boulogne racer build

[Tony Betts]

Got my postage done this morning, so this afternoon I got granny out of bed. So I could use the angle iron on her bed frame to strengthen the chassis.

Yes the angle I'm useing, is the frame from an old bed. I'm having to cut 3/8 from each side. And the front is shaped so it misses the column holes. But why not, its quality old english steel.

   

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I dont mind showing my welding, I'm sure others can do better. But it's in there good and solid.

And now I have a chassis, that is structurally sound and straight.

If I get the time tomorrow afternoon, I can now do the cleaning and painting.

   

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[Zetomagneto]

Bedframe metal used to be a good source of free quality metal. I made a workbench out of it years ago, also made a towbar but on both occasions found it didn’t weld particularly well the suggestion being the bed iron has a high carbon content.
Also as a boy towed old bed Irons round my Grans paddock with a Morris 8 .

[Jacob Fowkes]

Like a lot of mass produced sections. Bed iron & Rebar being good examples vary massively. Nice work

[Hedd_Jones]

I repaired the chassis on my RL with bed iron. Father dealing in scrap had a good supply. I've always found bed iron to be excellent quality, given the span of a bed and the slenderness of the member, they need to be strong

[Charles P]

I repaired the chassis on my RL with bed iron. Father dealing in scrap had a good supply. I've always found bed iron to be excellent quality, given the span of a bed and the slenderness of the member, they need to be strong

I've always found bed iron a pain to weld, but I'm far from the worlds best welder!

[Tony Betts]

I found the bed iron fine to weld.

The main problem not being an expert, was keeping the two materials close together to get a tight weld.

I only have a mig welder in use at the moment, and it would have been 100 x easier with gas on old materials.

I'll tidy it a bit before I paint, and I dont expect to many to climb under the car when its parked up.

Tony.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

They all will, now, Tony!

[Ivor Hawkins]

I use two lengths of bed iron bolted together to fold sheet metal, wonderful stuff!

Coming along nicely Tony, lick of paint, on with the springs and axles you’ll have a rolling chassis before you know it.

[Malcolm Parker]

My first Austin 7, a Mk 1 Ruby CRA 212, had been fitted with bed iron angle under each running board, extending up under the front and rear wheel arches.  This did nothing for the power to weight ratio.
A friend who worked in the steel industry told me that bed iron, especially 'Vono', was of very good quality.  It also has a sharp 90 degree angle rather than a radiused angle.  It is invaluable to the impecunious special builder.

[Tony Betts]

thank you all for your input.

R, if you do get down to have a look. make sure you can get up again before you try.

it maybe an advantage of our members mainly being over an age? 

collected some more parts earlier.