Update by Tim Suddard to the
Elva Mk VI project car
Sep 24, 2024
|
Restoration,
Chassis Alignment,
Elva Mk VI
Photography Credit: Tim Suddard
The easiest way to check a frame for straightness is to pick the points diagonally from one another and compare measurements. We needed to know if our Elva Mk VI sports racer was true.
Your critical points are your suspension mounting points. Generally, if you have similar measurements from left-front to right-rear and right-front to left-rear, you will be in good shape.
A slight misalignment of, say, a quarter inch can often be worked around with alignment specs.
Another good measurement is the wheelbase on both sides. Ultimately, you would like them to be as equal as possible. As we do not have the wheels, or even the suspension, mounted on the frame, we instead took measurements from suspension mounting points.
Thankfully, despite a rough life, the core dimensions of our Elva’s frame were in spec. Now we felt confident to proceed with the rest of our restoration.
Had those measurements been off, we would have taken our frame to a frame machine or made the tweaks ourselves using a come-along or hydraulic ram.
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