Rear axle options
 

I was looking through some old Hot Rod magazines the other day and I came across the "Bad Seed Chevette" story in the August 2000 edition. I thought it was funky/cool at the time but I never really paid much attention to it.
Then I started looking at how they mounted the rear axle under the car and it hit me like a ton of bricks...why not do the SAME thing to a 3rd gen ?
After taking some measurements and making some calls I think the 2nd gen axle would work nicely. According to Moser the 2nd gen axle is about 1" narrower than the 3rd gen 7.5 so an 8.5" would fit without narrowing. If you could find a 12 bolt from a Camaro or Nova it would be even narrower.
For those who didn't read the article the guys at Hot Rod stuffed a 500 Cadillac engine in the front of a Chevette and put an 8" Ford axle from a Mustang II under the back end using leaf springs cut off just behind the axle perches as lower control arms. They also used the original coil springs to suspend the rear of the car as the shortened leaf springs then act as axle locators only. This set-up worked well enough to launch the little monster with a couple of inches of daylight under the front tires !
The leaf springs allow a small amount of flex so you don't twist the axle housing tubes. The lower control arm mounts on the 3rd gen body is just about 2.5" wide which is perfect for whatever junk leaf spring you can find.
This would accomplish several things at once. Stronger axle, getting rid of the torque arm which allow more room for dual exhaust down the driveshaft tunnel, no need to use a transmission with the torque arm mount or buy an adapter kit (can you say 4-speed and Powerglide?) and with a diagonal link you would have no side to side sway.
Imagine the room you would have for pipes over the axle, peace of mind of having a good strong axle in the back. It would take some welding and careful measuring, but if done right I think it would be worth it.

MHF