Theres an ATM on that train! What will they think of next?
Im hoping you mean youre working on the 30th frame, in which case, that is pretty freaking awesome!
Theres an ATM on that train! What will they think of next?
Im hoping you mean youre working on the 30th frame, in which case, that is pretty freaking awesome!
Actually, we're making the tubes for another 30. You're looking at the four large-radius swept tubes for 30 cars, at least before they go on the interpolator.
Im really astounded at your success with this kit...I dont mean to sound critical, but the kit car market is a fickle lady. You guys really got something here!
Our goal is to singlehandedly drag the kit car industry out of the 1950s. It's looking like the world is ready, since all 30 of these cars have a name on them. 
As I typed that, another order just popped onto the production list. This is fun.
Warren v wrote: Our goal is to singlehandedly drag the kit car industry out of the 1950s. It's looking like the world is ready, since all 30 of these cars have a name on them.
You and Factory Five both. As a Kit Car lover, I say thank you!
Cutting out the sheet metal parts. We've got a couple sheets of that Swedish wonder steel going on. The computer is calculating the next sheet as it finishes the one inside, which is why it doesn't match up.
Day 2, rockin' and rollin'.
Tubes go in...
...tubes get some sciencing done to them...
...things are verified...
...and parts come out.
Repeat at about 5-8 tubes per minute. Just a little bit faster than hand-grinding! If you look closely, you can see the individual etch marks. Every tube is etched with a part number. Our first 3 prototype cars did not have etches, and sorting all those 1" tubes was a little tedious.
All the big tubes on the right get bent. A mix of DOM and conventional. All small-radius bends are DOM because we like repeat customers.
Sheet metal is being cut in parallel:
We have some shiny new check templates for our bends. These are for the sweeps:
The shape and angles of the slot are toleranced with these drop templates. If the tube fits, it will fit the car. There is a little bit of designed wiggle room in the cage, which reduces costs by eliminating a lot of DOM scrap ($$$). If the overall linear dimension is too short, the rear of the cage intersects a little lower on the rollbar (about 1/10 of an inch). If it's too long, it just goes on higher. Why isn't it dead nuts accurate? Every stick bends a little differently. Don't worry, each cage side is cut from the same tube, so it will look balanced.
Every bent part that goes on the car has to pass one of these templates, which leads to really consistent parts:
We're getting close to being done with all the material cutting. The bent sheet metal parts will ramp up in a few hours. Pretty confident we'll be done tomorrow with all 30 raw frames.
This is how we sell a $20k kit for $6k. Lasers. I berkeleyin' love 'em.
Warren, you need to put that whole post up on the Exomotive site for posterity. It rocks too hard to be buried on page 29 on some forum thread. Science!
This is becoming a pattern. Apparently we sold another car as I was actually writing that last post, as well as early this morning (close to the post about the sheet laser).
dude that's so cool. As a GT grad, car guy, and lifelong manufacturing-worker, you guys make me proud.
Someone needs to buy my Spec E30...
Remember the Evo that went off Pike's Peak in 2012? The codriver for that car was just here to check out our Exocet. For some reason, he was asking a lot of questions about the cage. He's thinking of taking an Exocet to the Peak...
Oh man, Pike's peak would be sick. With the new pavement, they could take advantage of the flat floors and run a full diffuser.
BTW, 6 this week now. Kevin just got on his cruise ship, so I guess that number won't be going up.
K series kit for Miata looks like its coming together....delicious!
I was looking into the k series kit. One question I had which Keith can probably answer, how much horsepower can a stock miata trans handle and does anyone make upgraded internals for it?
If you look through the list of names already waiting mine is in there about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I'm on the fence about full cage & powdercoating. I did commit to steel floors & have requested double diagonles. I'm also doing tubular control arms & front sub frame. I think it might be most economical if I pay for the full race kit now vs upgrading later. Where the front gussets meet the front section of the cage I am assuming its best to have that done before the floors are welded in. I'm also wanting to add a hitch & be ready to swap out to fuel cell as well (down the road). I will obviously send request thru Flyin Miata, just want to know the details of what is standard, what is upgrade.
Now I can get back to reading my Midlana book & listing up all my doner parts on CL from my abandoned 818R. (I'm still hoping to do FFR kit down the road, but body work was originally promised in multiple colors of Thermoplastic & I don't want to deal with paint plus mid engine not my norm). Plus I don't have to sell my very well sorted never wrecked 90 miata (anyone want a really cheap white body with flares please hit me up). I guess that goes for a complete perfect interior & hard top maybe my 10" 6uls (luckily that leaves me with 8 9" 6uls).
Sean Castner
This is flat-out awesome. You guys rock.
