Building an R1 Powered Seven: Sheet Metal Cont.

Building an R1 Powered Seven

A few years ago I got it in my head to build a kit car. After months of searching I came across the Locost concept. In short, quite a few amateur hobbiests around the world have built their own Lotus 7 inspired cars from scratch, following plans available on a variety of Internet sites and published in a book by Ron Champion.

I started gathering parts and finally began building the chassis in July '05. In August '10 the car was titled, licensed and is now street legal. The following blog captures the progress of the build and driving experiences after completion.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Sheet Metal Cont.

I've been a little unsure about how difficult it would be to wrap the aluminum around the curved chassis tubes.

I started on the straight sections, then went to the corners. As expected, the aluminum wrinkled as I wrapped the first corner.

I came up with a makeshift "shrinker", a metal file and soft hammer. This worked surprisingly well to shrink the aluminum and smooth out the wrinkles. With a little more work and some sanding/polishing, I think the corners will turn out pretty good.