Hi Iain,
Just a short note to say how much I enjoyed your web site. I am pleased to see you have built a locost without the big bucks some guys spend. I have gathered parts such as TC Cortina front stub axles, escort Rack & Pinion, Corolla steering column and Dihatsu rear shock absorbers coil springs, I think I will have to modify these as I believe they are too long. After inquiring at the wreckers regards a diff and quoted $500. I bought an old ’86 Toyota Lite Ace van for $180 and removed most of the mechanicals before getting the metal recycle people to remove the body. I bought the van before I saw your website. Plesed to see you used these stubs. I like the design of your seats but I will try and modify the van seats as they are quite light. I checked out the motor bike coil/shockies in Toowoomba and one wrecker wanted $325 for a pair that were oily and grotty looking. At $50 each I would have been interested but @325 I will consider new. GAZ for the front. I see you made most of your fibre glass parts. I have had some experience with f/glass and am hoping to do same. I bought one new steel trailer mudguard and I will use this as my female mould.
Glad to see your locost passed the torsion&bearing tests. Is your engineer in the Brisbane area? We only have a couple of motor engineers in the Toowoomba area and don’t seem interested in Locost compliancing. A friend and I both belong to a local car club which has a good workshop. The friend is working on his chassis, but as the club recently bought a tig welder he is keen to use this. I am happy to use mig when I start on my chassis, but I have to wait until our joint jig table is available. What is the present state of your locost? I read on the web where you were going to change the nose.
thanks again for an interesting website.
Bye for now,
Brian
Hi Brian
You pose a number of questions and i hope that may answers help you on the road to building a nice car.
Just a short note to say how much I enjoyed your web site.
Glad to see my efforts are appreciated
I am pleased to see you have built a locost without the big bucks some guys spend.
I don’t have the big bucks to spend Brian
I have gathered parts such as TC Cortina front stub axles, escort Rack & Pinion, Corolla steering column and Dihatsu rear shock absorbers coil springs, I think I will have to modify these as I believe they are too long.
Yep some of that will be very useful in particular the steering rack But you will need an Escort steering column to make your seering shaft and It may be an good idea to seek out a Nissan Pulsar steering column because of teh way that it connects (to a squared shaft) is something that you can make work with the grinder rather than paying to have a spline cut.
After inquiring at the wreckers regards a diff and quoted $500. I bought an old ‘86 Toyota Lite Ace van for $180 and removed most of the mechanicals before getting the metal recycle people to remove the body. I bought the van before I saw your website. Plesed to see you used these stubs.
Yeah the lite ace stuff is very good for a Locost but you have to mount your upper suspension arms a bit higher because the uprights are taller than the Cortina ones I used MK 1 Escort steering arms though because the Toyota arms are too long and too low. Likewise I hope that you saved the bottom ball joints because they can be used by some modification of the A arm design. If you are planning a book width car you can use the lite ace rear Axel by and you will find that You can probably use FWD offset wheels .
I like the design of your seats but I will try and modify the van seats as they are quite light. I checked out the motor bike coil/shockies in Toowoomba and one wrecker wanted $325 for a pair that were oily and grotty looking. At $50 each I would have been interested but @325 I will consider new. GAZ for the front.
Seats from the van Just won’t fit and will just take up too much cockpit space, remember that you are only obliged to have the drivers seat adjustable and In fact if you want to buy my old seats I’ll sell them to you at a reasonable price but they are bloody hard on the bum .
I see you made most of your fibre glass parts. I have had some experience with f/glass and am hoping to do same. I bought one new steel trailer mudguard and I will use this as my female mould.
I made the nose-cone and the original bonnet but I bought the guards from Peter Bizzet and knowing now just how much work is involved I would buy ready made if I could. I wanted the droop snout look of the MK1 lotus seven and it ended up costing me about twice what white pointer moulding would have been to buy and that does not include the hours of hard slog
Glad to see your locost passed the torsion&bearing tests. Is your engineer in the Brisbane area?
We only have a couple of motor engineers in the Toowoomba area and don’t seem interested in Locost compliancing. A friend and I both belong to a local car club which has a good workshop.
