by megavega » Tue Aug 26, 2008 11:26 pm
The crossmember is welded to the floor, the 2 pieces of 3x3 tubing for the trailing arm mounts are welded to crossmember, then the entire length of the 3x3 tubing both inside and outside are welded to the floorpan/frame plate. This is the section you remove from the stock mount, you section it out and then install the welded frame up in the notch and slot. Then the crossmember ends are welded to the rocker pinch seam underneath. I welded the entire length of the 2 inch side of the crossmember and 3x3 tubing length, (which was 12 inchs long if I recall,) to the pinch seam. Lastly, if you have a rollbar in the car, it would be even better to fashion 2 diagnol bars from the main hoop/crossbar down thru the floor to the top of the crossmember on each side of the tunnel hump, this would really help stiffen the rear of the car up
Make the cuts with a cut off wheel on a die grinder, thats what I used on my notchs in vega frame. It will give you the cleanest cut, and try to keep the cuts square and straight, the tighter the fit, the better your welding will be.
I also placed 1 inch long stitch welds to all the frame brackets your notching on the inside of the floorpan under the car, youll see when your looking up towards the shock mounts , theres a lip and you can neatly place stitch welds to secure all the brackets to the floorpan better. I did this all the way up to the bottom of the trunk floor.
1972 hatchback, 28,000 orig miles, 427BBC/twin T4 turbo's/T56 six speed/big wheels, lowered down pro touring style-work in progress....
1973 vega wagon-under the blue flame knife.