Guest Anonymous Posted November 26, 2000 Share Posted November 26, 2000 Does anyone know of a shop that will fabricate a custom aluminum ladder frame w/ roll cage, or an aluminum backbone frame? What would the weight reduction, and stiffness increase be? Are the benefits worth the cost? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest scca Posted November 26, 2000 Share Posted November 26, 2000 i have no idea who would make one from alum. i know someone who made a full tube chassis to fit underneath a Z roof and door pillars. this IMO would be a better way to go. it used all stock suspension pickup points (i owuld have changed some of this) the price was $5500 to get the car back to a roller. this included the full tube chassis and cage is obviously integral with this. ------------------ Mike mike@fonebooth.com http://www.fonebooth.com/brakes.html raceparts and brake upgrades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted November 27, 2000 Share Posted November 27, 2000 OK, maybe aluminum isn't a good idea. I was looking through some books on chassis design and they had several aluminum backbone frames for race and street cars (one was for a Cobra). Having no real experience with frame fabrication, I thought this could be a possibility. Not a single person I've talked to has said using aluminum would be practicle. Does anyone know of a shop that will fabricate a steel chassis? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted November 27, 2000 Share Posted November 27, 2000 Just about any decent chassis shop ough tto be able to undertake this. Talk to some of the drag racers in your area or better yet the circle track guys. Even out here we've got folks that can do this - it takes time and piles of money but when they're done you've got a shell of a car and a jungle gym inside Last I saw they were doing a shoebox Chevy of about 1956 vintage. Cut out the whole floorpan and the firewall forward was nothing but tubing. Very nice but NOT cheap. Great way to change the suspension to most anything you want I suppose. 'Vette rear anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted November 27, 2000 Share Posted November 27, 2000 Yeah, the original Cobra used a spine backbone monocoque frame of stainless steel alloy (according to a AC Cobra site history: http://www.xs4all.nl/~luukb/ac.html )surrounded by hand hammered and english wheeled aluminum body panels. It was fairly stiff, cramped and ungodly fast. As far as a custom shop to hook you up with a frame, I'd start locally, let your fingers do the walking in the automotive section of your yellow pages. Most of the larger cities will have plenty of chassis fabrication places. Good luck on your project. Respectfully, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted November 27, 2000 Share Posted November 27, 2000 The only frames usually made with aluminum are monocoque and that's a whole other ball of wax. It requires adhesives, riveting and generally a scratch design/build as its basically a lot of aluminum panels strategically riveted together (I.E. Indy, F1 cars, although most use composites in place of aluminum now a days.). Spaceframes can be done in aluminum but the bodywork would need to probably be fiberglass panels. Still some (lots!) of riveting and adhering of panels is required. An example of this would be the inventor of the Locost (scratch build Lotus 7 replica's). He has built a all alloy spaceframe, used a Honda Fireblade motorcycle engine (1000cc Inline 4, water cooled about 130+ hp) and claimed weight dry is 300Kg (what about 660 Lbs!). Obviously that's an extreme example, but its a cool concept. You can see this at: http://www.ronchampion.com/alloy_Gallery.htm and read about it: http://www.ronchampion.com/main_frames.htm If you haven't seen or read about them, do a search on Locost on the web, these little cars are pretty cool. Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted November 28, 2000 Share Posted November 28, 2000 Lone - one interesting thing to note about the Cobras, after awhile that nice skin had to be REPLACED! Yup, that's what happens when you bolt steel to aluminum or vice versa - electralosys (sp?!). The two different metals set up a current and end up eating one another up. Something to bear in mind with aluminum radiatorsheads and steel blocks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted November 28, 2000 Share Posted November 28, 2000 Wow, yeah I knew a little about disimilar metals and they're interactions but didn't know the Cobra's rotted that way. Man. That would suck. (specially on a original that you'd have to pay a mint for.). Theres a american guy thats creating a cobra replica in (I'm guessing cause I can't remember for sure, its like poland, or russia)at a tooling plant there. I guess it was cheaper to do there and they had the tooling. Anyway, they were surprised when they measured an original body with a 3d scanner to find they weren't the same side to side. Could have told them that, hand formed cars while they look symetrical, they're not, it depends on the craftsman and how close he got it to the forming buck and whether he said 'close enough' or not. Production tolerence I guess you'd call it. Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.