Chassis strengthening

[philwesty21]

Hi all.
Anyone have any view on strenghtening the A post / bulkhead / chassis area?
i see the racers often have a brace from teh a post to the bottom of the strut which seems sensible. It isnt getting raced, but ive nearly finished welding and theres still some flex in the shell
thanks!

[adsblacksud]

Hello Phil

My car was showing signs of fatigue at the front end, there were stress cracks on the inner wings around the aperture where the steering-arms poke into the wheel wells so we carried out the following strengthening mods.

Plated around the steering arm apertures
Seam welded around the upper engine mount.
Welded in Alfa 33 braces which run from the intermediate bulkhead to the chassis rail.
Fitted a transverse strut brace and tied it into the intermediate bulkhead
Welded in roll cage tube from the lower A pillar to the underside of the inner wing rails
Ran roll cage tube through the fresh air vents to connect the roll cage to plates welded to the strut tops.

I have photos of each of these mods somewhere if you want to see them.
As you might expect the front end is very stiff now but it both steers and rides so much better than it did before.

Thanks,

Adam

[philwesty21]

Hi Adam,
Thanks for the info - some pics would be great. I have the shell bare, so nows the time!
Cheers
Phil

[adsblacksud]

Hello Phil,

Here you go.


First two are around steering arm apertures where we found the stress cracks
Next four show how we attached the Alfa 33 bars including an additional plate on the intermediate bulkhead
Next four show the roll cage tubing brace from the A-post to the underside of the wing rail
More to come.

[adsblacksud]

Upper engine mount
Chassis rail
Cage extension to strut tower - attached to a plate attached to the tower
Cage extension view from inside the cabin - it did not go through the fresh air vent as I mistakenly said before, we made a new hole.
We also seam welded along the engine bay side of the inner wing rail and where the inner wing attaches to the intermediate bulkhead
It was all then coated in two-part epoxy sealing paint.
I haven'y got a photo of the transverse strut brace but I'll take one and upload it this week.

[philwesty21]

Many thanks - extremely useful!
Regards
Phil