My Elio Alternate Project Is Underway.

[Mel]

Getting the A pillars and front floor into some sort of shape, notice no floor sticking past the firewall now.

Temporary metal piece adjoining the firewall box to the floor.

View attachment 26618

Going well but darn hot in the factory, I hear Texas is a bit hotter than me though, hope all is ok there.

All is OK in Texas. As always, Texas is hot during the 10 Summer months and some of the "wimps" are complaining. I've been here over 80 years now and continue to survive. Just hope I can keep going long enough to drive my BEX 3-wheeler.

BTW, Part of the problem is the news media that has to sensationalize everything by harping on the "Feels Like" temperatures.

 

[JEBar]

Just hope I can keep going long enough to drive my BEX 3-wheeler.

AMEN Brother .... don't we all

 

[Mark BEX]

For those who don't know, using CAD design is very helpful, but often can not replace 'hands on' figuring in the factory.

However, generally speaking when things are working out right in CAD, for every 1 hour you spend in CAD, it saves you at least a day in the shop, that's how powerful a tool it can be.

I have spent the last couple of days both in the factory and a lot of hours in CAD (at home) figuring the best way to do the suspension pickup hard points, and suddenly today I just hit upon a revelation that is so simple, that it's embarrassing. The sort of solution people will look at and say "Anyone could have come up with that", as people do when they see simple solutions.

It's a stupidly simple 'U' shaped tube (red) that connects the lower control arms (grey), the upper strut mounts (green) and the main engine rails (blue).

I'm hoping later I can also do the upper main engine rail as a 'U' also to hold the radiator and A/C condenser in place at the front.

Cheap fast and easy to make with minimal welding involved, if it's not too hot tomorrow, I'll get it done, otherwise Monday (it's damn hot here at the moment).

 

[Mark BEX]

I'm hoping later I can also do the upper main engine rail as a 'U' also to hold the radiator and A/C condenser in place at the front.

Something like this ..

 

[Duger]

A genius design. Love it.

 

[Mark BEX]

Finally cool enough to get into the factory the last 2 days, 97 degrees yesterday, and 90 today, but of course hotter inside the factory itself.

Only took me 2 attempts to make the 'U' tube mentioned before, but I did have to do some work on my bending dies, which took half a day up.

You can see the first tube has a kink in the middle of the bend, arrow, and was a little narrow. Fixed the dies, fixed the kink, and worked the bends to a wider size, and all good.

One thing i didn't notice in computer CAD was I will be able to mount the steering rack to the 'U' tube as well, that's preferable over mounting it to the fiberglass firewall, second arrow.

Did a lot more work than the picture suggests, front subframe should go together smoothly over the next few days.

 

[Mark BEX]

So far 90% working out according to CAD, which I rate as a high number.

Some small 'real world' mods to make it work in the real world(!), but pretty smooth really ...

 

[Mark BEX]

Ok, this is what I was hoping for, but didn't mention it in case it didn't work!

This is the basic front subframe, and as you can see it's not integral with the vehicle, it can be removed as a separate piece.

This will allow me to produce them as a separate modular item, then fit them later, allowing for modification in case of different engines/transmissions such as an EV driveline or 6.2 LS3 Chev V8.

It's not complete yet, still requiring 2 x upper crossmembers, but was excited to realise that it can be produced as a separate unit.

 

[JEBar]

OUTSTANDING

 

[Mark BEX]

OUTSTANDING

Yes, if you're out standing, you could use it as a walker too for support.