The Chassisworks Factory - Behind The Scenes
 

EDIT 3/3/15: Many of the photos in this thread are linked/hosted from Facebook. Occasionally there are issues with images showing or having new locations assigned to them by FB. If you can't see the pic, click the link. If that link is dead, check out www.Facebook.com/CAChassisworks or www.Facebook.com/TotalControlProducts to view albums with all the images we have shared so far.
~Carl
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I have wanted to start a thread like this for a long time. We get lots of questions from people asking who makes certain parts for us, who the supplier is for this nifty part or what car that part came off. For the overwhelming majority of the parts we sell, the answer is "We made it." Obviously we don't make nuts and bolts and things like that, but of the nearly 20,000 individual component part numbers in our system, over 9,000 of them (and counting!) enter our building as raw material.

I'll use this thread to post pictures of completed parts, components, machinery, raw materials, assembly, and maybe occassionally the people here at Chassisworks. I'll post a short description of what you're looking at with each. There will be some sneak peeks along the way too.

I'll be happy to answer questions about anything that is posted. Not everything will be Pro-Touring related but, if nothing else, I hope people will still think it's cool. Some pics will be taken with a camera, others with my phone so I'll apologize ahead of time if some are not 'professional' grade.

So, without further ado, here's some pics!

Chassisworks designed and manufactures several different sizes of precision spherical pivot balls. They reduce deflection common to bushing style control arms, are fully rebuildable, and are incredibly strong. These are fresh from one of our Mazak CNC turning stations and will be used in our TCP lower control arms for early Mustangs.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...3a0b5fa0b15dfc


And here is a small production run of the TCP Lower Control Arms ready to be boxed and shipped. They have increased rigidity and feature our TrueCenter™ pivot socket which improves suspension geometry by better controlling the balljoint travel arch.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...4c1ef0ce2d9a81


Continuing the billet theme, these are our billet aluminum lower control arms. Originally these were built for our #7154 Canted Billet 4-Bar backhalf, a universal kit used in everything from '69 Camaros, to 2010 Camaros. Okay, it fits other cars too, that's why it's universal. Anyway, they were built for that kit, then I had a customer who HAD to have them for his Chevelle. So Chris gave me a price and the guy bought some arms. Now they are available for 64-72 A-Body, 78-87 G-Body, 67-2002 F-Body and 64.5-70 Mustangs.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...a75450d5d7b69b


That's all for tonight, I'll post some more stuff tomorrow.

Thanx for posting Carl. I love the made in :flag2: part :thumbsup:

From down the road (well I-5 lol), Mike

Carl - Thanks for a little Chassisworks insight.

I've always wondered just how complex the Chassisworks operations are based on the vast and focused product offerings in the website. Looking forward to more! :thumbsup:

I agree,thanks

Pretty cool stuff.:thumbsup:

I love those billet control arms!

Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone!

Since lower control arms seem to be a positive topic, here's a couple more pictures on the subject.

Here is a before and after of the rod ends/pivot ball housings for the g-Link adjustable lower control arms. They're made in the turning department. The blanks are precision cut by one of our CNC saws which helps us keep material waste to a minimum. They could end up in any of the same cars as the billet arms.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...f1b5d42fd9feff


These g-Bar lower control arms were still hot from being welded. Their next stop will be the grinding booth for inspection and clean up, then off to be powder coated black. Once coated we will install polyurethane bushings, steel sleeves, and grease zerks. The zerks really help keep down the squeaking and extend the service life. The longer barrel in the picture will fit perfectly in the front leaf spring pocket. The bushing housing is CNC machined to exactly match the ID and OD of the control arm tubing. This helps the welder to get better weld penetration yielding a stronger, more uniform weld. Also, it makes it more difficult for him to put it in the wrong place! Ha! The narrower end goes on the housing side.

Because this is a little more specific, these are made to fit 67-81 F-Body, 68-72 X-Body, and 65-70 Mustangs. There are a couple more applications in the pipeline so watch this thread!
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...20&oe=55801B6F

Cool stuff

I got a "mini tour" years ago, impressive facility and machines. The automation is very cool.

Chris and Carl gave me a tour a couple of months ago and it is a very impressive facility. There's alot of new innovative product in the works as well!

