Front hood building diary

Hello,

In my own workshop I had no opportunity to work this winter

Too cramped, too cold, too much moisture for wood working.

So I moved the project temporarily to a friends workshop.

Thanks Steffen, for your help.

Since then, a lot of work has been done.

Not only my own project has grown, Steffen has his own project in the works.

So we worked simultaneously on booth, just three meters or so apart.

Steffens vehicle is still Top Secret, 

he don't want to publish it before the work is mainly done.

This may be in two or three months.

Check out his website then.

Here are the proof of progress of my velocar

Because a picture is worth a thousand words, I hope it's self explaining.

I hope to accomplish the bodywork within another two weeks,

but I'm not in a hurry

After that steering mechanism and transmission.

Cheers,

Kai

Ancient pedalcars

Hello folks

Today I want to make a short journey into the world of antique pedalcars

Mochet

When it comes to talking about the ancestors of my pedalcar project,

 the best known name is Charles Mochet.

He produced his Velocars in Paris between the late 20s and 40s of the last century.

Velocar advertisment from the 30s

Mochet Velocars at display

Two ancient photos of Velocars with their happy owners

 Fantom

Another well known name ist the Swedish Fantom.

Although never produced by a manufacturer, 

the Fantom became popular as a cheap plan for self builders.

More than 100.000 plans have been sold over the years, but just a handful of Fantom were built by skilled Swedes.

The two pics above showing a two seated Fantom recreation of the Fordonsmuseum in Arvika/Sweden 

This one seater was build by Claes Johannson, the author of the book Folkhemmets Farkoster, from which the photos were taken.

Ardex

Ardex was another manufacturer of microcars.

During the German occupation of France in WW2 gasoline engines were forbidden, so Ardex changed the powerplants to electrical and human power.

Julien

This is my latest find.

Engineer Maurice A. Julien was formerly involved in the development of the famous 

Citroen Traction Avant. 

His pedalcar design, which he called the "Neocar" is in my taste the most sophistcated and elegant pedalcar of that era.

It featured also the then revolutionary front wheel drive and the whole body was made from aluminium.

It's supposed that just very few examples of this design were built, 

so informations about this fancy pedalcar are very rare.

Williams-Mourlot

One of my blog posts in 2014 was dedicated to a book written for self builders by Max Williams-Mourlot.

It contains a lot of plans, ranging from trailers and sidecars to small gasoline powered sportscars.

Among them were several plans for pedalcars with one or two seats.

Two different single seaters with rear steering:

 

A two seater with FWD:

Single seated velocar with front steering and rear wheel drive:

Sociable velocar with closest similarities to the Mochet models

 

All pages of this book can be found here.

Still, I have no knowledge of vehicles built to this plans.

Maybe somewhere there are still some forgotten old pictures, parts or dusty vehicles in old barns, waiting for their discovery.

Although there's a bare probability, I'm still dreaming about.

If you have informations in any form, I would appreciate to know from you.

Kai

Slow progress

It is a long time now, since my last post.

The woodwork on the tail is finally done.

Now I will seal it in epoxy for proper protection of the wood, then sand and paint it.

Actual weight of the tail is 8kg.

With tailgate and backseat added, I assume to end up with 10kg, so I'm very close to my previous estimations.

I placed the pedalcar beside a middle class estate for size comparison

The open design of the rear gives a lot of possibilities.

Instead of a simple tailgate, I could build a pickup style trunk with more stowage space.

If I want more, an additional hardtop turns the pickup into a van.
All these parts should be exchangeable within minutes, so I'm able to get the most suitable car version just in time.

But now, the building of the front hood has started.

Kai

Tear drop tail for MK2

Hello folks

It's raining since days now.

I moved my temporary workshop to the 3rd floor under the roof  because working outside is impossible and the garage is cluttered with a Mk1 velocar, a Mk2 rolling chassis, a small boat under construction and a lot of other bicycles.

The new tail/trunk is 50% assembled now and luckily still small enough to get it downstairs without damage.

An hour ago the rain takes a break and so I quickly pulled the Mk2 chassis out of the garage and mounted the new tail onto it.

Alterations in comparison to the Mk1 version:

 I want the inner sides of the wheel wells flaring outside.

This reduces the wasted space for the wells and gives more room for the kids shoulders.

Furthermore, the rear end of the tail is 20cm/8inches narrower than the maximum width.

This gives a benefit, when cornering through bottlenecks or chicanes.

I got lot of scratches at the old body, because of the wide rear end of the tail.

I assume to end up with an tail weight of 10kg or less with all still missing parts.

The Mk1 part has a weight of 17kg.

Another racing bicycle in weight is saved...

Kai

Velocar MK2 update

Hello,

Since weeks I'm fiddling on the suspension parts.

It takes much longer than I suspected, three weeks now.

The velocar gets double wishbones (a-frames) at the front axle and swing arms for the rear wheels.

Suspension works with elastomere elements instead of steel springs, 

which saves almost 2kg in weight.

This picture was taken with most suspension components still missing, just for show

These are the mounts of the rear swing arms

And here finally with all a-frames, kingpins and frame mounts 

Double a-frame construction with elastomere dampers

The three-pieced tie rod was still in the works then

The lower frame mounts have to be enlarged, to spread the loads of the suspension better into the wooden frame.

The Ackermann geometry is finally working.

Did you know, the real inventor was Georg Lankensperger?

Rear swingarms with offset mounted spring elements

Both rear wheels are fitted with Nuvinci N360 hubs.

Next week the steering components and body work awaiting completion.

Kai