Canadair CL70 CFR 58-91588

[Robin Craig]

We knew that both the front and rear chassis would have to be replaced, We acquired as part of the purchase a spare NOS unit.

We took some time recently to look at both of them side by side in some detail with a view to understand how they were made and how we will be making a new one. It was also time to closely inspect the NOS chassis that we knew had some damage owing to ice forming from ingress of water at incomplete weld joints over the years.

Our first surprise is that the the NOS chassis is not the same as the removed one. There is an extra axle support assembly that makes no sense to us, and that there are some longitudinal pieces missing. We don't know what other variant or earlier development this came from but in all other dimensional issues it is the same.

We have made a list of all the material needed for a new chassis and this long weekend I will be attempting to make a jig to build the new chassis on by using the old one as a template.