Vegabee(framing)
Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:14 am
Lot of decisions on how to sturdy up the body chassis rear end pretty much all of it?Did not want to cut it up too much,the body is pretty nice.Do not want a roll bar so that means more beef underneath.I do know I want Chevelle lower control arms,22" length.Those would work with a triangulated 4 link,torque arm,or 3 link.Just no room for 4 link.Torque arm would be fine,but I decided on a 3 link similar to a Max-G looking deal.I also decided on a newer offset style of wheel which changes the rear and front track widths quite a bit.First off I did a lot of the usual stripping.Then using the old rear end still in the car I bolted up some wheels to determine the diff width.
Tacked a pipe in to keep the width
New style wheel on old rear before taking it out
Had to add 3 good size nuts to get the space out there some
Picked up some 2x4x3/16 tube from work
Putting in a cross member behind the rear foot well.Running the tubing about 4 7/8 from the inside of the rocker panel and cutting reliefs for any thing that gets in the way like the low hanging floor areas.Then I angled the tubing toward the front of the car and was wondering if some how I could tie into the lower control arm area.
The cross member went in easily behind the rear foot well after cutting off emerg cable brackets.From the cross member to the front I ran some string and and marked both sides of the tube width to the floor to see what had to go.
Removed most of the sheet metal control arm brackets as well as the trans cross member mounts
Cut right through the factory body mounting pads
at that factory pad is where the tubing is angled toward the bottom of the lower front control arms.After a little thought on how exactly to do it,it hit me,just notch the bottom control arm brackets.
Cross member in fits perfect wedged between the rocker panels
Added parallel tubes
Angled the tubes so they set in the lower control arm front brackets.I notched the front facing control arm bracket first then ran string back to the angle point of the tubing under the mid floor and notched and cleared everything out of the way until the string was clear with a good tight fit.Care here makes welding later much easier.
Now I figured on a combo drive shaft loop and third link attachment point to be sectioned into the rear cross member.My neighbor do iron work a and had some 3/8 x 3 1/2 rolled steel laying around,plenty strong.
I tacked the tubing together and tacked a rolled loop to the bottom of the cross member.I cut slots in the floor tunnel and made templates for some plates to run down to the cross member so is to continue the complete loop and to make a pad for the third link tabs
Pulled it out to complete the welding
Welded the plate with 7018 and trimmed out the center of the drive shaft loop.
Tacked a pipe in to keep the width
New style wheel on old rear before taking it out
Had to add 3 good size nuts to get the space out there some
Picked up some 2x4x3/16 tube from work
Putting in a cross member behind the rear foot well.Running the tubing about 4 7/8 from the inside of the rocker panel and cutting reliefs for any thing that gets in the way like the low hanging floor areas.Then I angled the tubing toward the front of the car and was wondering if some how I could tie into the lower control arm area.
The cross member went in easily behind the rear foot well after cutting off emerg cable brackets.From the cross member to the front I ran some string and and marked both sides of the tube width to the floor to see what had to go.
Removed most of the sheet metal control arm brackets as well as the trans cross member mounts
Cut right through the factory body mounting pads
at that factory pad is where the tubing is angled toward the bottom of the lower front control arms.After a little thought on how exactly to do it,it hit me,just notch the bottom control arm brackets.
Cross member in fits perfect wedged between the rocker panels
Added parallel tubes
Angled the tubes so they set in the lower control arm front brackets.I notched the front facing control arm bracket first then ran string back to the angle point of the tubing under the mid floor and notched and cleared everything out of the way until the string was clear with a good tight fit.Care here makes welding later much easier.
Now I figured on a combo drive shaft loop and third link attachment point to be sectioned into the rear cross member.My neighbor do iron work a and had some 3/8 x 3 1/2 rolled steel laying around,plenty strong.
I tacked the tubing together and tacked a rolled loop to the bottom of the cross member.I cut slots in the floor tunnel and made templates for some plates to run down to the cross member so is to continue the complete loop and to make a pad for the third link tabs
Pulled it out to complete the welding
Welded the plate with 7018 and trimmed out the center of the drive shaft loop.