Slow progress but progress (DIY two seater tadpole trike, 9hp Honda diesel)

[aerohead]

Saliva's dripping all over the keyboard!
What a great project! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[user removed]

Originally Posted by aerohead

You may have already blown plastic before,but if not, we used to have a local skylight manufacturing plant in Denton with a clever (simple) process.
The plastic was clamped atop an airtight frame which defined the base perimeter.
After reaching 'sag' in an electric pizza oven it was sealed to the table top by quick-clamping air clamps.
A light source/photo-cell was set at the desired height of the bubble which would open-circuit the air tables supply valve.
As the bubble rose,when it reached the set elevation,the photo-cell cut the air.If the bubble 'sank',pressure was restored,and this process repeated until the plastic cooled enough to set.Really elegant engineering.

I have not blown any plastic, and the gent who is building the bike has plans for the windshield, but I think it will not be a compound curve. The upper structure will be aluminum sheet welded to the framework in the photos. He is a real artist and has followed my basic configuration. The vehicle is within a foot of the same length as the Fiesta. I told him Lowes has 3X6 sheets of .092 for just under $100 and he told me he can do much better than that through his race car connections and the lexan needs to be thicker than .092.

Thanks everyone for the positive support. Every time I think about it I get a little concerned about the money spent, then I go look at it and get charged up all over again.

regards
Mech

[NachtRitter]

Wow, what an awesome project! Thanks for sharing your progress with us! Looking forward to seeing it on the road.

[RiderofBikes]

It's been a while since i last popped in for any updates, looks beast! lovin the fiesta comparison too! wish I had the hatchback , great tanks on it as well...

Will look fantastic when its on the road!
Anxious to see how the seating/peddle/steering layout will be. Guessing that you have left the nose as a crumple zone?
I'm gonna guess your integrate lights as best you can?
Maybe a bit overkill, but are you gonna add a cross sectional tube to the frame behind the seats? A side collision(hopefully never) doesn't look like there is much of "margin" compliance if hit at a higher speed..


If not, What kind of thickness tubing are you using for the frame? as a basis for my own project (eventually)...
Also have you looked into Formed Plastic if your budget allows for body work (here and there)?

staying tuned! (better this time)

[user removed]

The core of the whole structure will be the passenger-driver area. This was built from the outside in, basically the aero template drawn on a large steel plate on his floor. From that he bent the sides to match the profile perfectly. Connect the two halves, two more connected halves 18 inches above the first two running parallel, then fill in the rest with his freehand design and knowledge of building NASCAR type racing chassis'.

The tubing is 1/8th wall, 1.5 inches diameter. The sides will have sheet steel welded in the occupant area from the lower to upper paralled tubes. There will be cross bracing behind the seating area and where you would normally see a dashboard (good observation). Both front and rear ends are designed to progressively collapse in a front or rear impact, intentionally weak areas to avoid the situation where there would be no structural deforming and impact would be transferred to the occupants directly. Crush zones, in other words.
The top line front to rear matches one half of the parallel bottom bars, also the template published on this forum. It was designed that way from day one.
Controls are not absolutely configured at this point. It's a tight fit inside, by design, very snug if I have to wear a helmet. I dont' think my butt will be more than 10-12 inches from the ground.

regards
Mech

[HydroJim]

you are currently living my dream!

If you don't mind me asking, how much do you have into the build?

[Christ]

Do you or will you have build diagrams? I might like to copy the chassis design someday..

[Frank Lee]

I can totally get behind this one; there are no grandiose plans to market to rich people, no baseless performance claims, no reliance on unicorn technology, no huge naive assumptions about building it, no begging for money before any progress takes place, no press releases, photo-ops, or endless self-promotion. It is simply on it's way to happening.

[NeilBlanchard]

The closest parallel to this vehicle that I can think of is the original VW L1 prototype - it had an 8.5HP single cylinder diesel and a teardrop shape. It was built using virtually every bit of unobtainium, though and it was *not* very quick; in fact I'm sure that it was quite slow.

I think that gearing is going to be your challenge, and weight. Your aero looks damn good, and it seems to be very robust, and carefully constructed.

[user removed]

Hydro Jim, to put it bluntly, it ain't cheap. I will have more in this vehicle than I paid for my Fiesta ($10K), but a significant portion of that cost was profit from other investments, or it would never have happened.

Christ, the machine shop owners dad commented on how it was the only thing they had ever built that really had no detailed plans other than the external shape which was drawn on the steel plate by me with a magic marker! You are more than welcome to copy anything that you wish as far as the vehicle, I have no intentions to patent that and now that it is in the public domain, it couldn't be patented anyway.

Frank, to hear that from you means a lot to me. I tried to find funding through universities as well as the govt, without success. While outside funding would be great, with that same funding comes expectations, deadlines and other pressures that seem to make an already grueling process exponentially more difficult. This way I don't have to meet with people whose money I have spent and live up to their demands, which would transform this to a political process, something I abhorr.

This began a decade ago. I was raised a Presbyterian, a religion that believes in predestination although I am not very religious at all, but I do think there is a power greater than myself involved in this process. I guess I am a combination of bull headed, dogged determination, that some greater power chose for this process because of those character "flaws" if you want to call them that.

This vehicle should be just about as close to a perfect platform for my ideas as I will ever see. In the decade I have spent following my dream, I have always looked for the "game changer" that would make my design obsolete. I haven't seen anything close to that "game changer" but the most impressive of the developments was the VW 1liter in it's original configuration and this follows that design closely with the exception of the materials VW used.

Again thanks everyone. It is greatly appreciated.

regards
Mech