Sometime ago I had an 'incident' (see this item)

I've finally found the time and enthusiasm to fix it, and have started hacking out the 2 chassis members that got a bit bent (fortunately the rest of the chassis is straight). This is going well, but now I have the problem of lining up 3 of the 4 front suspension brackets, plus the LA and FU2 tubes (original book chassis). The LA tube is easy enough - just mirror the LB tube and make sure it lines up nicely with it - but locating the FU2 tube is likely to be a PITA (as any book chassis builder will tell you). In the past there have been various jigs to line up the suspension points, but they were designed for used before the aluminium side panel went on and now they won't work.

I have the lower wishbone rear bracket still in place - straight and unbent - so that could be a reference point. I can also take measurements from the opposite side.

So - I'm looking for bright ideas on how to line everything up!

What I would do is mark out the profile of the top chassis section on a rectangular MDF board with lots of over lap around the sides. Clamp the board up to the bottom of the chassis referencing to the centre to give you a flat reference plain. Use squares and spirit levels to project the points upwards to the top plain of the chassis

Cheers

Fred W B

[Edited on 21/8/12 by Fred W B]

As a follow on from Fred, why not use a rotating lazer level. That's what I plan to use for longing mine up on the build initially.

Rob

Good ideas...

The chassis is currently on blocks at the front (no front wheels at the moment!) so it's going to be difficult to get stuff under - but I'll think about that one - there must be a way.

Had a few thoughts:

1. It's easy to see the location of the old FU2 tube (weld marks, and I've gone a bit light when grinding it flat) so I can put the new one in exactly the same position - that covers the most difficult part.

2. I have an inclinometer, so I can set it on the top of the chassis and zero it. I can then fit the lower wishbone to the back mounting bracket and locate the front one using the inclinometer to make sure the wishbone is parallel to the chassis.

3. The front upper bracket is a set distance up the LB tube from the lower bracket. I can use a clamp to hold the top bracket roughly in place, fit the upper wishbone and make sure that's parallel using the inclinometer, then clamp the back upper bracket in place. I can locate the brackets fore-and-aft by taking measurements from those on the other side (they used to match).

Does this seem like a workable plan?