Hey, Star...I just read your blog for the first time. Lookin' good!
Moti beat me to the question I thought everyone was overlooking...why a 442 for a BEC? My Miata drivetrain sits in a McSorley 442 and there's *plenty* of room.
What are you doing for a rear end? IRS or solid? If live, you need to follow the plans for the M1 tubes so your trailing links have a vertical tube to link to. Otherwise, I like your change to the plan. I wish I'd angled mine down, sometimes.
Also, you might consider moving your M1 tubes forward an inch at the bottom, so your rear bulkhead tubes (K3) can mate directly to the base tube, instead of having to pass through the M1 tubes at an annoying angle. Not a big deal, but easy enough to change at this point. Or you can leave the K3 tubes inset an inch, where the live axle needs them.
You mention 6' sticks...you're not buying them at Lowes/Home Depot, are you? If so, you're paying about 4x too much. While you're doing great minimizing waste, I'd encourage you to get long sticks as well. While all those pieces in your photo are short, there's still about 3' of tube there. That would be just 3-4" of waste if all your cuts came from a single long stick. Go to a steel yard and buy a full load up front...I think you'll need like 160' or 200' of the 1" tube (I forget the exact number...add 15% to whatever you think you'll need). Have them cut it in half to 10' or 12' sections. You can pop the glass on the back of your Blazer and haul those with *no* trouble...it's not a frickin' Del Sol, dude!
Just bring a tarp or some plastic to keep your seats clean. Hang them from the garage ceiling or they'll continually piss you off being in the way.
Do you have a plan for your suspension geometry? This is the probably the single hardest thing for amateurs like you and me to figure out. That geometry (where your pickups are on the chassis) will answer your front end design questions more than anything else. If you haven't yet, cruise some of the suspension threads and get a feel for what goes into it.
Having said all that, I'll stop short of recommending that you design your suspension now. You've got good momentum, and I think you'll end up in the "completed" column. The last thing you need now is a couple-month stall staring at a spreadsheet to discourage you...better to wait 12 months and you've got a thousand pound commitment tying up your garage to push you through that task!
All the plans people are using get you plenty close enough to accommodate any conventional suspension design you come up with later on.
Keep at it.
-dave "I need a bottle opener" hempy
ps. Your camera phone takes *much* better snaps than my Treo 650!
_________________
...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my
[Locost 7 build log]