New Chassis Are Being Made !!!!!

[angel]

Some years ago I had been told from a friend in Belgrade that they used to obtain complete floorpans from Turkey (obviously made at the renault factory there? who knows...).

But from a floorpan to a complete chassis is a very long way for a factory. A chassis needs an assembly line and the corresponding tooling and workers-a floorpan doesn't. In order to make that kind of investment, a company must guarantee that production will actually be profitable, this means they must be able to have a somewhat constant "flow" of sales-not 10 chassis to Derek, another 3 to Malcolm, another two to Angel and then stop. Let's think, too, that once a R4 has a chassis replaced, it will not need another one for probably the next 30 or more years.
Now compare this with the 2CV market...their chassis breaks like a toothpick, even if it is not rotten. Price of a good 2CV is typically double or more than an R4, that makes chassis replacement worthwile, even if the car is going to be sold. All of these, guarantees to the chassis makers that they will have somewhat steady sales. Note that in France they also started re-manufacturing Mehari bodyshells...the 2CV-and derivative-market is still very strong...

 

[benchseat]

I received a reply from Herr Biemann.

So long as a minimum order of 100 chassis is made, they could be done for Euros 1500, plus the cost of materials. This latter cost is not specified, but I imagine (see my previous post) is probably small compared with the basic set-up and construction time-costs.

Obviously we need to know whether these chassis would be fully up to specification as regards Type Approval etc. I imagine that they are (meticulous German approach).

So we appear to have a potential source of new chassis - at a price . . .

 

[benchseat]

. . . A further update :

Herr Biemann EMails me to say that "so far as they are concerned, this project is definitely dead".

So we are back to Square One , unless someone can ascertain whether the Colombian chassis are still available, or can come up with ideas regarding other possible suppliers.

 

[alewis]

2 Thoughts:
Would anyone like Derek at RenoSpeed be interested in doing reconditioned chassis - they take your chassis off your hands and give you one thats been welded and painted for the cost of repairs to yours plus a bit ?
(Would also mean all the complex bits like front torsion bars could be taken care of as even if new chassis become avaliable things like this would be a problem for people like me)

Second thought:
How about just a new Replacement Rear Chassis as the problem that I see is that aligning the rear components is a right pain requiring Jigs hence the problem What if there was a new rear avaliable that was designed to fit on with minimal alignment.

So for example the person grinds off the old chassis legs and welds a whole new rear on the chassis ?
(Would need to be a good welder but could be a cheap job for someone to do)

What would be brilliant is if it was designed to be bolted on so anyone could do it but I can see major structual headaches with that one !!

 

[Steve Hennessey]

Why don't you ask Derek? Go to his website to get his contact details.

I'm not sure how many of the contributors to this thread have actually welded up a chassis, but I can assure you that the R4 chassis is quite complicated. Saying that, the middle section is quite straightforward to repair IF you are a competent sheet metal worker and welder, AND you are extremely careful to keep everything straight. Best to use a jig - Malcolm made one and it works.

The most complicated part of the chassis is the front end - it can be repaired if it's not too far gone. The rear chassis legs are less complicated and a good sheet metal worker could probably make these - again, a jig will be needed. The outer rear radius arm mounts on the chassis can still be obtained from Wind Classics. Again, these could be made up by a skilled worker.

To sum up - almost any chassis can be repaired; a jig will be needed; it won't come cheap!!!

 

[alewis]

Im in the process of doing just that, well actually just finished the welding !

I did contact Derek initially about the welding and concluded i couldnt afford it which for me would also rule out a new chassis.

The only thought I did have is if some kind of bolt on repair could be made for the rear inner and outer suspension mounts this would at least help owners keep alot of cars alive which otherwise would be scrapped.
Although when I put my sensible hat back on I can see the monumental problems it would have !