Here are some photos of the rear install and progress report.

the install is going slow, just due to very little free time - weekends are spent watching the new twins. So i have been picking away at it a little at a time during the week. The worst part of it was drilling the holes along the frame that the one side of the front bracket parallels. Also a lot of thought needed to go into where to locate the front brackets to obtain the optimum adjustment target area around a useable instant center. Mount the brackets too high or too low and you screw yourself out of a bunch of possibly needed settings. I spent much of the time thus far making sure this was the best area..did my homework, laid it all out on cad, then make a decision to go with a spot, consulted some chassis builders for verification on my thoughts and they concurred...then the metal started getting cut, ground and brackets installed.

Here are some photos of the install so far...everything is just spot welded in place.













actually you should be able to just scroll thru the photos...no sense in me posting each one...

As you can see I had to cut thru the rear floor compartment area. This is going to be needed no matter what rear you go with unless you get some small danty thing...but why would one do that? Also you will need to do this for the coil over mount. It could be done without for the coil over, but again if you go to the frame rails from the original setup, then you again limit how much adjustment you have...or you have to change the ride height of the car, which again changes all the instant center locations, and you best have that figured into the project.

Needless to say can't believe I did not do this sooner. Its really not that bad of a job.

Can't wait to see the results in a month or so...

Hope these help some others...and I wanted to send out a special thanks to redL98, who basically talked me into this project/conversion.

She should be FLYIN when its done and be fun to race again...

 

Only concern I see is the front 4 link bracket mounting , this are is the most critical area for stress , I have seen these style brackets tear off or crack welds from not being re-inforced properly.
Some front brackets need to be plated for boxed in for proper support.
The rear bracket on the housing has a much better surface area where it mounts so if its welded properly it rarely has a problem.
Are you using a "Wishbone" style trac locator bar?

Desert
ARC Race Cars , New Oxford PA.

 

After those brackets are fully welded in, we will reinforce them every way possible. Might even run a bar the entire width of the car, depending on how much room is availble with drive shaft.

The brackets are much thicker than even the existing frame...so after its all tied back together it will be stronger than the stock setup/frame in that area.

 

Desert

 

It's like an episode of Chop Cut Rebuild but with some production quality.

Of course watching all the car shows out there now you get a sense of what goes into lining everything up. Are you having any issues making sure everything is square and level?

I am very interested to see how this goes. I would like to be able to thrash the car wherever whenever without worry about a serious weakness. There are many-a-race car throughout the years and currently that do just fine on road courses with solid rears. The setup would likely be different but the install and process similar.

Good luck, keep the updates coming.

 

Rain.

Keeping everything straight and making sure side to side up and down and at the right height is exactly what has been taking me so long. Not so much that it is hard, but it required some planning and fit/message/fit/message to get everything to where it needs to be.

Not sure if you can tell, but that back or forward most point of the front brackets are interesting an angle on the frame, so you end up dealing with compound angles and as you know - once you cut steel, you can't easily replace it. So I made up cardboard templets, and nailed it dead on first try. Probably just got lucky. But that angle dictates the height of the bracket, and also the forward and aft rotation of the bracket...of which I wanted to be seated at the bottom and all along the angle - for maximum support on the brackets. The area which they are seated has to be SUPER strong, since it is where all the original frame work comes together and is sandwiched.

Not sure if you can see all this in the photos...also it took some crafty bracing and clamping items from the front to the rear mounts to make sure they were on the same plane and running parallel to one another. But that wasn't as hard as I thought once we came up with some bracing.

 

Great job man.
Will the car be getting tubbed or will you be using the same back-spacing on the current wheels?

 

Nice looking piece....What rear are you using?

 

I kept the same axle width as stock....so yeah my original wheels will work; however since I put the brackets inward as far as possible I can definately get a MUCH larger wheel/tire combo under the car. So I will be selling my wheels and tires if someone is interested. They are Welds/ and 28" M/T with lots of life left on them. IM me if your interested anyone...

The rear is a MOSER 12 bolt...which is much much heavier than a conventional 12bolt. Ordered it straight from MOSER and had it in 2 days after they recieved and put my rear brackets on. Have 4.10 gears in it now with a spool, 33 spline axles - axles are guarenteed for life..free replacement if they twist or break.

Just came in from doing some more to it. Had to remove the fuel lines in that area and started mapping out the coil overs. God I love messing with fuel

Absolutely can't wait to see how it works.