At this point I discovered I had a few problems. The trans would only go high enough for a 4.5 degree driveline angle before hitting the tunnel. This was too much so I decide to cut the tunnel and fab a new one.
Boy did this snowball in a hurry. My tunnel had been cut already for a 4 speed conversion by one of the previous owners and it looked as if they did it with a hatchet so cutting and refabbing a tunnel didn't bother me. The problem is that almost no one has used this frame and an LS in a second gen. but DSE, The Dale Jr. car used a t56 so I figured that was the reason for modifying the tunnel. After close inspection of the photos on their site and a phone call to DSE I discovered they also had to modify their 70 test car for the Tremec. No big deal right! Well after studying the photos on their site and looking at the parts mocked up on my shell I decided the only way to obtain maximum exhaust clearance with this low of a ride hieght was to also build a crossmember into the body as DSE had done.
I started with a piece of 1.5x3 sqaure tubeing with 1/8" wall. I then cut the floor out to accept it between the rockers while also using doubler plates at the rockers for more strength.
At this point I did not have access to anything that would mandrel bend a sqaure tube so I built the center from 1/8" plate. First I cut the sides, then welded ribs every 2 inches.
Then I fitted and welded this to the main tube. The next step was to cover the top and bottom by welding a strip of 1/8 plate on both, it was also plug welded to the ribs for strength and stiffness. I left the top open as once the unit was welded in the car I would machine a collar from solid stock to provide access to the shifter and weld it in after cutting out the top. On the bottom I used 1/4"x2" angle with 2 holes drilled and nuts welded to fab legs for the actual transmission crossmember.
Tommy