to some extent) with just about any donor, but the miata is so popular that parts for it are easy to sell. It 's conceivable that you could buy a running Miata with a reasonably straight body, strip the parts needed for your Locost, and sell the remains for a profit. Makes financial sense to me.


More to come.