Well...after all of this we are about to start on the way back up...Just got the frame and body parts, wheels etc back from the blaster in San Jose. What's 600 bucks to sports like us eh! A good job though from Pacific Blasting up there. Ordinarilly we would have media blasted the body, but, it's such a mess anyway, what's a little stretch here and there in this sheet metal!?...We take a few after added appendages from the frame and try to figure out what belongs and what does not. Everything is a decision. Also, some things have been removed which we have to fabricate. We don't really have a BRC locally to look at and have to rely on pictures of both original materials and contemporary pictures, hoping that the restorers knew what they were doing...(skid plate is just resting on the frame)
Here's the frame. We think the two rectangular plates at the ends of the frame on the left are not original. Likewise, the cross member just up to the right from these does not belong. Actually however, this was a more efficient place to put the shock mounts (except that they had to come through the floor. See connected square holes in the floor to accomodate). I wish I could say this was a Checker innovation included in the prototype and restoration, but seems more likely that it is a latterly Jim Stout modification. Jim maybe was ahead of Colin Chapman in placing the shocks here. Perhaps the Checker Taxi from Hell would have had shock towers like aa Lotus 11 ?!
Here's the underside of the body tub. You can see a lot of extra holes. The gas tank had been moved to under the floor...that's what that strap is all about. The two rectngles are for the shocks as noted above. How's this look to you experts?