LCV chassis building, design, ideas bouncing etc

Post by **paulhumphries** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 6:44 pm

Removed as I'm no happy to discuss anymore.

Paul Humphries

Post by **aupickup** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:00 pm

esm minors at stongate east sussex have a chassis cab that needs restoring for £500.00, the chasis looks pretty good

Post by **Matt** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:08 pm

What you really need is a good original chassis you can take careful measurements from and base a jig around, and unfortunately i cant help....

Post by **bigginger** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:12 pm

How does the van body attach to the chassis ?

rear, as you say, via the seat belt mounts, bottom of the engine bay pillars, front X member, engine towers. Think that's it

EDIT Oh, and via the lower cab rear panel too, though that itself isn't directly connected to the chassis.

Post by **aupickup** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:15 pm

and one bolt either side of the rear telescopic shocks

Post by **RussLCV** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:39 pm

The offer of coming to see the chassis I have is still open...................You can take all the measurements needed.

By the time you have bits made and bent I can not see how much cheaper it will be, good usable chassis' are around for a decent price. Once you have built the new chassis what about every thing else you need? You best buy a van or just come and see the chassis.

Do you honestly think if we could make these for £350 we (at the Minor LCV Register) would not have done so!

The chassis legs mentioned earlier were produced by a friend of mine excellant quality but around £150 each! £300the pair and they are straight, they come to teh gearbox 25% ofthe chassis not to mention the various cross member pieces

May I offer some simple advise do not overcomplicate the issues buy a van and replace what is needed I think it will be the best way in the end.

As I said my offer still stands for the view of the chassis as in the images was posted elsewhere. (you can view the blueprint too)

Do not forget Henrics also made chassis, but they too were £750 or so..........years ago. Just for information they made the GRP bodies less that 20 vans were sold and 6 pick-ups in GRPs in over 10 years, I wrote a feature on them...................so is the market there anyway?

Sorry to harp on but I am not sure Paul what you intend to do or build, but I can not see low production of chassis will ever be cheap

Post by **bigginger** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:43 pm

Don't forget all the reinforcement pieces inside the chassis either. It's about 4 inches top to bottom, btw

Post by **paulhumphries** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:05 pm

Removed as I'm no happy to discuss anymore.

Paul Humphries

Post by **bigginger** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:12 pm

Difficult under your terms, certainly

2 of us have offered access to view and measure a chassis, even to borrow one, but even though I'm told that there are good ones about, I NEED to hang on to the ones I've got, sorry...
Doesn't the chassis cab at ESM for £500 sound pretty reasonable?

Post by **aupickup** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:23 pm

i saw the chassis cab and had a quick look at it, and to be honest is not that bad
this would be a good starting point
yes lcv`s are not cheap for a bad or good one, but thats life
the guys have seen mine now at the london to brighton and i got it for a good price and its really not that bad

i think paul this si the route you need to take

i do not think and i will agree with russel that there is much call for small production of the chassis, otherwise i guess that henrics or somebody would have taken the plunge and started to make and sell them again.

Post by **aupickup** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:26 pm

paul we are only trying to help as club members and giving you what we think is sound advice.
sorry if this has offended in any way

Post by **RussLCV** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:37 pm

Why have all the posts gone?

I too have tried and offered the chassis for sight? Have I said something?

Post by **paulhumphries** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:39 pm

aupickup wrote:paul we are only trying to help as club members and giving you what we think is sound advice.
sorry if this has offended in any way

No offence taken.

I simply had been trying to voice some of the ideas going around in my head.
I was wrong to do so.
I feel very uncomfortable.
I won't be posting anything similar again.

Paul Humphries.

Post by **bigginger** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:39 pm

RussLCV wrote:Why have all the posts gone?

I too have tried and offered the chassis for sight? Have I said something?

Yup - and you are one and I'm the other of the two I mentioned.

Post by **bigginger** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:45 pm

paulhumphries wrote: I won't be posting anything similar again.

Paul Humphries.

Please do - as AU says, we're merely being supportive in suggesting the/a way forward. I reckon you'd be making a huge rod for your back trying to reproduce one, that's all, though I wish you all the best if you press ahead.

Post by **motherofgod** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:01 pm

paulhumphries wrote:
I simply had been trying to voice some of the ideas going around in my head.
I was wrong to do so.
I feel very uncomfortable.
I won't be posting anything similar again

1. Keep the ideas coming
2. It wasn't wrong
3. no one wants you to feel that way
4. keep posting it's good to talk
5. I want to see pictures of this pick up with fibreglass back

James

Post by **aupickup** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:09 pm

CHECK OUT EBAY PAUL, SOME ONE IS SELLING A CHASSIS THAT NEEDS REPAIRING

Post by **M25VAN** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 10:42 pm

Don't give up Paul, if you come up with something or even if it ends up with a run of new ones from Hadrian it will be useful for others. It's an important discussion. I personally don't have the space or facilities to obtain and strip down a complete vehicle for a secondhand chassis. I also don't have the skills to weld up and repair a chassis either. When I replaced my chassis 15 years ago I managed to borrow a garage and did it all with spanners in 4 days. If I couldn't have got a new chassis to do that with then it would have been bye bye to another Van and a GRP one at that.

Steve
P.S. did you get my PM?

Post by **dunketh** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:34 am

Shame this has 'died on its bottom' so to speak.
Although I'm resigned to the fact I'll never afford either an old or a new van or pickup I'm still nonetheless interested in the topic.

I find any kind of engineering 'what if' topics great, I think we need more of these kind of topics. People always get 'heated' in these things as there are so many different opinions and views - you only have to see the various 'brake upgrade' posts to confirm this!

However, this banter is what makes a good post. We need to get some proper engineering ideas stirred up and on the boil. Its when folk just accept their lot that the whole scene suffers.
I for one want to know there are people out there making disc brakes from sticky back plastic, painting cars with hammerite and building chassis in a weekend with a welder and a pot of tea. Its what keeps the scene fresh and alive imho.

Post by **wibble_puppy** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 11:01 am

motherofgod wrote:1. Keep the ideas coming
2. It wasn't wrong
3. no one wants you to feel that way
4. keep posting it's good to talk

What James said

paul keep the ideas coming

I've been relatively quiet (unusual for me when LCVs are being discussed

) as I've not really had much info or advice to offer, but I think it's fab to be talking about how best to save a van or a pickup, and the chassis has to be the place to start - your quest seems to me to be not only intelligent but entirely appropriate.

I hope you can make it to a rally soon so all we LCV nuts can meet up and set the world to rights

Why not take Russ up on his offer to see his lovely chassis? (errr.... I'll rephrase that

) He does breathe fire but only on third Wednesdays - any other day he will make you tea and cake and talk your ears off about LCVs

While restoring my own van I took the cargo area off and the cab, so I could have a really good thorough look at the chassis - if the chassis dies so does the van. It needed a patch here and a patch there - but we also sandblasted it and hot-metal sprayed it, with the aim of making it last as long as humanly possible. It's going to be injected with unfeasable quantities of cavity wax, and lovingly clothed in layers of paint and dinitrol.

(Wish I knew how to get the cavity wax on to the top of the inside of the box section, as well as the sides and the floor of it

)

I didn't see your recent posts before you replaced them. Why not have a chat with a moderator about sorting them out?

Don't forget that in all walks of life it's often the fresh pair of eyes that manages to spot the novel approach which will solve a problem all the "old hands", despite their experience, had assumed was impossible to solve