chassis restoration/upgrades

Technical and Repair Discussions

Novice Typer
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:56 am
I have my chassis (#359) down to bare metal in preparation for a gen3 install. Before I send the frame to be powdercoated, I want to make sure I dont miss any chassis upgrades/improvements that are available.

Some of the items that come to mind are the shoulder belt upgrade, metal plate under the fuel cel (GCR spec), metal tray in the footwell area ( GCR spec), skid plate...

Am I missing anything? Should the trays be welded to the frame of bolted? thanks!
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Forum Hermit
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 3:09 pm
FrankValente wrote: I want to make sure I dont miss any chassis upgrades/improvements that are available.


1) Ladder bar is welded in....Check
2) Plate under fuel cell welded in (I used rivets but would have preferred welding)....Check
3) Footwell plate is bolted in (I assume after car is painted/powder coated)

I like to install stepped washers where the (long) rocker pivot bolt goes through the suspension pick up points. (Those holes get elongated easily)
Other than that, you could fill the holes left by removing the old fuel pump bracket.
Possibly fill a bunch of other holes that you will not have any use for.

I think some things get moved like the fire bottle bracket, overflow tank bracket and ECU bracket.
I don't know if the old air box holes are used for the new exhaust or not.

Maybe a look at a Gen 3 would answer more questions...I have never seen one up close.
Dave Gills
#80 Red/Silver (chassis 504)
Pittsburgh, Pa.
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Still Learning to Type
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Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 9:35 pm
Location: College Station, TX
Chassis:
294
PostPosted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 2:38 pm
I am fairly new to mechanics as well as racing and I am trying to learn more about my car and what everyone is talking about on this forum. I plan to perform a chassis restoration/rebuild myself to help me get to know my car a bit more. Is there is an original assembly manual available for the full car kit, and if so, where would I get it? There is a ton of great information in this forum that I have printed off and tabbed, but I still have very limited idea on what it all means. An assembly manual would help me greatly. Any help would be great. Thanks guys.
Joe Frederick
Texas Region
SRF#65 Chassis#294
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 4:06 pm
There is an assembly manual and a Ford (Gen 2) conversion manual. We actually purchased one once (for like $60??!?), probably one of the few that has. :)
It does come in handy sometimes, it would be worth it to ask around for a bootleg copy..
Dave Harriman
"It looks crazy, I understand. But, we only live once and I am going to give it a good try." - Alex Zanardi
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 11:51 pm
And take an insane number of pictures before and during the disassembly. I was pretty sure I had more pictures than I could ever need, but found there were a few I wished I'd taken prior to my frame-up this winter. Fortunately, I remembered enough to get things put back together pretty much the same way as it was before. I say "pretty much", because I found a ton of extra wires in the chassis harness that had built into the car originally, but were never hooked to anything in the 10 years I have owned the car.
Dan

Formerly Teamwork Motorsports #99, Chassis #460
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 2:54 pm
Great. Hopefully I can find a copy of that manual from someone because I am sure I will need it. Thanks for the tips. I have wires hanging off my car now that I have no idea what they are for. It's the stack system and probably 20 years old...so who knows! At least the car runs good without the wires connected :?
Joe Frederick
Texas Region
SRF#65 Chassis#294
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 3:19 pm
The Mumm Brothers site has both the Ford and the Renault wiring diagrams, once you have those, a lot of the wires start to make sense.
Dave Harriman
"It looks crazy, I understand. But, we only live once and I am going to give it a good try." - Alex Zanardi

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PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 4:42 pm
At one time I had the rear diagonal tube under the upper control arm fail and I was told this was a problem on the old cars. The solution was to use a tube with a higher gauge thickness . Does anyone else know if this was a problem on other cars? Our car is number 427. From what I remember, the problem only was on the rear, because of the engine,trany weight of the Ford. The old cars were developed based on Renault power plants that most likely were lighter.

Pat
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 9:26 am
Pat - I remember soon after we all had the Ford conversion, word went out that the rear diagonal tubing under our upper A-arms needed replaced as cars were literally ripping the upper A-arm bracket out of them (the tubing thickness was as thin as toilet paper). I would imagine that all our cars would have had them replaced by now, but its a good idea if anyone is buying a chassis for the first time or is starting a frame-up rebuild to check that out. I never installed the recommended steel floor under our fuel cell but thankfully, the Gen3 conversion has me going over everything and I installed that safety feature. Foot flooring made of steel is a no brainer for safety also and is it not mandatory?
As for the old Renault manual, a bunch of us oldies still have one. Perhaps one of us can have it copied at Staples or whomever for the cost of reprinting and shipping to anyone who needs one. It did come in handy for some wiring issues I had on my Gen3 conversion.
Mark Fick
I'm pretty confident my last words will be 'well shit that didn't work'

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