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).

Carbon Mirror Housings

I've been hobbling gingerly around the garage today working on my carbon mirror housings. As promised, I now have pictures.


First, the workspace. I still need to organize the junk in here and get it out of the way. The pictures were taken while standing in my wife's parking spot, so my acutal work area is much smaller. Miss Thing (her MINI) does not take kindly to sleeping outside, so expansion is not an option.

Even more junk. Actually, 90% of my workspace is currently occupied with junk. Sigh. This will all need to be moved before the Se7en project arrives in the next week or so.

Okay, enough of that. Here's the floral foam. This came in pack of two cylinders (to fit a small vase), and I cut them down the middle. Two halves became a side mirror each, and the other two halves were joined and reshaped a bit to form the rearview mirror housing.

*skipped a bunch of shots since my fingers were too messy to hold the camera*


Here is the first housing, set up to dry. I had to "clamp" it between two plastic containers because the carbon fiber doesn't reallylike to conform to tight curves. I figured out a smarter way to do the next two. The trick for them was to let the epoxy set up for a while and get really tacky. Then the carbon cloth can be conformed to the plug and it will (mostly) stick where you want it to.























"Honey, the eclairs are almost ready"

























The leftmost side mirror housing is closest to being done. This is its final flood coat. The other two are on their first flood coat. They're not perfect, but they were cheap, they're very light, and they look pretty cool.


This is the mirror material they will be receiving:











Cut to fit stuff from the auto parts store. Should be enough to do all three mirrors, but if not I'll go back and get another sheet.

Medical issues and floral foam

Thursday, the work done on the Seven was purely in the areas of personal learning and conceptualization. I started reading up on the work needed to shorten the stock Miata wiring harness, both on the locostusa.com forums (see the stickied thread in the "Interior, lighting, and electrical" subforum), and in Keith Tanner's book How to Build a Cheap Sports Car. I'm not sure how much, if any, of the body harness(es) I get with my purchsed project, but I know that the previous owner had several Miata donors so I suspect that he salvaged them and will include them in the shipment.

Which brings us to today --I found out this morning that the previous owner had to have an emergency appendectomy!!! To further complicate matters, it happened while out of town on business. He was still in the process of preparing the shipping crates for my new project, but I told him not to worry about that. I will get it eventually, he just needs to take care of himself right now.

In the meantime, I've continued working on projects that can be completed (or at least started) without the car itself. As mentioned in the previous entry, I have some carbon fiber laying around, and a desire to use it for fun and profit (well, perhaps not profit, but at least to minimize expenditure on off-the-shelf car parts). While out and about this morning, I stopped at a crafts store and purchased some floral foam for pattern making. This stuff is great -- you can carve and sculpt it like plaster. More easily than plaster, actually. I also picked up a sheet of cut-to-fit adhesive mirror material from the auto parts store. I think that you know where this is going (because it's obvious) -- custom carbon fiber mirrors. I'm partway through making the first housing, and it looks good so far. Pictures to follow when I'm feeling up to moving around.

Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that I got a vasectomy this afternoon. My balls hurt. That is all.

Carbon Fiber Dreams

Yesterday I did little else for the Seven except dream up different uses of carbon fiber. I have made items in the past, and I still have a small stash of the stuff for future projects. Here's a hood vent I made for the old Swift GT:

Ideas for the Seven include:

1. headlight bowls

2. side mirror bodies

3. bodywork (!)

4. floors (!!! Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!!!)\

5. Rear "tonneau" cover

6. seats (also potentially dangerous)

7. dash (of course)

And probably a hundred other things. I love carbon fiber.