I'm looking at building a Locost and thought I'd come in here for a bit of a reality check before I start spending any money.

1) How much does it cost realistically?
2) What kind of equipment and materials do I need (welding?)
3) Any special skills required? I'm relatively compotent as is my dad, but I don't have any specialist mechanical skills.
4) How much would I expect to spend on insurance?

I am 19 and have access to a Ford Capri 1.6 so I'd be looking at using a 1600cc Ford Crossflow engine.

Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks in advance.

If you have a Capri as a donor and use all it's running gear and build your own chassis (£200 mig needed +gas) then you could realistically build one for about £1.5-£2.5K.

See the Chassis section for welding info. Easy to learn, though do a course if poss.

No special skills required as long as you're mechanically minded and determined. For all other help use this forum.

As for insurance, not sure at your age, call Adrian Flux 08700 777120 to get an idea. Shouldn't be too bad though, probably less than the Crapi is.

PS, don't post locost questions in this section, as it's for all other non-connected stuff, put it in 'Locosy Related', you'll get more replies.

Go for it, I enjoyed ever minute of my build.

Thanks Jasper, had realised this was in the wrong area after I posted it but didn't want to double post it into a second area.

Sorted

And yes, Capri is a very good donor.

Chris

Just to give you some sort of incling of insurance, last year (when I was 19 too), I got quoted around £350-£500 for TTFT, 3000 miles, with basically any engine upto 1600cc in any state of tune (and yes that does include bike engines). Anything larger than that is basically a total nono until you're 21, but then you'll probably be at least that old by the time you've finished anyway .

I'd probably put the price of completetion rather higher, although it compltetely depends on what sort of standard you want to achieve, and how many tool you already have (I've probably spent double what I've spent on actually building the car on tools, so far). It all really adds up.

Just to give you an idea of just how many toys (whoops, I mean tools) you may want to get here's what I've bought since I started. (Naturally some of these are pure convenience and are not essential).

Mig welder (150 amp)
Engine crane
Engine Stand
Air Compressor
Bench drill
Bench grinder
Hand grinder x2 (very useful to have more than one)
Air hacksaw
Air nibbler
Air riveter
Impact Wrench
Air ratchet
Air Drill
Seal drivers
various taps and reamers
Touch up spray gun
Socket set x2
Torx bits
Socket extension x2 (one 16" thinking if that doesn't budge it, nothing will, then a 24" when I realised that wasn't true!)
Axle stands
Hydraulic Jack
Vice
Loads of Hand tools/clamps and a ton of consumables (blades, cutting discs, grinding discs, flap discs, gas, wire, drill bits)

Tools on the horizon :

Tig welder (totally unnecessary, but just too damn cool, and a so much nicer process than MIG)
Bigger spray gun for painting bodywork

Anyway, that should give you an idea of what you might need in the way of tools.

Raw materials are basically various sizes of mild steel tube, strip and sheet and ali sheet.

Anyway, hope you enjoy building your locost.

Three tips : Get the McSorley plans and use them, ignore the book dimensions, they suck. Learn to use a CAD application, they're about a trillion times more accurate than making doodles and trying to work out the dimension changes that you're almost certain to make. Finally, don't set yourself a deadline, just take it at the speed you want to, you're doing it for fun after all, sometimes you'll feel like working on it loads, and sometimes, once you've spent the last three weeks grinding up bits of metal, you won't want to even go in the garage, just take a bit of a break, and then get back to it when you keen again.

Hope my extended rantings will prove useful.

Kingr

On the subject of extravagant tools I wouldn't be without my bandsaw. It cost me £180 but I could sell it at the end of my build and recoup some of that, not that I will. Perfectly square, accurate angles, even compound angles, make chassis assembly a doddle, and all with little effort.






"Throw away that file"

IMO you can build a very nice car for around Jaspers figure if you use a single doner.

