Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Now for the view from underneath the V8Mongrel.  Typical of a unibody design, the SA22C chassis has two sheet metal runners front to rear that look like the frame rails of a traditional body-on-frame car.  They are about equidistant from the transmission tunnel and the rocker panels, and do play an important role in stiffening the car, but are not frame rails in the traditional sense.  They also tie into the front frame horns, which means they will likely play a role in the upcoming alterations.

Those pictures are mainly of the transmission.  I never had a reason to take pictures of the underside of the floor panel.  As you can see, these rails are pretty beat up, and I don’t feel comfortable using them as-is for the basis of any kind of new front clip.  They simply aren’t true.  Fortunately, there is a way to reinforce them that I learned from MuscleCar TV.  The episode Comet Frame Rail & Roll Cage details how to add a lot of strength to a unibody car by adding real frame members to these unibody runners.

I am going to be taking a break from the front clip posts and discussing the fender flares I have been building.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 8:20 am and is filed under Front Clip, Planning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.