Custom Chassis & Suspension Design

[hadi-gt500]

Hello everyone
This is my first topic and also post.
in my country it is hard to find classic American cars and it is harder to find parts.
The best choice to restore is chevy products in my country, so I'm looking for a 1950s chevy truck. Because of bad conditions, I also want to change the chassis and suspension to a custom one similar to AME's.
I'm student of mechanical engineering (last year) and I'm looking for how to design chassis and suspension!
for the chassis, I've looked for it and I want to use this:
100x50 mm, st52(depending on manufacturer), 3 mm thick tube very close to 2"x4" NASCAR standards.
and I have no idea about suspension!!!!
Please Help Me!!!!!

[marcush.]

chevy trucks use live rear axles -maybe one would start off with a research what people do or did with these. Mr.Mumford and Mr.Mallock instantly come up as potential contributors here ..
TAM1,2,3 would be my personal starting point for the rear..

maybe you search this site?
http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... f=5&t=9491

as for the front ... I´d guess the hot rodding scene in USA is a splendid source of this ..I ´d believe it makes sense to take something useful in terms of OEM Uprights ,brakes and everything as a startingpoint to save cost and then it makes sense to use something readily available instead of reinventing the wheel:



US Hot Rod industry has readily available Front suspension members to carry Mustang and corvette bits ....I´d think a cool starting point for a project- and those usually have the steering already thought out as well..

For the stteering itself there is a company called "Flaming River" who do nice modern car steering conversions for old US cars..which conveniently all have ladder frames to start with ... so with a few plates and welding you should be easily being able to get something done.

the whole thing should be great fun!

[hadi-gt500]

Thank you
I wonder if I could use the old steering available on the car instead of replacing it with a modern one?!
what's your idea about the tube specs?
And I think RCVD is the starting point for designing, is it true?

[Greg Locock]

old steering systems are almost universally horrible. RCVD is indeed the bible, although you may well get good enough results with Tune to Win etc by Carroll Smith, and you might get fewer headaches.

[hadi-gt500]

Thank u!
I've started reading and working on mandrel bending.
Please tell me about tube specs.

[strad]

If you can find issues of STREET RODDER it would help you a lot.
Not sure where or if you can track down back issues on line but you can start here :http://www.hotrod.com/street-rodder-magazine/

[bdr529]

Hello everyone
This is my first topic and also post.
in my country it is hard to find classic American cars and it is harder to find parts.
The best choice to restore is chevy products in my country, so I'm looking for a 1950s chevy truck. Because of bad conditions, I also want to change the chassis and suspension to a custom one similar to AME's.
I'm student of mechanical engineering (last year) and I'm looking for how to design chassis and suspension!
for the chassis, I've looked for it and I want to use this:
100x50 mm, st52(depending on manufacturer), 3 mm thick tube very close to 2"x4" NASCAR standards.
and I have no idea about suspension!!!!
Please Help Me!!!!!

I'm guessing you saw this truck and fell in love with it.


The chevy is a very good choice there's lots of after market stuff out their and you can still get lots of original parts from junk yards, You didn't say what motor you wanted to use.
have you thought about buying a chassis you can get them bare bones and do the rest your self,
have a look at this site you can get some good info that may help you out along the way.
http://www.progressiveautomotive.com/fr ... rames.html


I'll call my brother he's a Chevy guy, drives a 1968 Nova SS 350 i'm sure he'll know some sites you can check out.
And like Strad said go to the HotRod site

[strad]

yes there are a ton of aftermarket frames available. For some reason I thought he wanted to do his own for possibly financial reasons....
Unfortunately I just to my latest issue of Street Rodder to work .. I do that to share with friends each month, but this is a fair example: http://www.totalcostinvolved.com/c/292/ ... te-chassis
and AME: http://artmorrison.com/trucks.php

[Tommy Cookers]

......
Please tell me about tube specs.

your college lecturer might say ......
the cheapest steel made has essentially the same stiffness properties ('E' value) as any other
so what advantage would you access in using anything better ? (for the frame members)
the cheapest steel will have at least as much fracture work than your st52, so crash performance will be at least as good
and you might get it very cheap from a scrapyard

ok there might be significant practical factors like how tight the section's corners need to be
certainly with st52 you have that choice

apologies to strad for this retro-edit .....
st52 seems to be what we might call a low-alloy steel
certainly some fraction of the pressed-steel unitary car structure is typically low-alloy steel these days
it would be interesting to know what the chassis frame type of SUV/4x4 uses (for the frame)
low-alloy steel might help where/how unpredictable loads eg suspension-bottoming loads are fed into the frame

[strad]

I would think any 2x4 or 2x6 mild steel would work . I see no need for chrome molly or anything fancy.

[hadi-gt500]

Thank you so much fellas, I wasn't online for a while, so I apologize!
as u said there are a lot of options in US but I'm not living there and import costs are so high in my country ...
I don't get it! is st52 a good choice or not? I think it is used in some military Humvee!

By the way I've participated in a Electronic sport-bike student competition and i'm in charge of chassis and suspension stuff.
every thing about design is open so I'm confused!
what do you suggest for rear suspension
1- mono-shock with bell crank
2- mono-shock without bell crank
3- simple dual shock
.
.
.