A500 crossmember mods from inside?

[dartjack]

I have been watching the A500 swap as far as the crossmember mods go. The pictures are great but the clearance after the new pieces are added aren't very clear. About how much clearance is there? I've been working on a plan to do the reinforcement from the inside. Going to use a piece of 1x2 channel layed just inside the original member. Maybe 1/8 to 1/4" below the level of the floorpan. Have the first one bent and fitted. May use it or bend another to more closely fit the tunnel arch. Planning to add some gussets to the area to extend to the outboard tranny crossmember bolt supports. I have some pics of the progress so far and will try to post them. Anybody else thought of attacking the job from the inside?

 

[dartjack]

Let's see if a pic comes through. It's a little wide on the sides but it may have to be to clear tranny. Looks much better looking from the front side. Have good weld fit from the front. I'm thinking some insulation mat will fill in the step so it won't be so unsightly under the carpet.

 

[player1up]

Yep, I'll be doing almost the same thing. I've already done the cross member mount but have way too little clearance in some places so I've got to do it from the top.

What I did initially was to cut the vertical pieces off the loop and weld in a flat piece. That got me all the clearance I needed at the top, but the sides are way to close and I'll have to slope the floor more to get it away from the sides. No pics yet as I'm too A.D.D working on 12 things at once, but I'll have to tackle it sooner or later

 

[dartjack]

The ends of the channel sit on top of the inboard bolt holes of the tranny support. Will that be enough clearance for the OD unit? I can bend another with more flare at the bottom to move farther toward the outboard bolt holes. Or add a second piece on the outboard sides for strength and "oops" factor if I made it too narrow?