chassis strengthening high spec xe

[novaxe235]

Right following on from my other thread about suspension and geometry I've now found the problem why the car doesn't drive "right", it seems if you lean on the passenger wing and front panel looking towards the steering rack/bulk-head, while someone turns the steering wheel you can feel the wing moving and see the leg, bulk-head, etc moving as you turn the steering wheel, now the car has had the H/H strengthening kit fitted, seam welded cross member strengthened, etc it has a cage fitted as well. Anyone else had this problem, anyone got any good ideas.

I don't really want to be taking the engine,box and everything else back out yet my idea was to take a bar from the cage to the inside of the bulk-head to strengthen that, then go from cage to the top mounts.

[Edd]

Have you seam welded down the chassis leg to bulkhead ?

[Pistol Pete]

Surely you will have some flex still???

[Mike]

Chassis itself sounds like its split :S

[burgo]

you shouldnt be able to physically see it moving, something very odd there

[Edd]

I'd be looking at behind the turret if that's spilt it will flex, my old xe did this, sold it on in the end :(

[novaxe235]

Edd seam welded bulk-head to the leg,
Pete this isn't a bit of flex it's full on f u c k ing movement
Mike/Burgo that's what I'm thinking as you can see the washer bottle, master cylinder, etc moving. It gets driven hard when it comes out to play but 235bhp is nothing compared to what the let's put up with.

[Mike]

Mike/Burgo that's what I'm thinking as you can see the washer bottle, master cylinder, etc moving. It gets driven hard when it comes out to play but 235bhp is nothing compared to what the let's put up with.

Rotten from the inside out probably, or previous poor crash damage repair maybe :confused:

[Pistol Pete]

Hmmm, id be doing some serious investigation TBH. Dont want it splitting on you!

[novaxe235]

I built it from a bare shell and to be fair there's no rot on it, the shell was dry stored for years before i got it and it's had no welding anywhere except what Ive done for strengthening, that's what's weird it's like the power is progressively pulling it apart?

[burgo]

it can only be cracked somewhere in my opinion

[Pistol Pete]

Well, rot or not somethings not right!

[novaxe235]

Your telling me it's a ******* to drive, it would be nice to find if and where its split, as it would make repairing /strengthening so much easier i take it no one's had this problem before?.

[Edd]

See my post above, behind turret it the bay, worth a look

[Edd]

Also have you covered the welds in sealer down the bulkhead ?
Maybe it's split underneath ?

[novaxe235]

I have Edd there's no split or rot there i had a good look around it earlier today no obvious sign's of splits or holes rot etc anywhere, the only welds which were covered in seam sealer were the ones along the actual chassis leg.

[Paul]

Take the passenger wheel off and check for crank all in the inner wheel arch. Mine split there.

[novaxe235]

Just looking through your wip Paul and that's the one place i haven't looked at yet, might get the sand blaster out and have a look on the weekend around there me thinks.

[Paul]

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs078.ash2/37252_443696010630_564695630_6505881_5250862_n.jpg

here

[Paul]

on my new build i have plug welded all the holes round where the track rod end goes through

[Mike]

on my new build i have plug welded all the holes round where the track rod end goes through

Thats the one thing Ive made sure Ive done on my Corsa since seeing the pic you posted up TBH.

[novaxe235]

Paul did you find the leg visibly moving when turning the steering, when your old build was cracked?.

[Paul]

Yep, felt awfult to drive too.

[16v Nova Kev]

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs078.ash2/37252_443696010630_564695630_6505881_5250862_n.jpg

here

holy siht thats not good.

[novaxe235]

Yep, felt awfult to drive too.Feels **** when accelerating hard, pulls you from left to right, when entering a round about fast, feels like it just want's to push on, no grip?.

[Ron]

i have had my front crossmember split in half 6 months ago as in there was a 3mm gap the outer skin was all that was holding the front together that was with my 1.3 in it and horrible to drive as you said yours is :)