SERPENT99

i did the easy side, now I have to do the hard side. It's a real pain in the A trying to figure out where to make the cuts so the tube fits real nice. I went from the nice heavy metal near the LCA mount to the forward part of the front subframe where the metal is thicker. The tube penetrates the front subframe and it will be welded to both side walls. Anyone have an interior for sale?

ede

* first thing i thought of was way back when i got out of high school and had a job working as a mechanic in a dealership the service manager use to always laugh about guys that had claw hammers in their tool box.

* any similuarity between this story and actuall posters at thirdgen.org is purely a random occurance.

MrDude_1

hmm.

i have 3 ball been hammers, a claw hammer and a 5lb sledge (BFH)

i think theres a 15lb sledge in the shed too.....


strangely, ive never liked service managers either...

* any relevence between this story and actual posts at thirdgen.org is purely a random occurance.

SERPENT99

my toolbox looks like hell. half the tools are home made or modified. if you think that's scary check out my engine hoist.



some people find the best part of hot rodding is when they spend money on their car, treating their car like a shrine, buying it bits of chrome and pretty lights.

I'm not one of those. I never paid anyone to do anything to my cars in the last 7 years, I don't have a lot of money, and I like to go fast. That's the best part, doing it yourself.

ede

damn now that is scarey

MrDude_1

you obviously have never seen a 15 year old swap engines when all he has is a ratcheting come-along and a tow strap.

i did some scary shiznit now that i look back. lol

SERPENT99

The money I saved on not having to buy an engine hoist went to many many bottles of N2O. It was fun.

Ratcheting tow straps are the next evolutionary step after duct tape and tie wraps. I was at home depot today, they had 4 foot long tie wraps, imagine the possiblities

MYBLUZ

I've used a nearby tree and a come-along before. I was in the gravel,so a cherry picker wouldnt have helped much.

jocww

you guys or nuts

MFaulkner

...I was 16 when I did that... Whatever works...

85TransAm406

iTrader: (1)

I have used the backhoe at the farm to pull mine, and of course no racheting with a light touch on the controls....of course, if i had slipped the control i could have ripped out the side of the car...

Ratchet

Nice Job looks pretty familiar and yeah the other side is a real pain. I had to put a jog in the passenger side rail to avoid the catalytic converter.

Cost 15$ cdn. for the 1 and1/2 inch square tubing to make them plus about 6 hours to fab and install.

The first pic shows the drivers side installation This one was pretty easy because it was just a straight run. Note rear attachment point is where the rear subframe is welded to the floor pan.

The second pic shows the front attacment point of the drivers side connector


The third pic shows passemger side installation. Note the offset in this connector due to the different height of the floor pan on passenger side


The final pic shows the attachment point of the passenger side connector


connectors are welded to front and rear subframes not the rocker panels
also welded to seat frame and all around floor where they pass through.

SERPENT99

I forgot to thank you rachet, you were the inspiration for this. I just went a little further forward to get to the thicker metal. I searched the forums for frame connectors and your post was just what I wanted.

I guess most of us pulled engines from cars, anyone ever pull a car from an engine? How about throw most of a car out on the curb for collection?




I love this crap. The kids love this crap. The wife loves,.... uhhhh, me and the kids

Ratchet

That is totaly Awesome!!!

I guess you pulled,or should I say dropped, no I think it is cut out that engine before you rigged up the Jeep Crane. Very inovative.

Ric

dennis6

I wanna see more!!!

SERPENT99

I'm glad you appreciate my resoursefulness. lack of money is my driving force.

Here's my Jeep, I did all the work myself except resplining one axle and the output shaft of the trans. I made everything including the adapter for the transfer case and narrowed the rear myself. It's run 12.37 @106 mph with different tires. I think it will be in the 11's now since I put new heads on it. If anyone is in the Augusta Georgia area we need to hang out.





If you look real hard you can see some cool stuff likle the vacuum refferenced fuel pressure regulator, the N2O, the custom pinion reinforcement ring for the rear, battery in the skid plate. It looks like hell but it's built to take a beating. When I get my camaro on the road it's makeover time for the jeep. I want to lower the body on the frame a little, and run some 38 inch tires in the back in some huge wheel tubs. The front axle will stil have 31 inch tires but I want to move the axle forward and possibly change the steering and suspension to get rid of all the frame that sticks out past the grill.

I should get my A out of this seat and get in the garage.

SERPENT99

My frame connectors are done. I reffer to them as type R frame connectors, the R is for Rachet. Rachet inspired me to do this so he deserves some credit for this job.



I wish someone like rachet lived by me. The neighborhood wouldn't be able to take it.

Tomorrow I start wiring it. I need a carpet now, where ca get a molded carpet for a decent price?

rlampkinsjr

Serpent99, what thickness tubing did you use for your project ???

SERPENT99

I used 2x2 .125 wall tubing for most of it, it's what I had laying around. The front of the passenger side was made out of 2x4 tubing because it was easier to contour to the floor.

flyboy367

nice job, back in my day i pulld a complete front end off my 79 camaro, i had 2 jackstands on the pinch weld. it was like a catapult. damn thing sat there balencing perfectly and nothing hit the ground. maybe a detailed writeup with pics of the frame connectors is in order. that looks a hell of alot sturdier that the ones i have seen prefabed. i might be getting back into f-bodies so i would do it, and im gonna email this to my buddy mike. he has 5 camaros and 2 trans ams. i think 1 runs....maybe

SERPENT99

LOL Sounds like one of my friends, he'd work on his car all week, as soon as he got it running he'd drive around the block once, do a sick burnout and break it.

The hardest part of the frame connectors is trying to figure out where to cut the floor so it matches up to the tubing. There's a trick I use where i put the tube a fixed distance from where I want it and then I can project the final position of the tube. I'll have to take some more pictures.

irocbarry

maybe im just not seeing the point of it, but why do yuou guys have the sfc's going through the floorpan, non of the aftermarket ones ive seen have that

85TransAm406

iTrader: (1)

Probably because they don't have mandrel benders so they can't bend the tubing to fit the contours of the floor pan and still weld the SFCs to the floorpan. The aftermarket ones that attach to the front and rear subframes can't be welded to the floorpan along it's length either.

MrDude_1

2 reasons

1, they dont have benders... so its a straight shot

and 2 they arnt mass producing them for everyone to put on... so if it takes a lil more work to install, its not a problem.

its def a better way to do it... atleast stiffness wise, i mean, whats stronger? a bent curved piece of tube thats welded on the ends, or a straight piece thats welded its entire length...?


and yea they do sell them that way... look at Competition Engineering's subframe connectors.. almost the same thing.

Ratchet

Two big reasons are:

1. Ground clearance is not compromised by using this method of connecting the subframes. in addition to not hurting ground clearance it also allows for the maximum clearance available for exhaust system.

2. It actually does connect the front subframe to the rear subframe thereby making it one unit. The other styles do not. At least not directly they primarily reinforce the rocker panels.


Ric

KYL98

Those are awesome!! I did a set "similar" to those on an old Nova SS we were restoring....but I never thought about that for my Z. Those look MUCH better than any you can buy.....Like the one's we put on the NOva, it makes a complete frame, instead of just stiffening up the rocker panels... Would you guys be willing to make me a set of those?? I have the mechanical ability...just dont have the time. Let me know if you guys would be interested.....my car is a dual cat car if you're considering it.....

SERPENT99

come over my house and I'll hook you right up!

Augusta Georgia