Well this bit is really foxing me.




I have to design/fabricate wishbones to fit the front uprights - here's a picture of the fronts. The problem is there is no pivot point at the top. Obviously the remains of the strut will have to be cut down. I was thinkoing of welding a thick plate on the top that extends an inch and a half rearwards, with a hole drilled through in a position to match the lower pivot point. I would mount a ball joint through this hole and onto the end of a wishbone. The outer end of the wishbones would have to be offset rearwards to compensate for the steering pivot points being rearwards of the hub centre. Any input here would be greatfully recieved!







And here is the rear axle assembly: I haven't quite worked out exactly how to mount this onto the rear of the chassis, but needless to say the main carrier assembly will go as it's far to heavy. I want to mount the trailing arms directly to the chassis but i'll probably make the front of the chassis and then offer the assembly up to the rear and work it out from there. Then if it's clear it can't be used then I can revert to the standard design and use sierra parts.

Well the table is built, the steel box section for the chassis aquired, inabilty to weld with my gasless MIG discovered!

So now I have ordered a 200amp TIG welder which will be here by Tuesday. It will take me longer to learn how to use it properly but in the end I'll be able to weld a better range of thicknesses. This will save me a packet (more than the cost of the welder) when it comes to fabricating the exhaust manifold!

The beemer is finally gone and all thats left is this pile of bits in the garage.

I went down to Cwmbran on Sunday and picked up a couple of large pallets from a feller called Colin who I got in contact with through http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/. He gave me these big pallets to make my build table out of. Basically I need a large flat work surface to make the chassis on so these pallets will make an excellent base.

Also, today I purchased the power mitre saw I need to cut all the steel tube up to make the chassis. It's an Evolution Rage3 saw and it can cut steel, aluminium and wood, so will be very useful in the carpentry I have to do to make the build table, making the chassis and probably for years to come as well.

I chose this over a metal cutting band saw as that would have limited it's use to just the chassis, but this power tool is just so much more versatile it just made more sense, oh, and it was £30 cheaper! Hopefully now progress will speed up somewhat, although I will have to wait till next month to order the steel as I can't afford it at the moment.

Keep reading!

OK so it's been quite a while since my last post - don't say I didn't warn you!

Well the Beemer is gone at last, finally got everything I need (I hope) out of it. All that is left is a BIG pile of BMW parts in my garage.

Loads of things have got in the way of the project recently, been on holiday, wife has been ill, had to store her jeep in the garage taking up all my build space. In fact the jeep is still there, I bought her a Ford escort at the motor auctions last week so I have to get that on the road now and get the jeep sold so I can have the garage back to get on with the locost project.

As far as the project itself is concerned, I have been struggling somewhat with the chassis design. I want to use as much of the donor as possible, including the rear trailing arms - to keep the IRS without having to manufacture a double wishbone setup. Also the bottom of the rear suspension struts is an odd shape so I may have to re-use them - but they are waaaay to long for the kitcar so I may have to raise the mounting points. Also the front hub/strut assemblies are a concern. Anyway enough blathering - it's complicated!!!

I'll get back on with it soon. - Keep watching this space.

Sam

Yeah, stayed on at work till late last night so didn't get anything done in the garage, but I did get time to pop in and take a few photo's.

In this one you can see (in the red ring) just how limited I am for space in trying to get those duff bolts out of the gearbox:

And this is the panel (across the front) that will have to be cut out if I can't get those bolts out.

But At least my hoist works!!!

I was soooooooooooooo close! Nearly got the engine out last night!

Disconnected the last coolant hoses, fuel lines, battery cables, lambda sensors, reverse lamp switch, drained the power steering fluid, undid the engine mounts and most of the gearbox bolts (have to leave a couple in to stop it falling apart prematurely).

I set the hoist up, got a grip on the engine and just took the weight. got down to the last couple of gearbox bolts and DOH! Some butcher has been in there before me and rounded the heads off the last 2 bolts.

It might be time for a rethink. If I can't get them out then I'll have to cut the front of the car off to make room to get the engine and gearbox out together. Not the end of the world as I'm scrapping it anyway, just means a heck of a lot more work that's all.

Not sure if I'll get anything done today but I'll go take some pictures to put up so you can see my progress.

Spent a couple hours in the garage last night, managed to liberate the exhaust - and what a monster of an exhaust it is! It's soooooooooo heavy, and the muffler boxes are huuuuuge!!! I shall not be re-using those (although I may well re-use the catalytic converters).

Removed some splash guards from the bottom of the engine and disonnected the starter wiring. Although this turned out to be a pointless excercise as it looks like I can leave the starter attatched to the engine and it will come out with it.

This afternoon I have to go and have a look at a friend's daughter's car, a little Pug 106 which she ran out of petrol and is now misfiring. (Groan) hopefully it's just air in the system and I can bleed it easily. After that I will spend some more time with mr BMW and may even get the engine out!

Wish me luck - I need it.

No work done today, but bought some tools I need to get the Beemer apart. It seems BMW like to fix lots of things together with torx bolts!

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures to explain a little better what I'm trying to achieve:

I'm taking this:

And trying to make it into something like this!

Spent an hour or so in the garage this evening. Got the car up in the air on 2 axle stands and got the 2 exhausts disconnected. Getting closer to getting that engine out all the time!

The downside is I found that all the front suspension/steering components are held together on a large subframe, could cause problems with the build. I'll have to work that out later.

For now I am coming to appreciate the quality of that German car, it has been very well build, and even after 15 years of wear and tear, it's in really good condition.

Just to get it going...

Hi everyone, this webspace is going to be my build diary for my Locost car.

For anyone who doesn't know, "Locost" is the now generic name for all cars based (allbeit loosely) on the Lotus 7 that have been home built from scratch, not necessarily from a kit purchased from a kit car manufacturer. Ron Champion began this whole thing with his book "Build your own sports car for £250". His car was based around a Mk 2 1300cc Ford Escort. Well mine is going to be similar in looks, but enlarged both widthways and lengthways as I am using a rather larger BMW 5-series as my donor vehicle.

Also the £250 idea has gone straight out of the window as well, my donor 1993 BMW 530i already cost me £650!

Yes that's right, a 530i. To be more specific, it's a 3 litre, 218bhp 32v V8 engined monster. At least, it was before I started taking it to bits. At present the engine is still in it but much of it'd life support system has been disconnected. Here it is with it's top cover removed, and most of the plumbing disconnected. Just need to get underneath and unbolt the gearbox and exhausts and it's nearly ready to lift out!

I'll add more pictures and other stuff as the build progresses, but don't expect it to be too often, i'm planning this buold to take at least a year, probably 2.

But do check back every now and then, and do email me if I havent posted in a while.

Thanks for looking!

Sam