Attention Tri-5 Chevy guys. Ironworks Do-It-Yourself chassis.
 

Well Guys I have been working on this project for a while. It is chassis for the Tri-5 crowd that would be sold in both a fully welded kit and also in a do it your self fashion. The chassis goes together just like a snap together model. You slide this tab into this slot and index this part into this part. It is really easy.

The Frame starts out like this. A bunch of laser cut plates.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...rch2010128.jpg

Then you tack together the entire chassis. You can see some of the many tabs and slots that stick through the plates and interlock to assist in assembly.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010099.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ary2010097.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...rch2010040.jpg

The body mounts position themselves in the chassis. It is easy.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...rch2010043.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...rch2010042.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...rch2010040.jpg

After everything has been tacked together. You begin to weld chassis together.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...rch2010070.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...rch2010103.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...rch2010111.jpg

We are currently designing the Modular rack mounts to be able to run 3 different racks, AGR, flaming river, and a Woodward steering rack. The Rear suspension is four link with a watts link. We plan to sell the exhaust and fuel tank mounted in the car. The motor and trans mounts will be adjustable to allow you to mount the engine where you choose.

What I'm looking for are 3-4 test subjects who have medium skills and want to build their own chassis. You do not need a jig fixture to assemble this chassis, and I don't think it is possible to put it together wrong. We plan to sell these kits with a welded rear axle housing with all brackets and axles installed. You just assemble the chassis like a snap together model and bolt on the C6 vette suspension and all the machined suspension parts for the front and rear suspension. With the up coming west coast events I would like to coordinate with test subjects be able to coordinate the builds.

Let me know your thoughts on the product and your thoughts on the do it your self aspect.

Final assembled pics of the chassis will come when we unveil the new product officially at Del Mar next month.

Thanks

Thats pretty cool, will make shipping much cheaper and simpler....

I got a 56' driver that will be in the project line after I finish my 55'. But I'd be in for a new frame :)

My brother has a 55' Handyman wagon that is at the start of a build. :D :thumbsup:

So we'd be test subjects if need be.

Neil summed up my thoughts in the first 15 seconds...





:D

That is killer Rodger, nice work I think you will do well with these. :thumbsup:

Now, here comes the jealousy question. What about us other GM guys? Any plans to do other cars....i.e. = Chevelles, Camaros, etc? Screw the Mopar guys. :rofl: Just kidding!!:unibrow:

I hope so. These are really nice pieces. We have used the best parts and tried to do some really trick features.( The Rear lower link of the suspension, comes out of a pocket on the bottom of the chassis, That is slick show car stuff. :D ) We will offer 2 ride heights. And you will be able to run a couple different tire and wheel combo's. It will be able to run 335 rear tires and we are working on finalizing running 275 front tires.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...rch2010096.jpg

The Chevelle is in the works, Currently. Should have a roller very soon.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...rch2010081.jpg

We plan to have a few others in the works. :D :D :D

The Camaro market is pretty saturated with alot of great products. So it might be a while. I would do a tube chassis Camaro one before a bolt on Camaro subframe.

What kind of reinforcing does the upper a-arm mounting plate get? Picture above shows none. I am very interested as we have a 56 HT to do as soon as I find the right candidate.

There is a strip that goes around the top of 1/4" x 1" that goes in the opposite plane to the upright. We have to form these by hand they are not machined. Plus the shock mount tabs and inside crossmember help reinforce the plate that same plate.

Your timing may be perfect. I used to employ a dozen 6G certified welders in my other buisness and my best welder ever stopped by this week looking for side evening work. I like to help him out when I can but he IS NOT a car guy or I would have him full time.

I have a 57 project that may be perfect for one. We could weld it up. Maybe weld one up for JY211 while were at it?

Email me some cost and timeline.

[email protected]

Email sent

That is great Rodger. Very innovative.
I hope this works out well for you. Great idea man!:thumbsup: :cheers:

PM me how much these are going for... I would LOVE to do something like this to my 57' !!!!

I have a Unisteer rack in the car now and a 22 gallon Ricks tank... Would the chassis except these?

Jason

http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...7/DSCN2443.jpg
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...7/DSCN2448.jpg

I saw your thread via a posting on Tri5.com. I am a Tri5 exclusive builder in Auburn WA. I would be interested in more info and costs. Seems like a neat idea, tho I have some concerns about keeping things on the same plane without a frame jig or table, like shown in your shop.

