Footwork

Got a lead on some Miata wheels and tires for cheap:

Going this route to start off with will give me an extra couple hundred bucks to use elsewhere in the build. I should pick these up tomorrow, which will allow me to approximate my chassis ground clearance and therefore set how far my oilpan hangs off of the ground, which will in turn dictate where to position the engine mounts to achieve the aforementioned clearance (mounting them closer together will raise the engine, while spreading them apart will lower it... since I haven't drilled any holes yet). Whew, this car buildin' stuff is complicated!

Mounting Workload

Yesterday I got a few hours in the garage, so I began work on the engine mounts, the next critical step on the Se7en. So much relies on the placement of the engine.

Engine and transmission unit were dropped in place so that I could take the necessary measurements to place the engine the proper distance from the firewall.

3" width by 1/8" thickness bar stock was cut into mounts. I measured the mount angle at 58 degrees from horizontal (32 degrees from vertical).

I then rigged up a wooden jig that allowed me to clamp the steel such that it could be welded.

Almost finished. I welded the front and back sides... if you can call these welds. The backside welds are very beefy, but I'm going to grind down portions of the fronts and re-weld them. They will also get a little gusset along the top to prevent flexing.

Sweet Sassy Molassey!

First off, I apologize. I have been a bad blogger and have kept my readers in the dark...

I broke down, took a half day off of work on Friday, and picked up the crate from the shippers!!!

Yes, I've had the Se7en in-house all weekend and haven't told you. I'm sorry, but I'll make it up to you somehow. How about pics? First off, here is what I used while I endangered life and limb removing a thousand pounds of steel, aluminum, and pine from a rented 24' U-Haul truck (damn that was a big truck). Cue 'Jaws' music:

Exactly... the next time I contemplate removal of something this large and heavy, that's exactly what I'll tell myself -- FORK THIS.

*Skipping dangerous stuff and neighborly help...POOF! engine and tranny are removed from atop the crate* (Good thing my neighbor is a gorilla, and I mean that in the nicest way possible because he really is a nice guy.) I then pried the lid off of the crate, only to find the Ark of the Covenant! Gah, stupid shippers.

Nah, it was the Se7en :)

As well as lots of bits n' bobs (if you weren't aware, you must use British colloquialisms as much as possible when discussing Se7ens). It was all very well packed. Bravo, John. I really appreciate your effort. Believe it or not, it was all unpacked and crammed not-so-neatly into the garage in just a couple of hours -- all thanks to the help of my son and lovely wife (not pictured):

The rest of the weekend was spent tucking the project neatly into my side of the garage, and then preparing another house we have to be put on the market. Garage art at its finest:

That's all for tonight... except that if anyone has a 1.8 throttle body for a Miata, please drop me a line. Mine's smashed (due to the donor car's wreck, not a shipping mishap -- this was disclosed to me before purchase) :(

So Close...

...yet so far away. The Se7en has arrived in the Houston area. It sits at the shipping terminal at this moment, waiting for me to pick it up. Unfortunately, I can't go get it tomorrow. Looks like Monday will be the day, as the terminal isn't open on weekends.

As a follow-up to yesterday's post regarding cost-cutting measures that I plan to employ for the build, I have decided not to skimp on the shocks. I did quite a bit of reading on the locostusa.com forums, and many of the successful builders (the ones that have completed cars) have the same advice: don't skimp on the shocks. Basically, their opinion is that eBay or homebrew "mystery shocks" won't likely give the performance that the car is famous for because they're almost certainly not matched well to the car. I'm building this car to handle like a Se7en should. While I can deal with Miata gauges, steel floors, tacky seats, all season tires, and spray painted bodywork, I'll be damned if I'm going to spend the time building a car that doesn't handle like it's supposed to. Handling is the whole point of a Se7en, so I'm going to set it up correctly. I had better start saving my pennies for those $740 QA1's. *gulp*

Here are a few teaser pics of the goodies being packed up in Nebraska late last week:

It has shipped!

Got word today that that the Se7en project shipped yesterday, 4/15! It's due in tomorrow, 4/17!!!

Now I need to figure out how to get it from the receiving terminal to my garage...

My posting has been a little dry (such is life during the workweek), but I have been doing some research on the car. In order to finish this car under budget (i.e. using the cash I have on-hand), I'm going to have to make some compromises on the parts that I want to use. Here are some of the biggies:

1. Will use a stock Miata gauge cluster rather than a set of standalone gauges from somebody like Autometer. Savings: ~$250+

2. Will use motorcycle shocks or the like with an engineered pushrod system instead of off-the-shelf QA1 or Strange coil-overs. Savings: $350+

3. Will use steel for the floor instead of aluminum sheet. Will order aluminum sheet for body cladding in smaller pieces to save on astronomical shipping costs, at the expense of having some additional visible seams. Savings: ~$350

4. Will use an inexpensive used wheelset (e.g. stock Miata, or perhaps some 4x100 Civic wheels that are supposed to be coming my way for free) and cheap all-season tires rather than ordering new wheels with sport rubber. Savings: $300+

5. Will order automotive spray-paint-in-a-can instead of having the panels professionally painted. Savings: $300 (estimated)

6. Will use Kirkey Economy Drag seats instead of nicer, padded ones. I'll cut my own foam padding and somehow make some covers. Or maybe I'll scrap the Kirkey idea altogether and just use a bench seat like the original Lotus Sevens did (but I'll get mine from the junkyard as The Book suggests). Or maybe I'll make some seats from fiberglass. At any rate, I'm not buying expensive seats. Savings: $hundreds per seat

I think that there are a few more areas of savings, but those are the ones I could think of off of the top of my head. Had I not purchased the pre-built chassis, I probably would not have to make all of these compromises. However, I probably would not ever build this car either. The pre-built chassis is the headstart that I need to actually make this project something that I can realistically complete.

*twiddles thumbs*

Didn't do much today except browse a nifty site for miscellaneous parts:

http://www.surpluscenter.com/

Lots of very cool stuff there.

Without the chassis/drivetrain in my possession, there's really not a whole lot I can do at this point except (a) read/research, and (b) order parts. I've been doing plenty of (a), and I want to hold off on (b) until I figure out where I'm at in the build. I don't have enough space to be able to order parts just to stick on them on the shelves. Once the project is in my possession, I can get cracking! And I got word that it's supposed to ship tomorrow!

Mirrors and Colors

I spent yesterday finishing the housings for the mirrors. I'm pretty sure that they're done. I determined that I'll need a flat, hard surface to be mounted in between the stick-on mirror film and the carbon mirror housing -- otherwise, the mirror becomes distorted due to the slightly irregular surface of the mirror housing. I'll probably use a slab of balsa to maintain lightness.

I also spent some time working on the mounting system. I've had some aluminum brazing rod called Durafix for several years now, but have never taken the time to try it out. Well, I can now report that it seems to work! Based on that success, I plan on using aluminum rod and bar stock to make the mounts.

Pics to follow.



I also spent some time thinking about what color to paint the bodywork on the car. I definitely want something with high visibility, so that other drivers can see me on the road. I'm leaning toward Krypton Green as found on the Lotus Elise/Exige:


(Thanks to Randy Chase of Lotustalk.com -- this picture is from the gallery there).