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
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
Hybrid Mode
