Some ponderings on the construction-
Im using 6mm baltic birch furniture ply laminated together to make 1” rails. The rails have 2 bends on them, so ill make a jig and laminate both sides at once. The rails will be joined by two solid longitudinal trusses, one at the front, one at the back between engine and driver. Theyll be morticed into the rails, and secured via bolts secured via a method that will probably take another post to illustrate, once I've drawn a picture. Im trying to rely on the strength of the wood in any particular joint, using glue and bolts to just hold it in place. Ie no relying on the strength of a glue joint to guarantee a join, but having the strength intrinsic to the structure.
The back end may change, depending on how my experiments over the next few days go. The original car rides fairly low at the back and high at the front, so i initially tried replicating that by hanging the chassis off the axle, rather than passing the axle through the chassis rails. Im going for a 5 Inch ground clearance. Ideally id like the engine and axle and brakes etc to be built onto a steel subframe so they can be removed as a unit. So im going to play with the Chassis design with a focus on that for a bit.
Im also pondering changing the tub - the seat is the main source of rigidity within the tub, its basically two triangular section trusses joining the sides together. Very rigid, very strong. The front end is less so. Its just 3 bits of ply glued together. going to try and rework the design with some more strength enhancing structure at the front end.
Generally though im a big fan of models during the design phase. Im terrible at CAD etc so i tend to make physical models but i find that having something in hand helps with sketching out the next phase immensely.
Cheers!
Rich.