
I can't advise you
on welding. I watched an instructional video six times (Flashdance,
starring America's favorite welder: Jennifer Beals) and I still
don't have the hang of it. I do Mallard Injected Guano (or "MIG")
welding, using special tools as you can see. It's good enough
for test fixtures and test samples—in fact I prefer my own
work for test samples, because you're not likely to find worse
welding than mine, and ideally one tests the worst case—but
it's not good enough for you. All the welded parts we sell are
welded by professionals. So don't panic when you look at our test
photos; your parts won't look like that.
The best advice I
can give you is, if you're interested in this sort of car, buy
"the book" (Chris Gibb's Build Your Own Sports Car
on a Budget, ISBN 978-1-84425-391-3) and read it. We sell
it (near the bottom of the <Locost parts> page), Amazon
sells it, your favorite bookstore can get it, and without it you
won't make much sense out of the commentary on the Locost groups.
The next book for your collection is Keith Tanner's How to
Build a Cheap Sports Car, also availeable darn near everywhere
and especialy from us.
After you have the
book, sign on to Yahoo's "Locost North America" Group
at <http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Locost_North_America/>;
lurk and learn. It has some brilliant stuff on it by some brilliant
builders, and I hope once you're building, you'll have brilliant
stuff to contribute too. Yahoo also has <Locost> and <Locost_Theory>
groups, but <Locost_North_America> is where the action is
'round here
As an alternative
(or better yet, a supplement) <locostusa.com> hosts an active
forum with a more modern format; plenty of good information in
an easy-to-navigate package.
As far as our own
contribution to the knowledge base, well...below you'll find bits
on suspension prep, a light smattering of fiberglassing, and a
heavy smattering of windshield installation.
Also you'll find
some rambling about why we went to straight control arms years
ago, and our current efforts on quick adjust control arms, and
some low budget structural test procedures and results.
Ron Champion's Build
Your Own Sports Car, ISBN 1-85960-636-9 used to be "the
book" but it's out of print now.
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