Just curious to know about race prepping chassis. What is done when it comes to lightening and strengthening the chassis? What do they do?

 

Don't know what you mean by chassis really but you can Seam weld the body, cut off all the parts of the body that you don't need like speaker bracket mounts and so on... underseal and sound deadening removed. I think you can have bodyshells acid dipped as well, not sure about that though

 

Just keep drilling holes everywhere, or most Ford shells have a self lightening system fitted.......... RUST!!!

 

How does seam welding strengthen it? Sorry if I'm being thick

And I'll probably ask as this thread goes along.

Acid Dipped??? How does that help?

 

When the chassis is seam welded it eliminates flexing by making it more rigid. It will help the handling along nicely too. The only thing is, it will be a rough ride after doing this because of the fact the shell is welded it cannot vibrate and flex - therefore all bumps and shutters will be felt through your ass.

Other than that, do what Porkie said and cut off all unecessary brackets and pieces of metal. Theres nothing much more you can do after that.

 

Get the hole saw out on anything that doesn't look important

On the 205 forum there was a blue hill climb 205, you have never seem so much weight loss in your life! I can't fiond the post now but will have a better look later, it was awesome!

Even the rear arms had faced the hole saw!

 

please dont try to "race prep" a mk4 escort caby shell

 

Its a bit obvious as well, but of course most decent race cars will have a proper welded in Roll cage that goes through to the suspension mounts


@ steve

Phil, that car is VERY fast and quite famous. Was Featured in CCC

 

What magazine is CCC Porkie?

 

Come on Dan - it only died last year!

Car and Car Conversions

 

Why not gotta think of some way to make it less flexable than it already is

 

Stu I found the perfect donar object that has just enough metal you need for the task:

 

Yeah cheeRS si REEEEEEEAL helpful

 

I see where you're going with this Stu.

Give the guy credit he's trying to sort the problem of chassis flex before slotting in the Zetec turbo motor to the cab. A lot of people just sling a motor in and expect the shell to cope.

Best option would of course to have a roof though Never seen Colin McRae blasting a rally stage in a cabby with the roof down

 

Anytime mate!

In all seriousness mate your best bet would be to talk to a firm who actulaly fabricate race cars. The should be able to give you an idea of what needs to be done

Or just talk to Clarky

 

Clarky was definately the guy I want doing it after seeing that RS of his.

No harm is doing a bit of reaserch, helps to get the views of other people.

Definately looks like I'm going for a bit of seam wielding thou. Not much on a cabby you can cut off thou to reduce the weight down, but the shell definately needs strengthing to cope with the motor.

 

Especially when Ford got off to a great start for ya by chopping off the roof

 

Hate so say it, but all the seam welding and aerodynamic aids on the world aint gonna make a big power FWD convirtable escort have anything much in th way of useable traction or handling.

 

This gives you a rough idea about seam welding:

 

what does seam welding envolve??? do you stich weld all the panel joins ??

 

cheers!

 

So if I did seam weild it, how what sort of effect will that have?

 

Are you sure you understand what goes into seam welding?

You have to strip the car all the way back to the bare shell, and then a good welder will have to spend hundreds of hours welding it up.

Total waste of time on a road car.

 

esp a cabby!

 

This is going into a cabby?

Fook - if you want better strength, put it in a stronger car!

 

Its ok PON, the cabby will have a front splitter and canards/fences so will handle well

 

IMO trying to stiffin up a car that can not be jacked up unless the doors are closed is a complete waste of time!!!

 

God I'm only try to do something no one has done before, and I like cabbies

 

try jacking a cabby up and then opening the door on the side thats jacked open, dont happen at all

dont think that seam welding a cabby is gonna help the flex as the flex is where the doors are, they already got hooge bars welded to the floor to help that ( and they dont work that well, get the arse end out on a cabby well on a roundabout and the roof bar pops open )


seam welding the engine bay is a idea but only need on wing done and then plate the cradle where the floor meets

its worth a try but tbh its prob been done by someone whos then gave up when they realised it does fook all


but like a rear strut brace in a cabrio, thats pointless too as theres already a fooking steel plate to keep the car together welded in there


good luck on what ya deicde, ive thought of a few things to do with a escort cabrio when i was building mine and tbh i gave up as was proved there faluts where already in places they tried to solve and failed in


but turbo cabrios are cool hence why im finishing off mine again now

 

If you do seam weld be very carefull in the order in which you weld as its very easy to bend the shell.