Right then. Figured I ought to put some bits up in here.
Been working on my new chassis for a bit now so best put up some piccies.
To start with, here's my inspiration. Loved this car when it came out and was nearly welling up when I heard it had been smashed up
Here's the story anyway.
I bought the steel for the chassis back in december (fortunately the way the prices are going
lol) and finally got around to cutting it earlier this year with the help of Fbiiburton & his work
Then it sat around for ages as I had nothing to build it on.
Had a bit of time so got to work on the table for building the bugs new chassis.
I made the tabletop out of 2 sheets of 12mm ply with some studding sandwiched between them.
First off, there's not much room in here
Here's some of the studding.
I planned on laying a few ribs on the ply and then putting some crossmembers between them
Here's the end result. The studding is fixed to one sheet of ply at the mo, just got to check it's all good and then bond/screw the other sheet of ply on top.
Table all painted and started marking up.
Stupidly didn't take many progress pics so this was how it all ended up. I marked out the chassis rail on the table and made a load of holding blocks to keep the steel in place.
Set it all out & measured to make sure it was true & flat etc. Tacked the one partial rail and then built the other one using the same jig blocks (essentially built the second rail upside down as the two sides are symmetrical and then flipped it over)
Then I put some blocks between the rails just to make sure they were parallel. That's as far as I got cos I got called up about some work
The garage isn't long enough for a full size table so I could only build it onto an 8' sheet. The plan is to build from just in front of the rear frame to the front end and then shuffle the chassis forward to put the rear end on afterwards.
Made a quick jig for the front part of the frame so both sides would come out the same.
Just a close-up of one of the welds after i'd seamed it.
Laying the front sections on ready to tack into place.
And some general shots of the rails so far with some of the joins seamed up.
A couple of the flitch plates (kindly provided by Gavb) which will be seamed up to strengthen some of the stress joints.
Rear section of the frame partially welded up now
Thought i'd give the rail a trial fit against the bug.
Accidentally set fire to part of the garage as well
Opened the door to let some of the fumes from welding out & noticed and orange glow from under the bench. D'oh !
Put it out & all's ok though. Flames were only about a foot high.
Word of warning to all. Make sure you've got a fire extinguisher or a plan should you find the place on fire. That & give it at least half an hour after welding before you turn the lights off and head to bed.
Decided to change the layout of the chassis a bit as well.
I wanted to narrow the back end a bit to get some huge wheels & tyres under stock rear arches.
Was considering getting a Jegs rear frame and 4 link kit but it looks like they don't ship to the uk. Also, it seems a bit of a waste bringing the rails closer in to go over the back after they've been spread for the body.
The plan is to remove this piece that kicks the rails outwards
And then join & flitch the two peices to give me a straight rail front to back like on this one I found on the net.
That should result in the frame being 25 5/8" wide (to the outer edges) and some stupidly big rear tyres giving me the look i'm after
There you go, that's what i've been up to
the one and only deva girl who can leave a bad taste in ya mouth!!!
