Chassis continued.....

Got busy welding up the tubing, using the fixture we created in the previous post to keep all of the tubes located correctly. Started by going around the outside perimeter with series of tack welds in order to help minimize distortion, then allowing it to cool, and then worked on tacking the inner tubes.

After tacking up two complete sub assemblies (left and right), mocked them up against the rear cross-member and proceeded to weld the entire assembly together.

 

 

 

Tacked a short piece of tubing temporarily across the front to maintain square while going back over the entire assembly with finish welds.

 

 

 

 Once the welds cooled down, took some of the higher weld beads down with the grinder and then proceeded to use a flap disk to finish up the joints.

 

 

More chassis fabrication

Took the plans that my brother drafted up in AutoCAD, and printed out via plotter in 1:1 scale, and taped them down to a sheet of 3/4" plywood. The design was laid out so that each side of the floor was the same, allowing space for the centre transmission tunnel, which allowed the same fixture to be used for both sides, essentially flipping one of the completed sections over and linking them together with additional substructure for centre tunnel. 

 

Proceeded to rip some additional 3/4" plywood into 3" strips that were then screwed around the inside and outside perimeter of the drawing points where tubes will be laid.

Using the measurements from the drawing, fired up the bandsaw and got started cutting tubing, and laid them out in the fixture one by one, making sure the joints are tight with optimal gaps for welding.

Once the first complete set of tubes were constructed, started with the second set for the opposite side.

Two complete sets of tubes, ready to be welded up.