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Chassis stiffening


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On UK chassis, the side rails often rot away (usually at the back), and I've seen the radius arm mounts pull through the rear outriggers. Certainly, the condition appears better than 99% of cars you'd find over here. I'm curious to know if there are any differences between the home market and export chassis. CKD kits were also built and sold in India where they apparently had a reputation for being intolerant of the local road conditions.

I had forgotten about the rear shock and diff mounts on the Mk.1 chassis, this is probably the most salient difference compared to the Mk. 2, which has cross member between the two. Perhaps this is something also worth considering?

Out of interest, what is the aluminium item on the bulkhead, connected to the air duct below the windscreen, facing the carburettor?

herald1360_plate_p.jpg.057f507cca6867afbcc635a6bf42a2a4.jpg

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Can only see the first pic for some reason but that looks like a pretty decent coupe - smooth-roof too.  Would fetch pretty good money as-is here, not that that is any use to you in Oz!

JFs pic is of a Mk2 chassis.  Yours is probably a Mk1 chassis.  I noted your earlier remark about the export Mk1 chassis being "strengthened" but certainly the standard item is legendarily feeble and prone to cracking up around and behind the front wishbone mounts and anywhere around the diff mounts at the rear.  This without any help from tin-worm.

Nick

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That's interesting - I can see the other images - can someone else tell me what they can see?

The roof is free to a good home.

The 'export' chassis comment came from others on a forum - I have no information to support it.

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An OE estate roof is a very floppy item. distorts under its own weight if you hold it up by a corner.   And it weighs 30kgs

The GRP roof I made for Silverback was so stiff that we couldn't bend it between two men holding the corners, and it weighed only 9kgs.

 

Roof & me1A.jpg

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1 hour ago, NeilR said:

That's interesting - I can see the other images - can someone else tell me what they can see?

The roof is free to a good home.

The 'export' chassis comment came from others on a forum - I have no information to support it.

I could see them earlier when I posted my previous reply, but not now. I just see the following symbol instead of the image:

Perhaps a permissions issue?
 

Screenshot 2019-01-18 at 13.12.15.png

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Sorry all, I just cannot work out a method of having the images appear in the forum ATM, so links are below:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HJtUdRHVymXo1cWc9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HjpCVWh3JeFnBSii9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/am7vmhKwc4cNpL9G9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DC5P6ExDMK8Pqv2NA

https://photos.app.goo.gl/98TFqAaEpapzKWnc7

 

please let me know if these work

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There are a couple of bits of the mk1 chassis that I always really liked-

They have gussets between the main rails that tie them together- 3 if I remember right. They are pressed steel, and would work rather like the 'tshirt' plate but much less intrusive.

The other is a threaded hole that bolts the rear tub to the main rails around the diff- mk2 cars dont have this and I cant work out why, as essentially that makes the chassis work as a double skin. I have a wee album on fb that details mk1 chassis data- I'll see if I can add a pic-

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...
  • 5 months later...

Prepared to be shot down in flames .

Going back to the original photo of a Herald with a T shirt welded onto the chassis and mention of the issue with propshaft removal.

Could it be bolted to the underside of the chassis to enable propshaft removal, maybe 4 x 3/8UNF bolts per side yet still add stiffness?

 

Thanks

Adrian

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Going to be looking at this in detail in the next few weeks...… Chris is doing some learned works on it with FEA models and the Skip is being roped in for the actual stunts.  Bracing methods to be explored along with the influence of the body tub (suspected minimal!).  I'm curious to try clamping to the wide seams on the inside of the main rails...….

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