This isn't a new project because it's been abandoned in a friend's garden for many years.
I've resurrected after several conversations with friends about building a Locost type car for something to do for little cash. The snag is that I'm not really a sportscar fan.
My original plan was to build a four cylinder hotrod using Sierra parts out of this:
I have the chassis, all four wings, the grille shell and bonnet tops. The £150 I paid for all of this over twenty years ago also included the doors(which were unusable below the colour split) but I've lost them somewhere along the line. That's annoying but not a huge problem. It's all very rusty, but is still saveable.
This is a tiny car; 2300mm wheelbase, and is only 1400mm across the wings.
I don't have vehicular access to the bottom of my garden, but I reckon we can lift that body over two of my neighbours' fences, and everything else can be carried up the alley. This makes building it at home feasible.
I have NO budget at the moment, but there is work I can do for 'nothing'
I realised a long time ago that I don't like lots of power, and there's no room to fit it if I did. The more we talked about it, the more I realised that some out of the box thinking would allow the use of certain parts in stock instead of having to buy lots of expensive stuff. Originally I'd have used Cortina front uprights(which I did have) but they're now at least £150 a pair, or some of the aftermarket kitcar equivalents nut that's a good way of spending nearly £500. I still have a Capri axle which could be narrowed to suit, but it is missing the brakes(there's easily £150 there) needs a rebuild and would have to be hung on a
really short four link.
Doing Richard's front wheel bearings last month I realised that the Metro/MGF front suspension is basically a double wishbone that works well in small light cars. All it would take is the fabrication of new wishbones copying their geometry using the spare parts I already have. Fabricated steering arms will be needed to attach to a Capri rack I have. I want it on small 14 and 15" wheels, so that's easily accommodated. Then I realised that building rear uprights and wishbones for an IRS using the same hubs, bearings and brakes could be done for about £150 all in. Plus the diff. I'm thinking Freelander for that as it matches the other components, is cheap, easy to mount and is available with usefully tall ratios.
Richard has a k-series that is surplus to requirements, which only needs to be collected. It's small, light, makes 120hp, comes complete with decent management and is free. It will need a RWD gearbox; MX5 or Omega are the current choices. Either will require a custom adapter plate, but that's easy enough. I was surprised how big the Mazda box is, an Omega would be easier to fit, but the clutch plate will probably need to be custom.
Which led to this virtual mockup in Fusion 360
Which is to be made from 100x40 and 40x40 box section and various laser cut flat parts. That's the third iteration so far, and is intended to be easy to build on a flat surface. Some of it, particularly the actual height off the ground is dependent on a physical mockup with the 5.5x14" front wheels(stock MGF spares and will be scrounged) and 6x15" rears which will probably involve fitting some of those centres in other rims.
I'm also thinking that Hydragas displacers(which we have) could be used in place of the usual coilovers. Those are the gold cylinders in the picture. That will save a considerable amount of cash too. I do need to fiddle about with the suspension geometry, but that's easy enough in CAD
I currently have no money to spend on this, but if I can get the body and chassis in the garden, I can square up and repair the body as a start. It needs both sills replaced, the structural wood is rotten and will be replaced with steel, there's a big dent in the rear C-post and there's lots of other rot to repair. That's just work and £20 of steel.
The car is intended to be fully legal - there isn't enough to use a log book even if I had one - so an IVA test is required, and properly finished as I can't stand the rat-rod 'style'. It will be painted black and blue as you see in the picture.
Should have mentioned that it's a 1936 Morris 8.