Most steel fabricators will have to buy in the steel, as they will rarely be using 1.6erw otherwise. In their racks they would be unlikey to have anything thinner that 2mm.
Building a full chassis jig would not be economic unless they were going to do quite a few, but what really takes the time is preparing the stock to the correct lengths and angles. There are just so many different pieces that even if they had a nifty machine for cutting them, something that could do some of the really acute angles in one go, that it will still be very time absorbing.
The Haynes design works because if the bottom is done right, and care is taken with the rest of it then a reasonablty accurate chassis will result, but at £350 for the whole lot, how much care could be taken?
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