Need measurement / distance between front upper shock tower A Body
"I would weld in the shock tower then do the inner fender part as it welds directly to the shock tower."
The factory only used about 4 or 5 spot welds on the very top of the shock towers and the inner fender. Over the years, my '68 Barracuda convertible had begun to tear those spot welds loose with a slant 6 in the car. When I was installing a complete US Cartool Chassis Stiffening kit, I welded the shock towers fully to the inner fenders.
If you are trying to make it all original, you likely are not interested in altering the car with a chassis stiffening kit. If you are open to building in some improvements, here are some things I found when trying to improve how my car drives and handles for that contingency.
The sub-frame connectors made the single biggest difference in how the chassis felt while driving. The rest of the kit almost eliminated the cowl shake (entire dash and windshield shakes/vibrates left and right at a visible frequency over rougher roads) the car had. With no roof structure, I assume convertibles have more cowl shake than a hard top.
My cowl shake was eliminated entirely after I installed a Monte Carlo bar. At the time, I fitted it for the slant 6 motor and have since installed a 5.9 Magnum based 408" motor with a factory serpentine belt. The bar no longer fit because of the A/C pump, and I have not made a new one. You can see the front frame connecting bar in the picture of the car pulling into Spring Fling in LA a few years ago. US Cartool has since changed their kits to one that is a little nicer than what I have as far as the under radiator frame connector and the under fender bracing.
I'm going to upgrade my engine with a supercharged 5.9 Magnum soon and to handle the added power, my next chassis upgrade will be to tie the front part of the frame rails to the shock towers and through the fire wall under the front fenders to some low door bars to finally tie in the rollbar. I'd also like to run a bar under the dash to connect both sides together.
"I would weld in the shock tower then do the inner fender part as it welds directly to the shock tower."
The factory only used about 4 or 5 spot welds on the very top of the shock towers and the inner fender. Over the years, my '68 Barracuda convertible had begun to tear those spot welds loose with a slant 6 in the car. When I was installing a complete US Cartool Chassis Stiffening kit, I welded the shock towers fully to the inner fenders.
If you are trying to make it all original, you likely are not interested in altering the car with a chassis stiffening kit. If you are open to building in some improvements, here are some things I found when trying to improve how my car drives and handles for that contingency.
The sub-frame connectors made the single biggest difference in how the chassis felt while driving. The rest of the kit almost eliminated the cowl shake (entire dash and windshield shakes/vibrates left and right at a visible frequency over rougher roads) the car had. With no roof structure, I assume convertibles have more cowl shake than a hard top.
My cowl shake was eliminated entirely after I installed a Monte Carlo bar. At the time, I fitted it for the slant 6 motor and have since installed a 5.9 Magnum based 408" motor with a factory serpentine belt. The bar no longer fit because of the A/C pump, and I have not made a new one. You can see the front frame connecting bar in the picture of the car pulling into Spring Fling in LA a few years ago. US Cartool has since changed their kits to one that is a little nicer than what I have as far as the under radiator frame connector and the under fender bracing.
I'm going to upgrade my engine with a supercharged 5.9 Magnum soon and to handle the added power, my next chassis upgrade will be to tie the front part of the frame rails to the shock towers and through the fire wall under the front fenders to some low door bars to finally tie in the rollbar. I'd also like to run a bar under the dash to connect both sides together.
