Looking for direction...

[Mathius]

I understand what you are concerned about, but I think it is a non-issue. For example, how does this differ from a unibody car? The floors, body, frame rails, inner fender wells, package tray, etc. are all welded together. You could argue that the frame rail metal (at .120) is thicker than the OEM rails, but that's a distinction without a difference. The thicker frame of the aftermarket chassis will inhibit flex, and thereby reduce fatigue of the thinner metals, not increase it.

Taking a uni-body car and separating the body from the frame is far more likely to induce new stress and cause problems, I would think.



jp

You're also discounting the fact that frame rails on a uni-body car are also a lot thinner than actual factory frame rails on a full frame car, and the fact that unibody cars are designed and engineered that way, while a lot of these "hot rods" are not. Unibody cars are designed from the factory with intense design aspects like crumple zones, air bag sensors, etc. The level of engineering is entirely different than what you're suggesting for a hobbyist pro touring car and so is the intent of the vehicle. Mathius