>But I am curious why poeple are joining the forum, if they will not post...
Well, you have to remember, building your own car is the romantic notion of so many, but it proves to be quite a challenge. In the U.S. a Terrapin will need a rollbar of 1.375" o.d. x .095" thickness mild steel, etc. There's some adapting to figure out. I already knew how to weld, but I have a long way to go to put together the quality required. Should I TiG weld, or braze with bronze? I'm hardly an expert at either. I've always been handy, fixed my own cars, etc. But I'm definitely biting off more than I can chew with is. As is anyone who builds a car from scratch. Hopefully you don't mind if I forgo the metal body, I'm thinking fiberglas, using the resins like in carbon fiber instead of esters because it's stronger, and I want some kevlar in the middle anyway. I've been learning a lot of things for this car.
mfgskills.com/composites.htmlAnd I've already been developing those skills fixing or even making parts in things like my motorcycle repair class. Believe me, the project isn't languishing, it's just waiting while I rise to the occasion.
Work in general has slowed here in America, especially for people like myself that work in television. But I'm one of the "Lucky" ones who doesn't spend every dime before he even gets it, so my now parttime career isn't a problem, really, except I need things to do. A professional crew of 3 comes to my neighborhood and builds in one day the fence it takes me over a week to build maybe not so perfectly, but I certainly wound up with a 7 foot wide gate to bring cars to and from my backyard. Basically the car isn't under construction just yet because there's lots of preplanning to complete. Someone around here built the Ron Champion 7 replica, and danged if you can't imagine the accident that car was in from looking at it, even though it wasn't in one. I want mine built right.
blog.modernmechanix.com/2009/01/16/best-mechanics-will-win-if-us-fights-japan/ Published in 1931.
I put that article up because that's the America I grew up reading about. An American farmboy of the 1930's grew up drivng the tractor, then right out of high school was plowing out airstrips in the South Pacific. Leaving wondering Japanese officers scratching their heads at what that machine was because they were horticultural, not agricultural; their own airfields were build by enslaved natives who piled dirt and rocks into holes to create temporarily flat land that eventually caused wrecks on landing. City boys who grew up helping dad fix the car quickly learned to fix the planes, the more daredevil type who had dad helping him to build a gokart of some sort might have been flying it. The rest of the world hated to admit it, but it was the Americans who were always the most ready.
blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/10/16/a-home-built-miniature-motorbike-for-youngster/?Qwd=./ModernMechanix/1-1933/mini_motor_bike&Qif=mini_motor_bike_1.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=XL#qdigAnd I grew up lamenting that America that was already dying away. Not just because the jobs were being shipped overseas, but our own leaders were determined to leave us unable to ever do those jobs again. The vocational class where I learned to weld has been discountinued, inspite of the shortage of welders and the 1 million positions a year that go unfilled. Our government makes no plans to train the 12+ million unemployed and nearly 20 million more who really can't support themselves working parttime to take advantage of the opportunites in welding or other unfillable trades, even making plans for "Guest" workers.
In fact, my old welding class was replaced by a "Pre-college" class for high school kids where they get to play with radio control robots in hopes that will "Inspire" them to become engineers. A sort of class that's growing in popularity with school administrators. The local high school closed down industrial arts so the space could be used as a dance studio for the cheerleaders. And the nearby Alcoa plant cannot find enough machinists to make aviation parts and never can operate at capacity or meet demand, even with unemployment at 10%. But if all the jobs are sent overseas, what would we need engineers for? Meanwhile, the dozens each year who started careers in welding after completing that class were left with nowhere to go, and the employers with noone to hire.
If you go to Amazon.com and look up the late Pat Braden, you see the automotive books he wrote while my neighbor, and I shot some of those photos for him. What a great guy to be next door to my Father, who in his all too short life drove MG's, a BMW, an Alfa, and his beloved Porsche. I wish Mr. Braden had shown up earlier, and brought that backyard full of cars in time for Dad to enjoy it.
So I've got two pasts to relive: One that I never saw, and the one I lost. Growing up I spent a lot of time at two tracks that aren't even there anymore: Riverside International Raceway and Ontario Motor Speedway. In fact as the greater Los Angeles area became one of the most populous in the world the tracks gave way to homes and stores. But even if it's not close by, there's still one track where I went with my Father:
www.willowspringsraceway.comIt was all well and good racing bicycles, gokarts, motorcycles. But the cars were always too expensive. Even after Dad was gone I had some of his old racing books and magazines around for awhile, and I got to read about the time when the ONLY way you even had a car to race was if you built it. Now they laugh at you when you speak of building. So few do anything for themselves anymore. But look what it costs to buy.
stohrcars.com/home.phpBut even more important than that is just the fnally being there. Dad autocrossed, but for health reasons alone he could never have raced, the cancer was wearing him down even as I was born. My oldest brother made it to the track while our normally low key Father was getting excited. But he was gone before I finished school. Maybe if he'd been around, I'd have gotten to this sooner.
So when I'm alone in the garage with it I'll be imagining Dad saying "'Dauntless' is at it again." He called me that because I grew up doing things the adults told me I'd never succeed at. And this aerospace engineer would get a few books on racecar engineering and explain them all to me, since he'd understand it better than I would. Mr. Braden certainly would have hung out with us too. Made all the better because of Mom growling, she never did like her sons catching Dad's car bug. I've never heard the whole story, but I would assume Colin Chapman built his first car at his girlfriends' house because at least one of his parents would not have approved.
The only thing missing is getting to go to Riverside, where I worked more than a hundred club racing weekends with him, and a few dozen for the pros. A mere fraction of what Dad did in some 20+ years. But we went to Willow a few times. I picture Dad healthy, maybe even a full head of hair like in his Army pictures where he looks like Fred Flintstone, able to run across the paddock instead of walking part way and stopping to catch his breath while looking at something to try and act like nothing is wrong. When the car has gotta be pushed, he's not just leaning against it trying to do his best to help; time was Dad could have pushed about any car by himself.
Well, I sure haven't posted much. But I joined because I do want to build the car. Unlike so many of us nonengineers, nonfabricators, even nonmechanics, I think I can pull it off. It can never really be like 'Field of Dreams,' where the guy gets to see his young and healthy father play baseball, but this would be good enough. I had seen the cover of 'High Speed/Low cost' a few years back and was sure it looked familiar; with the book in hand I recognise what I see inside, I just know someone had a copy of it out at Riverside way back, and must have been planning a build. So way back then, Dad really did get a look at what I'm getting ready to do. . . .
