Swift DB1- how many were made?

[85 SWIFT DB1]

A lot of interesting info emerging here.

I wonder if the Register could become a place to store and share a lot of this info, perhaps Wiki style, if the Registrar has time.

A bit like the old one here on Apex, but maybe with more detail.

A thought from 40 Celsius Melbourne.

[DanW]

There are two relatively easy ways to determine material composition.

Old School - Spark testing as explained in the link

http://wearanswers.com/Instant-Answe...ification.html

The other means is by a hand held alloy analyzer, such as a Niton gun. It uses a very low power radioactive source to determine the elements in the surface of the material by x-ray flourescence. We use one at work to identify metallurgy on incoming materials and repairs. It is very accurate, down to telling you the exact chemical composition.

http://www.niton.com/Metal-and-Alloy...FQdMgwod_i9unQ

Industrial fabrication shops that build or repair heat exchangers, boilers, or pressure vessels have these devices for metal identification or verification. It only takes a few minutes and could be done for a very reasonable cost as long as you don't mind them scraping some paint from a chassis tube or asking if they could drive it...

Regards,
Dan

[TimW]

I believe that was at the tail end of production that CrMo was introduced (again). I believe that may have been when Matt Weiss took over chassis builds. Matt as I recall built all the DB6 which are 4130 as I remember.

Here's Matt's info from the 2003 thread:

http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/show...php?t=21320#10
http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/show...php?t=21320#12

Matt crews for me on occasion and is a good friend, back from our days at Electramotive in El Segundo.

Its funny to look back now how I would go by Matt's shop just south of Rosecrans and see the tooling, fixtures and frames all there as he was building DB6s to then only 14 years later own one. But sadly Swift confirmed to me that my frame was one of the 10 that were done in-house and not by Fabtech.

[TimW]

A lot of interesting info emerging here.

I wonder if the Register could become a place to store and share a lot of this info, perhaps Wiki style, if the Registrar has time.

A bit like the old one here on Apex, but maybe with more detail.

A thought from 40 Celsius Melbourne.

So, I do pan to have both a list of cars that people can describe theirs to their hearts content, and then also have a technical information topics that anyone can submit, review and search, etc. Not sure it will be wiki based, but if you sign up you should have the ability to add and edit your technical topics. Keeping things simple at first; yes I probably could do this in wordpress a lot quicker/easier, but I needed a project to learn Ruby on Rails and this seemed to fit the best. So the means are as important as the goal at this point so bear with me.

Having also spent a year crewing on Hiro's Champcar I have a good relationship with people over at Swift who were there in the days that the DBn cars were rolling out the doors. I expect they will be helpful as I know they were when the original registry was built.

Tim

[85 SWIFT DB1]

Tim, that all sounds ideal. Look forward to contributing info on our DB1 exploits here in the great southern land.

[carl correll]

From the ones I've repaired over the years, the MIG mud-gun welding is all I need to see. Stripped for repair and refinishing, it just screams at you. All of my, or any proper, repairs are TIG welded 4130. So, most mild steel cars are now a mix. The mild steel cars maybe tend to crack a bit more.

[RussMcB]

Best place to find this, is it typically on the roll hoop?

yes on the dash hoop

Is there a standard location? Thus far, I've only been able to find the SCCA logbook number stamped on my roll over hoop. The Swift number might be behind my dash, though. Is it a plaque or stamp? Is it on the front? Back? Side?

In my logbook I have a "Duplicate" SCCA homologation certificate, issued in 1997. Perhaps the original was lost. This duplicate has an odd (to me) chassis number: HRD-4130-8609. Might it mean chassis number 9 built in 1986 (I thought my car was an '87). Does the '4130' indicate chrome-moly construction? Was this chassis built years ago by Honda Racing Development? (just kidding :-).

Thanks for any insight.

BTW, I'm investigating this as part of my request for Formula F homologation for my former F2000 car.

[TimW]

My chassis number is on a number plate pop riveted below to the dash on the dash bulkhead just below the gear lever