The 'Stinky' bmw Locost

FOR SALE - SOLD!!!

2013-10-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

SOLD!

I want to say thanks for all the interest and support I've received up to this point on the project. It was a great help in getting me as far as I did.

D105-106: Gas Tank D5-6

2012-08-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

A couple more days working on the gas tank and it's finally to a "finished" state. The first pic is the top upside down with the pumps installed. The left is just a pickup to pump fuel into the can where the right side pump actually pushes fuel to the engine.

Here is my "catch can" which the pump will pull from. The plastic one is the original one from the BMW.

Below is the can installed. Two plug welds hold it in place.

To attach the top, I first tacked it on all the way around. I also added "wings" inside the tank to plug weld the center of the top to the baffle in the tank. I figured this would help minimize warping.

... and the fully welded finished product with pumps installed. I welded the top about six inches at a time and then let the tank cool before continuing. It took a while to finish it off and the top did warp, but not too badly. Everything still fits without issue. At this point I put some water in the tank to make sure there were no major leaks in the top. A couple of extra welds, and it seems water tight.

I plan on using POR-15 tank sealer on the inside and POR-15 on the outside. That should fill any tiny holes that would cause slow leaks.

This last pic is of the plate that will hold each pump in tank. I plan on attaching this to the tank with three bolts.

Oh, and the one thing I forgot to add... a drain plug. I'm going to try to add one to make emptying easier as well as sealing the inside.

D102-104: Gas Tank D2-4

2012-08-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had a few good days in the garage... ending in one bad afternoon. I got the bottom of the tank welded and cleaned up. Took several fills to get all the pin holes filled. But, not it holds a little over 13 gallons without dripping. I also added a center baffle to help minimize sloshing.

With the bottom almost done, I started working on the top. I started by cutting the holes for the two pumps. Then made the metal rings that will hold the pumps. I didn't have a great template for a 4-3/4" hole + a jig saw to cut the holes... you can probably see where this is going.

I had to "patch" around the ring off one because the hole wasn't round. Figured I could weld it and clean it up with a grinder later.

Then the bad afternoon. I started welding the rings and the patches on the bottom (inside) first. Then realized... a lot of heat + 18 gauge sheet equals the pic below.

This afternoon, I started the top over. Starting with a compass to stencil out the holes and make them a little rounder. I also added the holes for the fill spout and the vent hose. My plan this time for welding is two big changes. First, attach the top to the tank first to keep it from warping too badly. Second, take the welding slow and allow everything to cool between passes.

D101: Gas Tank D1

2012-07-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to starting the gas tank. I picked up a nice piece of cold rolled 18ga sheet the other day. The cold rolled looks oh so clean compared to hot rolled sheet.

I designed the tank to be as wide as possible with clearance for the shocks. It ended up being about 31x15x8 in. The height should be perfect to reuse the stock fuel pumps and sending unit. The front side has a slope of 20 deg to butt up against the back of passenger compartment. Both sides on the bottom also slope up at 20 deg to give the upper suspension arm mount extra clearance.

Step 1: Stencil out all the sides + bottom

Step 2: Cut out the stencil

Step 3: Fold. Started with the 2 part sides, then front, then back. Folding was done quite crudely by clamping a bar on the seem, heating and manually folding by hand. I then hammered out the bends to make them a little tighter.

Step 4: Tack everything in place

Here is the tank in the trunk butted up against the rear of the passenger compartment.

Lastly, the clearance between the upper suspension arm and the tank. There are still some pieces that are "overlapping" the edges that need to be trimmed off. As well as final welding the tank both inside and outside. I'm also working on the top and how to mount the factory pumps.

D100: ROLLER!!!

2012-07-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

Fitting that this post comes on the 100th day of working on this build. I finally have a rolling chassis!

I finished the upper a-arm and shock mounts on the driver side and installed the rear end. I don't have shock mounts on the rear yet, but a couple of well placed pieces of wood took care of that. Once I got the front suspension together, I just had to get the wheels on and roll the thing out of the garage. Definitely an exciting day for me.

Now I'm just trying not to think of everything that's left...

D99: Scuttel & Upper A-Arm

2012-07-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

I've been dying to get an idea of what this car will eventually look like, so I threw some spare wood together to build a scuttle mock up. I'm still deciding what I'm going to build the scuttle out of in the end, but for now, at least I can picture it.

