Discussion
Just a simple question. Can you buy a new chassis for a Cerbera (or any other TVR)?
Is anybody building replacement chassis at the moment or planning to in the future?
The recent post regarding a chassis rotting out making the owner decide to sell makes me wonder if there is mileage in having a run of chassis made.
Is anybody building replacement chassis at the moment or planning to in the future?
The recent post regarding a chassis rotting out making the owner decide to sell makes me wonder if there is mileage in having a run of chassis made.
Tyre Smoke said:
shpub said:
It's cheaper to repair/restore the original. £4-5000 pays for a lot of welding!
Amen to that and you know what you're getting done.I appreciate that a large chunk of any ground up rebuild will be in the dismantling and assembling of the car tbh. Out of interest and from your experience how much do you think a chassis refurb should come to Steve if you don't mind me asking.
It all depends on how much refurb is needed.....
Common cost
There is the cost of taking the body off and putting it back. 2 days each way.
Stripping all the mechanical items and putting them back. 2 days each way but that depends on whether they are also refurbed which makes sense.
On my chassis IIRC it took about 10 or so metres of tubing. New complete outrigger, top rails, transmission tunnel braces etc etc. Each new piece sleeved into the existing chassis to ensure a stronger joint. That does take a lot of time but pretty essential IMHO. The outrigger corrosion was obvious. The transmission tunnel stuff wasn't and we only saw it after the engine had been taken out. I went round with a corrosion detecting hammer hitting everything after that.
Biggest challenge is that the outriggers and top rails have to be exactly positioned otherwise the body with the integral roll cage will not fit. Tower View and I built a couple of jigs that allowed us to remove and replace the outriggers exactly where they were. It worked as the body dropped on and all the mounting holes aligned correctly. If they don't, it is a real pain to get them to fit.
Materials cost is virtually nothing. Main cost is time. The cost of the chassis buys several weeks of engineering time. So the decision to replace/refurb needs to be based on that. When I did mine, a new chassis (if available) was around the 5k mark. Didn't really have any other option except repair it otherwise the car would have been scrapped.
Common cost
There is the cost of taking the body off and putting it back. 2 days each way.
Stripping all the mechanical items and putting them back. 2 days each way but that depends on whether they are also refurbed which makes sense.
On my chassis IIRC it took about 10 or so metres of tubing. New complete outrigger, top rails, transmission tunnel braces etc etc. Each new piece sleeved into the existing chassis to ensure a stronger joint. That does take a lot of time but pretty essential IMHO. The outrigger corrosion was obvious. The transmission tunnel stuff wasn't and we only saw it after the engine had been taken out. I went round with a corrosion detecting hammer hitting everything after that.
Biggest challenge is that the outriggers and top rails have to be exactly positioned otherwise the body with the integral roll cage will not fit. Tower View and I built a couple of jigs that allowed us to remove and replace the outriggers exactly where they were. It worked as the body dropped on and all the mounting holes aligned correctly. If they don't, it is a real pain to get them to fit.
Materials cost is virtually nothing. Main cost is time. The cost of the chassis buys several weeks of engineering time. So the decision to replace/refurb needs to be based on that. When I did mine, a new chassis (if available) was around the 5k mark. Didn't really have any other option except repair it otherwise the car would have been scrapped.
Edited by shpub on Tuesday 20th May 08:44
I would have thought that if you are needing to replace any amount of the tubing the chassis would need to be bolted into a jig otherwise the heat from the welding would distort it.
Even if it didn't distort it would set up stresses in the frame which would cause cracking after a relatively short period.
The trouble is that building a jig is a costly and time consuming job so only really worth doing if more than one chassis is to be repaired.
A new chassis (are they galvanised or phosphate coated or just powder coated?) should be better than a repaired one. Steel quality and grade can be adjusted to add strength and durability and weak points strengthened.
I don't need one yet but I know that eventually I will. These cars will gradually become rarer and values will rise for good original examples, so a rebuild will be worthwhile financially rather than just emotionally. At the moment it is worth doing if you do a DIY refurb but not if paying a specialist to do it IMHO.
Even if it didn't distort it would set up stresses in the frame which would cause cracking after a relatively short period.
The trouble is that building a jig is a costly and time consuming job so only really worth doing if more than one chassis is to be repaired.
A new chassis (are they galvanised or phosphate coated or just powder coated?) should be better than a repaired one. Steel quality and grade can be adjusted to add strength and durability and weak points strengthened.
I don't need one yet but I know that eventually I will. These cars will gradually become rarer and values will rise for good original examples, so a rebuild will be worthwhile financially rather than just emotionally. At the moment it is worth doing if you do a DIY refurb but not if paying a specialist to do it IMHO.
Storer said:
I would have thought that if you are needing to replace any amount of the tubing the chassis would need to be bolted into a jig otherwise the heat from the welding would distort it.
I tack welded a hefty bit of box on the tubes that support the outrigger on before cutting them off, as for the holes in the out riggers one measurement from the back, then place some wood the length of the outrigger holes and WHACK it! You then have an erm...Kinda brass rubbing of exactly where they were. No rocket science and mine fitted back on.
Gassing Station | Cerbera | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff