Elio Type Vehicle Resurection --- AKA the BEX

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX :

This is a screen shot from my messenger talking to the supplier a few hours ago. These parts should arrive tomorrow.

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX :

Parts arrived at the transport depot, got my regular 3 wheeled motorcycle pickup man, and now safely in my factory ...

After my hassles I had with the first sides that were in 4 pieces, boy am I glad I could get these one piece sides

So the fun begins again

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX :

I was just asked in the FB group "Am I starting over again with these new panels?".

The answer is simple:

Most of the hard work is done now, now that I have all the critical measurements to work directly from the prototype, with the relevant minor changes to suit these panels of course, so we are talking just a couple of weeks to get to the same level as the prototype again, not many months

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX :

The comparison here is, it took me weeks to decide and design around how the sides would mount to the chassis, and of course that time included variations and modifications of the chassis design to suit as well ...

This afternoon, took me just a few hours to cut the sills off the new sides, and (temp) rivet the new chassis rails on, simply because I had it all worked out on the prototype, and literally just copied it today, with some minor alterations such as changing to the same size rail tubes as the (potential) Production Partner uses.

Just an example of how much faster this pre-production car will happen, and the weather is finally stating to cool, thank goodness for that ..

I must admit I grimace when I start cutting brand new parts up! first picture


Well she's up on the bench ... second picture


Imagine my surprise when the temporary crossbrace I made up to hold the previous 2 sides together, fitted straight onto these sides! I pulled the fuel tank out of the donor car, you can see it's rear raised in the background, and it's an excellent fit, that's one more thing "off the shelf", and one less headache for me ....third picture



The measurements looks to be 1000 exactly from the bottom front corners of the front doors, and 800 from the bottom front corners of the rear wheel arches, as per the arrows. .... fourth picture

[JEBar]

I asked Mark --- any clue as to how many gallons of gas that tank holds ..???


to which he responded :

"30 liters/8 US gallons.

At 84.1 mpg, that's 672 miles range.

Yeah, nah, I don't believe it either"


my comment

cut the MPG in half and that still ain't bad at all ..... you'd still have a considerably longer range than I can handle with out taking a break or two

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX :

Mapping out the beginnings of a slightly different firewall area to make production easier,

..... and some crossmembers to mount the fuel tank ..

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX :

As I was de-structuring the prototype today, I took a picture because it reminded me of those cars cut in half for display at motor shows.
I also sat the new side on the chassis looking at differences and various measurements ....

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX :

Going to be a bit quiet for a few days while I map out the next step. The car build, that I have all the important information for, isn't that important as the direction to take it with, so don't fret with sparse reporting the next number of days. I have a willing steel chassis manufacturer, I have a willing fiberglass manufacturer, and I need an assembler. If the chassis shop wants to assemble, then there will be more design emphasis on steelwork, same for the fiberglass shop, if I assemble myself then I will design to suit my shop's capability and facilities. The next few days I will be running back and forth between the 3 balancing it out. The basic prototype layout as seen to date is not going to change dramatically.

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX :

Sometimes I have big wins that don't look so obvious.

The footwell is the area under the dash where your legs and feet go, of course where the pedals are.

I have been on the computer all afternoon, and moved tubes around to figure out how to make the footwell literally a 5 sided box, that can be built on the bench, and simply slid into place from the driver's area.

It's a real win to make life easier. The theoretical "box" is shown in purple here, though in real life it will need some holes, humps and bumps to mount various components, not least the brake master cylinder.

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX :

Well I created the bulk of the new forward frame today, and you can see from the driver's seat point of view, that I have create the flat sides internally just as I wanted. This will make life a lot easier to design and build the new footwell box.

Also the new frame is a lot faster, easier and cheaper to build.

Remember that when you save an hour here and there on a production run of many items, it all adds up to, no, not more cars produced, but the Wife finding new useless things for you to do around the house ... sigh ....