Thanks

Hotroddder

Great concept for the DIY individual. Looks like you and Eric designed a well thought out chassis with some cool option set ups. Nice job guys!
I think your smart to let the camaro chassis ideas go for now considering the abundance of after market availability and concentrating on other production frames.

Definately would need a Jig and a great welder for it to not Warp...! Looks very thin. Have you driven the prototype ?

:thumbsup: Way to go Rodger. Very innovative.

I still don't think he ever sleeps!!! LOL Very nice!! :D

Looks cool

Where on Tri5 did you see the post. When we get further along I was looking at advertising on there. I was checking out the site.

The Beauty of the chassis is the tabs and slots that fit togther They help square each rail to the other. Take the front crossmember with 1/4" plate vertical rails that fit through the entire rail. Plus the slots and tabs are so precsion that once you slide the four tabs into each rail completely through to the out side they square them selves up. When built the last chassis I went to great lengths to test how far it moves. It was between .020 and .030 out of square from the peak of the rear kick up to the highest mounting point on the upper control arm mounting point. That was good enough for me and the girls I run with.

Well between working 12 hours a day build all kinds of stuff, racing Go karts on Thurday's and any available Saturday. Plus RC cars during my off nights. I'm building a 200 hp Rhino to start short course racing next season. Plus we are doing about 14 shows this year. Oh and I'm thinking about renewing my I racing for late night racing bug.

After all that I'm tired and you know I have to sleep.

Thanks

Rog,I told you it was good idea...:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Nice work! I would love to see a 78 G-body chassis one day..


-Jim

that is a awesome piece!!! I expect nothing less then this from Rodger.

I want to buy one just to weld it up, then grind it smooth and then I can feel like a all out metal fabricator.

I've seen this in person and it's impressive to say the least.

I would imagine that a DIYer could put this together in short order. I say that because I watched a very experienced welder at Ironworks put it together. I couldn't believe how quickly he had gotten it done!:hail:

John

is that for the guys over at the tri-5 site, cause it sure sounds like they don't like innovatation very much.Great work Roger and Ironworks:thumbsup:

Roger --u definitely need to address the tri-5 guys site--they don't no who they
are dealing with ---YET!!--- but we all do!!!! :D jim

Maybe you should come up and build one. That would be a good test.

Here is a response I put over on Tri-5.

Hay Guys my name is Rodger and it is nice to see that your looking at things with such analyzing eyes. Some of the ideas your guys are drawing from are correct and some are not exactly correct. This frame idea has been in the market place for years, there is nothing new about the ideas were are incorporating into this chassis. TCI has been welding 4 rails togther for years. We started a few years ago building some frames for some different pickups this way, 55-59 and Ford unibody stuff. They went togther pretty easybut we would just box the rails with nominal stock and cut out the profile of the bend.

Well fast forward a few years, I have a customer that owns and aerospace company in Santa Barbara that opened my eyes to Solidworks some 3-4 years ago, he is a degreeed engineer. We started talking about this frame idea about 2 years ago when another degreed engineer wanted me to build some thing stronger then what was currently available. Well we are now cutting out chassis number 3 last week that is currently getting assembled for the 2011 Goodguys giveaway car, a 1955 Chevy Convertible, This is official but has not been announced publicly yet, (Until Now).

Well I have been skeptical the whole way through that I could never sell a DO-IT-YOURSELF chassis that could be built without issue at someones home in there garage. So Last week after having my 9 dollar an hour 19 year old trainiee put one together unassited without printed instruction other then this part goes her and this one goes here and all tabs should slip togther, puts one to togther and TIG welds the entire chassis. I wanted to check the position of the body mounts, because they are located in the frame rails, so no guessing. After he was done I measured square from the tops of the frame kick ups with a precision leveling tool to the very top of the upper control arm mounts and it was less the 1/32 out of square, thats better then factory. The OD width measurement is 41" all the way to the front where it tapers. I had not installed the core support mount yet or rackmounts or the frame center section or the rear suspension crossmembers.

So I posted a teaser thread on Lateral-g.net ( I spend alot of time on Lat-g and have quite a few friends over there ) to see about finding a few very talents garage builders and a few other shops that would be interested in this chassis to test 3-5 of these for a build and somebody posted the chassis over here. I was not trying to make a formal announcement about the release of the product yet, gosh I don't have formal pricing or a firm ball park. I just wants some guinea pigs to try the frame.

