Locost FAQ, North America.

Note: this FAQ is based on comments and observations from the locost e-mail list and as such should be 
treated as hearsay at best, all the other legal disclaimers apply too, not affiliated with anyone, nor endorsing 
etc caveat emptor, YMMV
Alex Devonport, 3/3/99

Q.	Can I really build this car for the equivalent of 250 ukp?
A.	No way, if you are really frugal you might keep it to $1500

Q.	What are these cars like to drive?
A.	Even if you make a real hash of the suspension geometry and use an engine that is a piece of junk 
	it'll still probably be the most exciting car you've ever driven, unless your names Andretti or 
	Earnheart

Q.	What are the cars made from?
A.	Lots of 1"sq 16ga steel tubing and some alluminum sheet.

Q.	How difficult is it to make one of these cars?
A.	If you need to ask then its probably beyond your capabilities

Q.	What is the best welder to use?
A.	Depends on personal preferences, I used a mig but you could use gas, tig or even stick if you 
	wanted to. The key thing is that it must work well with steel from 16ga to 1/4" thick.

Q.	Just how accurate is the frame going to be?
A.	That depends on how much care you take during the welding, if you clamp the tubes carefully and 
	take care to avoid distortion it can be very accurate, I triangulated my frame to within 1/32" over a 
	115" distance.

Q.	Why does the book appear vague about some areas of the frame?
A.	Nobody knows for sure, some suspect it's a form of product liabilty insurance. The best thing to 
	do if you're unsure about an area is to build a model of it, either physically or electronically.

Q.	What's a mkII escort and a mkIII cortina?
A.	Little european cars that aren't available in the U.S. or Canada.

Q.	So what's the best donor to use instead?
A.	You can probably use whatever you want as long as it's front engine, rear drive and preferably 
	with dual control arm front suspension. The closest cars to the original donors are ford pinto and 
	chevvy chevette/arcadian/T1000/holden gemini but as soon as you deviate from whats in the book 
	you're pretty much on your own.

Q.	The book says you can make your own fiberglass parts, just how cost effective is this?
A.	Depends on how good you are at making molds, the nose cone is a complex curve shape as are the 
	clamshell fenders, however the hood and cycle fenders are fairly straight forward single radius 
	profiles. I got lucky and picked up a caterham nose for $125 and the clamshells cost me $80, but 
	don't count on finding deals like these.

Q.	Where can I find coil-over shocks for a reasonable price?
A.	There are no such things as cheap coil-over shocks, some cars come with them as standard fittings 
	such as triumph spitfire and fiat x1/9 which may be suitable. Failing that you could mail order 
	them from AVO shocks USA or the UK from places like Demon Tweeks etc.

Q.	What is the correct length for the front coil-over shocks?
A.	Depends on your application and mounting points. To get a satisfactory setup with the mounts 
	under the frame rail and with pinto front axles I chose 12.5" center to center expanded and 8.5 
	collapsed. The rear needs to be 14” expanded ant 9-10 collapsed

Q.	What about spring rates?
A.	This is a very gray area, it really depends on what you want, I'm running 150#/" front with 2.5" of 
	preload because I like my ride to be relatively soft to take care of road conditions but without 
	wallowing. On the rear I'm running 130#/" with a small amount of preload. The first thing you 
	need to do is establish your corner weights, suspension leverage ratios, ground clearance and then 
	calculate spring rates  accordingly. I would imagine everyones unladen weights will look 
	something like this:
	Front LH 325#
	Front RH 325#
	Rear LH  250#
	Rear RH  250#
	from the sum of the rear weights you will want to subtract the rear axle/wheels and prop shaft 
	weight 	which will probably be IRO 160# for a live axle car, you IRS boys are on your own here. 
	The front will need about 50# a side taking off for unsprung weight
	Front leverage ratios will run about 1.75:1 meaning your springs will feel softer than they are, so 
	compensate by stiffer springs or more preload. At the back there maybe a slight leverage ratio of 
	1.002:1, but I think you can disregard that for practical purposes.
	How do you corner weigh? Well Demon tweeks does a nice setup for 1200 quid, but that's more 
	than I've told the wife I've speant so far so I settled for using the bathroom scales that have a 300# 
	range and probably have a +/- 5# accuracy which is close enough. Simply insert under a tire and 
	let the jack down on it. You have to add blocks under the remaining 3 wheels to bring the car level 
	or do some math to compensate for the force vectoring you just introduced, or you could disregard 
	it since it will be less than the accuracy of the bathroom scales.

Q.	How accurate is the cut length list in the book?
A.	General consensus of opinion is that it's not very accurate, or maybe the people building these 
	cars aren't very good at cutting. The smart money is on cutting them as you need them.


Q.	What is going on with the rear suspension shock upper mounts?
A.	There has to be a minimum gap of 2.25" between x1 and w1 or you won't get a coilover up
	there,and this is possible, just. X1 is the most outboard member and its end
	should be coincident with the end of O and the rearward edge of the 4x4 plate in
	the transverse plane. Then put a 4x4 plate on top of O facing backwards and then
	put in W1so its inboard face is coincident with the inboard end of the 4x4
	plate and let it fall on V where it falls.sorry if that sounds like techie
	doublespeak, but its a very confusing area..


Q.	What is a suitable alternative to a ford transit van track rod end?
A.	The tie rod end from a late model full size pick up will work, I used a TRW part #ES2212R for 
	my pinto front and had to ream out the stub axle to take it