And as the finishing line draws ever nearer, a few words if I may on the subject of Shielder chassis's
The chassis I bought has not been without its problems.
One or two holes needed rebored. Now that is not uncommon - drill any hole to the correct size and then galvanise and paint it, the bore will narrow and re-drilling will be required so I have no real complaint with this aspect.
Three of the holes I used were slightly out of alignment, and somewhat eliptical drilling was called on to get the bolts through. No big deal.
The 2 holes relating to the towbar were a couple of mm out, and unfortunately they are now inaccessible. As they are also reinforced with internal tubing, there is nothing much I can do about this.
One hole was blatantly in the wrong place. A reasonably easy fix.
The exhaust hangers being on the wrong sides - well.....anyone can make a mistake, and that is one they would not be likely to repeat in a hurry.
So on the whole the actual chassis was not too much of a problem. Weld quality seems pretty good. Metal is equally good quality. Dimensions are pretty much spot-on with the exceptions listed. At the end of the day - it fits!
At just over 2 grand originally ( I got a fair whack back because of the hangers) it represents pretty good value for money in my book. Yes I spent another £800 or so on bushes, replacement parts, paint, fluids etc, so the whole thing is coming in at under £3k. That to me was doable - and enables me to keep the old girl on the road for a few years more. To have gone down the route of the "better" suppliers would have pushed the budget up closer to £5k and I for 1 could not justify spending that much on a 15 year old vehicle (as she was then).
I would have loved to have entered into feedback conversation with Shielder, but quite frankly their customer service / PR issues mean that I really want nothing more to do with them. I have got what I wanted - at an affordable price. I am a happy bunny!
