Lotus 7/Locost Aero Rebody

[COcyclist]

She's a beauty and fitting for the retro Locost styling.

[JackMcCornack]

Pluggin' along on it. I cut off the bubble and the unbubbled portion of the right side of the nose, so I could at least have a semi-symmetrical hole to fill in. These things weren't totally symmetrical to begin with--aluminum bodies hammered to fit the powerplants, after all--but I think I can give it the period look of kindasortasymmetrical and keep the airflow smooth, just by foam, body putty, and eyeball.

I've decided to make the nose in three major pieces (two fenders and a hood) so I can do the final fitting by just messing with the hood part. I'll make this nose into a pattern for a mold for the hood, then cut out the hood portion (which will be too heavy to use for an econocar, since it'll have a bunch of body putty and wood attached) which will leave me two front fenders, and that'll do for the nose. Knock wood.

I flexed the nose to shape and bonded the halves back together. I paneled in the open hole with a 1/8" plywood door skin, shaped a center rib out of urethane foam, 'glassed over the rib, and next I'll bond in some more foam to cover the plywood, shape it (using the rib and the surrounding body as my sanding block guides), skin it over with fiberglass cloth and then on to the body putty stage of the operation.

[Grant-53]

The front looks great, a sleek classic sports look. A Cobra GT couple style rear would compliment it well.

[AeroModder]

Looking like a Jaguar E-type.

[Arragonis]

Lotus 11.

[Funny]

Wow, that will be really slick if it comes out similar to the Lotus 11... Going to paint her British Racing Green?

[JackMcCornack]

I doubt it'll be BRG, around here BRG disappears into the forest. It'll probably be white and red; our local high school team colors and suitably high viz.

I'm making progress, got all the molds done for the nose/hood/bubble and the first parts popped out. Here they are stacked up about the way they'll fit. Man, there's a lot of work to do.

[Funny]

Looking good, I think that it'll look even better with white and red. Dual Racing stripe or single? Offset? God I can't wait to see this one on the road...

[The Toecutter]

I'm loving the hell out of that car. Dammit. I want one. Dammit. *drool*

Put as much power under that hood as you can. Please. This thing has the potential to be an 80+ mpg biodiesel-powered rocket. It probably has much smaller frontal area and better drag than the Enigma L3(80 mpg biodiesel-electric hybrid that does 0-60 in 4 seconds). Without the hybrid drive, and with a smaller body, it will probably weigh less.

[JackMcCornack]

I'll admit I've been on the lookout for a used V1505-T (the four cylinder version of the triple I've got now)--44 hp instead of 32, only 38 pounds heavier, and adjusting the governor to 3600 rpm (up from 3000) would give it a 50+ hp "passing gear"...and at about 1140 pounds it would go pretty well without a significant fuel economy hit. I'd have a high mileage sports car with enough oomph that I wouldn't have to make excuses for the "sports" part of the description, at maybe 1/5 the theoretical price of an Enigma.

A couple of guys doing Miata-powered versions of this car have said they want this body when it's done, so I'll be making molds and making them available. It's not their goal (they're performance car guys, and since their cars weigh half what a Miata weighs, the suckers do scoot) but one side effect of the re-body is their cars will get better mileage--they're going to be ecomodders without even knowing it.

And Funny, I'm probably going to paint the hood and trunk red and leave the fenders and pontoons white. It'll make for an easy paint job and it'll maybe hide the fact that the hood won't be a perfect fit. I wish I had time to start with a clean slate, but this body will be cool enough for my needs.