SLC Video on Tavarish

From one of his recent posts on Instagram, I believe he's mainly planning to use the chassis from the SLC and doing a one-off body using other stuff he has picked up recently.
 
from his most recent video where he removes the 20B, he shows damage to the chassis... rear and undercarriage...
 

Ken Roberts

Supporter
He announced today that he is dropping the SLC build. Superlite Cars didn't want to be associated with it according to him. I don't blame Fran. This car was seriously stressed. Lots of suspension components, body parts and frame members needed to be replaced. This guy can't seem to finish anything. He is far from being a reputable repair shop or fabricator.
 
That tub is DONE. Maybe a few suspension pieces survived but man, that thing is done.
Another feature video from the "Short Attention Span Theater" crowd.

And there are some that don't seem to understand that the chassis isn't in any condition to try to repair, and are complaining that Fran wouldn't provide the information needed to reweld the frame. Oh well.
 
I really dodged a bullet not getting that car at the price the auction went for. I knew it was going to be a big project, but after seeing how bad it was damaged, it really is a start from scratch situation. I suspect that motor is in trouble too, rotories don't really do too well after high speed impacts. Bearings tend to go.

Anyone want to comment on his analysis of the welds on the back upright in the chassis?

Bob
 

Ken Roberts

Supporter
It's very difficult to weld one part that is only 1/8" thick to a second part that is 2" thick. You risk blowing right thru the 1/8" thick piece. . Preheating the thicker piece first helps. In general I think the chassis held up well against the forces put upon it. That rear upper control arm which is thick had a nice bend in it.
 
I wanted to see what he ended up doing with it. Everything can be fixed if you have the skills. Not saying that shop does. But I have seen way worse crashed cars come back.
 
sure it could be fixed, but at what cost and how good would it be when done. a new rolling chassis is what 10,000? I offered to buy the chassis to use for mocking up a AWD front end on it, but never heard back from him. I bet it gets sold for aluminum scrap.

bob
 

Howard Jones

Supporter
That guy is a complete joke. I wouldn't let him check my tire pressure. Can't fabricate? why in gods name does he have a utube channel that purports to "do car projects" if he can't make anything himself?

That car is a complete dumpster deal unless you can "fabricate". How could anybody even look at it and not see it would require at least some welding to fix it. I know at least two pros that could rebuild that entire rear subframe and weld it back onto the center chassis "box" but I think I would at least think about remaking a entire rear subframe out of steel and bolt it to the center section.

The bodywork is fixable if you can do fiberglass work and you have most of the pieces. The problem would be time. I know it would take me years. The question is what is it worth? I wouldn't consider trying to fix that if I had to pay more than a couple of thou for the entire deal.

Fran isn't in business to repair crashed cars. He sells new ones. I, not only don't blame him, I thank him for not helping that hack put that mess back on the road.

Oh and it broke right where I would think it should break. The 2 inch thick vertical section BENT! It took a lot of force to do that. Of course the tubing section broke off from the solid section at the weld. Where else COULD it break. Certainly I would not expect the tubing itself to tear into two pieces and have the weld stay together. That's just not reasonable to expect in this case even if theory says that the weld should be as strong as the parent materials. Certainly the fillet that was formed by the weld bead was at least a 1/8 inch thick and it appears that it stayed attached to both parts. It did not peal off one and not the other as would be a indication of a cold weld.

If I did fix it maybe I would use 1/4 inch wall in some areas of the rear subframe but I don't think it would change the fact that a similar shunt would have bent or cracked the rear corner of the subframe regardless of it's materials or construction given weight constraints.

If you back one of these cars we all like, aluminum SLC's or steel tube frame GT40s, into a wall that hard it will get chassis damage. That is just the way it is fellas.

If all that had been a steel tube chassis then the tubing would have bent, but what would have been the result. You would still have to cut it all off and remake the sections and weld it all back together. The practical repair isn't all that much different really. The materials are different, that's all.
 
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That guy is a complete joke. I wouldn't let him check my tire pressure. Can't fabricate? why in gods name does he have a utube channel that purports to "do car projects" if he can't make anything himself?

That car is a complete dumpster deal unless you can "fabricate". How could anybody even look at it and not see it would require at least some welding to fix it. I know at least two pros that could rebuild that entire rear subframe and weld it back onto the center chassis "box" but I think I would at least think about remaking a entire rear subframe out of steel and bolt it to the center section.

The bodywork is fixable if you can do fiberglass work and you have most of the pieces. The problem would be time. I know it would take me years. The question is what is it worth? I wouldn't consider trying to fix that if I had to pay more than a couple of thou for the entire deal.

Fran isn't in business to repair crashed cars. He sells new ones. I, not only don't blame him, I thank him for not helping that hack put that mess back on the road.

Oh and it broke right where I would think it should break. The 2 inch thick vertical section BENT! It took a lot of force to do that. Of course the tubing section broke off from the solid section at the weld. Where else COULD it break. Certainly I would not expect the tubing itself to tear into two pieces and have the weld stay together. That's just not reasonable to expect in this case even if theory says that the weld should be as strong as the parent materials. Certainly the fillet that was formed by the weld bead was at least a 1/8 inch thick and it appears that it stayed attached to both parts. It did not peal off one and not the other as would be a indication of a cold weld.

If I did fix it maybe I would use 1/4 inch wall in some areas of the rear subframe but I don't think it would change the fact that a similar shunt would have bent or cracked the rear corner of the subframe regardless of it's materials or construction given weight constraints.

If you back one of these cars we all like, aluminum SLC's or steel tube frame GT40s, into a wall that hard it will get chassis damage. That is just the way it is fellas.

If all that had been a steel tube chassis then the tubing would have bent, but what would have been the result. You would still have to cut it all off and remake the sections and weld it all back together. The practical repair isn't all that much different really. The materials are different, that's all.

So basically he bought a train-wreck ? Some places can weld aluminum right? I’m sure it won’t be cheap. As well as fixing all the fiber glass pieces.
 
Yeah i think he should have bought a new one and done a complete build trying to salvage some of the parts off the wrecked one. I was really disappointed when he abandoned the idea. It almost seems as if he blamed Fran for now helping him. Very sad....i was hoping SLC's would get more popular after a complete build.
 
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