Oval Dino Chassis Tubing Supplier?

I too have ground, heated and welded on to oval chassis tubes on Daytonas, but my general experience performing these tasks on thinwall CrMo tubing is somewhat limited, so I'm just wondering what would the most noticeable differences be when compared to performing them on mild steel ?
Just hoping to learn more.

 

I am not a welder and so had a professional do the repairs to the chassis of my Dino. He was very impressed with the quality of the steel and suggested that he could tell it was CrMo when it was ground and welded. There was also slag on some of the original welds which would suggest arc welding. Also if you measure the circumference of the large oval tube it is very close to the circumference of a 3" circle, marginally greater.

 

It is too late at night for me to crawl under my car to check, but I was told years ago that the tubing was elliptical, not oval. There is a difference. Which is correct?

 

I believe an ellipse is the same as an oval so you can maybe save the trip under your car....-. Basically, it is a circle that is squeezed and the tube is not a super ellipse from my memory. That means that the tube can be defined from max width, height and thickness + material parameters (Under the precondition that the profile is a true ellipse shape).

Regards

Peter

 

A phrase found via Google sums it up rather well:

'An oval is a curve resembling a squashed circle but, unlike the ellipse, without a precise mathematical definition'.

 

Oval pipe have many shapes, sometimes they are ellipse shaped.....- It does not change the fact that we do not know if the oval pipe Ferrari used in our cars are ellipse shaped. That could be interesting to investigate.

 

Agreed - I keep meaning to take a profile gauge out to my car and see what I find!

 

Daytona...
(Image copyright TTR)
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Difficult to determine from pictures of a more or less hammered pipe if the profile is a true ellipse or not...Judge for yourself:
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Nice pics - but I have to ask, what chassis is that?

 

That is an early 246 L-series #0504.

 

Thanks - the cross-bracing in the driver's footwell looks different to mine, however, that might be simply because I'm looking at it from a different angle!

 

You might have a later model, different chassis design.

 

just found this and remembered this thread.

R M Wilson Engineering

 

So many of the restoration houses have that tubing made in correct size/shape and material and they never have "just enough" made because of production costs. I would look for an existing supply from them rather than going it alone.

Check with DK Engineering, Bob Smith and MPI for starters. I know they all do frame work.

 

Or Kevin at Mototechnique.

Freeman

 

Louisiana Steel | Welded and Seamless Elliptical Steel Tubing:

Louisiana Steel supplies elliptical steel tubing.

 

... but not in the correct size/shape. I have quotes from them for a min order including making dies for around $12k but never went ahead.
Trafiltubi, Italy are the oem supplier and they make it to order but there is a min order also... cost prohibitive for a lone restoration unless you are making a chassis or want to stock/resell it.
It's best to make the piece you need. I asked around major shops some years ago and generally they only use tubing for their own customers, if they stock it.
Ask around though, you might find some now.

 

Here is an example of some 92 x 55 x 2mm thick Seamless cold drawn steel that we have just supplied 3 x 2mtr pieces for a customer in the USA. MOQ is just 1 length

Please note that the edges have been de-burred and may give the illusion the profile is jagged / pointy in places, this is only on the flat edge only.
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Here is our 92mm x 55mm x 2mm in mild steel seamless tube. Minimum order quantity for this is just the 1 length at 2mtrs long.

Please note - The flat edge of the tube have been de burred so may give the illusion of a jagged / pointy radius of the oval.
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I have just finished repairing my 512BBi chassis frame using the oval profiles from Proformance metals.....Highly recommendable product and great company to deal with and wonderful that we now have a proven source for these hard to get profiles.

Best regards

Peter



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Is it me or is the tubing in these photos seamed/welded, not seamless DOM material ?

 

Seam less it is. It is marks from the cold draw you Can see on the pictures.

 

Thanks for clarifying. It's just that the tube with "JO" (or "OP" ?) marked on top of it in the 2nd photo has an appearance of having a welding seam on its side.

 

I don’t think the oval tubing starts as such. I have factory blueprints and the main tubes on the 250GT as an example show 76.2mm width which is exactly 3” USA tube size. My theory is that the main chassis tubes were bent and shaped round and then flattened but over time the myth has grown to believe that the tubing started as actual oval. Why do I think this? The blueprints also show 55mm x 72mm oval sizes which is exactly the same circumference as 3” tubing.

I may be wrong but the drawings reveal all kinds of secrets as to how simple these complex frames actually were.