Front Chassis Tubing

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Front Chassis Tubing

Postby NixVegaGT » Mon Jan 14, 2008 10:02 am

Has anybody run the front tube frame supports outside the engine bay. I'm thinking along side the upper side unibody supports in the cavity inside the fender, through/to the vent plenum. Kinda like they did for project "Overkill" on MuscleCar. (Challenger from Fast 'n' Furious rebuild)

Input welcomed!
- Nic '73 Vega GT "DogBoxx" Batwing LS1
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Postby spyder_xlch » Mon Jan 14, 2008 10:58 am

Nic, I think I know what you are saying but how about a visual?
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Postby NixVegaGT » Mon Jan 14, 2008 2:57 pm

Good idea:

Image
- Nic '73 Vega GT "DogBoxx" Batwing LS1
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Postby megavega » Mon Jan 14, 2008 6:13 pm

well you wont gain much of anything other then weight, because you have nothing to tie it into to make it produce any added strength, the firewall is a very thin flimsy layer and welding a mounting plate to it and then a tube wont yield any results. You would be better to section in a peice of tubing from the inner wheel well brackets that the front suspension ties into and then going from the frame rail diagnally into the side, and out the other side into the firewall/side inner fennderwell, and then still you dont have anything behind the firewall to which gain strength from.

I think your thinking of cars with a rollcage, you add the front struts out from the windshield/crossbars and htis keeps the front frame rails from flexing. I did basicly the same thing as that, they tie into the rollcage/crossbar because the firewall is paper thin sheet metal.
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Postby spyder_xlch » Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:06 pm

As long as it does tie into a roll cage I don't see why it wouldn't work. Cleans up the engine bay.
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Postby DEMON Precision » Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:34 pm

i,m gonna be doing something similair with my 75 , my fender wells are chopped when compared to yours , but i,m gonna run the bars between the fender and the wheelwell like you have in the image , i,m hoping to have them started in the next few weeks , i,m organizing my shop and then setting the car on a fixture i,ve built , and then the sparks will start LOL
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Postby goquick » Sun Mar 02, 2008 2:19 am

Here is a picture of mine;
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1-2 GO !!!
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Postby Astre-mutt » Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:39 pm

I kept this pic of a Vega roller on eBay. I thought it was interesting. You can see the stock suspension mounts, and the support tubing all sheet metaled in for street use. (I guess)
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Postby 70styleVega » Sat May 03, 2008 9:17 pm

Hey Nick.... I've been studying this, you still might be on to something.
:shock:
I was thinking that if you ran roll bar tubing from the frame (behind the front wheel) up to the corner of the cowl, across the top of the engine compartment, then down to the frame on the other side (welding the ends onto the frame and welding the cross bar in the middle to the cowl seam) you would then have a strong sturdy place to weld your downtubes.
It would kinda look a like 4 point roll cage for the front of car (although mounted backwards).

As someone mentioned before, we could use a solution for strenghtening rusty front unibodies. It might be worth trying.

Tom
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Postby Sirshredalot » Sun May 04, 2008 4:42 pm

Ive really been thinking about removing all the drive-line from my car and doing some major surgery along these lines because on the driver side, right where the frame forms into the rocker panel....its just gone...not there....

Looking into the options once I get a house and a garage with some room to work.

That ebay picture looks like a good idea. I know a couple chassis shops that build em like that, minus the sheet metal for drag racing and these cars launch wheels up all day long and never tweek.

God bless
-Shred
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