by Bob Gumm » Sun Oct 24, 2010 3:25 pm
You will likely get many different answers on what others did and what worked for them. The deciding factor is usually the race class you are in and/or the price of the design. There are many different solutions, some plausible, some not, with extremes at each end. One the cheap side some will tell you they cut the front-end and reinforced it with no problems. However, this is not recommended and will result in a compromise of safety and reliability. De-hard chassis builders will tell you doing that is a recipe for disaster and recommend a full tube chassis from nose to tail. In-between are the guys who mix the two designs to come up with something suitable for their class of racing, but still very safe and reliable.
The H-Body front suspension is already the bare minimum required to support a stock application for daily driving, you can even see the added reinforcements that GM installed on the V-8 cars to handle the extra stresses of a mild V-8. So it should be evident that removing any part of it without first adding reinforcement is not a good plan. I have fielded a Monza with a 400+ HP engine and later a 600+ engine with the front sheet metal intact. However, I first shed hundreds of pounds from the car by removing AC equipment, heater, radio, carpet, etc. I have also had to get the car realigned at a frame shop and weld up stress cracks that formed over the years. Removing any material from the front without first getting the frame checked for alignment, looking for and correcting problems (cracks, etc.) and then installing a support structure will prove to be problematic and could lead to a car that won't drive true during hard acceleration and will eventually fail.
Be safe, get the body checked for alignment first, then weld up any imperfections and cracks as well as add 1-2 inch stitch welds every 1-2 inches or so to all seams. Then add reinforcement to the body via sub-frame connectors and to reinforce the front-end I highly recommend a complete roll cage with front bars that connect to the front frame rails and upper control arm supports. Only after you've done that would I recommend cutting the fender wells and fender supports out. Beyond that, the best solution is a complete tube chassis and roll cage. Jegs makes a weld-in front-end clip under the Jegster name and there are three different widths available, so if you could use it and add their frame and roll cage kit for a complete chassis. There are also numerous other chassis kits available.
Good Luck,
Bob Gumm
v8monza.com