Welcome to the site. You're doing great work. Man have you come a long way with the car already. Good job!

Impressive build! You sure seem to be moving fast. I wish my build went this quick...

Thanks guys for the encouragement. As you all know It's a long road ahead!

I've been checking out your builds too. A lot of nice work going on. I can't wait until I get the motor in my car. I'm a little jealous ;)

Cut the crossmember down on the hump section 5/8". Should look a little better when finished off with some 1/8 plate.
Attachment 40078

Started filling in the holes on the firewall.

Good work your doing overthere

Jody you are doing some great work and really moving along,keep it up you will be riding soon.

Sweet build I love seeing cars start this way and end up being beast keep the pics coming and great progress. Any idea what color youll be painting the car yet

Thanks guys.

Windycitychev, I've been leaning toward a tungsten charcoal grey but can't make up my mind. At this point, its going together in black SPI Epoxy.

Crossmember finished.

Not so high above the transmission tunnel now. Passenger side seat pan and subframe connector done. Drivers side to go.

Awesome Project

Wow, you've done some really great work! Look forward to watching your progress!

Thanks guys. I'm pushing to get this thing on the road as soon as possible.

Replacing driver's side floor and building driver's side subframe connector.
I also picked up some 3/16" plate for the 4 link brackets and some 1/4" for new front UCA and coilover mount. Nobody in Olympia seems to have 1" OD .156 wall 1022 DOM tubing so I have to run up north for it next week. I'm planning to thread the tubing for the 3/4" shank heim ends. Brakes, coilovers, wheels and tires should all be here by the end of the month. Can't wait to get the new suspension in the car.

I'm definitely glad I decided to pull the seat pans. Even though the tops looked fine both sides had more than just surface rust on the subframe inner structure. I want a nice solid mount for my seats and subframe to bolt to. I cut most of the rust out making room for the crossmember.

Nice work on cross member. I think you mentioned you'll be running a t56 and if so , you may need to cut about 3/4" on the top front to clear shifter. It also depends on setback of you motor and height of body mounts . You are definitely taking care of business
KEEP IT UP

Frankv11. What do you think about taking a notch out of the crossmember and filling in with angle iron? I'm running 1/2" solid body mounts and using the factory small block engine mounts for now. Here's a terrible sketch of what I'm thinking. Lol. I figure worse case when I get the t56 in there I will have to notch the entire top section of the xmember around the shifter area but this way would retain some more strength if it works out. Like you said. Its all about the height and set back. Sure would be a lot easier if I already had the transmission so I can measure it out.

Other option.

Got the drivers side floor patch fit and tacked today. I plan to cut the crossmember access in the new patch panel after I get the seat pan cleaned up and installed.

Also cut and notched 2x3 1/8 wall tubing to make my drivers side subframe connector. Cutting a small pie shaped slice and welding worked better than trying to bend the tubing in the press even with this slight angle.

Added the notch on the bottom side of the top center.

Filled in the inside open ends with some 1/8" plate. Should be ready for permanent installation.

At this pace you'll be done in no time. Cross member & frame connector look good

Thanks Frankv11. What do you think of the notch? Does it look like it will work? I'm going off of pictures and posted measurements as I don't have a T56 yet. I notched it 1".

I cleaned up the toe kick structure and torque box before the floor went in for the final time.

Final crossmember install. I used blocking under the car to make sure the seat pans and crossmember were level before tacking

Nice work! Just wondering did you raise the trans tunnel for the T56? I know you don't have to but it can get tight in there and all the other work that you did it would be easier to do now then later?

Also nice job on the cross member, for the 750 that DSE gets for theirs, you have what $60 in materials, and your labor? Nice job!

Hey Rick. I haven't raised the tunnel yet but plan on it. I'm a little paranoid about losing the shape of the car so I tend to create more work for myself than probably need to. Since things all went back in place where they should its coming. I have the sheet metal but need to figure out how to bend it with a nice radius.

I'm very impressed with the quality, design, and fit of the DSE parts I purchased but I don't have the budget to buy them all. I had to go with the $60 option on this one.

It looks great, if you didn't tell anyone it wasn't DSE they could never tell the difference. Nice work !

WOW, just went through the thread. Great pics and progress! You're doing some amazing fab work, can't wait to see this continue to come together. Plus, it's always nice to see a fellow Washingtonian :woot:

Thanks Wayne, I didn't plan on putting a crossmember in but it made sense to cut out the rust on the front side of the inner seat pan structure. It was salvageable but I'm kinda OCD on rust pitting. Hopefully I don't upset anyone as it is very close to DSE. I'm sure there's other ways to build it but, like I said.. I'm not creative. ;) My 4-link will share some similarities to the quadralink as well but it's my own math/geometry and a few tweaks. It sure would be nice to go with AM, DSE, Speedtech, or the like but I'm on a budget. There's some very talented fabricators on this site. I really enjoy browsing through the build pages! I wish I had some of their skills but I go with what I know. haha.

Hey 19sixtynine! Same here. I haven't come across to many other Washingtonian's on the site. I'll try to get a picture in the sun this summer so we have something to look back on the other 9 months of the year while its cloudy and raining. haha. J/K it's not that bad.. 8 months.

I had to cut a pie out of the subframe connector, taper it down to the size of the frame rail and weld it back up. At 5 1/4" away from inside flat of the rocker it hit the drivers side torque box and wouldn't go all the way back.

Attachment 40197

After tapering the end it fit right in place. Got it all welded up and ready for epoxy.

Looking good good job .
Thanks rick k:thankyou:

I would say so but It's tough to call it. I liked the 2nd drawing just to play it safe. But what do I know I been working on my exhaust for close to a year now.
Nice welds on the frame connectors

It looks great ,nice welds!!

Thanks Rick. I just found your car! Very well done. It has a great stance too.

Thanks guys. I appreciate the comments.

I agree the second option is safer. However when I got to looking at it before I started cutting I didn't want to make a sharp 90 corner since it would be visible. I decided the notch would look better and be easier than trying to make a compound radius'd corner. I don't think I'll be lucky enough to come across a magnum I can afford so hopefully this fits the smaller T56.