I have a copy of Earl Gilcrest’s card on the sidebar of my blog contact him he is very good
The friend is working on his chassis, but as the club recently bought a tig welder he is keen to use this. I am happy to use mig when I start on my chassis, but I have to wait until our joint jig table is available. What is the present state of your locost?
Mig is fine once you have mastered it Tig is essential for some suspension parts I got a pal who is a welding Pro to do those. My car is back on the road and looking real good .
I read on the web where you were going to change the nose.
thanks again for an interesting website.
I was thinking about the colour more than anything and as you will see from the latest picture it looks fine now.
Iain Hall
Hi Iain,
Just a short note to say how much I enjoyed your web site. I am pleased to see you have built a locost without the big bucks some guys spend. I have gathered parts such as TC Cortina front stub axles, escort Rack & Pinion, Corolla steering column and Dihatsu rear shock absorbers coil springs, I think I will have to modify these as I believe they are too long. After inquiring at the wreckers regards a diff and quoted $500. I bought an old ’86 Toyota Lite Ace van for $180 and removed most of the mechanicals before getting the metal recycle people to remove the body. I bought the van before I saw your website. Plesed to see you used these stubs. I like the design of your seats but I will try and modify the van seats as they are quite light. I checked out the motor bike coil/shockies in Toowoomba and one wrecker wanted $325 for a pair that were oily and grotty looking. At $50 each I would have been interested but @325 I will consider new. GAZ for the front. I see you made most of your fibre glass parts. I have had some experience with f/glass and am hoping to do same. I bought one new steel trailer mudguard and I will use this as my female mould.
Glad to see your locost passed the torsion&bearing tests. Is your engineer in the Brisbane area? We only have a couple of motor engineers in the Toowoomba area and don’t seem interested in Locost compliancing. A friend and I both belong to a local car club which has a good workshop. The friend is working on his chassis, but as the club recently bought a tig welder he is keen to use this. I am happy to use mig when I start on my chassis, but I have to wait until our joint jig table is available. What is the present state of your locost? I read on the web where you were going to change the nose.
thanks again for an interesting website.
Bye for now,
Brian
hi Iain,
Enjoyed your website, have some questions for you, could yu please send me your e mail address
Thank you,
Brian
Brian
My email is iambeingnice@hotmail.com
Hi Brian
You pose a number of questions and i hope that may answers help you on the road to building a nice car.
Just a short note to say how much I enjoyed your web site.
Glad to see my efforts are appreciated
I am pleased to see you have built a locost without the big bucks some guys spend.
I don’t have the big bucks to spend Brian
Yep some of that will be very useful in particular the steering rack But you will need an Escort steering column to make your seering shaft and It may be an good idea to seek out a Nissan Pulsar steering column because of teh way that it connects (to a squared shaft) is something that you can make work with the grinder rather than paying to have a spline cut.
Yeah the lite ace stuff is very good for a Locost but you have to mount your upper suspension arms a bit higher because the uprights are taller than the Cortina ones I used MK 1 Escort steering arms though because the Toyota arms are too long and too low. Likewise I hope that you saved the bottom ball joints because they can be used by some modification of the A arm design. If you are planning a book width car you can use the lite ace rear Axel by and you will find that You can probably use FWD offset wheels .
Seats from the van Just won’t fit and will just take up too much cockpit space, remember that you are only obliged to have the drivers seat adjustable and In fact if you want to buy my old seats I’ll sell them to you at a reasonable price but they are bloody hard on the bum .
I made the nose-cone and the original bonnet but I bought the guards from Peter Bizzet and knowing now just how much work is involved I would buy ready made if I could. I wanted the droop snout look of the MK1 lotus seven and it ended up costing me about twice what white pointer moulding would have been to buy and that does not include the hours of hard slog
I have a copy of Earl Gilcrest’s card on the sidebar of my blog contact him he is very good
Mig is fine once you have mastered it Tig is essential for some suspension parts I got a pal who is a welding Pro to do those. My car is back on the road and looking real good .
I read on the web where you were going to change the nose.
thanks again for an interesting website.
I was thinking about the colour more than anything and as you will see from the latest picture it looks fine now.