pic: 6WD Riveted Frame Development

[M. Mellott]

Originally Posted by squirrel

1726 did a riveted chassis this year, made from 1 x 4 x 1/4" pultruded fiberglass channel, and .060" sheet 3003 aluminum for the full belly pan and top gussets. We used 3/16" rivets from the hardware store. It worked just fine. Also we used cantilevered axles, mounted directly to the fiberglass, and had no problem with them. There was quite a bit of design work in this chassis, so fabrication and assembly was straightforward.

I think there are some pictures on the NERDS photo gallery...

I took a look at the pictures and noticed you notched the U-channel to insert the end into the end rail similar to this design. However, there appeared to be nothing joining the four fiberglass frame members together except for the bellypan and the four sheetmetal gusset plates on top of the four corners, with nothing actually inside the corners. Is that correct?