My new chassis build

[Northern Joy]

Hey everyone,

My father in-law has an old westfield (been sitting in storage for 10+ years - can see it in the photos) and I am currently stripping it down and re building it up. But when it's finished my brother-in-law will probally take ownership of it. So I came across 'The book' when searching the Haynes website for a Serria manual to strip and rebuild the 2.0L pinto powering the westfield - but decided to scrap the pinto and put in a 2.0L Zetec instead, but thats another story.

well I was set on the idea of building my own car along side my In-laws westfield. I have only been welding for a few months (MIG) but I feel confident enough to have faith in my welding now (been practising like a madman). I have an engineering background but at only 25 years old don't have too much experience so I'm learning as I go along.

I bought the manual and have just started the base board construction from 2440 x 1220 mm 22mm thick MDF supported by a frame of 75x50mm wood. Atm it is resting on a table but before I begin cutting metal I have 100x100mm fence posts to chop up and make proper legs with.

I have a quick question regarding the choice of steel:

1) I am going to order the steel I require within the next few weeks but not sure if there is a standard of steel I require to make the chassis (mild vs meduim to high carbon content). If so what do I have to ask a supplier for? I understand that the main chassis is 25mm box 16 SWG (~1.6mm) but apart from that not a clue. Thanks for any answers and I'm sure I'll have a LOADS more questions to ask.

Here are a few photos of my progress so far. Only started yesterday but worked the whole day to get this far. God this is going to be a long haul hehe. Starting to measure out the jig working to a 0.5mm tolerance:

Oh and I have a habit of completely tiding my garage / tools before I close down for the night, but during work theres tools everywhere though. These photos were shot after I had tidied up. I HATE spending an hour to try and find any tools I require the next day.







I'm sure theres a few questions I still need answering before work starts properly but for now just wanted to say hello to the community.