Hello spitters. I finally finished sand blasting my 'new'
chassis for the spitfire 1600 (www.cruzers.com/~rfm/car).
The chassis currently under my car is severly bent,
and (before i got it) was repared by somone who did a very
poor job. It subsequently cracked where they had spliced
the frame. I patched that so I could drive to AZ in March,
but replacement is required.
Anyway, the new one looks very slick, except...
Where the front outriggers (the parts that hold up
the front of the tub, vick brit seems to call them
gusset assembly, p 42 of the spring 2001 catalog) attach
to the frame, they seem to have rotted from the inside out.
The outriggers are welded on to form a sort of pocket
where the overlap the frame rails:
(asci art follows, you will need a fixed pitch font)
| | <------- chasis rail
___|----- |
| |
outrigger--> | |
\ | <------pocket
\ | |
\----- |
| |
The rust seems to have started in there. It got
all the way through the outriggers in a couple of places, and
through the frame in at least one. Some expirmental probing
with the grinder shows the rot seems well confined to the
'pocket' area, but the part of the outrigger that overlaps
the frame, and at least some of the frame underneath is
trashed.
My question is, is it worth trying to save this thing, or
am I better off trying to find one in better condition ?
It seems that vicky brit offers replacement outriggers
Any one on the list done this replacement ? (I'm not afraid
of the mig welder, since I have to do a number of modifications
to make it match my existing engine conversion anyway...)
Any thoughts as to how much damage to the frame underneath
the pocket is too much ? (it seems like I could do
a little additional boxing in this area if I replace
the outriggers)
And is rust in this area a sign that it is likely rotted
out in other areas that are not visible yet ? There
is also some rot around on the rear frame extensions. (where
the tie down brackets attach) Having cut the the worst area
open, it seems very confined there to. I'm not too worried
about these, since the early cars didn't even have them.
--
Reed Mideke
(who is sooo looking forward to having a car that can be aligned)
email: rfm(at)cruzers.com -If that fails: rfm(at)portalofevil.com
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