I also rebuilt the upper a-arms. I had to do this to mount them to the new geometry created by rebuilding the front end. Below is the new design built out. It's not as easy to adjust, but it gives more space for the shock and of course, works with the frame redesign.

Oh, and I built some shock mounts. I'm not finalized on the placement of the upper mount yet, but it'll do for now.

D98: Shifter & Engine Bay Bracing

2012-07-05T19:04:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to working on the shift linkage. I've been wanting to get this done for while, or at least try it out to see if the design would work. I realized after the first engine fit that the shift linkage was too short and needed to be moved further back. Here is what I've got so far. I cut the original linkage and extended it by about 4 inches. The new shift lever uses a couple pieces of 3/4" .120 wall DOM tubing with a 1/2" bolt to hold them together. The pivot is a 3/4" heim joint.

One thing I like about this design is that I can adjust how short the "throw" is by unscrewing the bolt to change the motion ration.

I also got around to adding some extra bracing to the engine bay. The top pic is a removable brace that goes over the transmission tunnel. This makes it much easier to get the engine in and out. The bottom pic is the brace on the drivers side of the engine bay. I also added one to the passenger side as well.

D96-97: Front End Rebuild + Radiator Mounts

2012-06-28T18:30:00.000-07:00

I've never been happy with the front uprights I had, so I decided to rebuild these. Below is the new set. Now, both uprights are 1 1/2" square 1/8" tube instead of the normal 1" 16awg. This should provide plenty of strength to the upper a-arm mounts. If (big if) I keep the upper mounts in single shear, these will provide a much stronger mounting point and should hold up better to the torsional load created.

I haven't added the 3/4" DOM tube yet, but the front and back will now be in-line. I haven't figured out how to modify the upper a-arm yet. With the two mounts being in-line, I need to figure out the best way of using the heim joints without maxing out their travel. With the old design they were already close to being maxed out. I might just have to settle for less points of adjustment.

I've also got the radiator mounted to the new uprights. I'm still using the factory BMW radiator and mount points. However, I'm mounting from the rear instead of the front of the radiator.

The last piece of progress was finally adding some supports to top level of the frame in the engine bay. This is also a better view of the radiator upper mounts.

D93-95: Floor + Welding + Update

2012-06-20T09:27:00.000-07:00

I'm back! After 3 months of training, Ride the Rockies has come and gone. Turned into a shorter week than planned because of a knee injury, but still had 4 good days and 300 miles on the bike.

Here's a pic of my brother and I at the top of Independence Pass. This was after 6000 ft of climbing, most in the last 15 mi. I've been wanting to climb this pass for years and was excited to finally get the chance.

On to the build progress. I've spent a little time over the past few days getting the floor finished and working on finish welding the frame. I'd say I'm 95% complete on welding... but I keep finding more that needs to be finished.

I'm also working on the upper a-arm support to eliminate the "single shear" in the current design and figuring out where the shocks are going to mount.

D91-92: Floor

2012-04-25T20:04:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't been posting much recently, but training has been taking over my time. I've also been working on a new bike rack for my daily driver. Maybe I can post on that later.

Here's a quick update on the the last couple days of work. I've been collecting 16 awg sheet for a while now every time I go to the yard for scrap. I miscalculated a little and ended up with enough for 3/4 of a floor. I know it's likely overkill, but I'll feel comfortable knowing nothing is going to pop through while driving. Plus, if you are going to add extra weight, might as well be as low as possible. I've fully welded one side, and will weld 1" sections on the top side as well. I'm still trying to figure out how to best eliminate the "bong".

With the frame upside down, I've taken the opportunity to continue finish welding the frame. It always surprises me how much time it takes to finish weld everything.

On a random note, I found out that a guy I work with used to run a fiberglass shop in another life and offered to help whenever I get to the body work.

D88-90: Firewall v2 + Unpowered Brakes

2012-04-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a chance to post from the last few days in the garage, so here's a quick update. I've wanted to redo the upper firewall for the driver side since the first one went in. Here is my second go around. I think it turned out much cleaner. I also moved the mount for the steering shaft up a little bit to simplify the final weld and move the steering u-joint away from the engine mount.

After removing the brake booster, the master cylinder sat a little close to the firewall. I build a "shim" to move it out by about 3/8".

Here is the new firewall with everything attached. I'm so much happier with the way this version turned out.

