Pulled the housing back out cut it to width and temporarily tacked some Mark Williams #57800 housing ends on to check the final width and figure out pan hard bar brackets.
This is a bolt on brake bracket that is from Scare Bird brakes.
They take Toyota Previa front rotors and '87-88' T-bird turbo coupe calipers.They fit nicely into 14" or 15" wheels.
Mounted up some tires and put them up on blocks in the Vega wheel wells at the ride height.
Leveled them out and got them where I wanted with some wood spacers.
Then ran a tape through the housing measuring wheel face to wheel face.this is the flange to flange number plus rotor width.I needed to get those rear brakes hanging in there to know how close to come with my pan hard bar brackets.Started on one end by tacking some trailer hangers together.I thought about angling the large one on the inside so some time I can mount a shock bracket to it.
I got a measurement across the rear of the housing and 4 5/8 from axle tube to center of a 1 1/4 pan hard bar should work.Have to come as close as possible for the new gas tank to clear.
I mounted and leveled a scrap 3" axle pipe in the vice and trimmed the bottom of the bracket on an angle contour.worked with it until level and tacked it on.
Tacked it on the housing and went ahead and mocked up a pan hard bar out of conduit.Came as close to the brake caliper as possible.Making the bar as long as possible and level with the housing.
Now I needed a strong bracket to connect to the body on the other side,after some thought I elected to weld in a tube across the top of the rear floor and down the left side with a gusset.Pretty heavy gauge tube that I can mount shocks and gas tank straps to also.
Making a strong gusset.
Arc weld it together.
Grind paint and undercoating off and weld in.
Clamped another trailer bracket on the body side now
Here is right and left sides.
BUT STOP I forgot about pinion angle.The housing needs to be at the correct pinion angle before all these brackets go on!So after some research I now have just over 1 1/2 degree up on the pinion and 1 1/2 degree down on the engine center line,that will have have some drive shaft angle for u-joint lube.So i decided to make sure the car is level again,got 1 1/2 degrees up on the housing and leveled the housing again.Also measured from the top of the housing tubes to the top spring pads to make sure of the ride height.All this bracket work needs to be done at vehicle ride height.
Nipped my tacks where I had to and got the brackets and bar level with the housing and out correct distances on both ends with the housing tilted up at 1 1/2 degrees.
Looked at many rear spring set ups from coils to coil overs and decided to go with some Slam SS-6 air bags with KYB shocks.
Got some plates and drilled them to match the mounting holes.The mfg. has charts to set the bag pressures and ride height.This should be easier to get a ride height with out throwing a bunch of different springs under it.
Now for mounting and welding the pads in I had an idea of using some large PVC from the local building supply.This really worked out well in that it keeps the top and bottom mounting pads parallel,you don't have to worry about burning a hole in them from weld spatter,and also the pipe elbows I bought had clocking marks so it was a piece of cake to line up and clock the top and bottom plates so the bolt holes are in alignment when you are done
First find center of your plates
Line up with clocking marks on PVC pipe.
Bolt together with some long bolts
Measure to the out side edges around them
Square for good measure.
Put where you need it.
now for some lower brackets.
Grabbed another trailer hanger and spread it out with my scrap pipe so it will clear the mounting pad bolts.
trim the bracket to fit axle tube.find your height and start subtracting or adding to the top or bottom as to meet with the top and bottom mounting pads
got more PVC axle diameter and angle cut it for a template
Not much radius in there,might be able to eyeball and cut it between the height lines.
Hopefully the bolts will come out.
On top the air chisel popped what was left off the body to make room for the bags.
Threw the bags in temp to see iyou have room and clear out anything that is in the way.
up on top I welded in angle top make a flat upper base around the upper spring perch
level and space side to side an d tack in.