There's a guy in PE that's close to completing a mid enigined car and he's a member of the Locost forum. I think he's some kind of engineer that works for a firm that produce containers for overseas clients or something similar - he seems to be very knowledgeable and highly skilled and it shows in the build pics I have seen. I believe he's very highly regarded.

I'll try to establish contact with him on Locost.co.uk. Been a long time since I posted there.

Keep your fingers crossed!!!!!

Well... not very encouraging results thus far. Seems an Ebay chassis pack is the route to go!

should i start my chassis again i,ve used 25x25x2mm rhs the reason been it was very very cheap.
thwang

I hate the idea of importing a chassis pack - it's like bringing coals to Newcastle. There's quite a few mills here in SA that seems to produce ERW but looks like the distributors do'nt want to sell it to small fry like us.

Most of the local guys, I have spoken to over the past few days have used rhs.

Which, I do'nt mind using. Problem is, I know that if I get this car built, my wife and son is prolly going to hog the car and I'll never forgive myself if something terrible happens to them due to to me not following specs.

Dunno know, maybe I'm worrying too much about nothing.:confused:

Just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons again, Ron Champion specified RHS for the original Locost.

It's my understanding that RHS means rectangular hollow section (just as CHS means circular hollow section)

Therefore ERW in square form is just a type of RHS. Maybe ERW is made in a way that isn't suitable for the thicker sections?

So, when I look in the tube details appendix in Chris's book and see that RHS is specified for all the square tubes, I assume that means ERW RHS because that is what is available in the 16 gauge that is appropriate for this type of chassis.

I am using ERW, BTW. If I lived somewhere where ERW in 16gauge was not available, then I would use whatever was available (as long as it wasn't outrageously heavy) and not worry about it.

Basically what seems to be important is that the wall be 1.6mm or thereabouts?

I'm not an expert on the various types of steel available, but I would have thought that what was important was to use a material that was no thicker (and therefore heavier) than it needed to be. If 1.6 if thick enough, then that is the stuff to use, unless it isn't available, in which case use whatever is. If that was (for instance) 3mm then the chassis would obviously be a good deal heavier, but that's better than not building the car at all, much better.

Well,I'm still a few months off before starting so I have some time still to ponder the issue.

I'm not getting younger, my health is'nt getting better and my finances are'nt looking too brigth - so if I want to build this thing then I better start in the next couple of months or not at all.

thinking back we used dirty black rhs for some stock car chassis we built years ago and had a chat with my old foreman last night we only used rhs for building breakdown recovery wagons.plus im not thinking of planting it in a wall any time soon.
thwang