03724 has a slight kink in foremost part of the chassis on the oval tubing in front of the radiator, nothing huge, but sufficient. Someone else, not us, laid a chain (link mark) on it, and tried pulling to straighten. Evidently was not very good and the repair was not properly done. Any thoughts on how to hold the chassis very firmly and level to the ground, to then exert force in the down direction? No frame machines here that can trust, or even leave the car unattended What I have is a 4" concrete slab that I can drill, cut, anything you want to install, something or other. Thank you, Regards, Alberto
You need one of these Alberto: Image Unavailable, Please Login Used the bench for exactly the same purpose, rebuilding the right-hand side oval pipe chassis on my 512bbi. I held the chassis fixated while changing out two damaged sections of the oval tubing and completely rebuild the light secondary front chassis holding the hood and cooler etc. It was possible to work with tolerances smaller than 1 mm using the bench as reference. I never had to pull in anything as the chassis was dead straight (Sometimes you’re better off trying to straighten using heat rather than force on a tube chassis). The bench was bought from an auto shop and it was cheaper than what materials would have been if I chose to make one myself. They are hidden away in the corner of a lots of shops and are hardly being used any more due to the fact that it is cheaper to buy a new car than using man hours on complex repairs. It is shame that we live so far apart since my bench is available now. Maybe you can buy some train rails locally and construct something similar...- Best Peter
Alberto if you have a very flat concrete slab then you can start by using it as a surface plate to determine where the deflection of the chassis is. Start by creating some equal length steel supports (at least 4 of them) you can place on the slab and then rest the main chassis tubes on. The center section of the chassis should be flat and square. Assuming that the concrete is flat and the chassis rests evenly on your 4 supports you can then start measuring down from the other parts of the chassis to the concrete to determine how far off the chassis is. Peter is correct that force is not always the answer and careful heat sometimes combined with making a relief cut that you then weld and grind flush can achieve great results especially when you lack the correct pulling hardware. I would start with determining the exact deflection and location of the bends before committing to pulling on the chassis.
Thank you Rob and Peter! Great observations... I will start easy, and make the frame, shim it then measure. Will keep you posted. Regards, Alberto
Worth a shot It was pretty handy... saved my back! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Cannot even begin thinking where I might find one here, and if it ever existed, it has been melted into re-bar... By the way, that, is not Andrew in the car, it was an illegal alien working on a strange car Regards, Alberto
Drill an anchor into the concrete below the kinked section of frame. Wrap a protected chain or weld a pull tab forward of the kinked frame section and attach a short section of chain to the anchor. The farther forward the more leverage you get. Place a floor jack with a properly made support under the kinked section. Exerting upwards pressure with the floor jack becomes downward pressure once the chain is tight. Heat, jack, measure as necessary until kink is straight. It may be necessary to install one more anchor at the rear of the car to hold it down in position while you are exerting pressure. If you pull too far down, reattach to the anchor further back, and use the floor jack to push up while holding the car down.
I had an ugly chassis; the rear cross brace with those 2 engine mounts had been high sided, the Oval rear chassis tube was horribly dimpled and I wanted it better than original. Dennison International (http://qualitythatgoes.com/) has a laser flat jig they purchased from The Boeing Company from prior 747 cockpit assembly. In addition they have the skill, staff, equipment and metric square tube to do the job. I found Dennis McCaan had a 6' section of OVAL Dino Chassis Tube left over from his personal restoration (I still have some left) and it all came together. They secured the whole chassis of 05702 to the jig and my Dino received the full chassis spa treatment Very pleased with everything they've done, can't praise them enough
