Chassis Fabricating

Hello everyone i'm new here, and i want to help and get help from people in this forum, i have been looking for while at car builds and projects and i ended up here in this forum.I'm a second year mechanical engineering student, and i have always been Interested in chassis building, that's why i enrolled in this engineering program which is related to car building.

In this thread i want to talk about the steps that i'm doing to help me begin working on a car chassis, and get feedback and tips from more experienced people.

1) Taking TIG welding courses and practicing.
2) reading about chassis design for sport cars, aerodynamics, suspension design and breaking. 3) Deciding which engine to go with and trans-axle [Mid-engine RWD]. 4) Figuring out what metal to design the frame of. 5) tires and wheels. 6) Design the chassis. 7) starting the build. 8) Improve it.

My questions are am I taking the right steps? do I need to add anything? and i want to know what your thoughts are on this project.

Look into the Formula SAE team if your school has one.

All good steps, but you might want to throw suspension design in there after wheels and tires. After all the chassis main job is to attach everything else to the suspension.

CGLockRacer wrote: Look into the Formula SAE team if your school has one.

Unfortunately, they don't.

bgkast wrote: All good steps, but you might want to throw suspension design in there after wheels and tires. After all the chassis main job is to attach everything else to the suspension.

Thanks well do, but i just want to ask a quick question does it make a difference if i leave enough space for example for a 19" X 11 wheels and use a 18" X 11 wheels? I don't think it will i just want to make sure since they will have the same width, what do you guys think?

bgkast wrote: All good steps, but you might want to throw suspension design in there after wheels and tires. After all the chassis main job is to attach everything else to the suspension.

After that, read his thread. And then the other Midlana thread here that's finished. Then buy that book.

I would suggest Kurt's other book, Kimini. It's more focused on design, rather than "Paint by numbers" in the Midlana book (I can't draw worth a damn )

http://www.lulu.com/shop/kurt-bilinski/kimini-how-to-design-and-build-a-mid-engine-sports-car-from-scratch/paperback/product-4858803.html;jsessionid=61E579440E596CA13F4419FFD22F9DD9

Download it today, read it tonight.

I think you've got a Decent step by step.
I would recomend picking Tire OD, width and Rim offset at a minimum. These dimensions are almost required to determine key suspension dimensions. You don't really need to select Rim Diameter (Other than the impact it may have on your lower ball joint location as well as your toe base in the rear). It seems today you can select a tire OD of ~21-22" if your going to use full race slicks on 13"-15" rims, 24" if your going to use Miata/Mini cooper sized tires (<225 width) and 25.5-26" if you want/need wide street type tires.

I am sort of wondering what your ultimate goal for the project is. Are you trying to build your own custom tube frame car for racing, for fun, around town?

fritzsch wrote: I am sort of wondering what your ultimate goal for the project is. Are you trying to build your own custom tube frame car for racing, for fun, around town?

This is the most important question to answer. Be very specific on this decision before you undertake a project of this magnitude. "What" will determine the "how". Walk before you run and take on as many smaller projects as you can. I have seen so many half finished projects due to changes in direction by the owner/fabricator. As far as learning, all your steps are good so far. I would add to spend lots of time on the track and learn how to drive also. All the engineering knowledge will be clear when you can apply it to real world experience. Make sure you know what tools to measure, drill and cut metal with properly and how to use them. I've seen great welders that don't know how to use a hack saw or file properly! You may want to learn to MIG first A good machine is reasonable and generally more applicable to general chassis and body fabrication than TIG. Don't get me wrong, I love to TIG. A "proper" TIG setup is a very large investment and it takes many years of experience to master. Keep that in mind when you are going 100 mph and wondering if your welds are good.

Hello again

I still didn't choose wheels and tires because i'm still looking for used wheels with good price, but most probably i will go with something like the stock 2007 mustang 17" wheels, i think i can find them for a good price.

My goal is to build something that's safe for fun around town and for drag race.

If i see myself not ready to take this project i will delay it and work on a small go kart with a bike engine have fun with it improve it until i see myself ready to do bigger projects.

My problem is with the rear suspension from what i saw on most sand rails with a trans-axle is that they use double A-arms all around with shocks and springs and that's it which is making me confused with my rear suspension setup, i'm trying to read more to get a better idea maybe try to read about mustang suspension since they have a good suspension for drag racing.

I'm definitely going to learn MIG too, but the thing is which one should i choose for my project if i want to make a stronger safe weld?

Thanks everyone for the help and sorry for the late reply.