New chassis advice

[Andy8421]

My DHC Sprint was purchased in 1986 as a restoration project, and I am now just getting around to it. Been a little busy in the interim...

I want to start with a new chassis. The Sprint has a galvanized lotus replacement chassis which shows no sign of rust (quite impressive for what must be at least a 30 year old chassis), but it is knocked about with the usual jack indents on the front crossmember, and it has had a mickey mouse cut out made for the exhaust manifold.

I don't want to go the Spyder route, but I need some advice on the question of galvanized / non galvanized. I recall horror stories of distorted galvanized chassis, but this may be ancient history. I have searched the forum, but most of the discussion seems a few years ago. What is the current thinking on galvanized / non galvanized?

I live close to Chiddingfold which is where Gartrac are based (I believe they are the source of the lotus replacement chassis), so I was going to pop over and have a chat, but I wanted some background information first.

Thanks for any help.

[bcmc33]

Such a welded structure would need careful jigging to prevent distortion during the galvanising process, and if Gartrac is the manufacturer, they could tell you how the structure is checked post galvanising.
However, if it were me changing the chassis (sorry, sub-frame), I would buy it bare and paint it with a couple of coats of POR-15.

[Andy8421]

Brian,

Thanks for the reply.

I remember back when I last thought about restoring the Sprint (about 10 years ago) the galv / non galv argument was running strong - I guess chassis replacement is reasonably rare now - the cars do little mileage and are all already on replacement chassis.

If I unearth any nuggets, I will post back.

Andy.

[collins_dan]

Andy, Ultimately it's your money and only you know what you want the process and final product to be like. That said, if you post pictures of your areas of concern with your current chassis, then maybe some of the knowledgeable folks on the forum can provide advice as to if it needs be replaced. Could save you a lot of time and money, which can go towards other aspects of the restoration and get the car on the road quicker. Cheers, Dan

[Thornts]

Andy
I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about galv/non-galv; they aint doing any more galv ones! We have just been looking into this for the new owner of my S4 and for a road car it seemed to be a no-brainer. Galv is fit and forget, as the condition of yours shows. Yes, there have allways been issues with the heat in the process distorting them but eventually they seemd to get on top of this by re-jigging them after the galvanizing. For race cars (requiring mm perfect suspension set ups) there was still an issue and Tony Thompson wouldn't sell them.
All of that is a bit irrelevant now but it may have a bearing on what you do with yours; stick with a galvanized chassis that will probably last for ever even if it now a bit battered or have a new, straight pretty but only painted one. At least you have one less decision to make!
As an aside, I do not think Gartrac will deal with you direct. As I understand it, all new chassis have to come via Miles Wilkins no matter where you order them from. How about asking them to stick your existing one on the jig (which they tell me is the original one from Lotus) to check it is still true - if it ever was!? That is what I will do with my S3.
Good luck.

Rob
S3 SE FHC
S2 7