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Having blasted back my chassis to bare metal I found major areas of missing metal around the diff area.
Found a local guy who is pretty handy with a mig welder and he has spent the last couple of days cutting the rotten bits out and replacing with clean metal. Many of the patches which had been welded on in the past had little, if any, penetration to the welds and came away with a tap from a hammer and chisel.
To get the chassis into the correct shape (the rot was so extensive that the chassis was flexing around the diff area) we bolted-on the Sammio frame and my bulkhead, using them as a jig for the chassis. Seems to have worked well and I will try and post some before/after pictures when I get chance.
I have attached some images showing before and after.
Here are a couple of the worst bits of the blasted chassis:
With the bulkhead and Sammio frame bolted into position Paul (my local guy) has given the chassis back its strength:
Hopefully these photos will reassure anyone out there who is worried that their chassis is a write-off. I had tried to source a better chassis but, the truth is, that most Heralds are going to have suffered the same sort of problems. The other solution that I had in mind - I am reliably assured that it will work - was to cut the diff area out of a good Spitfire chassis and weld it in as a repair panel to my Herald chassis.
As Paul said to me 'Its metal and so can be repaired'.
Hi, unforseen bits n bobs bit of a bugger but nicely repaired, now let the real works commence, mine was the engine and hydraulics brake/clutch now done and engine running. Pat
I have attached some images showing before and after.
Here are a couple of the worst bits of the blasted chassis:
With the bulkhead and Sammio frame bolted into position Paul (my local guy) has given the chassis back its strength:
Hopefully these photos will reassure anyone out there who is worried that their chassis is a write-off. I had tried to source a better chassis but, the truth is, that most Heralds are going to have suffered the same sort of problems. The other solution that I had in mind - I am reliably assured that it will work - was to cut the diff area out of a good Spitfire chassis and weld it in as a repair panel to my Herald chassis.
As Paul said to me 'Its metal and so can be repaired'.
Chris
I thought i would bring this thread back to the top, just in case some of you had not seen these photos, its surprising how much everybody has written on this forum. garyh.
hi there oh yes defo rotten!! shame i didnt no i have a blasted rot free bare vitesse chassis at my workshop oh well and all so a full set of new out riggers and side rails except n/s rear body mount!! any body stuck out there? thanks chap68.
Whoa! That sure was a rotten chassis. Makes mine look like it was positively MOT ready, which, incidentally, is how it was sold to me
Hmm. Solid rust-free chassis? Methinks the vendor was having a laugh.
I repaired mine myself with a cheap stick welder and no previous welding experience, so, where there's something solid left to weld new metal onto there's still hope...