So now for the Specs. The chassis is made with .125 P&O steel. It has an option to have .188 main plate in the chassis that goes front to rear. The main plate being the inside of the rear main rails which connects to the outside of the front suspension rails. It is one continuous plate. The chassis pictured is totally .125 except for the front crossmembers that are .25. but boxed with .125. The front suspension is New C6 vette suspension, The rear will be a FAB 9 housing from Alston. The center section will be a combination of bent tube and flat plate structure. I want to be able to run an X pipe in the chassis. The chassis will be available in 2 ride height .4.625 and 5.375. These ride heights are designed for a 335/30/20 rear tire and 265/35/19. The engine mounts I'm still working on, I like lots of options and being able to place the engine where "I" want not where some manufacturer thinks it should be.

The chassis you seen pictured will be a roller at the Goodguys Del Mar show in our booth as a roller and have most everything installed on the chassis for that event. I was hoping to have the 2011 Goodguys giveaway 1955 Chevy convertible body installed on this chassis for the event, but we will not get the body until May 1st 2010.

There are quite a few pics of this chassis on my website, down towards the bottom. I will be posting more and we finalize a production version of the chassis. We have been a high end one off fab shop that has been in business for almost 10 years. We currently have 3 Tri-five projects going on in the shop all with a custom built chassis under them.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I don't have firm pricing yet. I want to see how these go together with my test builders. I have a most of my builders selected but I might be open to some more if they are local. I think I have the shops picked out as to who they will be, they are on the east coast. I would be interested in some talented west coast garage Builders.

My shop website is www.ironworksspeedandkustom.com my email is [email protected].

Rodger Lee

I think those guys on tri-5 site all voted for Obama. Their minds are closed all ready to a new idea.I can weld a little bit and I think I could put that thing togather.The thought that was put into the desgin was the hard part.Nice job.!!:thumbsup:

Thanks I did that this morning, I have been busy this weekend. I went to the Fresno Autorama on friday night and then Dinner with potential customer. Then I got up and went to the Go kart track trying to figure out why things we slower. I found my big ass puts too much stress on the engine and she is just tired. Then I met Gordon Peters and Neil Lea of Rods & Restos at my shop last night for a Tour. They both loved the DIY chassis and may each buy one. Then we went to the Crystal Place for dinner and the Old Buck Owens Songs. Last night when I got home I was tired. So I got up early this morning to Hunt and Peck a response.

Just to be clear, I'm in no ready to sell this kits publicly, I'm just looking for a few guys who want one of these chassis's to build and give me their opinion on assembly and whether it can really be done in a home builders garage.

Roger, here is a link to some of my work.... if that may help to consider me for a trial kit

http://www.picturetrail.com/hotroddder2

Hotroddder

One thing Ive learned Rodger from you (from the horses mouth) No matter whats being posted there where always be criticism. I think individuals forgot about the key words you wrote "testing" and blew this out of proportion. Not to mention how some like to stir the pot.

Great concept Rodger! I like the the whole structure of the chassis & think it is a great idea for do it yourselfers! We can weld one up if you like.. For TEST purposes only!

I think the Cyber Cowboys are the funniest. They used to bother me, But I understand it comes with the territory. There is always some guy sitting in his one room apartment scrolling the internet with pet hamster on his lap trying to tell the world what he has figured out about cars from his older brother that took autoshop for a week back in high school. Then he gets up every morning to go work at the mini mart on the early shift looking at car magazines all day. Then they go home and dream about the cars they wish they had on the internet while telling others how they would build there car. All the while chatting on line with under age girls.

There is a website for those guys, its called Myspace. Go take your 6 pack abs and you Enzo Ferrari over there.

As Budweiser would say, We salute you Mister Cyber Cowboy.

If you have tri-5 project going I would be interested in do that. I want guys who's projects will see the street.

I drive my 57' weekly ! :unibrow: I am local to you also (Paso Robles). My plan is to pull the body back off of the frame within the next month for some changes so if this chassis is a possibility, it is a great time to do so. :cheers:

I have a Miller 175 MIG that could easily handle the welds...


Jason

PS, I am a member of www.trifive.com and for the record, I did - NOT - vote for Obama... LOL