Next up was fabricating the “X” brace that ties the two upper bars together for lateral support. Considering the upper tubes were mounted at an angle it made it slightly more difficult to figure out what angles to “fish mouth” the ends of the X bars. Eventually I got it handled and I’m pretty pleased with the results. This project wasn’t any different than any other when it comes to fabricating. It just takes time and patience. I should mention that I used my Mig welder to tack all the joints and I will use the Tig welder to finish weld. If you don’t have a Tig welder you can use the Mig for tacking and have a good Tig man finish them up.
Before I called it good on the bars I wanted to make sure they were where I wanted them with the car actually sitting on the ground. You can measure all you want but there is still a lot to be said for giving something the “calibrated eyeball”! I did some thinking to make sure I was actually ready to take the car down off of the jack stands it had been on since the fall of 2007 and decided it was time! I installed the rear wheels I am borrowing for construction and down it came. Man! I forgot what the car looked like that low! It’s amazing how much different the car looks sitting at ride height instead of two feet off the ground. I had not yet finished trimming the wheel openings for clearance but had done just enough to allow the tires to just clear.
For temporary axles I had a couple stock units that I cut off and used a piece of 1 5/8” tubing to join them in the housing keeping them relatively straight. It was such a nice day outside I decided to roll the car out and have a look. What could possibly go wrong? As I was carefully rolling the car backwards the rear tires went over a dip in the floor at the door opening and SNAP! “Well”, I thought, “something obviously broke”. What I had failed to remember was that when I tack welded the new billet Comp Engineering housing ends on (#C9506) I had literally just “tacked” them in place. So, apparently the weight of the car was too much for the welds and the passenger side broke loose from the housing. No big deal, how far could it fall? Well, just far enough to let the previously described amount of tire clearance I had disappear and bend the crap out of the bottom of the quarter panel! Oh well, what can I say?
I jacked the car up where it sat, removed the wheel and re-welded the housing end into place with some more substantial tack welds. Then in an amazing stroke of brilliance I wondered if it wouldn’t be prudent to add a couple tacks to the other side. It was about 3 p.m. so I was hitting my peak about then! Anyway, I finished repairs and continued the one-minute job that took 30, and rolled Muscrate outside.
I ask you, is there any better feeling than laying the “calibrated eyeball” to your newly “tubbed out” car for the first time? I think not. After admiring my handiwork and deciding the wheelie bars were just fine where they were, I decided this was a good opportunity to figure out what I was going to do with the rear wheel openings to give them adequate clearance. There were two options the way I saw it. I could go to a LOT of work and literally stretch the openings by cutting off the outer panels, adding about four inches in the middle and welding them back on or I could radius the bottoms. Honestly I think it comes down to personal preference on which way to go. I have seen both and I have always thought that the stretch method kind of takes away from the “big tire in a little car look”. If you can slam the car to the ground it looks okay, but in keeping with the Super Stock frame rules I can only go so low.
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Here my son Michael "helps" me lay out the thin line masking tape for the new wheel openings. Trial and error are the key. Michael gives everything his "calibrated eyeball" and finally signs off on the job. Whew!
What I decided to do is use some 1/8” wide fine line masking tape and make a few attempts at continuing the factory wheel opening radius all the way down to the bottom. If you look at a factory Mustang opening they actually stop the radius and go straight down from the belt line. I must admit I’ve done this to a Mustang before so I had a pretty good idea it would be what I wanted, but every car has its own “look” and deserves individual attention. By carefully arching the tape using different starting points on the opening I was able to step back about 20 feet and give it the calibrated eyeball until I was happy.
Once I had the passenger side layed out, I rolled the car back inside after taking some pictures and once again banished ol’ Muscrate to the jack stands. I removed the rear wheels and used a parting or cut-off wheel on my die grinder to carefully follow the tape line I had layed out. Eventually I will have to add a rolled edge to the openings. I reinstalled the wheel/tire and decided I should have enough clearance. I then used some posterboard to make a template of the front and rear radiuses and by using the backside of each template I used a black marker to lay out the exact same radius on the driver side. That trick works really well and can be applied to many situations.
Well, my time is up for now but I will be back in December, I promise. I have finished adding bracing and using my custom alignment bar to permanently attach the housing ends along with finish welding all the brackets. I also have a good start on the dreaded wheel tubs and my totally custom rear floor tunnel section that I had to reinstall between the new frame rails according to NHRA Super Stock rules. That will be covered in detail next month.
Until next time, remember, there is always hope.
And, when in doubt… DO A WHEELIE!