Building an R1 Powered Seven: Flooring

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, March 23, 2008

Flooring

Good progress over the holiday weekend. The weather was good enough that I could finish painting the chassis. I'm glad to have that out of the way, dust from the over spray got everywhere...

I cut the aluminum for the floor and drilled holes for rivets. Galvanic corrosion has been at the back of my mind as I've been thinking about how to attach the aluminum floors to the steel chassis (with stainless rivets). I've heard a range of range of opinions from don't even worry about it, to your car will fall apart unless you do XYZ elaborate procedure...

In the end I decided to error on the side of caution, and minimize the potential of contact between aluminum and steel. Since the chassis is painted, the biggest area of concern is the contact between the stainless steel rivet, and the aluminum floor. I'll spray the aluminum in this area with a self etching primer, an may dab some silicone in the hole as I install the rivets.

Floor with holes marked and drilled:

Using a drill with a rivet to clear the area around each hole for self etching primer.