Chassis

Locost 7 Site

My Basic Chassis
Build Board. Everyone says to tack the entire chassis together prior to welding the joints fully.
Make sure you use lots of clamps so nothing moves while tack welding
Working on the top frame now. Note the 50mm RHS for clamping when the G clamps just don't fit.
Here is the bottom frame with mans best friend and me. I'm looking forward to lifting the finished chassis as in the photo in the ....Bible.... Book.
Remember to ensure that things are staying straight.
The top section all together. Notice the upper and lower frames are missing the front bars. I'm going to make the front frames as per the book on a Jig, then transfer it to the chassis. I believe this will be more accurate.
Look out it's starting to go 3D. :-)
These clamps are fantastic. Really cheap at any Super Cheap or Crazy Clarks etc. And keep stuff really square.
Here we are all tacked up and ready to weld.
Of course safety is paramount when using the MIG. :-) Note the air conditioner in the top left of the shot for those warm days.
Ahhhhh post welding and left to cool. may take a while as at 9 o'clock in winter it is still 21 deg in tropical Cairns.
Check for square here and square there.
Lots of clamps aid in keeping everything where it should be.
Tack welding finished for the front half. Jig worked well. went together within 1mm.
Working on positioning the bar where the rear of the front A Arm suspension brackets will be mounted.
Rear of cockpit in place. Once again it went together within 1mm of the design specifications. The FMS plans give some excellent measurements to help align these bars.
Now it is starting to look a little more like a chassis. :-)
Yep we are getting there slowly. Note the triangulation down the other sides are finished. However I still have the tunnel to do, behind the axle framework and behind the seat area. I can still lift it but it's getting heavier.
Gotta Love the triangulation down the side. This chassis is going to be strong.
All drawn up and ready to start cutting the RHS to size and angle. The hacksaw is really your friend here.
Tunnel is in. Just the triangulation to be cut and welded up either sides. When this is done I'll try and lift it again.
Welding the chassis. Note in the first picture you can see where the tail shaft will run in the transmission tunnel. Note the chassis modification to accept the pintara diff. Go to the Chassis Mod Page	extra lower 25mm RHS for strength.
By moving the tunnel. I had to add this extra 20mm RHS. It is for the foot well tunnel skin attachment. It's under the scuttle.
Welder. Transmig 200 Mig welder Using 0.9mm wire Volts: 4 out of 8 Wire: 5 out of 18 Gas: 15 l/m The skinny one is done by a very qualified boilermaker.	Here is what the welds should look like. Less wire/amps and a little slower process gives better joints. Note the heat effected area of his weld is much less than mine and a great deal less than the previous photo's.
Just playing with the diff in position. Note these tyres are 60 series, I intend to use 40 series.
Chassis jacked up to the correct ride height. Man this thing is LOW.
The wife doesn't believe that it will ever take off. I don't know, a big enough motor anything can happen. :-) Next step is to fit and weld the plate zinc anneal in the chassis. I still have lots of fiddley bits to do. Brackets, scuttle hoop, engine brace, steering rack supports, Plates etc. etc.
I found that after welding the seat belts blocks into position, it was difficult to put a put a bolt into them. So running the tap through it fixed the issues.
3mm Plate on the back.
All the plates on and ready for the floor. I play with the front suspension brackets before putting the floor on. This is to ensure the brackets go exactly where they are supposed to.
Loop under the gearbox. I have made it this way so i have maximum width across the gearbox hole. Also i still have an area to fix my floor onto under the hoop on the inner edge of the tunnel.
Using the pipe clamps to pull a slight bow out of the side rails of the chassis that were brought about by welding in the side, hip shear plates. Once the floor was tacked into position and welded the bow had been straightened.
	Modifying the chassis to fit the motor.
Making things a little more safe. Just a little roll cage to CAMS specification CDS 1 3/4 main tube and diagonal brace with 1 1/2 rear supports bars.



From here i started on the rear suspension follow this link to get there.