chassis build or buy

Just about ready to build a chassis for the Fairlane. My current chassis; stock front rails, 2x3x.250 subframes & rear rails,1 3/4" 8 pt bar. then converted over to a cage with 1 5/8", all steel pans. looking at cutting down the weight from 3500 to ???? I was looking at Alston Race Car's website www.alstonracing.com. Has anybody used these guys? I can get a full ms 1 5/8 round tube or 2x3 chassis for $1100 shipped, or do you think it is cheaper to build a chassis? Any suggestions? Thanks for the input. Jason

Alston is a very good outfit. If that's a full chassis kit, the price is not too bad at all.







Doug...

keep in mind that most of the kit's are gona be "bars in a box".they'll be a lot of cutting and all the notching to do,at least the kit's i'v saw.i have chassisworks ladder bar's under mine and love them,never had any problems.dont know how much thought you'v given to the front suspension but strut's are the shit if you can swing the cost for them.i also looked at rj race cars at quartermax.com,they'v got a good deal on a sportsman chassis too.good luck.

Doug....yes that is a full chassis kit

Cool40.... I know that they are "bars in a box". Some tubes are pre-notched, comes with blueprints. I currently have fox body struts on the front of the car and ladder bars on the rear. If I go with Alston, I need to call Bob there and go over a few details. I have the welder,bender,and notcher already. Just no frame jig (Garage floor is pretty damn flat and level). I bought them when we did some chassis work on my buddy's Falcon I will be posting a build along soon,just put pics on photobucket. just need to put them here.

what is the going rate per foot for 1 5/8" round mild steel?

forgot to add...they said it will cert to 8.50....with a few added bars 7.50....I have no plans to be going that fast...unless i inherit money,win the lottery, or sponser's...I do not for see any of the above happening!

There are a few good kits out there. If i was going to do all that work i would do a full round tube chassis and most of the time you can pick up CM at a better price then MS if you build it your self. My car is a S&W race car kit.

What kit might be "best" depends on the application.

The higher priced SFI mild steel Kits from the big shops, (McAmis, Bickel/ART, RJ/Quarter Max, Alston/Chassis Works, Chassis Engineering) are usually going to fit the best. And depending on the chassis maker & body style used they might fit so tight that they will require most/all inner body structure to be removed to have more driver room when a double frame rail is used.

On the other hand the lower priced kits from like Alston and S&W might not fit the body as well. But then on a "pro street" type full chassis build that might not really be a problem anyway since a lot of pro street setups need the looser cage fit to help clear a full interior (head liner, factory door panels, factory dash, etc, etc).

what is the going rate per foot for 1 5/8" round mild steel?


It all depends on what kind of "mild steel" tubing we are talking about......


"Hot rolled electric weld" (HREW) seamed is usually the lowest priced ms. It usually has much looser OD & wall thickness tolerances (sometimes way off the mark). Since the base material is hot formed (& therefore much more rigid) It is usually thought of as a "harder/stiffer" ms, making it somewhat harder to bend in a tubing bender. And since it's hot formed it has much more surface scale making it harder to weld on without first prepping (sanding) the weld joint.


"Cold rolled electric weld" (CREW) seamed is usually next in price. It usually has somewhat looser OD & wall thickness tolerances. Since the base material is cold formed (& therefore hasent seen heat/cool cycles) it is usually thought of as a "softer" ms making it a little easier to bend in a tubing bender than HREW. And since it's cold formed it has a lot less surface scale making it easier to weld on without first prepping (sanding) the weld joint.


"Drawn over mandrel" (DOM) "seamless" mild steel (deceptive name since there is in fact an unseen weld seam) is usually the most expensive ms. Cost damn near as much as 'moly tubing. It has the tightest/closest OD & wall thickness tolerances of all the mild steel types. It's measurements are usually dead-on to what it's advertised as. DOM base starts out as hot rolled material. Because of this DOM also has a scale surface (but not near as bad as HREW) & is a "stiffer" ms that is a little harder to bend than CREW.

The seamed HREW & CREW tubing's looser production OD & wall thickness tolerances is why when they are used for chassis/cage material, a .134" wall is used instead of .120" wall on the NHRA/IHRA stuff (& a .120" wall instead of .108" on the smaller tubing for the SFI stuff).

Dave, thanks for some insite on mild steel.
I like the idea of building my own chassis and cage. but i am tring to figure out the least expensive way....buy or build.
What do the majority of companies use for chassis/cage material?
guess i need to do more research.

Northwest Outlaw, if i had a tig....cm would be an option. only a 220v mig.

What do the majority of companies use for chassis/cage material?

Hard to say, they all get used by somebody........

Some shops say they only use DOM because the tighter tolerances allow them to stay with .120" wall instead of jumping to.134" wall to assure they will sonic at least .118".

Others use the seamed HREW or CREW because it cost less. And at .134" wall, the seamed stuff really isn't that much heavier than the .120" wall DOM stuff when you factor in the fact that it's looser tolerances mean it might not actually be .134" thick. In the past I have seen some .134" wall seamed tubing that sonic tested as thin as .122"