A while back I cleaned the subframe I took out of my car. Then I started checking alignment of the mounting points and found that the lower control mounting points on one side didn't line up as well as I would have liked. Soooo, I brought the subframe to a buddys body shop and mounted it up on a frame rack to tweak it a little with help and guidance from an experienced bodyman who straightens frames damaged in collisions in a production shop. We chained down the frame and started bending things a little at a time getting the LCA mounting holes lined up better until..... Oooooops! We kinked a rail. So after searching around and not finding a good used subframe for sale locally (new aftermarket out of my budget) I made a deal with a buddy of mine.
My bud wants to build a 78 TA for his wife and has a 81 Formula with a good unibody and a 78 TA with rusty back half from being in the Northeast early in it's life. I made a deal with him to take his cars and swap the front of his 78 to the rear of the 81 and he'll finish the tail panel swap later himself so it will look like a 78 TA. I get the leftover front subframe in exchange for the work swapping things enough for it to roll away (on a trailer) in one piece. This will save him a lot of work trying to do rust repair on the 78 unibody.
I began by having the 81 Formula dropped off to strip to the unibody. Stripped it, checked the subframe I'll be keeping then started cleaning the frame while waiting for the 78 to arrive. The 81 was a rear disc car so I'll be selling off the rear end and disc/disc specific components as a package.
Once the 78 arrived I started taking it apart enough to roll the unibody away from the subframe. Once it's separated I'll join the two halves. I plan on leaving the front of the 78 as complete as possible with the engine, trans etc. all in place. I've disconnected the driveshaft, shift cable, backdrive, speedometer cable and am working on the steering column now. I only have a couple hours a day after regular work so it'll take a few days to complete the swap.
