frame pics
Hello
I want to thank 67 Heaven for posting the pics for me, but at least I now have a digital camera.
The overall concept of this chassis is for it to look as stock as possible , yet be race legal. I did not want to cut out the floor and drop on the body, so I have to make everything fit the vette underside. I also did not want numerous pieces of tubing where I could do the job with one piece, just being in the correct location( look clean )
I have the frame on a jig which I made and is very level. I set it up with a really good laser(not $50 model) I then went to the corvette factory chassis dimensions and based my measurements from the factory tooling hole. The GM frame is pinned to the jig at that spot and everything goes from there.
I also did not want to cut big holes in the floor to fit the cage, which I have to have in order to ever race the car. The rear frame is a custom piece with the mandrel bent rails coming from Bear's performance(also custom cage)
pic #1 In the pic you can see the front crossmember of the rear frame(clamp on it) with the rear rails going back. There are 4 tubes going forward. The two outside tubes go inside the GM rails, which I had to slice off the inside portion. It goes through the 3x3 tube and then to a upward sleeve(later pic) The two inner tubes go from the 4 link mounting bracket through the crossmember and then up to the front of the car bending(mandrel bent) into the frame at the rear of the engine where the mid mount plate for the engine will be. There is a large amount of I beam and heavy wall tube supporting the chassis in it's correct locatiopn
pic#2 You can see the front sleeve on the lower left side of the pic.(rear not on yet) It will go into the car and the front cage slides into it. Therefore you can weld the cage on the sleeve inside the car without cutting a large hole. The tube can also be welded under the car from the bottom. You can also see the inside portion of the GM rail gone
pic#3 From this you can see the rear clip and also the chassis brackets to which the rear end is attached via the 4 link
pic #4 This shows the same areas again but gives a closer look at the mounting bracket at the four link to which the inner tubes go through. You can also see some of the tubing to which the chassis is clamped to. The front cage sleeve is also in the lower left corner
pic#5 In this pic you can see the 4 link brackets which hold the rear end in. A lot of chassis companies have the plates butt welded to the inner frame rails. All of the load of the car is at this point, and it is at this point that the chassis is rotated (wheelie) I wanted this area to be extra strong, so the bracket welds on a variety of points and different tubes
In the middle of the pic you can see some custom bent GM frame repo pieces, which I had custom bent at the local metal shop. Once all of the tubing is welded in place they go over top, hiding the 1 5/8 tubing inside and further strenghtening the rear area. I did not want the frame to be double up on the weight, so I made sure everything lined up to this area(2 pcs of 1 5/8 x 36 inches long). You can also see the tubing extending through the frame at the rear, and once the body is set down again and the proper location of the rear frame is determined, the exceessive amount will be trimmed off. You can see the missing area of the GM frame, which is necessary to have to fasten the roll bar to in a similar fashion as the front. The extra pieces of 2x3 in under the round tube is only tacked on to assist the squareness of the rear chassis(get's cut off)
pic#6 In this pic you can see the one piece of custom bent frame that will cover the tubing. The crossmember will also be contoured at the top to match the GM configuration
pic#7 The body is on an overhead trolley by an I-beam (24 ft long) and it can be rolled over and lowered onto the chassis for numerous fits easily by myself
pics #8 and 9 These two shots are from a month prior to this past weekend. The motor is set in its location and it cannot go any lower. I am still unsure on how the fuel will be delivered, but carbs on top of the blower will make the overall engine ht too high. I have a few ideas on this, one of them being an EFI sytem
There is a lot more tubing to be welded in, but it won't all be as large as this. The diagonal bracing will mostly be 1 1/4 in tube. I don't want to add so much tubing so I end up with a 5,500 lb corvette, so proper location is important the first time out.
With the body and frame being built like this, I can pain the chassis a good black frame paint and the underside of the car a flat black(?) I then can set the body on the frame and weld in the cage and touch up the small areas affected by hand with some touch up paint.
The big time killer is making sure everything is where it should be and to prevent the frame from moving/warping during welding. The frame will not interfere with the GM floor area, yet be close enough as to look proper and neat
I hope this analogy and the pics help with any confusion my end goal is to be. I am sure I am forgetting to write down something that I should of
take care
Tom
Keep the photos and progress reports coming! Good luck and like Larry says, "be safe".
