View Single Post
  #186  
Old 09-24-2019, 05:32 PM
heinke's Avatar
heinke heinke is offline
MetalShaper of the Month Jan 2018
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Prescott, AZ
Posts: 487
Post Locating and Fabricating Flip Front Clip Hinge Point

I decided to start building out the sub-structures that attach and hold body panels to the chassis. I’m starting with the one piece, flip-up front clip first. The front clip is hinged in the front and thus tilts forward to open. When opened, the bodywork that forms the top of the nose comes very close to touching the ground. Because of this, determining the hinge point location is critical.

I needed to know the front bodywork outline in order to measure backward to the hinge point. So with measurements taken from station buck, I used a piece of welding rod and masking tape to lay the outline. It also shows where the horizontal chassis tubes are too long and need to be cut off so they won’t protrude through the bodywork.



Through some research and experimentation, I concluded the hinge point needed to be vertically about an inch lower than the front wheel spindle and horizontally about 10 inches behind the most forward part of the front bumper. I located this spot and marked it with an X on some masking tape. By putting in some angled chassis bracing members, it would give a strong hinge point and complete the chassis bracing in that area.



I plan to use ½” bolts for the front clip hinges themselves. So I inserted some aluminum inside the rectangular tube to make it solid at the hinge point and drilled ½” holes. To ensure the holes on both sides aligned, a piece ½” tube was used to fixture them in place for tack welding.



After tacking the cross brace tubes in place, the horizontal chassis tubes were trimmed to length.



I’m going to hold off on final welding the cross brace tubes in place until I’ve built out more of the front clip sub-structure and can physically verify the hinge point placement.
__________________
Joel Heinke
Be original; don't be afraid of being bold!
Reply With Quote