I was originally doing this frame for my silver car,but since my white one needs 1/4’s and outer wheel houses,it would be a good opportunity to try those ABC inner tubs,so all of this is going on that car. I fabbed and welded all of the gussets and braces for the rear of the frame. I did not narrow the frame per say. If anyone has looked at a 70-72 frame,you would see the wheel arches flair out on the inner curve. I just simply made the side vertical. I also did this so I could go back to traditional coil spring if I ever choose to. If you measure across the tops of my arches,it is the exact same width as a stock frame,but I still gained over a inch. So now the inner tub would be the clearance restriction,which brings the ABC tub into the equation.
A few more pics before blast and powder-coat. I also added some clearance behind the wheel arches to help snake the bigger exhaust pipes around and out the back,and still have them tucked up away. Grind and smooth all the factory weld goobers. Again,might as well while you’re at it.
Blasted and coated. I probably won’t use the hard lines,but again,if I ever retire the car back to something else,at least they are in there. 1/2” stainless fuel that I had Inline Tube bend for me and the stock 1/4” return.
Add towers for the cage. We did a few A-body cars like this before,which made the cage install easier and yet still get approved.
Now assemble it with all of the parts that I’ve been tripping over. I light be slightly out of the ordinary with some of my front suspension,but I did one of my cars about 25 years ago,and still like how it drives down the road and down the track. Hotckiss uppers,B-body spindles,12” rotors,tubular lowers,QA1 double adjustables,custom tie rods with the good lined rod ends,rebuilt manual box.
Onto the back. Started with a Moser 12-bolt housing ,Mark Williams 33-spline shafts and assembled it with a Tru Trac unit,Motive Performance 3:55 gears,Strange chromoly yoke,Timken bearings. Global West rear coilover kit with QA1 double-adjustables,TRZ adjustable uppers and lowers,the old style Hotchkis 1-piece frame braces,and and H&R Parts anti-roll bar.
Drove the car one last time a few days ago,then apart it came. Chassis wrapped and swapped and now ready for surgery. Not bad for a weeks worth of work. Off to get 1/4’s wheel houses,and a smooth firewall.
I don’t really need extra room for tires,but if I’m going through all this process,might as well when you have the opportunity.
So is there a new engine build as well? Just curious on the motivation for re doing an already nice appearing car. Did you need the chassis upgrades for safety for a race class? Or maybe I’m miss understanding and the car isn’t being re painted? Awesome project! I would love to do the same idea with my car using another chassis to swap under the car and do a full cage so I can go faster than the 10.00 I’m now limited to.
Sean, I was originally going to put all of this under my silver car,and I still might build another chassis like this for that car. My white car was all together,running & driving. Very presentable,but to go any further with it,it really needs taken back apart and done over. The worst part about the whole car is the outer wheelhouses. They have holes,which have now caused bubbles on the lower 1/4’s. I don’t do patches. By the time you mess around with fabbing and fitting patches,you can have the whole 1/4 cut off and fitting another one. Having the 1/4 off,then the outer off,this gives the best opportunity to do the inner tubs,so I figured why not. I will end up putting the engine that was planned for the silver car into this chassis/car. It’s the 517” with the Frankenstein Stage2 heads. Hugger, I have the 2 1/8” headers,but at some point I will have custom headers made with a step and a merge collector. Nothing wrong with the production headers,but I have always made even more power with a custom header,and then more yet with a merge collector. It all adds up in the end.
I was just gonna say those 2.125 headers are INCREDIBLY TIGHT,.....hits the frame in a couple places,.....