well, my winter project is to tackle the rust on the car and redo all of the stock-old undercoating underneath. i began by pulling up the carpet, after taking out the seats, center console, radio, moving wires, etc. i looked around online, carpets for the pass cabin go for under $200, so i think i'll scrap this 23 year old carpet for a new one... looking at the floor pans i noticed that everywhere is rust free in the car, EXCEPT THE DRIVERS SIDE FLOORPAN AND KICK PANEL AREA. damn. i knew i had to attack it now before it spreads.

this is what i found/knew was there..





while working here on a cooold day

so since i dont have a plasma cutter or mig welder and wanted this done right.. i brough it to PRO FAB CHASSIS located in whitehouse station NJ.. 5 mins off fof RT 78. www.profabchassis.com 908-591-3087 ..they build race cars mostly and work on these cars often too

i asked them to weld in my alston racing subframe connectors.. which can be seen in the above photo.. because i had them only bolted in. i also wanted to run a second set of sfc's along the rockers (spohn, bmr, or umi type).. the guys at pro-fab know their stuff and they recomended i go with a S&W suspension kit for subframe connectors....

..the S&W kit comes with a few extra pipes that weld to the rockers, a few plates that bolt through the floorpans for extra support, and a crossmember support. the kit is designed to be used with the S&W adjustable torque arm, so we ordered that, and this allowed me to run a driveshaft safety loop up there too so the car wont po-go stick if the front u joint fails.

below are the pics of the welded up and bolted S&W kit. it feels very tight. please excuse the underside of the car, its oily and nasty looking... FOR NOW!! in the next 3 months i will be wire-wheeling and sanding down the old undercoating, cleaning off the old oil-spray and redoing the undercoating after a rust-treatment of POR-15. THEN it will look good. maybe a new cat back and an adjustable panhard bar with lca's too.

pics:

the car felt TIGHT. after a few miles of driving already, i highly recomend the S&W subframe kit.

if anyone wants my old Alston Racing SFC's they can be for sale!

heres 2 quick photos of the areas where the rust was cut out, sheetmetal was welded in, with seamsealer, and some temporary paint. the bare metal spots nearby will be sanded down a bit more, then rustproofed and covered

Finally, someone has used this type of subframe connector and posted pics. Thank you very much and it looks incredible. I bet the difference is unbelievable. However, your pictures have answered my question... Unfortunately, this type of subframe connector will not work on my car due to the exhaust on my car. I have long tube headers with true duals and an H-pipe. I see there is provison for a y-pipe and stock style exhaust routing but I don't know if that is how I want to go or if that is feasible for my setup. Thank you very much for you post. I am also looking into if this SFC will work with outer SFC's or doing something along the lines of Alston and BMR inner and outer style SFC's. Thanks Again and S&W Racecars has some awesome products. I don't see why more folks don't use their stuff.

Price?

yea, i really didnt even think about the S&W kit until the shop told me they highly reccomend it. then seeing all of the connection points.. i was sold. the kit was about $375 and the tq arm was $260. powdercoated black. i think that most people overlook S&W because they do not advertise on this site such as the other companies do.

all i can attest to is that the car is stiff.. thats for sure. not sure about the weight, but i've yanked lots of heavy parts out of the car over the past 10 years, so it isn't like it's weighing the car down much.

Wow- that's a clean under-side floor pan shot! I haven't seen mine in a couple yrs! This makes it a priority in spring-I've never thought about looking @ the kick panel area!

Very clean install for SFC's & hardware!

See- ya never know what a photo can inspire---Thanks

looks like they do tie into many points. could see where they would provide much more strength than the other designs.
are you going to sell the alston's really cheap?

S&W make some awesome stuff, when i figure how to post pics ill post everything ive bought from them, including my 9" rear, and 3 link, alum floor, alum tubs, 12 pt cage

I was going to seel them for about $100. plus shipping. they have zero damage and zero rust on them, the powedercoating (black) is in excellent condition.. if nobody wants them, i'll end up giving them to my cousin for his 88 camaro... also, looking at my setup. i may be able to still use them on the car with this S&W setup. it may be overkill. but if they fit up there after i redo all the undercoating.. i may just throw them back on there in combination with the s&w kit. yes, seems overkill.. even to me.. but i'll see.

yea, im happy witht he S&W stuff. i'll surley be using them in the future

any more pics of the old ones?

