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flat surface
andya - 7/4/02 at 08:35 AM

Hi All
Anyone got any bright/cheap ideas for creating a flat surface for the chassis base?

stephen_gusterson - 7/4/02 at 12:26 PM

quote:
Hi All
Anyone got any bright/cheap ideas for creating a flat surface for the chassis base?



I used interlocking loft floor boards. They are about 48 ins wide, 3 in a pack. Three packs give you a board 4 x 9 when locked together. worked for me.


Seems to me that blockboard or ply is hard to come by in normal diy shops - you need a timber merchant and a big van.

my method fits in a car.....


atb

steve

chrisg - 7/4/02 at 12:26 PM

HI Andy,

I found a piece of blockboard 8' x4' at a reclaimation yard and fitted it to the top of two cut down arm chairs on castors, et viola a moveable build platform at a good height for welding.

Cheers

Chris

interestedparty - 7/4/02 at 01:08 PM

It depends on what you mean by 'flat'. A sheet of any kind of board laid on a floor or other surface that isn't flat will not be flat. Surfaces within a few inches of each other will be ok, but over a few feet all boards will exhibit a degree of curvature,ususally left over from the manufacturing process or the way the board were transported or stored.
If you want a working surface that is flat over the entire length of a chassis then the best way is to build it up from a number of straight beams laid like a horizontal ladder on the floor. Next time I will get a number of 4 foot lengths of RSJ for this. Then get a spirit level long enough to bridge the gap between them, find the highest one, level it then pack up the others so that each one is level and level with its neighbours.

stephen_gusterson - 7/4/02 at 03:01 PM

quote:
It depends on what you mean by 'flat'



You mentioned a spirit level. In my method I had a metre long level to check along the boards as laid down.

As has been said before, the actual base of the chassis isnt as important as where you pick the suspension poin ts up from once its built. A flat chassis can be wrecked with the wrong suspension points, and a less than perfect one can be redeemed by putting the points on relative to another flat surface.

Welding the chassis will also induce a curve along the length of the car unless you clamp it well down when welding, and dont weld one side of chassis at a time.




ATB


Steve

interestedparty - 7/4/02 at 04:39 PM

quote:
quote:
It depends on what you mean by 'flat'



You mentioned a spirit level. In my method I had a metre long level to check along the boards as laid down.

As has been said before, the actual base of the chassis isnt as important as where you pick the suspension poin ts up from once its built. A flat chassis can be wrecked with the wrong suspension points, and a less than perfect one can be redeemed by putting the points on relative to another flat surface.

Welding the chassis will also induce a curve along the length of the car unless you clamp it well down when welding, and dont weld one side of chassis at a time.




ATB


Steve




Jon Ison - 7/4/02 at 04:39 PM

Hi. i used 1" thick MDF...cost about a tenner i think, i bolted the bottom rails of the chassis to it to help when doing final weld........

interestedparty - 7/4/02 at 04:43 PM

Sorry about that last one, my attempt to reply with quote went wrong.
I agree about putting right an error in the chassis by fitting the suspension brackets to suit, and anyone who is already building/has built a chassis inthis way should not be in the slightest concerned about it.
Ideally though, one avoids having to correct pervious errors by making things as accurately as possible at each step. This is the ideal, rarely achieved.
John

stephen_gusterson - 7/4/02 at 06:34 PM

quote:
Hi. i used 1" thick MDF...cost about a tenner i think, i bolted the bottom rails of the chassis to it to help when doing final weld........



That would be cheap for inch thick - the diy type stores only go to about 18mm and its more than that for an 8x4 sheet.

I used some 9mm recently as a back board to mount my dash on.

The remaining half of the sheet went banana shaped after a week leaning against a wall!

ATB

Steve

Jon Ison - 7/4/02 at 06:45 PM

thats the name of the game init "cheap" , the chassis sat on it for 4 months with no bending at all, mind you the trestles i had would hold the QE2 up, they are now sat outside behind the garage and since i have no further use for them they are "FREE" to any one who wants to collect them, i'm in north Derbyshire very near J29 of the M1.
If you want em drop me a line and there yours.