Swift DB-3 Help!

[Richard]

I was the most unfortunate in the wreck last Saturday at VIR. I came over the hill at South Bend after seeing a cloud of dust (figured someone just put a wheel off) and no flag, and saw about 4 stopped cars in the 'valley'. Only thing I could do was lock up all 4 and try to get off the track. Well, the car turned 90 degrees and slammed sideways into another guys transmission. Anyway, to make a long story short, the left side of my car is crushed. I am planning on cutting the frame and welding it back. Only problem is getting the metal for this. What I need is 1 1/8" OD Chromoly 4130 and 1" Tube Steel. Does anyone have any idea where I can get this stuff? I'd like to make ARRC, but the way it's looking, I won't have the materials to fix the car by then. Thanks in advance.

Richard
CFC newbie

[butchcfc01]

RICH, you might try Wicks Aircraft Supply.com
or Race Pages.com
BUTCHcfc01 GOOD LUCK!!!!

[Dave]

Try onlinemetals.com

Catalog Page

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Richard:
I was the most unfortunate in the wreck last Saturday at VIR. I came over the hill at South Bend after seeing a cloud of dust (figured someone just put a wheel off) and no flag, and saw about 4 stopped cars in the 'valley'. Only thing I could do was lock up all 4 and try to get off the track. Well, the car turned 90 degrees and slammed sideways into another guys transmission. Anyway, to make a long story short, the left side of my car is crushed. I am planning on cutting the frame and welding it back. Only problem is getting the metal for this. What I need is 1 1/8" OD Chromoly 4130 and 1" Tube Steel. Does anyone have any idea where I can get this stuff? I'd like to make ARRC, but the way it's looking, I won't have the materials to fix the car by then. Thanks in advance.

Richard
CFC newbie<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Tom Johnson]

I use The Chassis Shop.
www.chassisshop.com

Nice folks, online catalogue, will cut in 8' lengths to ship UPS free, and competitive prices. Good quality tube. They also have airfoil tube available about the cheapest I have found.

Good luck!

[Bob Wright]

How badly was the frame hit? 4130 steel needs to be normalized after welding and should be tig, not mig or stick welded for best results. It will move all over the place when heated. Also, depending on the damage, the car should be put on a frame table. The Swift frames are incredibly stout, but the design puts stress (read future cracks) in lots of strange places when its tweaked. If its only a couple of pickup points, you can get away with any kind of welds, but from your post, it sounds much worse. You might call Richard Morgan at Morgan Racing to see who he uses. He's based out of the Charlotte area.

[Purple Frog]

I saw the action from about 100 feet behind, and then looked at the car in impound... while the officials were checking my fuel a few times...

Granted, I didn't get to see it with the body panels off, but it looked like the damage was to the top horizontal bar running from the roll bar to the front hoop (above the drivers shoulder). If that was the only bent bar it could be an easy fix. If the lower bar that crosses through the intake duct for the radiator is bent, then I would think the chassis would need to be bolted on a plate for repair.

Morgan in Charlotte would be a good contact. He keeps LaTerra's Swift looking great.

[Richard]

The damage looks to be pretty bad actually. All the bars on the left side including the square tubing on the bottom are bent badly. Looks like Morgan is the place to go for me. Do you recommend that I do this before or after the bars are cut and welded? I need to know ASAP because my welding guy has the 4130 and is planning on welding tomorrow. Let me know. I'm not at my computer right now, but as soon as I get back to my hard drive, I'll post pics of the damage for you.

Richard

[Purple Frog]

....Oh boy....

If all the bars on the left are bent, then OBTW all the bars on the right are bent.

IMHO there is no quick fix. It sounds like a job for pros working with a bare frame on a good table.

I think to make the ARRC you'll need to buy that SE-3 from Texas real quick.

[Bob Wright]

I second Purple Frog- absolutely put it on a table. I had experience rebuilding an extensively damaged DB6 frame. Once its on the frame table, a good technician can make it almost as new. 4130 is wonderful stuff to work with when you know what you're doing. A second person to contact (not as close as Morgan) is Frank Nestor at High Performance Vehicle Engineering in Easton, PA. He rebuilt my DB6 and did a great job.