UPDATE: I welded up a support bar (behind the spring perch)between the frame. The wheel tubs came in and I am making up templates for them. I took too much off the front frame piece I cut out , so I'm going to have to make a template of the frame and try to find some steel to make a new face. My edelbrock adj uppers and hotchkis braces came in , so I took a break and started installing them. If it ever stops raining here I may get this thing finished. It sucks working in your driveway

I moved my hinges in and modified the hinges so I could move the tubs all the way up against the speaker deck so I can lower the car as far as I want. I have MT 315s on the car and can lower the car at least 3 to 4 inches more than it sits in the picture. 1st pic shows the hinges before I moved them so you can see how much more I got by moving the hinges inside the tubs.

Thats low!!!

Thats really F-ing low!! Dont you want the back higher for a good launch though?? Good work none the less!

When it comes to launching, its not all about how low or how high your car sits, its about weight transfer. Can you get a car to transfer the weight at launch. In my case my QA1s still have plenty of travel for the car to squat on launch, and the front end has 2.5" drop spindles with drag springs so I have more than enough room for movement at both ends of the car. I did have to modify the trans tunnel a good bit for driveshaft clearance because its so low, but that was easy.

I got the 295/65/15 mt et drag radials mounted on the new mt et drag wheels. The drivers side notch is done, I'm still working on the pass side. I'll post some pics up soon. THE WHEELS FIT FRIGGIN AWESOME !!! VERY AWESOME STANCE! They fill the wheel well perfect. I haven't started the tubs yet, I'm waiting to finish the notch and get the car on the ground first.

please do post some pics, I was thinking about running the 295's myself. I just got a new welder and am going to notch my frame in the next week or so. I would like to see how it turns out. You are using 15x8's with 4.5 back spacing right?

I love the way Barry's car looks.. and can picture my malibu looking like that.. I'm just having two concerns with it..

1. I'm having a really hard time wrapping the fact of cutting up a super clean frame doing that to it around my brain, but my main concern is how much strength did you lose by doing this? Have you done anything else for added strength back there? I've seen on some occasions where the mounting locations for the rear control arms have torqued on our cars causing massive damage. have you compensated for that at all? just curious.

2. I see your running a 12 bolt rear end. did you use factory G body locations for the uca's, and lca's? can you give me a little more detail on what you did with the ends and measurements? I've been so crazy on the fence between buying an 8.5 gn rear end, buying a 9" ford rear end, or just doing up the 12 bolt i've got in my back shed, I think i've finally just decided to do the 12 bolt..

Thanks,
Mike

I just spent 20 min. typing a responce and my computer had a spell and dumped it all. So lets try again.
The area just in front of the LCA mount, where the frame is welded back together is boxed on both sides to add strength, also the LCA mounts are reinforced with a HRPartsNstuff reinforcing kit. I only notched the frame 1" and I put the outer part of the frame inside the inner part just like original. From the back of the spring bucket to the #6 body mount hole I welded a piece from another frame to double the thickness there. My upper coilover mount,(1 5/8 OD tubing), goes across the frame and is notched into the upper spring buckets. I don't feel like there is a lot of stress on the part of the frame behind the LCA brackets anyway.
I made the upper control arms adjustable and with sherical rod ends to compensate for the difference in angles between the 12 bolt and 7.5 rear. Those mounts are in the original locations. The lower control arm mounts were moved in 2 1/2" per side when the frame was moved in that amount. I moved the LCA mounts on the rear end an equal amount and used boxed original lower arms with hard rubber bushings. I used LCA mounts from a 7.5 rear and added some extra mount holes to them.
I cut the rear end housing so that it measured 45.5" complete, end to end using Strange Engineering ends that use Ford type bearings and accept the original 12 bolt backing plates. This also eliminates the c-clips. Axle flange to axle flange measures 51 3/16".
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ok.. I see now... Thanks for the extra input on that!.. still curious of one last thing. do you race it at all, and if so, how does she launch? I love the work you did on that frame.. Thanks again..

Mike

I've taken it to a test and tune session one time with the 383 in it and it ran a best of 12.83 at 106 mph and launched perfectly straight with no wheel spin. With the 548 I'm not sure what will happen. Without a cage, I'm afraid the car will twist quite a bit, so I don't plan to stand on it too hard right out of the hole. I need a roll cage.

that's my concern with the 496 i'm going to put in the bu.. especially with the stick shift! The small block twisted up the quarter panel once to where my door wouldn't open, but i'm boxing the frame, and putting a few extra supports in here and there... trying to avoid the cage, but I guess we'll see..

found this intresting took me while to find it so i replyed so i can read up on it some latter today at home

can i do this to my monte ss and keep running stock style suspension ? and do i have to lifted the body off the frame to notch it ?