Why is it just when your gonna ring someone up and give em a bollocking for late delivery the stuff turns up.
Just taken delivery of nose cone and wings from Darren and ive gotta say excellent quality with a mirror finish makes the lolocost bits look like tat,well worth the few quid extra.
Now I realise of course that xmas got in the way and delayed delivery.
Cheers Darren.
ATB
Bob

Bob,
Glad to hear they are good as I am hoping to get a 6 or 7 piece set myself.

Darren,
Any word on the +4" wider fibreglass bits?
Cheers,
Craig.

I second that man's call for +4 bodywork (well, nosecone)

Yes I know of a few people both on and off this forum who are now building V8 Locosts and who need bodywork to suit.
Craig.

+4 is on back burner while i try and keep up with the phenomenal demand i've had since Exeter.

Kind regards,

Darren

Darren,
I've probably got enough on to keep me busy for a month or two but given my general impatience I will want to crack on with bodywork after that. Are you likely to be in a position to supply +4 bodywork by March or should I look elsewhere? I especially need a nosecone to allow me to start working on the radiator mountings. The scuttle would be required next with the bonnet not really required until later although the bonnet would be handy to allow me to align the scuttle and nosecone with each other...

I guess I might need to look at widening some standard bodywork but it would be a hell of a shame to cut one of your nosecones in half. Do you ever get any sub-standard bodywork components out of the mould's which you would sell to me cheaply as unfinished/untrimmed parts which I could then rip in half, build back up and finish off myself? If so then please drop me an email or U2U as I would be very interested. I just don't have the space or equipment to build my own GRP bits from scratch unfortunately.

Let me know what you can do.


Cheers,
Craig.

I've got a red nose cone that's an inch too wide for a book car just sitting in the garage if your interested in it.

make me an offer and it's yours

chris

i'll have it!!!!

unless craig needs it

you have u2u chris.

how much is fair price?

JoelP,
I think £200 is a fair price.

Chris, I'll be down later and I'll give you £50 okay? Then I'll sell it to Joelp for £200...



Seriously though, Yeovil is a bit far for me to travel and postage won't be cheap. Also, I want to get a scuttle and nosecone from the same supplier ideally so that the profile will match and make the bonnet easier to make. If Joel wants it then go ahead.

Thanks anyway,
Craig.

nice one craig, dont know if you got my u2u yet but ignore it if you havent!

Yes I got it thanks.
Cheers,
Craig.

I'm gonna be near yeovil at the weekend if thats of help to anyone, though guildford is stil a fair distance for you to get to me!

Ned.

i always thought yeovil was a game bird myself...!

thanks ned, i'll see what mr kiwi says about the cone and worry about transportation later!

BTW, do lolocost still do them for £45?!

i am just about to make a +4 nose
i will be getting help from my step farther who is a laminater so it should be good
is anyone else intrested as once we have made one i can use it to make a mould for some more
cheers dave

Dave,
I might be but do you have any idea of timescales? I was thinking of just getting a nosecone from someone and widening it myself. It did occur to me too to build a mould and do a few extra ones and flog them to recover some costs.

Luego replied to an email I sent them today about this and they have a set of GRP bits for the Velocity model which are 2" taller than book. This would be handy for my Rover V8 engine clearance so I'm interested in that for sure. I might use this as the basis for my nosecone and widen it myself.

Let me know how you get on as I may still be interested if my other plans turn to mush.
Cheers,
Craig.

Craig,

I'd buy one and widen it (oops I already did ).

It doesn't take that long to do - reckon on a morning or afternoon to cut and relaminate. Another hour or two sanding and you'll be ready for a coat of paint

Did you get my email?

ATB

Simon

I'm in guildford by day kent by night if that helps anyone

Simon,
Yes I did get your email and have forgotten twice to reply... Sorry!

Who did you buy your nosecone from?

I'll reply in a moment.
Cheers,
Craig.

Craig,

Nosecone from Luego, get back to your em later.

