Wow, what happened?

Approximately one month after my previous post, I sold my Seven project. Continuing uncertainty at work, and in the world economy as a whole, precluded spending money on something like the Seven. Turns out it was a smart move. Two months later, my company announced that our plant was closing and that the entire workforce, myself included, would be laid off. Fortunately, I was able to find a job in consulting before my employment ended, and have since landed a different position back in an industrial setting (where I am happiest). The world economy hasn't exactly recovered as I have, but fortunately we have been able to shrug off those effects. (My wife also landed a full-time professorship at a local college during this time!)

So, why post on this blog after a two-year hiatus? Well, it's time to add lightness again. This time, it's not going to be a Seven project. I just didn't feel motivated to start over from square one on the exact same thing, despite how much I like Sevens. I'll be creating a mid-engine sports racer using some vintage Beach Mk4 body panels that I'm getting from Wirewheel.com. They come attached to a chassis (non-original), but I will be surprised if much is usable from that pile of rust.



The shipper has picked the car up from Florida, and is hurtling toward Texas as we speak (I think... perhaps he decided to stay and enjoy the weather). Hopefully, I'll have the "car" before the weekend is out!

Pics

We Don't Like Ike

Looks like Ike is poised to bowl a strike right into the Houston area -- right into my house. Let's hope damage is minimal.

***posted from relative safety ~200 miles away in San Marcos, TX***

I'm floored

Finished cutting and tacking in the floor panels today, and was able to flip the chassis over to begin stitch welding the floor pans and Aussie reinforcement plates in place. You might also notice that I left the nose gussset wide at the front such that the front lower transverse framerail (where the bottom front suspension pickup is) is gusseted with the same piece. Not sure if this will do anything, but it won't hurt anything.

Also cut and tacked the footbox ends in place.

Welding really takes it out of you when you're wearing long pants and sleeves and working in a hot garage. I still need to weld most of the floors. Fortunately, that work is quiet enough to do during the weeknights so hopefully I'll be working on seats, pedals, and/or steering next weekend.

Get on the Floor and Do the New Kids' Dance

Earlier this week I got my steel sheet shipment, consisting of 16 ga. and 18 ga. mild steel sheet, from metaldepot.com .

Saturday was mostly taken up by an emergency at work, so no Se7en progress was made.

So far today (and I ain't done yet), I've made great progress, however! Most of the floor is cut and tacked into place, as well as two of the Aussie stiffening mods. 16 ga. sheet was used for the "nose gusset" as well as the two "engine torque gussets." The footbox floors also received 16 ga. sheet. The rear section of the floors (where the seats will be) are 18 ga. in order to save weight.

I also made an attempt to make my own seats out of fiberglass... I've not abandoned it yet, but they're not exactly turning out great so far.

Stay tuned for further work...

'Roo Bars

Unlike the good ole' U.S. of A, Australia actually cares whether or not you've done a good job engineering that contraption that just rolled out of your garage. To that end, there are special rigidity tests that a custom chassis (like our Se7en) must pass in order to get the official stamp of approval. This has forced our resourceful bretheren from the island continent to improve upon the standard Locost chassis -- and they've been nice enough to share their wisdom. There are many resources detailing these enhancements, and this website is one of them:

http://www.locost7.info/mirror/aussiemods.php

Today, I spent some time improving upon my chassis. Specifically, I paid attention to the area to which the front suspension attaches. Aside from the gaping hole of the engine bay, I feel that this is the area most in need of some additional rigidity. First, I added a triangulating tube to the trapezoidal "nose" of the chassis.

3/4" round tubing was used to match some of the other chassis tubes (and because it looks nicer). First each corner was cut and shaped to fit the wonky angles (chopsaw and sanding disk are most helpful), then held in place with magnets and tack welded. Finally, it was fully welded. Special care was taken so that the inlet/outlet pipes of the radiator (in this case, from a Suzuki Swift GTi) were not blocked by this new tube.

Next came the tubes that triangulate the suspension pickup points. Although the orientation does not seem to flow with the other round triangulating tube on the side of the chassis, the positioning is deliberate -- I wanted to leave plenty of room for the tie-rod ends of the steering rack. Thinking ahead is a necessity when building a Se7en.

The other side was then finished.

Future plans: welded-in 18 ga. steel floors, welded-in 20 ga. steel transmission tunnel, welded-in 20 ga. steel rear firewall, welded in 16 ga./18 ga. steel footbox paneling.

Potential additional bracing: engine bay diagonal, removable transmission tunnel lower brace, maybe more?? (I don't want to get too wild with bracing, so I may not do any of these things. These two items are easily added after the car is on the road, so I will probably wait for the first winter to perform these upgrades.)

Touch-up welding

Stripped the chassis down this afternoon (not that there was much to remove) so that I could finish welding the diff mounts and transmission bracket mounts.

Diff mount (as seen from the bottom up):

Trans mounts (as seen from the bottom up):