The mazak salesman speaks highly. I'm planning on a Mazak Variaxis for my next machine.

Awesome, thanks for the photos.

Chassisworks has several different brands in house. Most people know that one of those brands is VariShock. Chris has been involved with building custom shocks/dampers since the earth cooled. When you design suspension you don't necessarily want to use an off-the-shelf component so for a long time we had shocks that were custom built for us. As anyone who has worked with a supplier or wholesaler knows, sometimes things are changed without notice. Eventually Chris got so fed up with one of our suppliers that he said some choice and extremely colorful words and finished with 'I'll build them myself!'

Thirteen years, and several thousand shocks later, VariShock (And VariStrut) is still made in house at our Sacramento California factory. They are on cars all over the world whether they be 5-second Pro Mods, swingarm dragsters, land speed racers, bracket cars, NASA racers, or daily drivers. Right before SEMA this year, we launched the VariShock Builder Shock Program. Basically this takes the hassle out of designing your own suspension around an existing shock. There are thousands of possible combinations ensuring we have a shock for almost everyone.

In honor of all that, here's some details on how VariShocks are made!

Here, one of our self loading Mazak CNC machining stations stacks finished double-adjustable VariShock QS2 bases while billet aluminum blanks await their turn. Chris Alston, Jr. usually programs this machine. Yes, it has laser beams. Each blank is cut to the exact same length using a CNC saw which I'll show another time.
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...2d&oe=55729BEC

We just finished a production run of upper spring seats. How many? 1140 of them! Here's what the blanks look like, then the raw, then fresh from anodizing.
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...61&oe=5589ED90

Here's a bunch of shock bases waiting to be cleaned up and sent to anodizing. I took this with my phone so I apologize for the low quality. It was difficult because they were still covered in machining lubricant. The bases in the foreground will receive Com-8 bearings, the background bases will receive a pair of polyurethane bushings.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...445b9b9b32f2e2

And finally, this cart has 13.5 pairs of VariShock Quickset 1, single adjustable, coil-over bodies. The missing shock was getting it's COM-8 bearings pressed into the mounting eyes.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...5423bc1bdc7c7d

I love seeing this stuff. Sorry I missed the start of the thread. Please keep posting as you have time. Thanks!

Sweet!

Great stuff Carl, the scope and scale of Chassisworks is more impressive than I and probably many others imagined. The first-hand insight is very much appreciated. :thumbsup:

Thanks guys, I am having fun with it so far!

Yeah, it seems that some assume that because every Camaro on Lat-G isn't running our parts that we're a small company. We're smaller than some but our facility is huge and our customers drive and drive and drive. I took some pics of an LS '69 Camaro yesterday with our clip and a gBar that has 10k miles of daily driving so far and talked to a customer today who has over 100k on his Chevy II front end!

These pics were taken just last week. Anyone who went to SEMA this year knows that we are hard at work on the second application for our gStreet Ultimate Pro-Touring Chassis. I'll be making a separate post about the car and project eventually, but here are two pictures that detail how seriously we take new product development and how these projects are undertaken.

Since the 90s we have used FARO systems to create computer models of suspension mounting points. That's how we were able to be the first to develop a bolt-on front clip for the Chevy II that fit awesome, reduced weight, and added strength to the entire car. Right now, we have a bunch of products up our sleeve for the early Mustang crowd.

Below you will see our Engineering Manager, Scott Rieger, scanning the front end of the '67 Fastback that we are building for Gearhead Garage and their customer. This car is the testbed for the new gStreet chassis and the same car we took to SEMA. But this isn't about the specific project, it's about the process.

Our company tagline is 'The Home Of Higher Technology'. In this photo Scott Rieger begins the arduous task of scanning an entire car using a Faro Arm laser scanner. This will give us more than just specific points, it will give us data on every surface the laser registers. The glossy black painted body has been sprayed with a fine adhesive-infused powder. This allows the laser to register every tiny detail.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...ba0f3c2f85863b

Fun to watch...for about two minutes. Scott said 'It's like painting a car with a 3-inch sponge.' Not very exciting to watch, but very rewarding in the end.

