August 2005

 

I have to admit, I'm not looking forward to this phase. I thought I'd finished with the chassis years ago but when I was assembling the body, it was obvious there was a problem with the chassis that I couldn't ignore.

 

I made a frame to sling the chassis under and dyna bolted them to the garage floor. I made sure to have the front and rear frames level. With the chassis clamped and bolted to the frame I used lengths of square tube with the level on top so I could ascertain where the chassis was "sagged"
Not to clear in this pic, but you might be able to see the amount of sag there is . The main affected area is between the two tubes laying across the rails.
This is the amount of packing required to level it out. I decided to cut the boxing plate out along the entire side between the "X" members. I used about 5 x  1mm cutting disks to do the job.  I placed the trolley jack under the centre of the rail and tried cold bending it. No way would it bend. I applied a bit of heat ( not red hot ) and tried again. Still no joy. I may have to get radical and pie cut the rail in sections and weld it back up. I have some pondering to do .
It's been a while since I up dated the saga and I guess a few are wondering how I went. Well I did get it straight. There was a time when I was contemplating getting another chassis though. I needed a bit more muscle than I had, so I gained the services of a mate. Between him on the jack and me on a huge pry bar it finally gave in. I was certain the dynabolts would pop at any stage. Surprising how strong they are. The concrete floor was well seasoned as well. I don't think new concrete would hold.

After we got it level, we had to measure the distance  from the "X" member so we could get the contour right. Measuring from the holes in the "X" member from the good rail, we then compared the same on the bad side. With a bit of pulling and twisting, we got it right. I welded in temporary braces as we went along. Once I was sure everything was OK, I welded the boxing plate back in. I bought new plate but the old plate only needed a bit of trimming to fit the new contour. I welded the plate completely while it was still slung under the frame.

Chassis looks none the worse for wear. I removed the cradle frames and dyna bolts and placed the chassis back onto the stands. With the help of my 2 sons and a mate, we plonked the body back onto the chassis. There is some lining up to do but at this stage it looks a lot better. The last pic was taken as an "eyeball" between the lower front windscreen and the rear. You can just see the rear curve . I took the pic as close to the centre, and level as possible. Now to get the door gaps and height re aligned. It just seems like yesterday that I was doing this....Well actually, it was a couple of years I think.

 

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