[Land-speed] cockpit design and layout OT

[Ed Weldon]

Forwarded to list in pieces to pass filters -- #2
EW
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ed Weldon" <23.weldon at comcast.net>
To: "Greg Meyers" <advo at comcast.net>; <land-speed at autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 4:54 PM
Subject: Re: [Land-speed] cockpit design and layout OT


> Greg-- Piece#2
> Now, you say you can't draw worth a darn.  Do it full size on the garage
> floor or out on the patio.  This is how wooden boats get built using a
small
> scale drawing or sometimes just a table of offsets.  They call it
"lofting"
> in that world.
> Use whatever cheap materials are available like large corrugated appliance
> box panels, old plywood to rough out a seat, etc.  I even used 6" radius
> 1-3/4 exhaust u-bends and 1-1/2" electrical conduit to mock up a roll
cage.
> You can rough out a pretty sturdy cockpit and firewall shape from 3/4"
> electrical conduit.   Get all possible drivers to test fit this layout.
>
> Here's a tip:  Look for an old out of date belt and shoulder harness setup
> to use when your construction gets far enough along to test the fit of the
> driver.  That way you can wait until the last month or so before the first
> tech inspection to buy a fresh belt set.
>
> What I would not do is try to design it entirely on paper or a computer
CAD
> system and then just go start cutting metal or building molds.  It takes
> years of experience for a designer to be able to layout a driving position
> in a vehicle properly in addition to the CAD/drawing skills and
exceptional
> spatial visualization talents needed to solve the myriad of 3 dimensional
> fit problems.  In all probability you don't have it.
> Ed Weldon,  Los Gatos, CA
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Greg Meyers" <advo at comcast.net>
> To: <land-speed at autox.team.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 2:57 PM
> Subject: [Land-speed] cockpit design and layout OT