Committed

The rebuild is started. The old chassis is chopped up in three bits so that means there are pile of bits that are Degsy. There is no way back from here. The pictures below show the state of the old chassis. It does mean that the new chassis was the right and probably the cheaper option. The new chassis is at the paint shop. The new chassis is galvanised so is a bright Zinc silver in colour. Since you can see the chassis peaking out under the bodywork I thought it would look wrong. I have opted to have it painted black. The paint a special concoction that adheres to Zinc and it lends another layer of corrosion protection.

So the fist picture is what a new galvanised chassis looks like.


Then this is what mine looks like.

This picture is the top of the chassis half way between the rear spring hangers right where the damper is fitted. The chassis is box section but as you can see it is "U" shaped now. The other side of the chassis was almost as bad.

This picture is the underside of the front end of the chassis. At the top you can see the crap welding just where the side rail meets the cross member. This is also the point where the steering box is situated so there is a lot of mechanical stress in the area. On the lower rail you can see a big split along the upper edge of the rail. This a high stress area so a solid box section is a good idea.

I have been promised a new bumper because the chassis round the bolts that hold the bumper on is so badly bodged that the bolt cannot be got at.