I finished the suspension brackets for the rear, and I suppose I'm as happy with the result as I'm going to be with this design.
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The whole idea was to make it super easy to fabricate brackets, and to locate the mounting structure in a place that makes the stock mounting locations a straight shot. I do believe I succeeded at accomplishing both of those goals, and it will be easily strong enough to do the job, especially once I have the the bracing in.
The flat caps on the square tubing are the places where round tube will meet it and tie it more fully into the chassis. It's very much the same as my front suspension mounts, though the brackets will be very different.
The holes were again 1" diameter heavily beveled/chamfered and with 11 gauge tubes welded in then ground flat. The square tubing (and round) is all also 11 gauge, so it's kind of heavy, but very strong.
My one problem with this setup is that it's not very elegant looking. Maybe once the round-tube connections have been made it will look more right. I suppose the brackets will also largely cover it.
The shock mount tube, which is the short square tube standing up off of the horizontal square tube, is drilled front and side for a secure bracket attachment. Plus it is inclined 10 degrees and located such that it lines up perfectly with the stock shocks. Again, I'll run the stock shocks in the beginning and go to coilovers later. I'll only have to build a new bracket to make the change.
So, now it's time to move on to figuring out the seat and pedal mounts. I have seats which I like and I have been positioning them various ways in the car to try to find the optimal adjustment range. I also bought a pedal assembly so that I can mock them up and finalize all of the positioning. I have no idea yet how I'm going to do it, but there seems to be adequate space.
The pedal assembly I bought is the Afco reverse-mount unit. It's the same as the Willwood, but I think it's made better and it was a little cheaper. I live only about a 35 minute drive from Speedway in Lincoln, so I drove over to compare the two assemblies. I have not used it yet, obviously, but I would recommend taking a look at the Afco pedals if you're in the market.
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I'm putting off roller day until I get the seat mounts and pedal mount done. I could make my suspension brackets and roll the thing out, but I'd just have to put it back down on blocks to build the floor stuff anyway, so that fun will have to wait. It's getting cold here now, so might end up being spring before I ever see this car on its wheels.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Graveyard