Subject: Re: [Fot] TR CHASSIS FATIGUE - A CAUTIONARY TALE

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:45:54 +0000

Several years ago... When it came time to rebuild my car.  I picked it up with a fork lift and power sprayed the bottom. Exposing cracks in the chassis frame.  It was "DNR" I.e. Do Not Race ever.   I dissasembled with plasma cutter, oxy acetaline, etc. @ the same time ordering a new chassis from RATCO.  The chassis arrived.  It was not perfect (very early product) but after some minor mods that Chuck Gee helped with  we were in "buisiness".  The only thing holding my car together w original chassis was the vintage 1967 roll bar .  Btw the .120" wall thickness and 1.75 OD. Was Heavy and  was used to stiffen the chassis.  The RATCO did not require it.  It's not cheap but an amazing. R.O.I. (Return on investment...).
M
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From: davehogye <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2013 17:15:01 +0000 (UTC)

I had to repair lower front suspension point cracks on my TR3 frame that were not evident until I had it media blasted and started grinding on it, read started grinding on it. The shock tower diagonals looked good too, until blasting revealed pin holes on the lower end. A center punch went through the rusty metal with ease. These frames rust from the inside out. Grinding particles from the cutting of the diagonal gathered around the cracks in the frame and only then did they became obvious. Had I not seen the pin holes, the frame would have been painted and reassembled. Instead, I went through an exhaustive process of strengthening and gusseting many areas of importance. I even welded extra tubing inside the body outriggers creating more substantial roll cage mounts. My car has been out of service since 1975, so that's a mere 15 years of use before this type of frame failure occurred and my car has only lived in California. 

Dave H. 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Alexander" <[email-masked]> 
To: [email-masked] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 9, 2013 1:41:10 PM 
Subject: [Fot] TR CHASSIS FATIGUE - A CAUTIONARY TALE 

FOT: 

I got a nice email from Henry Frye this morning. Henry, knowing that we are 
reworking our TR4, pointed to inspecting the shock towers and anchor points 
for the cross member. He is exactly right. 

Although most everyone understands this, it bears drawing attention to it. 

This is why we are totally dismantling the TR4. Sean and I detected something 
amiss with the front suspension as we discussed winter storage. That led to 
moving the chassis to Niehaus Restorations. Keith is a master 
welder/fabricator. 

We did some gusseting twenty years ago that helped for a long time, but 
finally the shock towers were exhibiting large cracks. The anchor points for 
the cross member is light gauge sheet metal and they were crushed and torn. 

All of this was fixed and reinforced with better materials. The x-member was 
showing rust and fatigue so it was redone. 

Sean painted the frame in an industrial grey so that we can better see what is 
happening with frame. 

There has been some on track frame failures with TRs in the past. We noticed 
something going on when #197 came off the track the last race in 2012. 
Ignoring it would have resulted in a serious failure in 2013. Perhaps a free 
ride to medical, as well. 

Anyway, unless you are investing in a RATCO frame, this is a good time to do a 
close inspection. 

Joe Alexander 
A. R. E. 
645 1st Street 
Jesup, Iowa 50648 
319.464.4711 (cell) 
[email-masked] 

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:18:34 -0500 (EST)

we would like to see you come regardless of whether you race or not.

there are a lot of interesting people coming that are not racing...you 
would be one of them.

> Since we're talking chassis I'll offer up for sale an IRS TR4A bare frame 
> that I have. Looks like I'm getting out of the TR4A business as I've 
> already sold the TR4A wreck I had and I'm in the process of trading the Project 
> (below) for an RV to use for pulling the Spit to vintage races this year 
> and MAYBE to Wisconsin in September. 

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