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.
I made a small spray booth for painting the suspension components. To paint, first I warmed up the garage with a propane heater and used a small electric heater to add some additional heat to the booth. I used a respirator when spraying, then closed the front curtain of the booth and opened the garage to air out the fumes. The little electric heater kept the temp in the booth high enough for the paint to dry quickly (60-70F)
Once the paint dried to the touch and fumes subsided, I moved the parts to the basement to fully cure.
This set-up should work well for painting the remaining small parts. I'm still hoping for a warm day to paint the chassis...
