Rapom's Rocket - just another Duster build thread
Here is a how to on home made frame connectors. With a little organization I can knock out a pair of these in about a hour. Material is .120 wall 2x3 tube, IRC about 52 long, some plate steel for the front tube attachment to the trans cross member, or what I used here, some 2 wide cuts off a chunk of 2 x 1/8 scrap angle iron. All this can be done with a 4- 4 ½ grinder with a metal cutting disk, a flap wheel for weld clean up and a drill.
Measure the distance from the trans cross member to the front of the rear frame tubes where it meets the floor pan. Mark this distance on top of the tube. Slice the tube down both sides of the top, using the
inside of the side walls as your guide, then cut the flap off square at your mark. The opened up tube fits nice and snug over the rear frame horns. The tube has to be bent up approx 15 degrees at this point so using the grinder take a ¼ 3/8 pie cut out of each side at the same mark as before (red arrow). With a helper or floor jack, ect. support the tube in position against the trans cross member and bend the rear of the tube up into position over the frame horn. A dead blow hammer works great. Tack weld the pie cut, one bead on each side is good, to hold it in position. Dont get aggressive and weld it to the frame horn by mistake. Now is a good time to tack the angle iron in place on the front of the tube. Remove the tube and clamp a piece of flat copper, I made mine out of a 3 long piece of water pipe smashed flat in my vice, to the inside of the pie cut and weld it closed. The copper keeps it flat on the inside wall and wont stick to the weld. If you dont do this you will play hell cleaning up the weld so you can get it to fit over the frame horn again. I drill four evenly spaced ½ plug weld holes along each side but I like over kill in most things I do. Finish weld your angle brackets and your connector is ready to be welded into the car. Note: the trans cross member has a bump out on the drivers outboard side of the frame connector which makes putting a tab on that side difficult. I normally grind the tube end to fit snug and weld it home. See last pic. Some guys are going to cry foul and insist they need to be cut through the floor. Is that stronger, yes, but its a LOT more work. I've done them many different ways but this is easily the fastest and simplest.
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