In reply to mrvwcastner:
Hey Sean,
Kevin handles all the order stuff, and he's not guaranteed to see your post here (he lets me run wild with you GRMers). I'll forward your post to him, but be sure to follow up with Info@Exomotive.com . I personally recommend upgrading to the Race if you want steel floors and the double diag. We ordered a few extra cage kits in this run of 30 cars for cases like yours. The way our contracts work, we have to buy those diagonals with the rest of the cage from our laser partner, so it shouldn't cost you much more to upgrade to the full cage. It's just a day of additional welding at that point. You can theoretically add the cage to the Sport later on (we build them sequentially), but that's a lot of work to strip/clean the weld sites and re-coat the affected zones.
We don't have a factory-solution hitch or fuel cell option yet, but FM might be able to set you up if you're ordering through them.
More manufacturing porn!
Here's the main sweeps being bent. Nate here is a wizard with the tube benders. Just for fun, I tried bending a few scrap pieces during the last production run, and it's way more complicated than it looks. There are 5 rollers to keep track of, and if any are in the wrong position or applying the wrong amount of force, you end up with a noodle. To get it perfect without denting the tube, you need to feed the rollers into the tube (in both bend radius and feed) at a precise rate. It requires constant feedback depending on the individual tube and babying the controls, and this guy's got it down. I'm glad we're not doing these sweeps in-house.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that he usually gets each tube perfect the first try. That tube gets cut after bending, so the shape of the ends don't really matter. That's why the check template has that fun little wiggle.
Dat consistency doe:
Nate also does the 6" CLR bends on the CNC bender:
Over in the sheet metal department, the DOMEX pieces are all cut. That's a stack of 6 sheets:
Some of the pieces fall out freely, but most are held in place with itty bitty little tabs. You generally can twist them out by hand. These parts are cut out with a Trumpf 5000 watt fiber laser, one of only a handful in the US:
I stopped by our shop to check on things over there and help move a completed car off the table. The welds just keep getting better, faster, and more consistent. The Lincoln 256 makes it easy. For the welders here, the smaller round tube is 1" 20 gauge, the big tube is 1.75" 16 gauge. This isn't a cherry-picked weld, they all generally look like this:
I have been in touch with Kevin as well as v8 roadster & Flyin Miata. My main question is if I decide to paint instead of powdercoat would it be more logical to have you guys put the attachment points in for the front cage at the same time as the steel floors and double diagonal? (powdercoating will be best finish, but limit how much I might modify the chassis myself). I think you answered the questions about the hitch & fuel cell (not options you offer at this time). I would like to se photo of where the cage attaches up front. I was thinking might be best to pay for full cage, get gusets welded in if they aren't already there & just have you ship the parts for the front section of cage unmounted. I'm using my 1.6 88,000 mile driveline don't want full cage until I rebuild the 99 1.8 in the garage.
It doesn't quite have "attachment points" like you would find in a streetcar's rollcage. The cage is integrated into the frame and intersects directly with the previously-welded nodes at the dash and floor. The cage was designed into the Exocet from the beginning, so it ends up how one would weld a fully-caged racecar from scratch.
My point is, there are no backing plates or attachment points to weld. There are gusset plates where the cage meets the dash, but you'd want to position the cage tubes in there first.
In summary, there's no prep needed on a Sport frame to make it a Race. You could even add the double diagonals after fully welding a Sport. Your plan of taking a Sport and adding the cage tubes later will work, it just seems like a bit of extra work to me. If you powdercoat it, make sure you can easily match the color, as you'll need to remove the coating around all the weld sites and then paint that area.
Thanks that was what I needed to know. I had V8 Roadster give me the colorcode & brand of powdercoat they use. Now I just have to commit to a full cage. Most likely what will happen.
What I have been toying with in my mind was a short dash hoop to protect about 10" above steering wheel that could also mount a short windscreen in, but not feel/look like a full cage. It could triangulate creating space for wing screens as well. It would be best as full hoop, but might be least obstructing like a short version of the Atom. Either way arm tethers a must.
Very impressive. Competitors take note: Showing us your process builds excitement - lots. Of course that assumes that your process is something that you're proud of.
You are absolutely right that you've got an excellent guy working the tube bender. My experience is that if you don't have the bender set up right, and you try to horse it around it's easy to end up with an expensive piece of excrement.
FWIW, as someone who runs a fab shop, I feel that powdercoat is a tad overrated. I typically specify a sandblast, followed by two-part epoxy primer and good enamel topcoat, and find that it will last at least as well as powdercoat, without the difficulties of touchup.
I agree, just comes down to extra time once it arrives. Its only a couple hundred dollars cheaper from v8 roadster for raw metal. I would like a nice finish without having to clean the shop b4 I paint (did paint & body for a living don't want to do it now for fun). I might POR it & be done with it (of course pay for blasting first). We have 40" wide cabinet where I'm building it so just the chassis will outsource. I either commit to cage & get everything delivered with grey PC (done in 3 different shops meaning something won't match) or I get it in raw metal & do it all myself save a grand & go flat black without a cage but easy to get to bare metal later for upgrades or repairs.
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