Holes...

[Zandoz]

Until yesterday I'd been planning that my frame would have a short Z kickup on the front end, to clear my rack and pinion steering. Yesterday it dawned on me that somewhere in the evolution of the frame layout, the R&P unit was almost perfectly aligned with the center line of the main frame rail. Today I experimented with doing away with the Z kick-up, and running the the R&P bellows through a minimum 3" ID sleeved hole in the main frame rail...see below.

My questions are, with a 4"x2"x 1/8" frame rail, a 3/16" wall sleeve, is a sleeved hole of that size going to weaken the frame too much? Would a thinner wall sleeve, and leaving more of the frame sides intact be better? Or would going the other way, and going with a larger OD thicker wall sleeve be best? Should I scrap the whole idea, and go back to the short Z kick-up?

 

[choppedtop]

I can't see it weakening it any. I would think it would be stronger there than in an open area.
Lee

 

[baddawgcustoms]

I think it would be fine as well, but if you had any worries, it would be easy to cut a piece of quarter inch plate to go on the inside of the frame where it wouldn't be noticed. Just cut a piece about 8x4 with the 3" hole in the midle. You can't have too much insurance in my opinion.

 

[fluidfloyd]

Zandoz,

No need to use .187 wall tube. Good rule of thumb is to match the wall thickens of the rectangular tube you are sleeving. Personally I would probably use .065 or .083 wall sleeve. I see you are using Draftsight for your drawings. After running Auto Cad starting with Version 12 through Version 2000 I switched to Draftsight and have no regrets. One thing I noticed in your drawing was the use of fractions. I always tell people that fractions are for carpenters. Decimals are mechanical designs. My mills and lathes all require decimal input as they laugh when I try to dial a fractional move. Just my single track mentality. Glad to see you use a R&P setup. I really think that is the way to go if you can get it packaged and if you're starting with a fresh build that shouldn't be a problem. Good luck.

George

 

[Zandoz]

I think it would be fine as well, but if you had any worries, it would be easy to cut a piece of quarter inch plate to go on the inside of the frame where it wouldn't be noticed. Just cut a piece about 8x4 with the 3" hole in the midle. You can't have too much insurance in my opinion.

I like the idea of just sistering the inside. I had thought od doing both sides, and rejected it on aesthetics grounds. Thanks!

 

[Zandoz]

Zandoz,

No need to use .187 wall tube. Good rule of thumb is to match the wall thickens of the rectangular tube you are sleeving. Personally I would probably use .065 or .083 wall sleeve. I see you are using Draftsight for your drawings. After running Auto Cad starting with Version 12 through Version 2000 I switched to Draftsight and have no regrets. One thing I noticed in your drawing was the use of fractions. I always tell people that fractions are for carpenters. Decimals are mechanical designs. My mills and lathes all require decimal input as they laugh when I try to dial a fractional move. Just my single track mentality. Glad to see you use a R&P setup. I really think that is the way to go if you can get it packaged and if you're starting with a fresh build that shouldn't be a problem. Good luck.

George

I just switched to Draftsight a few months ago...when my old DOS version of Autosketch would not work on my new Windows 8 laptop. Like the fractions vs decimal issue, this old dog is slow to take to new tricks...LOL Now that I've switched to Draftsight, I'm glad I did.

I'm glad to encounter someone who is enthusiastic about going with an R&P set up. Most folks try to talk me out of it. For me it was a decision that made itself...many years of working on and driving MGs with R&P, met with already having a band new unit squirreled away in storage.