Ridetech cradle fitment

[paulk68]

Originally Posted by Josh@Ridetech

Did you get everything put in over the weekend?

I wish hahaha my intentions are always good I swear, unfortunately I did not even get a chance to look at it. I am going to pick up some bottle jacks to act as an extra set of hands to hold it in place and try to figure out where it is hitting. Thanks for checking back Josh!

[Josh@Ridetech]

Originally Posted by paulk68

I wish hahaha my intentions are always good I swear, unfortunately I did not even get a chance to look at it. I am going to pick up some bottle jacks to act as an extra set of hands to hold it in place and try to figure out where it is hitting. Thanks for checking back Josh!

Not a problem at all! Keep me updated!

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Originally Posted by paulk68

so I spent some more time on this today and it is ugly. I mean i am almost an inch off from one side to the other. Is that normal?? am I really supposed to massage an inch somewhere in the sheat metal? I pulled out my level concerned the rails were off but that is not the case.

Here is the passenger side sitting where it should





And this is the drivers side








please help wish some suggestions. I get needing to go up a little but this is alot i feel.

Paul, From What I have found the problem is the angle of the forward supports (the last picture). I have cut and re-welded this section after the sides are flush. And it does help having up pressure instead of side pressure from the clamps. Drill then loosely bolt one hole and at a time this will help get all the holes to align. Do all the horizontal ones first then do the sides.

Another thing I have been doing is feeding a bolt into the frame and using a nut on the outside instead of the self tapping screws supplied. I have had customers strip them out checking for tightness. Works much better.

[bret]

I won't pretend its impossible for that cradle to be "off", but if you saw the jig that we use to build that thing, and know how many hundreds of these units we send out every year, you would likely look towards the floorpan of the car as the culprit, especially if there has been rust or damage repairs made at anytime. I hesitate to tell you to relocate any mounting tabs because that might compromise the location of your suspension mounting points...fairly critical stuff. I hate to hear you're having fitment problems, but i'd also hate to see you compromise the performance of your suspension by taking the easy way out and cutting mounting tabs off the cradle.
If you like, I'll send you another cradle just to make sure your current one is not bent somehow.

[paulk68]

Originally Posted by bret

I won't pretend its impossible for that cradle to be "off", but if you saw the jig that we use to build that thing, and know how many hundreds of these units we send out every year, you would likely look towards the floorpan of the car as the culprit, especially if there has been rust or damage repairs made at anytime. I hesitate to tell you to relocate any mounting tabs because that might compromise the location of your suspension mounting points...fairly critical stuff. I hate to hear you're having fitment problems, but i'd also hate to see you compromise the performance of your suspension by taking the easy way out and cutting mounting tabs off the cradle.
If you like, I'll send you another cradle just to make sure your current one is not bent somehow.

Hi Bret, thank you so much for the response. Give me a little time on massaging the pans a little bit as I seem to be getting closer with some hammering of the floors as they are all new floors. If it still does not get close i might take you up on trying a different cradle. Are there any other measurement i should be taking or does it just go based off where the tabs meet the pinch weld?

here is where i am sitting now
Passenger side





drivers side

[paulk68]

Originally Posted by Vince@Meanstreets

Paul, From What I have found the problem is the angle of the forward supports (the last picture). I have cut and re-welded this section after the sides are flush. And it does help having up pressure instead of side pressure from the clamps. Drill then loosely bolt one hole and at a time this will help get all the holes to align. Do all the horizontal ones first then do the sides.

Another thing I have been doing is feeding a bolt into the frame and using a nut on the outside instead of the self tapping screws supplied. I have had customers strip them out checking for tightness. Works much better.

Vince Thank you so much I will look to do the same with feeding the bolts into the frame. I have heard of other having issues with the self tapping getting stripped

[jlwdvm]

http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/1...rack-car-build
Check out post #15. Mine was off too (maybe not quite as far as yours). I had to do a lot of massaging to the trunk pan (original) to get clearance for the front bar. I also used a bottle jack on each side to help push the cradle up to close the gap and then hold it in place while welding. My car also has original frame rails.

[paulk68]

well I seem to have gotten as close as I can. I think I am going to have to pay a shop to finish this install. Can anyone recommend a good shop that has real world experience with the exact product or install. looking in CT NY MA RI area.
thanks

[dhutton]

Originally Posted by paulk68

well I seem to have gotten as close as I can. I think I am going to have to pay a shop to finish this install. Can anyone recommend a good shop that has real world experience with the exact product or install. looking in CT NY MA RI area.
thanks

How close are you?

Don