Finished the semi tube frame front today and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out

First, I fabbed a crossbrace up front over the front a-arm mounting points


detail shot of the x-brace


welded in


next, I welded scab plates to the firewall and fabbed the upright braces
(these were a PITA to make)


for the bolt in diagonal, I welded little tubes into the upright braces to fit an M10 bolt


bracket of the diagonal brace


again, and the second bracket still in pieces
(3mm plate, M10 nut and piece of square tubing )


testfitting it to the upright brace...


feet welded to the diagonal and trimmed


finished...
upright braces welded in and the diagonal bolted in between


close up...


nother


the result...
I can jack up the left front and the right will follow along nicely
there's about half an inch deflection, but this is still without a cage


more detailed pics in my blog
(click the blog-button at the bottom of this post)

Sehr Nett.


(I liked the old ;clap; smilie better. This one looks like it is doing jumping-jacks.)

Looks damn good!

More importantly though is how much of an improvement is it?

Next question is are you gonna sell replications to club members?

Jim

QUOTE (jimkelly @ Jan 22 2006, 04:31 PM)

More importantly though is how much of an improvement is it?

not sure how much of an improvement it is
I don't have any "hard data" without the reinforcements

QUOTE

Next question is are you gonna sell replications to club members?

it's available in a hardware store near you...

looks good

Did you use square tubing because it's easier to work with or for another reason?

Lekker!

Nice fab work. BUt what was the point? There is very little load coming through those points.

QUOTE (Brett W @ Jan 22 2006, 08:14 PM)

There is very little load coming through those points.

now ya tell me...
but seriously, I've seen similar set ups on most race cars (I know, that's not allways a garantee for a good design), but it just made sence to tie in the front mounting points of the a-arms

QUOTE

Did you use square tubing because it's easier to work with or for another reason?

I can do the square tubing with simple hand tools and an angle grinder
I'm sure with a good tubing notcher, round tube would be easier to fab, but I don't have one
on a lot of locations it's also easier to work with the square tubing because the mating surfaces are flat

QUOTE (Jeroen @ Jan 21 2006, 05:08 PM)

First, I fabbed a crossbrace up front over the front a-arm mounting points

very nice!

do you, by any chance, have the exact measurements of that first cross-brace ???
Andy

Very nice work Yaroon!

For your application the square tubing will work better than the round. For the load paths your tubing is set up to brace for, the square tubing is stronger.

The bolt tube through the square stock is a really nice detail.

Why is the cross brace removable?

Nice work. Cut out the trunk floor and replace it with aluminum.

QUOTE (SirAndy @ Jan 23 2006, 06:17 AM)

do you, by any chance, have the exact measurements of that first cross-brace ???

I *think* it's 86 or 89cm, but I'll measure it for ya

QUOTE

The bolt tube through the square stock is a really nice detail

needed to do that, or the brace would crush when you torque it down

QUOTE

Why is the cross brace removable?

I wanted to keep the area easily accessible/workable (there will be a front mounted oil tank, inline oilfilter, oilcooler, thermostat and batery in there)

QUOTE

Cut out the trunk floor and replace it with aluminum

That was the initial plan... one piece flat alu floor for the front trunk and the passenger compartment, but I recently discovered that, in order to keep it street legal, the floors have to be welded to the chassis