was busy;
stripped & capped everything on the engine that i dont need for fabbing and re-assembled the rolling drivetrain
notice how far the engine is set back by using the "long WB" mounting holes
i`m used to wrench on taller things so it is kinda strange to see this extremely low slung drivetrain sitting at ride height for the first time...
my bro`s reaction; "its a frigging skateboard with a V8 !!! "
the 3/4" engine off-set to the passenger side is giving me more clearance for the steering shaft
and it will probably also give me a little more room for the driver footbox
i discovered that there are two common machined planes at the front and rear subframe,
so i drilled two 2x2x.125" tubing sections to bolt them together
the two tubes will later sit on the big steel surface plate
this shoul bring the two clips to the same level
with diagonal measuring and a rotary laser i should be able to square the clips to near factory specs
after some measuring and thinkering with the chassis i decided to scrap the 'large box tube' idea.
i have more room under the cab then what i expected so i`m going with a tubular space frame instead
something similar to this sriiimotorsports chassis ;
found the pics at
SRIII Motorsports Inc.round tube gives me a lot more freedom in shaping the frame tightly around the drivetrain
the factory frame cutoffs have a .75" id corner radius, so i`m going to use 1.5" DOM tubing
this allows me to blend the cutoffs clean & nicely into the space frame.