Re: UX9251
Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 8:11 pm
Toby,
How much of the ash frame requires replacing? Presumably the entire floor for a start. You'll find that the tourer floor is simple - it is all 1/2" SRBP ply and straight ash sections. The sills are a little more complex, but really not very difficult at all - except for the joints for the various uprights. The uprights and rails are where the complications will come in. Are the steel panels good enough to re-use, or will the new/repaired frame need new skins. If the former, then you have to 'reverse engineer' the frame to the original skins, which isn't simple.
Are tyhe door frames useable? if not, and you need to make new ones, that will be your biggest source of cursing.
The three timbers which screw to the firewall are another interesting project. They are stepped to accommodate the bonnet and also routed to accept the half-round rubber strip. I use two tricks here. First, I make each of these three timbers from two pieces and then screw/glue them together so as to create the step. Second, I get a local chippy to rout the groove for the rubber strip - saves you the cost of a router, router bit and more cursing.
If the original frame members are complete enough to be used as 3D patterns, you have a big advantage. Just be very careful when dismantling the old frame - for two reasons - first, getting the rusted steels crews out without destroying the timbers can be a challenge (as mentioned on Halbe's thread recently), and second, just having the individual timbers as patterns isn't enough - you will nee overall dimensions of the completed frame if the new frame is going to work. For example, you might end up with a nice looking body that fits the chassis perfectly, but when you come to put the hood frame on, you find it doesn't reach the windscreen!
So take all sorts of measurements from every conceivable reference point (including diagonals) and carefully check the new frame as you assemble it against those measurements.
When faced with a significant cost of a new frame for Semi-sports JN 570 about 25 years ago, I commissioned three frames from a coachbuilder in Oxfordshire - one assembled, two in kit form and also a set of 1/4" ply patterns for future use. I then sold the two kits to defray some of the cost of the body for JN. (These two bodies went on RFP 347B - now in the Haynes Motor Museum, and David King's Semi-sports rep. project OG 8535 - kit assembled by Dave Cooksey, and yet to see the light of day.) I then made further bodies from the patterns - the body for LJ 4435 (which is about 90% new) plus a complete new body for David Roscoe's rep. GU 1342 which I originally built for the late David Mackenzie.
Finally, when you are done, don't throw ANYof the old timbers away!
How much of the ash frame requires replacing? Presumably the entire floor for a start. You'll find that the tourer floor is simple - it is all 1/2" SRBP ply and straight ash sections. The sills are a little more complex, but really not very difficult at all - except for the joints for the various uprights. The uprights and rails are where the complications will come in. Are the steel panels good enough to re-use, or will the new/repaired frame need new skins. If the former, then you have to 'reverse engineer' the frame to the original skins, which isn't simple.
Are tyhe door frames useable? if not, and you need to make new ones, that will be your biggest source of cursing.
The three timbers which screw to the firewall are another interesting project. They are stepped to accommodate the bonnet and also routed to accept the half-round rubber strip. I use two tricks here. First, I make each of these three timbers from two pieces and then screw/glue them together so as to create the step. Second, I get a local chippy to rout the groove for the rubber strip - saves you the cost of a router, router bit and more cursing.
If the original frame members are complete enough to be used as 3D patterns, you have a big advantage. Just be very careful when dismantling the old frame - for two reasons - first, getting the rusted steels crews out without destroying the timbers can be a challenge (as mentioned on Halbe's thread recently), and second, just having the individual timbers as patterns isn't enough - you will nee overall dimensions of the completed frame if the new frame is going to work. For example, you might end up with a nice looking body that fits the chassis perfectly, but when you come to put the hood frame on, you find it doesn't reach the windscreen!
So take all sorts of measurements from every conceivable reference point (including diagonals) and carefully check the new frame as you assemble it against those measurements.When faced with a significant cost of a new frame for Semi-sports JN 570 about 25 years ago, I commissioned three frames from a coachbuilder in Oxfordshire - one assembled, two in kit form and also a set of 1/4" ply patterns for future use. I then sold the two kits to defray some of the cost of the body for JN. (These two bodies went on RFP 347B - now in the Haynes Motor Museum, and David King's Semi-sports rep. project OG 8535 - kit assembled by Dave Cooksey, and yet to see the light of day.) I then made further bodies from the patterns - the body for LJ 4435 (which is about 90% new) plus a complete new body for David Roscoe's rep. GU 1342 which I originally built for the late David Mackenzie.
Finally, when you are done, don't throw ANYof the old timbers away!
