The Willomet Charger

[1970RT]

Happy new year. Let's catch up.

The torque boxes are expanded slightly, and taper down to interface with the inner chassis supports. This is all .075" 14ga, as there's already plenty of 1/8" in the rockers and torque boxes.




Closed in, and I'm holding off on welding and blending until I get the inner chassis members measured, tacked, and ready.




A good view of my office for the last few days.


Before I can measure for the inner chassis members, or even the rear suspension, the engine and trans have to be placed.


As we looked at earlier, the engine needs a deep setback to achieve the desired weight balance. It may come forward an inch or two from this position, but the shifter location is already close to ideal (for me).


The assembly is offset to the passenger side by 1/2".


Next up: fabricating the inner chassis members and motor and transmission mounts.

David

[WSSix]

Insane! I love it.

[1970RT]

Originally Posted by WSSix

Insane! I love it.

Thanks man. It's a handful getting the powertrain placed exactly where I want it, but I'm fairly close. I like to take my time at points like these.

It started at 2-5/8" backset from the suspension centerline, and I've pushed it forward to 1-3/8" to gain some flexibility on the shifter location. I can use remote mount directly on the TR6060, or the forward placement on the T56 tailshaft I have yet to order and install.

After the inner chassis members, I'll be able to more finely place the engine and trans relative to the floor. It would be good to be able to have a (nearly) flat bottom beyond the bellhousing. It's fairly close - maybe another 1-1/2".

David

[WSSix]

Sounds like a great plan. It's going to look awesome when done.

[1970RT]

Let's catch up.

I've been working on powertrain placement, setting how much to offset it behind the front suspension and side to side, settling on:
1-3/8" backset and 1/2" offset to the passenger side.

From there, it was time to start figuring out how to mount this assembly into the chassis.


The super offset Chris Alston Chassisworks mounts, mounted with the forward bias.




Set. Time to design and fab.


Removed the upper core support mount to ease ingress/egress of the powertrain.


After some revisions, here's the mount and cradle design.


Loosely assembled on the bench.


Mounts and overlays, all .110 mild steel.


Mocked up in my lumber yard of a Charger.






How all the plates stack.




The tradeoff is that it takes a lot of filler and argon, but it's a light and efficient and stiff design.


David

[1970RT]

Consequently, I've been TIG welding for a couple of days now.








More time coming up under the hood.

David

[andrewb70]

Beautiful work David! Why the offset to the passenger side?

Also, did you have the plates for the front cradle cut or...?

Andrew

[1970RT]

Originally Posted by andrewb70

Beautiful work David! Why the offset to the passenger side?

Also, did you have the plates for the front cradle cut or...?

Andrew

Thanks, Andrew. The plates were plasma’d using a friends arclight table. I drew up the design in BendTech.

Offset is for a few reasons - more room for my feet and rear end (I’m 6’3” with a size 12), some weight balance for a 220 lb driver, and an easier packaging of the steering column and brake booster.

David

[andrewb70]

Originally Posted by 1970RT

Thanks, Andrew. The plates were plasma’d using a friends arclight table. I drew up the design in BendTech.

Offset is for a few reasons - more room for my feet and rear end (I’m 6’3” with a size 12), some weight balance for a 220 lb driver, and an easier packaging of the steering column and brake booster.

David

David,

The offset makes perfect sense, given your goals.

Can you elaborate more on the material used in the crossmember and why it was built the way it was, etc...?

Andrew

[66fury]

love the engine cradle