Doner £50
Chassis £50 + welder
plastic body bits, say £ 300

all the basics are coverd there leaving over £2k to play with.

and yes i did spend much more, around 4k total, but i did spalsh out on fancy seats, fancy dash, fancy tyres, fancy engine, NOS.. ect.....

whilst air tools are nice if you aint got them you don't need them.

Bench drill from screwfix.com or B&Q and the likes,only £40 but a very valuable tool.

And if your cutting steel with a hacksaw get quality blades and not the 5 for a £1 ones.

all the best

And a soft area, preferably a wall where you can throw tools when everything seems to go wrong (soft so the tools don't get damaged, you will need them again when you calm down) or another good stress reliever is a bloody great big hammer and the doner body shell.

Tools - There are certain essentials like angle grinder and decent drill, but lots of other tools (like air tools) that are great if you've got them or can afford them, but not essential.

I don't have a bench drill or grinder though I'd love them, so just get them as you need them, or see them in the sale. Also don't buy cheap tools if you're gonna use them regularly, I bought a few cheap ones form Screwfix and they lasted 5 minutes. (saying that, my Firm angle grinder has been great, and £15!)

i have wrecked 3 small grinders in my build - all cheapies - but i now have a 220mm disk beast thats much better as well as the small grinder. the big one is great for cutting steel.


atb

steve

Grinders seem to have a mind of their own, I bought two grinders, originally one really cheap, low powered one for everything, now used just for cutting, and one more expensive (£40), more powerful one, for grinding. The cheap one has had a very hard life, and shows no sign of wearing out, the more expensive one fell to bits after about 15 minutes total of grinding.

I'd say the extra power is worth the money, doing lots of grinding with a weedy under powered grinder is just frustrating.

kingr

Many thanks for the replies all.
I think really I don't have the time to build a Locost at the minute, however I would still be interested in buying one, are there any good places to find ones for sale? I couldn't see any completed projects in the for sale section, or is it not advisable to buy one second hand?

quote:

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Originally posted by Thorburn
[snip]have access to a Ford Capri 1.6 so I'd be looking at using a 1600cc Ford Crossflow engine.[snip]

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I am seriously toying with the idea of putting mine up for sale to fund a winter project, but after a day playing with subaru's, boy racers and a fellow in a Ferrari who failed big style and as "locost" egg firmly placed on his face i'm not so sure....but i could be tempted.

mmmm Angle grinders, fink i got thru 3 during the build too..........

the grinders were 1 brush/armature failure (cooked)

and 2 gearbox failures

(crappy nylon).

the 230mm grinder is a real beast, but I would still recommend a smaller one too, as the bigun can be a bit unweildly and dangerous. A small grinder can be used one handed if needed.

atb

steve

[Edited on 13/7/03 by stephen_gusterson]

Jon, if u were to sell yours what would u ask for it and what sort of spec is it?

Mk1 Capris were crossflow, bit rare now though. Used to rot rather rapidly. I thought they were nicer cars than the later ones.

yours, Pete.

some pics in my archive...........

Close to book chassis.....
Stainless body panels.....
158bhp blade power, 132@ wheels, can come with NOS if that aint enough....
Well under 4sec 0-60 without NOS....
Around 132mph top speed.
Adjustable susspension all round....
loads a build pics and wiring diagram available....
Front wishbone jigs available...
Rose jointed live axle at rear with 3.89 diff....
15" alloys, 195/50 front, 205/55 rear, yoko AVS sport....
Wilwood 4 pots, discs n pads up front...
Spare standard blade engine, minus clutch, i just knicked it....
Digidash......
Cobra Roadster 7 seats....
SPA carbon mirrors....
Spare bike cans.......

Just about sums it up, a well known locost that IMO don't look to bad either...

Cost££££ dunno, guess i need to do some research...

jon, don't think I'd be able to afford it and i'd prolly have to look a small car engined machine for insurance reason, nice machine you've got tho