When he is finished scanning all the data is rendered and we have a complete 3D model of the entire car. This computer model will be used in conjunction with our CAD software to develop and test fit new components for a variety of current projects. The different colors indicate different passes with the laser.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...3b39a257abd40b

When we build new chassis kits and components it doesn't look like anything is happening for a while. Then one day you walk out and there is a massive pile of parts that 'magically' all fit perfectly in the car. It's pretty cool!

And in case anyone was wondering, the Mustang body is being held in place by our unique new fixture that Chris Alston Sr. designed specifically for the gStreet builds. It will work with several different bodies and allows easy access to the entire car. No more welding bars across the inside of the body that you have to work around.
https://www.cachassisworks.com/site_...mustang_AT.jpg

I'm trying to weasel a screen capture of the entire Mustang scan out of Engineering. I'll post it here if they get it to me.

Being in engineering, that would be fun to watch.

Gearhead built my car, great group of guys.

Any Mopar in the plans?

Any updates on the 69 Camaro?

Of course! Just need someone to want one bad enough to bring us a car. Historically the Mopar guys have been...a little more purist when it comes to suspension.

Which one? The car that went to SEMA is about to go back to it's owner for bodywork etc. We have another '69 in line and a '67/8 too waiting for in-house chassis builds.

Matte black with blue stripe on the rear. This car had no sheet metal on the front of it. I believe it was a sema car from last year( maybe 2011 sema).

Ah, that is our display car. It debuted at SEMA '12 and was painted in about 30 seconds by Pascual at Marquez Design. It travels the country in the back of the big rig. It will likely never be a runner as we'd have to build a second display car. It's tough to show off chassis parts when they're covered by stupid stuff like carpet and fenders. The black car has the prototype gStreet chassis which has many small, mostly unnoticeable, differences.

The current version of the chassis has updated inner rockers for an even lower seat height, slight changes to the floor, subframe connector, and front frame. It has more aggressive geometry, too. And a lot of unpublished, whiz-bang options that will show up in this thread eventually. :headspin:

It's been over a month since I updated this thread so I had to get in one more post before the end of the year. I found the perfect part. This is BRAND new.

I had no idea this existed until today when Mike, one of the other sales guys, showed me his latest purchase. He picked up a MOMO steering wheel for his drag car and wanted a quick release. Rather than buying our blank hub and drilling it out he talked Chris Jr, machine shop manager, into making him this custom hub. (Guess what kind of wheel he has?) Chris Senior figured if Mike and Jr wanted one someone else might too so we made a bunch of them.

This new 6-bolt quick release hub fits MOMO and some Sparco wheels. It has a 70mm bolt circle.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...50144af0183374

Very cool!

You don't have those for stock style columns do you?

We do not. I think Grant makes one.

Nice hands.....



HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Yeah, forget the quick release, How about that fancy new ring!

I washed them just for you.

What? That old thing? I've had that for like...60 days!

Check this out! Who can guess what we're making?

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...57dbf1c2bd4ec8

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...74cc96df378baa

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...73&oe=5574142F

I'll post a completed pic tomorrow.

Supercharger drive bracket. 1/2 the weight of alum one.

:y0!: :y0!:

Adapter to fit a round(ish) peg in a square(ish) hole?

No idea but I'm sure it's going to be rad!

no, no, no!!
Adapter to fit a square(ish) peg in a round(ish) hole? :underchair:

It looks like you are making a mess inside that machine. You guys should really stop and clean up a little bit. :mock:

Here's the final finished product. This is a custom mounting plate for one of our CDS Supercharger Gear Drives. We built it for Greg at Ultra-Carbon using a C/F "billet" that he supplied. The carbon fiber plate is half the weight of the aluminum piece that's sitting next to it.

I'll try to post a better photo later.

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho...61063382_o.jpg

For reference, it's going on one of these.

http://www.cachassisworks.com/site_i...sembled_ID.jpg

Here's a fancy photo I took with the CDS logo.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...2df7f523736c3e

WOW!! Had no idea you could machine carbon like that. Were there any special problems or techniques you had to use?


Jeff-

It's really tough on tooling but other than that nothing we hadn't dealt with in the past.