Front Chassis Tower Cross Brace.

[ceejay]

If you have your elan chassis stripped bare
while doing sheet metal repairs, why not
also get to work and fabricate a front tower
strut brace.... just to make sure that the chassis
repairs that you have done, will be provided with
even more strength integrity.

When sheet metal has been badly affected with
rust, the yield strength is greatly diminished,
repairs can be done on the elan chassis by grafting
in new metal, but no matter how many temporary
brace tubes or diagonal stiffeners are employed on
the chassis while carrying out the repairs, metal
distortion will occur, it is hard to avoid, unless the
chassis is mounted solidly at several points to a
heavy repair bench type of jig, and the home
builder-fabricator probably won?t go that route.

Here's the run down on the cross brace
Materials:
Tube Brace: ERW 3/4"X 16g.
Tube Mount Cups: ERW 1/1/4"
Machined/threaded 3/8"UNF pads welded to upper towers.
MS Plate: bottom mounting.
MS Plate mount pad/ 3/8"captives welded to cross member.
(Not used as vacuum tank)
Welding: Oxy Acet: Bronze & MS wire.
Box section on left, is required to clear bottom rad hose etc.

Total cost: About $10.00 bucks.... but don't send your order,
the brace was made from materials already on hand, and
we are not counting fabrication time, because that's what
you do when you've got your own workshop, gear & skills.

Photos show a bit more detail, but a bit hard to see fine
detail with the new glossy chassis paint.

Will the cross brace make a difference? Well, we have not
yet driven the rebuilt car, but you know from this kind of
triangulation that it will certainly make the entire front of
the chassis much more rigid.

This is just another refinement possible to do while the body
is removed from the chassis.
Ceejay..

PS
You might be wondering does everything fit?
Well yes it does, while the fabricating was progressing the body
was on and off several times making sure that everything
around the front of the engine and the nice new PWR
alloy cross flow rad fitted.
Cant wait to get the rest of the jobs all cleaned up so that
the elan can be assembled and back on the road once again.