Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

So back to the cradle I made for the Reliant tank a while ago. Rather than just drilling & tapping threads directly into the chassis cross member to bolt the cradle to, or welding in single captive nuts, I've tacked 2 nuts together to form a longer threaded insert, (as suggested by someone here), then welded them into lengths of tube.

[Manky Monkey]

With a hole bored right through the cross member, the tubes can then be welded in place. I figure welding both ends of the tube will be stronger than just mounting them to one face of the chassis cross member.
It turned out I needed to notch the underside of the cross member though, rather than drilling it, so I've welded the ends & will finish the underside when we strip the car down & flip the chassis over to fully weld everything later.

[Manky Monkey]

So now I have 2 M8 mounting holes in the chassis cross member, for the front of the tank cradle. I've flushed off the front face, but still need to sand back the back face & blank the open tube end, probably by welding a washer into it.
Next I'll do the same for the back of the cradle.

[Clive]

Nice neat idea there matey!! But go on then, how did you weld the nuts inside the tube?

Clive

[Manky Monkey]

  Magic.
I wound a pair of nuts onto a bolt & tacked the nuts together, then used the bolt to hold the nuts into the end of the tube. There was a big enough gap between nuts & tube to run some weld around the tube end. After making sure the bolt was still square in the tube, I drilled two holes through the side of the tube & "button welded" through them onto the nuts inside.

[panthershaun]

I do hate clever kid's 

[Manky Monkey]

Bet you were the one at the back of the class, not paying attention & drawing hotrods in your exercise book.

[Mr_G]

Coming on nicely, Just one question. If you were to put something in the back that's heavier than say a large dog, would the chassis not bottom out on the Diff?

Cheers G.

[Manky Monkey]

 
I use a wide angle lens for these shots cos there's not much room to move round the truck in the workshop. It can sometimes be misleading. The chassis cross member is actually several inches behind the diff' housing. I also cut a curve in the underside of it to mimic the curve of the diff' housing. The shocks are adjustable gas units which are currently on their softest setting. They'll be wound up a bit once the bodywork's all on & we know how heavy it'll be.
There is a vague sort of plan thingy -honest. 

[Mr_G]

Ah I see, it was just camera trickery. Nice job matey.

[twolanes]

Another nice bit of work mate.

[panthershaun]

Bet you were the one at the back of the class, not paying attention & drawing hotrods in your exercise book.

 

[Manky Monkey]

Rear tank mounts are the same, but slightly higher on the cross member, so I had to drill & file holes for them, rather than grinding a notch in the box section. Took ages to file the holes out big enough to take the tubes with the mounting nuts in them.

[Manky Monkey]

The tubes are welded into the cross member to form another pair of M8 captive nuts.
Suprisingly, all 4 bolt holes line up & I can bolt the fuel tank carrying frame in place.

[Manky Monkey]

Remember, this tank is only temporary, just to get the Pop through the test & maybe to run with for the rest of the year. After that we plan to strip the truck down for a rebuild & proper paint job. At that time we'll swap the underfloor Reliant tank for a pick-up bed mounted Ford Pop one. We'll then use the space under the bed for a secure storage box.
This will all be hidden by the side body panels.