Protour63

Just finished narrowing and boxing the Dana 44 batwing for my '63 SRiii frame. I will likely smooth the welds and casting before powder coating.

69427

I just narrowed a spare D36 batwing I had and adapted it to fit the stock differential housing in my '69. Twenty pounds off the car.

Protour63

I'd like to see that, 69427. I knew they gaskets were close, but never tried that one. Made it fit the iron case? Are you using composite leaf spring or coil overs? Show us pics if you can.
Derek

69427

Nothing terribly clever here, just wanted to pull some more weight off the car. I put a narrowed C4 suspension in the car years ago, but kept the original C3 differential as they're cheap, strong, no tunnel modifications needed, and I've got several different ratio units sitting on the shelf. I used a late C3 batwing as that takes 15# off the car compared to the iron/steel cover/crossmember. However, a C3 batwing requires some adapter brackets to mount the (Z51) C4 spring and the C6 toe rods (I had C4 toe rods on it originally, but I like the C6 geometry better). This picture was originally taken last year during a test fit of the left side muffler. I welded up an aluminum replacement to get some more weight out of the car. It works and sounds good, so I'll be welding up a replacement for the right side this winter.



The C4 batwing is 7# lighter than the C3 batwing (the adapter ring eats up slightly less than two pounds of this savings). I made a 3/4" cover spacer to clear the C3 ring gear. (The C4 had a shallow cover, and a deeper housing, whereas the C3 has a deeper cover and a shallower housing.)



I drilled the C4 batwing to the C3 cover pattern, and then welded up the original bolt holes. I then welded the spacer to the cover so that it would only have one gasket surface. I also narrowed the batwing 1 1/8 inch on each end for clearance due to the C4 suspension being narrowed to duplicate the C3 trackwidth. (I had to use a small-head bolt on the upper right location to clear the differential vent tube.)



I welded up some scrap material to form a temporary fixture to keep the differential in the stock location in space while I cut the mounts off the frame and removed the C3 batwing. Here's the C4 batwing while I was cutting/grinding/cleaning up the outer mount areas.



I got it all back together yesterday, and just looking to take it out for a test drive sometime this weekend. I've put the C4 toe rods back on it for the moment until I get time to fabricate a bracket to mount the C6 toe rods to the C4 batwing.

69427

Any update on the progress?

Protour63

Bolted body on frame to start glassing in rear floor and wheel tubs.

Protour63

Been a while, but here is a picture of the rear suspension narrowing completed. Still in mock up stage. Ended up having Banski make me custom length strut rods and they turned out perfect.

69427

Looking good!