looks good. i like S&W ALOT. i have there aluminum door panels. kits looks good and it attaches well and to most of the structual points on the car... but one thing to say is that you should have the SFC braces welded a bit more... from what i can see there is minimal welding... and u are sacrificing structual integrety by not doing so. those 1" welds are fine but i recomend fully welding them around or like 75%. and getting rid of the bolts and just welding it in completely.

i too like POR15 and ive used about 4 quarts of it on my car now... my entire boll bar is done with it. but some draw backs are when it starts to peel or chip it comes up in complete SHEETS of this stuff. otherwise it is tough stuff... make sure everything about to get coated is prepped and scuffed big time!

if you could ship them to 95356 for 100$ total I'm interested. I think they would be a reasonable improvement for me.
I wouldn't recommend putting them on with the S W, if you really wanted overkill, you should go up top and put in a 6 or 8pt roll cage, or at least a 4pt welded in of course. My thoughts are the extra on the bottom is just wasted weight. I bet your race shop would agree if you ran it by them.

thats a pretty sick setup where in jersey is that shop like north central south? i wouldnt mind taking a trip down there in the future

if you want proof of this i would let u ride in my car... im in north jersey. i originally made my own SFC with 2"x2"x.095" mild steel and cut up the floor and welded them through for max strength and least weight. Obviously i had to make my own exhaust hehe. but the improvements were GREAT! But i still wanted more. so i said when i drop the gas tank to put a walbro 255lbh high pressure fuel pump (can ya say turbossss!) lol. i would put a 8pt roll bar in. since you would have to drop the tank anyway bc of welding there is extremely dangerous. it took my maybe 3 days of late nites but its in and its sooo pretty. In conclusion the cage made a WHOLE WORLD OF DIFFERENCE! car is like a rock now. A roll bar will add more rigidy than you could every accheive with SFC due to the height of the bars to the connection points on the floor/frame. this adds massive leverage and rigidy to the roll bars. a welded in cage with a simple yet effective SFC is the best way to go.

the 90-100lbs i added with the cage is minimal when u consider my SFC weighed maybe 20-25lbs but i also cut away alot from the floor so maybe i added 15lbs to the car with the SFC. i could have dropped the weight of the roll bar by going to moly but welding moly is a pain. and with the roll bar your car will be certified(with 8pt) to 9.99 sec .

after taking a better look at your pics with the S&W kit i would have modified them as soon as i got them. i would have welded in some 1" or 1.5" tubing to the fronts and connected them to the front subframes closer to the motor (not the trans mount) where the steel is a bunch thicker (trans mount subframe part is very thin). and the rear attachements for the S&W SFC connect to the rear LCA mounts and not the "actual" rear subframe. i would have changed that as well. but overall its a good kit.

awesome , thanks for the technical info, i'll look into modifying them if i feel any looseness with the car. but right now i'm stripping and sanding down all of the underside to paint with POR-15.

i've always throught about a rollcage or bar, but at this point it may have to wait. i want some new wheels and a 12 bolt rear. then a better motor

turbosbox..send me a pm. if u want them, i can get you a price and then find out how much shipping will be. the chassis shop threw out the bolts that the old one's used to mount, but if u plan on welding them in...this will not matter... if u plan on bolting them in, jsut go out and buy some grade8 bolts that will fit accordingly i'd say

the shop is located in whitehouse station nj, which is central jersey area. it is nearby exit 24 on rt. 78 their website is www.profabchassis.com great guys

I'm going to buy this same setup pretty soon, Is there any significant road noise or anything out of the ordinary while driving with this setup?

Thanks, Dan

A great informational thread. Thanks for posting. I'd agree with the welds in welding them as 360* as possible, also removing the bolts and welding those points as well. Or keep them in and weld around the bolts, to ensure they dont open up the hole their in now.

Otherwise great looking setup. Enjoy and destroy!!!

thanks. yes for noise, i've noticed that i can hear the whine of the rear end a bit more, either because the tq arm is now tied to the body/frame essentially so the vibration and ring gear noise is transfered over to the body.. or because the driveshaft angle is not set up right yet. i think they set it at -1*,

otherwise the kit is awesome. im sure the noise im hearing will quiet down when i put the carpet in the car.. since now its just the bare metal floor too

Ok thanks, just making sure that it wasn't so loud that I would have to wear earplugs lol. I don't mind some noise, i'm more worried about getting my car back on the road with my lsx/t56 combo