When is a chassis killed?

[KTMLew]

Talking about something built in say last 10 years. Round tube cars. At what point do the builders say, it's junk.

HTF took pretty big shot at Eldora. I'll bet needs rear clip and part of front. Needs all rear suspension attachment tabs replaced. The tabs where the bolt-in, supposed to save the chassis brackets, bolt too. RF has a-arm uprights damaged & I'll bet the rack mount is moved.

At what point do you just let it go? Turn it into a crate car or modified.

[Kromulous]

Most will say in one season there done. I dont agree with that at all, when it slows down on the stop watch, is when or excessive cracking.

Softer chassis with more flex have bigger sweet spots, rigid chassis are the opposite but stand a chance at being faster with a Driver that can feel the nuanced changes. Rigid chassis crack more while a softer one you wont noitce it, and you wont notice your losing speed.

At the end of the day its just a pile of tubes welded together, the math and engineering thats hidden in the design is where the magic is, very little difference in any chassis these days thou.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Talking about something built in say last 10 years. Round tube cars. At what point do the builders say, it's junk.

HTF took pretty big shot at Eldora. I'll bet needs rear clip and part of front. Needs all rear suspension attachment tabs replaced. The tabs where the bolt-in, supposed to save the chassis brackets, bolt too. RF has a-arm uprights damaged & I'll bet the rack mount is moved.

At what point do you just let it go? Turn it into a crate car or modified.

You can always cut out what is bad and put it back together. It comes down to effort vs buying new. I'd probably not fix something where the main X in the center of the car is bent.

If it isn't good enough to be a super, it isn't good enough to be a crate. Those cats spend just as much on their cars or more. It needs to be right no matter the engine.

[KTMLew]

If a chassis is twisted or diamonded, when is too much? Will the chassis ever be the same after repair from a handling standpoint? Not talking about a chassis that's "worn out" from too many laps. Talking about crash damage.

I don't see Madden being as good as he was before having his car fixed few months back. Still same chassis or did the build him another? Pretty common knowledge, no matter the builder, cars built one after other can be different.

I'd think have to cut tubes away from damaged area to see if car is "sprung". Or does it matter? I know this is kinda opening a can of worms here. Opinions & all.

[Jim11h]

Steel has memory. Cut and it will spring back close. Sometimes cutting and repairs will help a car. Welding pulls the tubing or draws it in a direction. Jigs were created to theoretically put everything back to same spots. Your setup may vary from original pre accident but a sweet spot still there, just moved slightly.


Fixing vs new depends on how deep your pockets and work you do yourself.

[PushinTheLimit]

I barrel-rolled a car 3 times last year... landed upside down after it hit right on the main A-pillar twice in hotlaps. It bent the halo a couple inches and enough that the front windshield bars were at an angle and not straight anymore. Noone really wanted to fix it so we ended up scrapping it and buying a new chassis. Someone did end up buy our old car... but the jury is still out if it handles like it did before the crash.

[dirtcrazy4u]

Team had 2 identical cars. Both new with the exact same bolt on items. Car A was a excellent handling car, after getting stuffed in the wall it had to get a new front clip. It went back to rocket for that work. Car #2 hits the track and no matter what we did it was slower than the first car. The setups where so much different is was puzzling. When the first car came back it was finally put back together and we put the original set up back under it and it was like wtf, car was back to running as strong as before it got clipped. Car 2 was stripped and sold off. It happens, was it welded wrong ? Who knows. I know we measured and remeasured, yet it did not respond like the first car.

[crownman25]

dirtcrazy did you ever put the motor out of the good car into bad car?

[dirtcrazy4u]

Yes the car was complete minus motor and trans. We took them out checked them over and slid into the second car. It took all the bolt on stuff off the front of the motor including the right side value cover and header but never hurt the head. We thought for sure something was going to be cracked but surprisingly it was not. Again as I said, I don't care who it is, if these guys out there running lucas or WoO get a unresponsive car they sell them off as quick as possible.

[Paradox28]

Its killed when the investment in time and money is near the same as a new bare chassis

[KTMLew]

HTF got their newest LongHorn back and were almost finished assembling it last night. Needed to do a thorough bolt check and put the body on. Chassis wasn't "hurt". Replaced all the rear suspension mounting tabs, bought complete rear end with birdcages as they didn't have a spare for the LH's, replaced RF suspension & chassis A arm uprights & right shock mount & cross brace. At least 2 shocks.

Jonathon had guessed 15K damage...he was low. I'd bet that complete rear end was 5K. Wrecking gets expensive.