Subframe connectors for a driver/cruiser, necessary to weld to floor?

Rat Bastid said

I’ve been looking closer at sub frame connectors since I’m going to need them. What about the USCT connectors was it you weren’t fond of? I don’t mind fitting them. Was it you don’t like the way they weld to the floor?

I also need to duplicate your slider brackets. That’s a fall project.

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The USCT subframes are just a ton more labor intensive. The fitting isn’t terrible, or at least it wasn’t on my Dart that I installed them on. I did have to do some grinding and fitting but I expected that part. The welding overhead thing sucks, I did mine with the car elevated on 12 ton jackstands so it really wasn’t high enough to be comfortable. Slag falling on you etc. Plus the welding isn’t super easy, it’s just sheet metal and there’s a pretty substantial difference in thickness between the USCT subframes and the floor pan. And some of that was how I was doing it, I didn’t fully strip the car I just wire wheeled the weld area, my welder is a Millermatic 15 from 1972 so it doesn’t have all the automatic settings etc.

I made my own 1.5”x3” connectors for my Duster, even building them myself it was less work than the USCT ones. And the Duster still had a noticeable improvement in body stiffness. I’m not gonna say one style of connector is better, you’d need a full on finite element analysis or destructive testing to know the answer to that question, from my perspective both styles work well. I know for me I wouldn’t do the USCT ones again unless the car was fully blasted and on a rotisserie.