After the measurement phase, we sat down, discussed where he wanted to go with this car, and his budget. He had seen the new funny car cage, and Chassisworks Eliminator II rear suspension we had just installed in Tim Hol's Regal, and loved it. I then set out to create solid estimates for the chassis work, components, and engine work, a price was agreed on, and parts were put on order.
Then came the cutting.. I could save portions of his existing car, but not without major surgery.
We removed over 300 lbs of metal, not including the 210 lbs Dana 60 rear end. It was built like a tank, with all the metal in all the wrong places. Merely dead weight. I filled the back of my pickup with all the scrap. When George saw it, he just shook his head, and muttered "10,000 dollars, that is what it cost me to have all the metal put in, that you cut out in a day, I sure wish I had built this all at once."
The slicks were carefully placed, and the rear end dimensions were finalized. The top picture is the upper limit of travel, as this is where the tire gets the closest to the quarter panel. The axles were then ordered. This rear end runs "on center" as this tube car has no drive line offset.
The housing was test fit, and marked for cutting.
Then we set about building the new cage and frame structures.
Fast forward 30 days. The frame is complete, and the major bars of the roll cage are tacked in place. The we came across the "problem bar". As it was originally built, the forward cage strut was run straight up, which hindered comfortable access to the driver seat (keep in mind, the "X" brace in the door is not in place yet).
To solve this problem, we custom made the forward strut, and followed the dash/windshield line, to open up the door opening. This cannot be done with one bent bar, but ended up being a 3 piece deal, with sections of bent roll bar tubing, cut and welded together in an NHRA accepted fashion (plug and rosette) to form the tight bends required. That is in the following pictures. It was a lot of work, and I had to duplicate it on the passenger side, because I will not do work that is not symmetrical.
One of the bends with a plug in one end.
The bar was carefully fit around the factory dash.
And the remaining pieces carefully bent and installed to follow the windshield line, and disappear into the roof, before intersecting with the auxiliary hoop of the funny car cage.
And then it was matched on the other side. This process alone took 16 hours of fitting and bending work, to make all the angles identical, and install all the plugs. But we were happy with the results, and it is not hard to see how it has opened up the driver access, and improved visability.
The cage was then completed.
Now, lets digress a bit, and discuss the floor, and fitting of the rear end.
The floor needed to be lowered, much like the factory floor pans were designed. This was necessary to accommodate the funny car cage, while allowing the re-installation of the factory headliner, and providing adequate headroom for the driver, with his helmet on.
Here is how we did it.
Although hard to tell from this photo, the floor actually drops 1 1/2 inches from the outer frame rail, to the inner rail and x brace/trans mount/shifter mount and platform. The shifter platform is removable via two ball lock pins, as the tin for the tunnel will be held on with quick release fasteners, for ease of trans removal. As this car was originally built, it was not possible to access the bolts that held the engine and trans together. A major pain!!