How to bend Viper's frame:

[RoosterBooster]

Re: How to bend Viper\'s frame:

...
Anyway - the post was meant to point the frame's material and potential issues arising from the fact that it is pretty soft metal. Howgh.

madman
sorry, but i still don`t see the point in your statement

IMHO the "softness" of the material used is not very important; critical is how the complete (!) frame structure is designed to "spread out" the load.
if you remove one structural part (like the bumper) the whole thing may looses its integrity

as a example; right now i`m in the process to design a complete new frame for the next offroad car that i`m building (the one that will have the Viper engine in it ). the main "frame" will be a "semi-monocoque" made of a mix of formed aluminum sheets and aluminum extrusions .... bonded together with 3M epoxy and aircraft "magnagrip" lockbolts
one aluminum panel by itself will be "soft" and easy to bend...but the complete bonded structure will be a lot lighter and torsional stiffer then a traditional welded steel-tube frame

btw
this Shannon race car is a good example for a strong frame out of "soft" aluminum :

 

[Warfang]

Re: How to bend Viper\'s frame:

...
Anyway - the post was meant to point the frame's material and potential issues arising from the fact that it is pretty soft metal. Howgh.

madman
sorry, but i still don`t see the point in your statement

IMHO the "softness" of the material used is not very important; critical is how the complete (!) frame structure is designed to "spread out" the load.
if you remove one structural part (like the bumper) the whole thing may looses its integrity

as a example; right now i`m in the process to design a complete new frame for the next offroad car that i`m building (the one that will have the Viper engine in it ). the main "frame" will be a "semi-monocoque" made of a mix of formed aluminum sheets and aluminum extrusions .... bonded together with 3M epoxy and aircraft "magnagrip" lockbolts
one aluminum panel by itself will be "soft" and easy to bend...but the complete bonded structure will be a lot lighter and torsional stiffer then a traditional welded steel-tube frame

btw
this Shannon race car is a good example for a strong frame out of "soft" aluminum :

Awesome... I wish I could build like that.

 

[madman]

Re: How to bend Viper\'s frame:

madman
sorry, but i still don`t see the point in your statement

IMHO the "softness" of the material used is not very important; critical is how the complete (!) frame structure is designed to "spread out" the load.
if you remove one structural part (like the bumper) the whole thing may looses its integrity

as a example; right now i`m in the process to design a complete new frame for the next offroad car that i`m building (the one that will have the Viper engine in it ). the main "frame" will be a "semi-monocoque" made of a mix of formed aluminum sheets and aluminum extrusions .... bonded together with 3M epoxy and aircraft "magnagrip" lockbolts
one aluminum panel by itself will be "soft" and easy to bend...but the complete bonded structure will be a lot lighter and torsional stiffer then a traditional welded steel-tube frame

That frame of yours looks nice. As for my point - there is nothing wrong with soft metal as long as the tubes are reasonably short and interconnected. then the frame is stiff while absorbing the stress nicely. These two rear forks are quite long without further support and that's why they can bend quite easily. the bumper support between them is plastic and hangs on bolts - not quite rigid connection. Anyway - the problem this can cause is rather cosmetic - vital part of the frame such as corners and main body are not in danger. What's not cosmetic and what p.. me off are the excentris bolts stops. Their design is causing me a headache since I can't have alignment set easily. The excentric bolt is coming from its position rather easy. And it's because these stops are made from the same soft metal yet they look to be designed with something harder in mind.