Building an R1 Powered Seven: Steering Rack Assembled

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 2, 2008

Steering Rack Assembled

I cleaned up, greased and assembled the steering rack today. This is the last of the components that need "refreshing".

Here's what it looked like before:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcnTAAeWq2-eelTFjkb68JLJYYIXmORSkY-ubL0AtK6m3Cqp81irXvubdbsRmWF3Rqjcj0vrM7sC_Ap6e-l_e1SrnNkCVkWM0mWaKRG0e_J0yEzMDyeHZwQvR5bzZFqnR4FQ9NcVsZ0e1i/s1600-h/143_4334.JPG

I still need to add extensions to the tie rods, about 4" if I remember correctly. Plan is to thread a section of heavy wall 4130 tube, half 1/2"-20 for the tie rods, and half M12x1.25, with a small piece of high strength metric threaded rod for the Miata tie rod ends.