Hi John,
The chassis looks very good. I am quite pleased that it was not damaged beyond repair. The black looks very good!!!!!
That chassis sure is a pain to straighten, isn't it? That is one of the drawbacks of a rigid stressed skin design, prang it and you pay the price in time and effort to get it right again. (But conversely, the initial damage in a non rigid chassis could well not be repairable in a like crash scenario.)
I bet it was a lot of fun to weld the shear panels on. The first time you do this you start wondering if you will ever finish with the stitch welds. As I am sure you found out, the stitch weld cooling process is very critical to the pre-stressing of the panels. (Dave asks if you need a job doing fab work now that you are trained?)
Also, a quick question. It appears that you have added some structure to the two rear crossmembers on the driver side. What are you planning on doing in that area? If it is a modification that you feel is needed on the chassis, please let me know and we can see about incorporating it into future chassis.
Please note: we have already added a vertical tube at the rear of the tunnel at the panel kickout to increase panel stiffness at the bend as you have done per our discussions. This is a very good addition to the strength of the chassis in mid beam loading under crash conditions..
Therefore, JBL thanks you for the R&D work, but from now on, let’s try to do these tests with computer simulations as opposed to pastures and fence posts. (It is much easier on everyone involved. Particularly the test operator.)
I do not remember if we spoke about the rod ends on the right rear. I know that you said that there was no damage to the suspension, only the wheel. But you may wish to magnaflux the inner rod ends to make sure that they did not develop any cracks in the fillet between the threads and the head.
I would also look at the rear upright very carefully. Make sure that the casting did not bend any. It is a vacuum cast part and quite ductile. (Dave has plenty of these in stock if you need to replace the unit.)
Now all the above said, when are you going to get that beast out to Sears Point?
