It's been a little while since my last update and some folks have been emailing me wondering what's been going on so a quick update seems in order. Unfortunately I've not had much time to spend on the Locost lately since I've had some gardening chores to attend to such as building some brick walls and laying a patio. Anyone else out there who's building a car will probably appreciate the need to keep your other half happy by completing the occasional domestic chore... It's also been MOT time for my other car (Rover Vitesse) and I've had to spend some time on that too. Anyway, enough excuses!
Progress has mainly involved sourcing parts. Since the last update I've bought some front wishbones from Lolocost along with all the ball joints. I also got a panhard rod and trailing links but since these were supplied with Nylon bushes they are not suitable for use on a Live axle car. This is because you need a bit of "give" in the bushes to cope with twisting loads which are inevitable on a live axle car and since Nylon doesn't "give" it will create large stresses in the chassis and may cause premature failure. Instead, I have sourced spherical bearing rod-ends from Rally Design (http://www.raldes.co.uk) and will build my own trailing links and panhard rod from these.
Other purchases include a set of Cortina uprights, hubs, discs and calipers from a fellow builder in London (thanks John). I've not actually got them yet but a good friend of mine is bringing them up from London next week (cheers Jack). I've also found a set of engine mounts for the V8 which should allow me to finalise the engine position and I've found a source for a suitable propshaft to link the V8 with the Sierra diff (http://www.autopropuk.co.uk). My Dad (thanks Dad) has sourced a bunch of Sierra bits including a pedal box, steering column, steering rack, handbrake lever, brake master cylinder and a few other bits and pieces and he has also sourced a set of Capri "Laser" wheels with the correct PCD and offset to suit the Locost. These might not fit over the Sierra rear brake calipers but will do to get the chassis rolling.
So, the procurement of the above bits should let me get beyond the recent slowdown and move towards a rolling chassis over the next month or so.
Tonight I was busy fixing my differential mounting brackets in the correct position and starting to build the rest of the transmission tunnel. Tomorrow I hope to build the mountings for the trailing links and then build the trailing links themselves using the new rod-ends. With a bit of luck I might have the back axle in place by next weekend.
I'll post some photo's tomorrow night showing all the above in place.
