Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback
A while back I wrote about my buddy's '71 GTX. He had wanted me to install a set of sub-frame connectors. He had bought a pair from Competition Engineering that were supposed to fit '68-'74 B-bodies but weren't anywhere close. He called them up to complain and was assured at first that they were correct but after insisting their tech guys research wheelbases, - they agreed that there was no way they could work on the post 1970 cars.
Rather than buy another set and risk fitment problems again we decided to modify the pair he'd received. Spencer was back from Des Moines so he gave me a hand.
The purchased ones were too long. After trying to fit them under the car we marked locations we'd have to cut to shorten them. The GTX will be a dedicated drag car so Ray wanted them welded into place. This is what the connectors looked like before modifying.
The connectors had to be shortened and the channel shaped portion was too wide for the '71 frame. Rather than start from scratch we utilized as much of the purchased pieces as possible.
Unlike the '68-'70 frame rails, the '71 on up do not protrude as low beneath the floor. One thing we did was to sliver out a point in the middle of the connectors to conform to the floor. We tried to keep the modified connectors as tight to the bottom as possible but it would have also meant they would have been very thin next to the rear frame rails or we would have had to resorted to dropping them lower and left a large gap between the connectors and the floor. To eliminate a weak point we decided to add wedge shaped sections where the thinnest portion would have been.
Ray's trailer has is open in the middle so we welded the connectors on while on the trailer.
Despite being on the trailer, head clearance was pretty limited for welding.
As nice as the weather was yesterday, today it's rainy. Ray still wants us to fab some extra strength into the front leaf spring mounts and make a gauge/switch stand inside the car. It may have to wait until things clear up. The garage is full of Charger right now.
A while back I wrote about my buddy's '71 GTX. He had wanted me to install a set of sub-frame connectors. He had bought a pair from Competition Engineering that were supposed to fit '68-'74 B-bodies but weren't anywhere close. He called them up to complain and was assured at first that they were correct but after insisting their tech guys research wheelbases, - they agreed that there was no way they could work on the post 1970 cars.
Rather than buy another set and risk fitment problems again we decided to modify the pair he'd received. Spencer was back from Des Moines so he gave me a hand.
The purchased ones were too long. After trying to fit them under the car we marked locations we'd have to cut to shorten them. The GTX will be a dedicated drag car so Ray wanted them welded into place. This is what the connectors looked like before modifying.
The connectors had to be shortened and the channel shaped portion was too wide for the '71 frame. Rather than start from scratch we utilized as much of the purchased pieces as possible.
Unlike the '68-'70 frame rails, the '71 on up do not protrude as low beneath the floor. One thing we did was to sliver out a point in the middle of the connectors to conform to the floor. We tried to keep the modified connectors as tight to the bottom as possible but it would have also meant they would have been very thin next to the rear frame rails or we would have had to resorted to dropping them lower and left a large gap between the connectors and the floor. To eliminate a weak point we decided to add wedge shaped sections where the thinnest portion would have been.
Ray's trailer has is open in the middle so we welded the connectors on while on the trailer.
Despite being on the trailer, head clearance was pretty limited for welding.
As nice as the weather was yesterday, today it's rainy. Ray still wants us to fab some extra strength into the front leaf spring mounts and make a gauge/switch stand inside the car. It may have to wait until things clear up. The garage is full of Charger right now.
