The "BadSunbird"

[GizmoN]

'76 'Hawk has them as well.

[GizmoN]

Is it that you just dont like the way that the bars would meet the rocker sills?

You could always just make a 90 degree piece of steel jut out from the center bevel of the rocker sill.
It would look very similar to what you have, it would just give the tubes a flat and level place to meet the rocker sills and would probably make welding them easier.

The downside is that it wouldnt look as clean as what you have in the pictures already.

God bless
-Shred

Would it look like this? Definitely cleaner if you could shape the tube to fit your plates. You wouldn't have a bump in your rug like I ended up with, and a larger bump if you make the flat big enough to weld to the center of the plate. I didn't weld the tube to the center of the plate, I kept it back a little to weld it better, and so I could swing my leg over easier. I've only done one of these and it may not be right, so hopefully an expert will chime in. The track inspector checked it out, and didn't comment on the location not being in the center of the plate.

[GizmoN]

Actually, maybe the bump in the rug isn't that big of a deal. Just make everything as close to the rocker as possible.

[Badsunbird]

Very Nice GizmoN, that looks great. I understand your point of having it back a little further for getting in & out of the car.
I guess my main overall concern is being able to pass tech if it isn't mounted in the center of the plate. I am going to try a version of what Shred suggested and see what happens. Ofcourse I'll take pics. and post what I come up with.

And Yes Nick, the strut rods are standard on the second generation h-bodies. Replacing the floor was a real pain, trying to find the damn thing was even harder yet, but there are some really great people on this site and without their sources I wouldn't have been able to find it.

[vegon71]

Badsunbird, im loving what you have done so far!!! I have the same floor issues with my wagon, and would do what you did if i could find a good donar. But its looking like a full cut out fraim rails and a fabed sheet metal floor for me. good work, keep the pics comming in!!!

[Badsunbird]

That is exactly what I was going to do vegon71 had I not been lucky enough to come across the floor pan that I did, thanks again peterpan! I was going to use 1" sqaure tubing & 1/8" plate to fab up my cross braces and then wrap everything in 16 ga. aluminum. Ofcourse I am a "Tinner" and work in a sheetmetal shop and have these things readily available, not to mention the expertise of the others that I work with that have alot more years in the business than I do, so that is always a plus. I keep saying that if I get ahold of another project that has a rotted out floor that is exactly what I will do with it!

[vegon71]

If you ever do. check out this link. it has some good photos of some tinning and framing. Im sure ill be doing this.
http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/storminnormin/

[Badsunbird]

Wow,

That is some damn nice fabrication and sheetmetal work! That is on the same line as what I had in mind. Alot of man hours involved in a project of that proportion, but the pay off is well worth it !!!
Don't give up yet on finding a floor! They are still out there, I now own three h-bodies and the other two have perfectly good, sound floor pans in them, it's hard to believe I know, but it's very true !!! "Keep Hunting" I spent nearly six months searching before I found mine!

[Badsunbird]

Here was my suggested solution to making my down tubes easier to fit & to weld. I have not welded them in yet, they are just tacked for now. I'm still not sure if I will be able to pass an inspection, so I am going to get one of the old drag race heads here in town to come over and take a look at it and see what he thinks. He is pretty involved with the NHRA and has been for years. I am pretty sure he will be able to lead me in the right direction and give me pointers on what might need to be changed.

Here are a few pictures of what I came up with after listening to what Shred had suggested. Is this kind of what you had in mind Shred? I just simply added to what I already had formed up to make this work.

The piece that I bent up in only 2 3/4" x 2 3/4" x 6",

[Badsunbird]

Here are a few more pics. I wasn't able to get the sill bars cut and tacked in because my tube notcher only does up to 60* cuts/notches and I need a 69*-70* cut/notch. So I might have to head over to my local chassis shop and see if they will make the cut/notch for me.

[Sirshredalot]

Thats what I was thinking, just depends on if you want the bump in the floor.

God bless
-Shred

[Badsunbird]

The "bump" is minimal, it only sticks out past the rocker sill about an 1 1/4" which isn't all that terrible really, and it is flush with the top of the rocker sill, 2 3/4" up off the floor. I believe that once I get the sill bar installed you really won't notice it, and besides that I think the black carpet will help "hide" it a little also.

Thanks Shred, I was making it way more difficult in my head than what it was or had to be, (that was the engineer in me trying to escape and mess things up!) pretty straight forward and simple solution !!!

[DEMON Precision]

Here are a few more pics. I wasn't able to get the sill bars cut and tacked in because my tube notcher only does up to 60* cuts/notches and I need a 69*-70* cut/notch. So I might have to head over to my local chassis shop and see if they will make the cut/notch for me.

what do you mean you need a 70 deg notch , at what end of the bar , the hoop or the floor ??

[DEMON Precision]

Here was my suggested solution to making my down tubes easier to fit & to weld. I have not welded them in yet, they are just tacked for now. I'm still not sure if I will be able to pass an inspection, so I am going to get one of the old drag race heads here in town to come over and take a look at it and see what he thinks. He is pretty involved with the NHRA and has been for years. I am pretty sure he will be able to lead me in the right direction and give me pointers on what might need to be changed.

Here are a few pictures of what I came up with after listening to what Shred had suggested. Is this kind of what you had in mind Shred? I just simply added to what I already had formed up to make this work.

The piece that I bent up in only 2 3/4" x 2 3/4" x 6",

i see nothing wrong with the way you are doing it right now , the rule book states you need to mount the bar to a 1/8" thick x 6" x 6" piece of steel welded to the floor pan of the car , they don,t care it its folded like the way you have done it all they care about is that the rollbar is mounted to the 1/8" plate that,s welded to the floor pan .

another way is if you have subframe connectors you can run a outrigger off them and attach the bars to that .

[vegon71]

Well i kinda got the cart ahead of the horse. I had bent my own cage at work on an electric conduit bender, notched my own tubes and cut my own plates. My front tubes are attached exactly like Gizmons pictures, plate wise. At the time i did not have my own welder but was using my brothers at his late body shop. He was closed for a couple of days and said i could weld the cage in. I was under pressured time and got in a hurry. Im not pleased with it and wish id bought one. Now i realize how bad my floors are to So ill most likely cut out the cage, buy a S W eight point and fab and frame my own floors. Its much easier to take my time since i can do all my welding at home now. one step forward two steps back
It pays to take your time. again, nice job on yours!!