With the brake booster removed, I had to shorten the push rod from the pedal to the master cylinder. Here is the shortened version.

Below is the brake pedal with the new push rod installed. Now I just need to figure out how to make sure that the brake pedal doesn't swing back and the push rod come out. This was all held in place by brake booster before. Oh, and I hope that I don't need that booster. Ha.

D87: Steering Column + Mount

2012-03-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

Today I spent some time working on my new steering column. I wasn't thrilled with the first attempt, and kept thinking it was too weak. The drilled out 3/4" tube seemed too thin.

Here is my second attempt. I cut the end off the donor column which happened to be .47" on the inside which is close to the size needed for a 1/2"-20 thread. I threaded the end of a 3" grade 8 1/2"-20 bolt into this end. The smooth end would slide nicely into the 3/4"x.120 DOM that I'm using for the column. The smooth end had a little bit of slop, so I used a piece of paper to ship the bolt to keep everything tight and straight for welding.

Below are the two pieces assembled and then welded and ground. With both pieces .120 wall, and the joint being supported by a 1/2 bolt, I feel MUCH better about the strength of this design. I also plan on drilling a couple of holes on either side of the weld and then welding them up. I'm hoping this will add some torsional strength by transferring some of the load onto the bolt.

With the new column together, I need to check the clearance with the engine mounts. I got the engine back in and THANKFULLY everything fit just fine. It's definitely close, but I don't think the engine is going to shift side to side. In theory it'll more rotate which shouldn't interfere with the steering linkage.

Knowing the new column would fit around the engine mounts, it was time to get the drivers end mount built. I'm using a 3/4" steering shaft heim joint to attach the column to the mount. Below is the mounting hole for that heim. I cut a 1" hole in the 2"x1" tubing and used some of the 1" DOM from the a-arms inside.

I plan on adding at least one more piece to reinforce the mount.

I also played around with placement of the turn signals and ignition switch. I haven't settled on anything that I like yet.

D85-86: Frame Supports & Ride the Rockies

2012-03-11T17:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted, mostly because it's been a while since I've worked on the car. Partly the weather and partly because I got into Ride the Rockies.

Ride the Rockies is a Colorado bike (bicycle) ride through the Rocky Mountains. The route changes every year, but this year it's 6 days, 442 miles, from Gunnison, CO to Ft. Collins, CO. What does this have to do with building a locost? Well, riding 442 miles takes some serious training which means I have and will be spending an increasingly greater amount of my free time on my bike instead of in the garage. I still plan on continuing the build, but it'll likely be at a slower pace than usual.

This weekend, I found myself motivated to get this frame finished. I've past my one year anniversary and I'm still working on the frame. I know everyone says it takes the majority of the build time, but I had NO idea it would take this long. With a few free hours I got almost all of the remainder frame supports cut and tacked into place. The two picks are the rear bulkhead behind the seats and the side of the frame (both sides are finished).

D83-84: Upper A-Arm Mounts

2012-02-23T19:55:00.000-08:00

I got a little time tonight and a last weekend in the garage working on the upper a-arm mounts and here is (hopefully) the final product.

I replaced the rear vertical tube with 1 1/2" square tube. This should allow for a stronger support of the upper mount. I'm mounting the upper a-arm to a piece of 3/4" DOM (.120 wall) tubing. This mount allows me to use a 1/2" bolt.

The front mount is 3/4" DOM through a piece of 1"x2" tubing. I tried to align the mount so that the tubing was horizontal, but more importantly that the mount is 9" above the lower control arm. I'm still trying to figure out how to add sufficient support to this mount.

Here is the finished product with the upper a-arm "installed". One thing I like about this design is there is plenty of space to fit a coilover shock and spring.

The last part of the front suspension is modifying the driver side steering rod end. Then it is on to final welding the frame and building the cage.

D82: Front Suspension Rebuild #4 D2

2012-01-31T16:46:00.000-08:00

I built new mounts for the upper a-arms. I've got the mounting bolts vertical now instead of horizontal. I wanted to try this out and see if it would work better than the old design.

With the new suspension design, I needed to move the steering arm from mounting on the bottom of the spindle to the top of the mount. This required a new steering arm. I've used 1/2" rod ends on the spindle side. On the steering rack side, I cut the threaded portion of the factory arm off and used it as an "M14x1.5" weld bung. Saved me having to buy a random metric tap.