Bit busy at moment

Still only 4 more weeks -

ATB

Simon

i have allready got a nosecone standard one
so i guess about three to four weeks
before i get one finished

I've been thinking I might size the front of the car to suit sierra rack for bump steer (not sure how it matches up to standard +4) then cut and shut a nosecone to fit.. if I'm going to have to go with a cut&shut nosecone anyway.

i think that to use an unmodified sierra rack you would need a VERY wide chassis and short lower arms. That is, assuming you believe the standard theory about reducing bump steer by having all the joints in a rough line.

i seem to recall, when i was considering using sierra arms and roll bar (dont ask why...), that the lower mounting points would be about 26 inches apart. Arent they about 14 normally?

so you would have a super wide +12 nose!

Blueshift,
I'd advise you to do some measuring as I found the escort mk2 rack to be almost a perfect fit on a +4" chassis to avoid bump steer. Here's how I figured this out:

Set your car at ride height (bottom arms parallel to the ground or even slightly lower at the outside ends so that the balljoint centre and steering pivots are level) and stretch a nylon bricklayers line between the bottom faces of the tapers into which the track rod ends fit. This will give you an idea of where the steering rack should ideally be. Obviously make allowances for the distance from the mating face to the centre of the track rod end balljoint. This will give you a height above the chassis rails at which the rack should be positioned for it to be level at ride height. I found this to be 4" above the TOP of the lower chassis rails (ie. 5" above the building surface).

Now stretch a line between the frontmost suspension pivots of the upper and lower arms to give you the imaginary line where the steering rack inner balljoint should be for zero bump steer. Repeat on the other side.

Using a piece of scrap steel or something to give you the required height above the chassis rails, measure the distance between the two pieces of line where the scrap steel intercepts them. This is basically the ideal distance between the inner balljoints on a suitable steering rack. I found this to be 596mm and the escort rack is 590mm. This means that if I fit my rack a little lower than the 4" I calculated earlier then I should get no bump steer. I have mounted my rack using slots so that I can change the height to suit and tune out any remaining bump steer but it should be close to perfect to begin with.

The only problem you then have is to get the track rods extended and this was easily fixed by a fellow LB forum member (type 907) who sold me some very nice extensions. He said to direct anyone else in his direction and he will supply more.

Let me know if you want more detail or ohoto's etc.
Cheers,
Craig.

ps. I should point out that my lower suspension pivots are 520mm apart (laterally) and the upper ones are 705mm apart. By moving your rack higher and lower you can adjust for a spacing between these extremes. Obviously you can't quite reach the extremes but you get the idea. If your suspension mounting placement is different to mine then you may need to make allowances. I am using Cortina uprights as well so if you are using Sierra ones then this may affect the outcome.

[Edited on 15/1/2004 by craig1410]

paul made mine too, very nice 3inch extensions. Well recommended.

Thanks Craig, and thanks for the email. I have a book on suspension design that covers rack positioning, I will have a look and a head scratch. Good tip about the escort rack, and confirmed by dblissett who we visited today, he found the same thing and has an escort rack on his +442.

I have the speedpro suspension + brakes book that seems to think that having the rack inline with the track rod end balljoints is more critical for bump steer than having the rack end balljoints in line with the suspension brackets.. but I'm not sure about that and it's time for bed

if I come to any contrary conclusions I'll let you know..

quote:

---

Originally posted by blueshift
having the rack inline with the track rod end balljoints is more critical for bump steer than having the rack end balljoints in line with the suspension brackets..

---

hello blueshift
i forgot to tell you that my rack mounting are the same as craigs as in i went for a slot in each mounting for future adjustment
i have also read some where that the rack needs its final adjustment with the full weight of the car placed on it
this seems to me to be when the car is almost finished and thats why i went for the slots
cheers dave

Thanks chaps. Will be a little while before we get to steering rack stage, plenty to get our teeth into first. I might have a tinker about making a model of the steering gubbins in solidworks to see if I can look at the bump steer effect in CAD.

This reminds me, anyone know of a CAD model or diagrams for a 'tina front upright?