Thanks for all the comments guys - glad you approve.
The idea actually came from looking at the book jigs. When I started thinking about them I could see a number of potential areas for innacuracy to creep in. Firstly by the use of seperate jigs for upper and lower mounts, secondly, because the lower jig frame is bent to shape a lot of accuracy would be required to get things spot on. The imprtant thing is more the relative positions between the mounts, than the actual positions on the car.
So I simply started with a flat 'plate' placed on the front of my model of the chassis in Solidworks. I then cut the holes in the plate as per the book. Then copied the plate and added it to the back of the front mounts. I could then see a few interference points, so cut some notches in for clearing the chassis tubes. Then of course I realised that there was no easy way to clamp the plate and only limited access the welding - so I cut the big (weight saving
) holes in the middle.
And that was the front one done. Decided to try and see if I could make the same piece of plate fit the rear, and it does, just. A few extra holes and some more cutouts later and you have the end result.
In terms of using them, for the front you would first clamp the fron plate to the front of the chassis, checking that it is square and central to the car. Then you would install your studding, mounts and any spacers onto the front jog like a bix kebab skewer. Then fit the rear plate, spacing it off u1 and u2 by 13mm and once square and central you can clamp to U1/U2.
The rear one is similar but has another advanatge, the plate is notched to fit straight over the RS1/RS2 tubes, so it should self centre on the chassis so you just need to ensure that you set the right fore/aft position (plate 48mm from tubes RS10. and then use your studding to set up the second plate. If you were doing more than a one off you could make up spacer sets and then you could probably fit the mounts in minutes - for mine I will be using studding as it allows the positions to be accurately set.
Just realise as well I forgot to show you how the actual plate looks by itself.
Andy - the 3d stuff is amazingly easy - much easier than the old 2d stuff!
Balidey - the model is in Solidworks 2007 format. You are welcome to a copy but it is not a fully complete model, still requires a bit more work and hasn't been fully checked thoroughly.
