Follow this link to navigable 3D model of the frame of the 1TG, or at least what I consider to be the major structural parts of the frame.

The viewer only works in Internet explorer as far as I can tell and there will be some active X controls that will need to install.

The various colours represent sub-assemblies that will be fabricated separately and brought together on the build table. The black members are the ‘stick built’ parts that I’ve not yet worked out how to do in a sub assembly.

I actually made some progress this week.

Firstly I bought the steel required for the roll frame from GoGear here in Perth and ordered the most of the rest of the required steel from Midalia Steel who I didn’t realize before I went there are having a sale until tomorrow so I all the 1″ steel I required with a 50% discount so huge smiles there.

Further I got a reasonable quote on tube bending from All Bend Engineering and I dropped off the tubes to be bent there. Which hopefully will be back in a week or so.

I’ve also ordered some castor wheels for the build table from a company selling on eBay A$72 for six 5″ wheels is way less than half of what they’d coast at the local Bunnings (A crap version of Home Depot for any Americans reading). Time will tell if this was a good deal or not, but the pictures look like whats required.

A week or so ago I went along to a meeting of the The Sportscar Builders Club of W.A. which was a mine of useful information in just one night. Hopefully where ever you are in the world theres a similar local club that you can get along to. Meeting and talking with people who have been through the process and know the ins & outs of it is an invaluable experience that really can’t be replicated on the web.

A frustrating week trying to get quotes out of tube benders. Hopefully this’ll get sorted next week.

One of the side effects of the huge mining boom here in Western Australia is that everyone is short of employees (particuarly inteligent ones). So delays and cost increases are to be expected I guess.

I think I’ve found a big lump of salvaged steel structure to use as the build table top, it weighs more than 500kg in my estimation, getting home and trimmed to size are the next issues to deal with there.

The current project status is that what I would describe as the major mechanical design is completed.  That is I now know:

• Where the engine & gearbox are going to be located.
• Where the driver and passenger will be housed.
• Where the wheels are going to be located.
• Where the suspension mounting points and dampers are going to be located.
• Where the steering rack will be located.

And most importantly of all how to tie all of this together with a structure that is as stiff as possible and has sufficient strength and is not excessivley heavy.

In short I’m at the point where I feel confident enough in the desingn to go start making it.

The little list above tookover a year of thought to resolve to this point, what I’ve now got is a design for the chassis frame that weighs ~125Kg for the steel tube framework including the roll frame and has a stiffness in excess of 15Kn Per degree which I think is sufficient.

So the next thing to be done is to get on with fabricating the frame.

I have a number of tubs that require bending as part of the design, not having the equipement to do this I’m now in the process of tracking down a company who’ll do this for a fair price.

Build Pages:
DP Cars: Bike engined AWD micro size lunacy! Great Stuff!
Grabercars: Home of ‘La Bala’
The Kimini 2.2 car project: Tube frame, prelude powered, carbon fibre Mini
The Sports Car Builders Club of Western Australia

News Groups:
Locostbuilders.co.uk: The mid-engined forum.
Oz-clubbies.com: Aussie clubman forum.

Software:
Susprog3D: Suspension analysis.
Framework: Free structural stress analysis.

So you’ve decided that you want to design and build your own car have you?

The question you need to be able to answer is: Why?

You need to have a good answer for that question, because everyone will ask you it when they find out what you’re up to, either that or peg you for a complete nutter and quietly move away from you, its something you should be prepared for.