Project Frog Princess
The relocation boxes are in. The first part of the day was spent working on the rotisserie. For whatever reason, it spun a Duster fine with just a come along connecting front and back. With a Dart no go so I built a support leg with a castered wheel. Works great now. So nice to have for this kind of project.
I chose to leave the outer frame intact. I located the bolt holes high to lower the car. I left 3/8" clearance above the spring eye. The hole was moved 3/4" back from factory location. I used the original hangers to reference the fore/aft location by just scratching a line even with the back of the hangers and measuring to the hole, move 3/4" back.
A step drill and small air angle drill worked nicely in this space. To locate the inner hole in proper alignment, I fastened the box in place with screws and installed a spring, lined up on the rear frame. Kinda funny how my shop stool seat lift raised the spring so nicely. :D
The car was levelled, spring levelled, and then marks made by spinning the bolt. I had sprayed some white paint on the inside of the box. A long drill through the inner hole was used to start the outer hole. I finished it with the step drill in a drill press. Turns out the hole came out exactly where it would have if I'd just duplicated the measurements from the outer one.
Time to weld it in. Plug welds were added to the outer frame. On the inside, the forward part was too tight to get at with the MIG, so I used a plasma cutter to slice a wedge, bend it down and reweld. This created room to get a decent bead the full length of the box. Here's where leaving that 3/8" clearance paid off.
Next the boxes were trimmed back to match the frame. I'm thinking of cutting up the original hangers, and welding the holes in place like washers to create more wear surface.
For the rear spring mounts I've got sliders waiting. Then the freshly rebuilt shortened 8.8 will have a home.
The relocation boxes are in. The first part of the day was spent working on the rotisserie. For whatever reason, it spun a Duster fine with just a come along connecting front and back. With a Dart no go so I built a support leg with a castered wheel. Works great now. So nice to have for this kind of project.
I chose to leave the outer frame intact. I located the bolt holes high to lower the car. I left 3/8" clearance above the spring eye. The hole was moved 3/4" back from factory location. I used the original hangers to reference the fore/aft location by just scratching a line even with the back of the hangers and measuring to the hole, move 3/4" back.
A step drill and small air angle drill worked nicely in this space. To locate the inner hole in proper alignment, I fastened the box in place with screws and installed a spring, lined up on the rear frame. Kinda funny how my shop stool seat lift raised the spring so nicely. :D
The car was levelled, spring levelled, and then marks made by spinning the bolt. I had sprayed some white paint on the inside of the box. A long drill through the inner hole was used to start the outer hole. I finished it with the step drill in a drill press. Turns out the hole came out exactly where it would have if I'd just duplicated the measurements from the outer one.
Time to weld it in. Plug welds were added to the outer frame. On the inside, the forward part was too tight to get at with the MIG, so I used a plasma cutter to slice a wedge, bend it down and reweld. This created room to get a decent bead the full length of the box. Here's where leaving that 3/8" clearance paid off.
Next the boxes were trimmed back to match the frame. I'm thinking of cutting up the original hangers, and welding the holes in place like washers to create more wear surface.
For the rear spring mounts I've got sliders waiting. Then the freshly rebuilt shortened 8.8 will have a home.
