Front Outrigger to Frame Details - Help, Please

[bob walker]

Dear All -

Well, I cut out right sills (inner and outer), right floor and a bunch of other rusted stuff (took lots of pictures and made lots of note of measurements), and now I am a bit stuck.

I was going to weld in the front outrigger, and it looks like at where it connects to the frame, the the outrigger was jammed into the frame. The out side of the frame rail in pretty much smoothly bent into the frame box, too. The bottom of the frame rail is beat, too. All the frame rails are pretty beat up on the bottom, I have been straightening them, too.

My question is, is the front outrigger supposed to be like this? The rear outriggers are straight and square. But the front outrigger, even though it was pushed into the frame box, was straight, perfectly perpendicular to the main rail, and the top surface is perfectly flat to the plane of the rest of the frame. If this was caused by a side collision, it just perfectly pushed the outrigger in - hard to believe. By the way, the other side looks exactly the same (front outrigger pushed in). I have had it on a frame machine and the centerline is perfect as well. When the body panels were on the little car it looked pretty straight (except for the rust holes).

Before I go straightening the frame rails, which I think would station the end of the outrigger out about 1/2 to 3/4 inches, Can someone give advise? I hate to start tearing into it if this is how it is supposed to be. Just seems weird how everthing was straight and true, did the rest of the structure keep it lined up? That is hard to believe.

So, questions:

1) What is the distance from the inside of the top part of the inner sill to the main frame rail, front and back.

2) Is the outrigger to main frame rail pushed into the frame box, or is it welded up with the frame rael side flat and the outrigger at 90 degrees at the front of the oputrigger.

As I have stated, my little car is a real beater, I am trying to bring it back to life. Thanks for the help.

I think I am getting a digital camera for Xmas. That will help.

Happy holidays to all, and thanks in advance.

Best Regards,

Bob Walker
1959 BN-7

 

[Dave Russell]

Bob,

There are some drawings listed here but I can't get them to open at this time;
https://www.acmefluid.com.au/larry/healeydraw.html

Also, I have read that the shop manuals have the frame dimensions. Maybe someone with a later model shop manual can verify this.
D

 

[John Loftus]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by bob walker:


1) What is the distance from the inside of the top part of the inner sill to the main frame rail, front and back.

2) Is the outrigger to main frame rail pushed into the frame box, or is it welded up with the frame rael side flat and the outrigger at 90 degrees at the front of the oputrigger.

<hr></blockquote>

Bob,

I'm measuring 13" from the frame rail to the innermost assembly of the sill area on front outrigger. The rear outrigger is harder to measure due to gussets and sill construction. It is about 14 1/4" to the inside sill at the bottom . At the top where the sill jogs inboard it is about 13".

The outrigger is not pushed in on my frame but just butts against the main frame rail and is welded on.

The outrigger tapers from wider to thinner from the frame rail outward. The front surface of the front outrigger and the rear surface of the rear outrigger are perpedicular to the frame rail. The top surfaces of the outriggers are also flat. All the other surfaces are tapered.

Hope this helps. As Dave mentioned there is a Chassis Alignment diagram in the workshop manual which can help with overall dimension. It is a bit hard to see exactly what is going on because the level of detail and reproduction is small.

Cheers,
John

 

[John Loftus]

I found some chassis pictures at the following site which shows the bottom construction.

https://athene.as.arizona.edu/~fwildi/cars/AHbj7/bodywork.htm#raw

I could mark up some of these with dimesions if it helps. Let me know.

Cheers,
John