A picture of the completed lower control arm and the upper a-arm along with the new steering arm all assembled with the tire.

D81: Steering Rack and Column Updates

2012-01-30T19:37:00.000-08:00

With the newly redesigned front suspension I needed new mounts for the steering rack. Below is the design for the new mounts. From the previous post, I knew how high above the lower control arm pivot I wanted the center of the rack to be and from the original design I knew how far in front of the front cross bar I wanted the rack to be. Thus, the design below.

Below is one of the two mounts for the steering rack that will attach to the front cross member.

Both mounts tacked onto the front cross member and the steering rack in place.

The new design I have for the steering column required a few mods to the firewall. The first was installing a firewall mount for the steering column. I replaced part of the firewall with this 1"x2" piece of tubing.

With the firewall mount in place, I wanted to make sure the the column cleared the brake booster. From the pick below, there is plenty of space.

The new steering column connected to the steering rack. Getting rid of the extra piece of linkage makes for a clean install. I also think it'll be a safer/stronger design.

The last pic is the steering column next to the pedal assembly. The new column will come almost directly out at the driver instead of the previous design where the column was at an angle. Again, a cleaner design.

D79-80: Suspension Redesign and Rebuild #4

2012-01-29T19:10:00.000-08:00

I've spent the past week redesigning the front suspension yet again. After getting the last design tacked together I realized that bump steer might be an issue. I did a little research and modeled my design in CAD to realize that, YES, I did have a bump steer issue.

The design below is what I've come up with for the (hopefully) last build. I've raised the steering rack and plan on mounting the tie rods to the top of the spindle instead of the bottom. This allows for adjustments to control bump steer. I need to modify the spindle and build custom tie rods to complete this conversion.

The new design brought the mounts for the lower control arms in about 1.5" on each side. Below is the design for the new control arms. I've gone back to the style of the second design maximizing the steering range. This won't cause the same issue I ran into with the second control arm because the tie rod is on top of the spindle mount and won't hit the rim.

I built the new arm on the frame. It was easier to tack the mounts and build the control arm on the frame than trying to build a jig for the arm. I did the same on both sides and I'm much happier with the latest build than with the previous one. There is much less slop. I also plan on adding some additional plates to strengthen the mounts.

Junkyard Finds

2012-01-16T18:05:00.000-08:00

Made it to the junkyard today and found a few parts that I've needed. A new clutch slave cylinder since I broke the bleeding valve off the original one, a transmission mount to replace the one glued together, and a rubber plug for the lower radiator mounts. Glad to get these things so I can continue with the progress I've been making.

D78: Steering Column + Radiator Mounts D2

2012-01-15T17:37:00.000-08:00

Today I worked first on finishing up the steering column extension, and then the radiator mounts. I welded a 3" extension between the two pieces of the steering column I had a few weeks back. The hardest part of this was getting all three pieces aligned so that the steering shaft inside wouldn't bind. The extension is fully welded around both ends along with a couple of plug welds.

Column outer sleeve to add 3" to column.

The next step here is going to be finalizing the placement of the steering column and wheel and getting the last bit of mounting in place to hold it all together. Also, since I moved the steering rack back while getting the front suspension figured out, I also need to modify the linkage between the rack and the column. I'm going to wait to finish this until I have the engine back in, just to make sure there is plenty of clearance.

Steering column mocked up.

Next up today was the radiator mounts which I started yesterday. The BMW radiator has two rubber plugs along the sides which sit in cups in the frame. The top is held in via removable arms that fit into a couple of slots. Below are a couple of pictures of the radiator in place. I love that the radiator doesn't hang out in front of the frame allowing me to build a nose that is "shorter". Also, I can install it upright meaning I get the best performance out of the radiator over installing it at an angle.

Radiator front.

Radiator side.

Below is one of the "cups" that I've added which the bottom rubber plugs will sit in. Obviously there is a lot of finishing work to be done here before I can consider these done. But functionally, they work, which I'm pretty pleased about.

Radiator mount close-up.

D76-77: Radiator Mounting + Driver Side Front Suspension

2012-01-14T20:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was able to get the driver side lower and upper a-arm finished and assembled. I'm excited to have both sides done and the freedom to move onto something else.

Today I worked on fitting the radiator. I haven't finalized the mount design in my head yet, but figured I'd get started on what I've got figured out. Below is what I've got so far. I had to make some frame mods to get the radiator to fit where I wanted, but with the appropriate additional bracing, I thin it'll be fine.

My favorite part of this design is I can build a "short" nose cone shrinking the overall length, which was stretched by some of the drivetrain decisions I made early on.

Finished front suspension with mocked up radiator.

Close-up of radiator mount frame cut-out.

D75: Lower A-Arm #4 D2

2012-01-12T18:28:00.000-08:00

I got the passenger side lower arm tacked together. I reassembled the spindle, steering rack, and upper a-arm and threw a tire on to check out if the new design works. The tire hits AT both ends of the rack travel... a couple of shims will solve that.

The finished a-arm.

Assembled passenger side arms and steering rack.

Steering arm and lower arm.

D74: Lower A-Arms #4

2012-01-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

I got a chance this evening to get a little work on the new a-arms. Here's my progress so far. Next step will be tacking in the steering rack mount, moving the rear a-arm mounts, and then adding in the rear bar to these a-arms.

D73: Lower A-Arm Redesign #4 + Steering Rack Mount Rebuild

2012-01-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had another realization... the new a-arm design allows the wheels to turn fully outward, but now the wheel hits the steering arm when turned in. After for most of the evening I sat down and redesigned the lower a-arms for a 4th time.

Below is the latest and hopefully greatest design for the lower a-arm. I've done a few things with the design this time.

I went back to the right triangle shape. This more closely emulates the donor setup.
I've also kept the width the same as the last set to keep the full range of wheel motion when the wheel is pointed out.
I've measured the distance that the ball joint is moving forward to plan for enough clearance for the steering rod when the wheel is pointed in.

With these changes and the change to the steering rack mount, I've moved the steering rack 4 1/2 inches closer to the ball joint. This should give me full range of steering motion in both directions.

Lower A-Arm Design #4.

As I just mentioned, I also made a change to the steering rack mount. I cut out a section so that the steering rack could slide back closer to the mount. This moved the rack 1 inch closer to the mount helping achieve the 4 1/2 inch difference mentioned above.

Recessed notch for steering rack.

Steering rack installed in mount.

I plan on installing the modified mount about 3 1/2 inches further back to keep the wheelbase the same as it was with the previous a-arms. This also means no rework on the upper a-arms. It'll move the rear lower a-arm mount behind the upright similar to the first (or second) design.

Steering rack mount in the frame.

D72: Upper A-Arm Mounts

2012-01-07T21:26:00.000-08:00

If you noticed, I missed day 71. I finished the second lower a-arm a couple of days ago and didn't blog about it since it looks almost identical to the first one in D70.

With one upper a-arm finished, I was ready to get the mounts in to make sure everything would come together. I also needed to figure out how long each tube + weld bungs is going to be.

Last night I spent a little time with CAD figuring out the layout of the mounts. I went in knowing the following:

The mounts would attach to the two uprights
The mounts would be made out of 1/8" thick 1 1/2" square tubing
The angles of each of these mounts is 17 deg and 30 deg

I didn't want the rod ends to operate at an extreme angle, so I figured out a rough estimate for the angle of the front and rear.

CAD design of mount layouts. (They are wider than 9in.)

Next up was some CAD to figure out how far apart the lower and upper mount should be. I can't remember where I read this, but I remember 1" of travel should change the camber by 1 degree. The design has the distance between the lower ball joint pivot point and the ground along with the intended ride height of 6" (close to the donor) and then measurements from the frame.

CAD design of front suspension.

Upper a-arm mounts.

This design creates an optical illusion. Every time I look at it, I can't believe that the mounts are parallel. I keep seeing funky angles or thinking one mount is crooked.

[Top] Finished mounts + upper a-arm installed.

[Side] Finished upper/lower arms + mounts.

Note: The new location of the rear lower a-arm mount required a small addition to the frame. The mount only covered about a 1/4" in of the frame tube. It needed a little more reinforcement. I'm planning on more support later.

D70: Lower A-Arm D3

2012-01-03T17:26:00.000-08:00

After a little thought and some quick design work. I decided on the design below as my third and (hopefully) final attempt.

I've narrowed the distance between the two bushings and centered the ball joint between them. The other change I made in this iteration is tilting the ball joint sleeve in two directions, both toward the frame and toward the rear. This should help minimize the ball joint angle with the stock spindle design.

The finished driver side arm.