Hello all, I am sure many of you have already seen this, but I want to make
sure it gets out to everyone possible. I appologize for the cross posting,
but I need to get a feel for any Qty that may be wanted to let my fabricator
know, as it may affect his willingness to do it and pricing..
I have been toying with this idea myself and thought I would open it to the
group at large. As many of you know I hang with the mustang crowd heavily
here in the Pacific NW. One of the big things in the mustang crowd is
replacing the stock crossmember with a modern, Tubular one. This is done for
a few reasons.
1. Weight Savings
2. Improved clearances for engine add-ons and modifications
3. More regidity
#1 is usually the big factor, as lightening the nose of a car helps
cornering and even straight line accel by letting the nose rise a touch more
and transferring more weight to the rear wheels under hard acceleration..
Enough on the theory, I have started thinking more and more about getting
one made for myself, as a test unit, with hopes of arranging to have them
more "mass" produced and sold to the MG public at large.
My ideas are multifaceted, I would want the finished units to arrive to
owners powdercoated and ready to install, no tinkering or modifying
required.
Basic concept to start.
1. Single crossmember to work for Stock 4cyl, Buick V8's and Ford V8's.
Being tubular it would basically be "pre notched" due to it's basic design
and nature. Then it would be predrilled for the options below.
2. Removable/swappable steering rack mounts. Basically There would be 2-3
premade Rack mount brackets that are swappable. one in stock location, one
droped say 1/4" and one dropped say 1/2. These would be BOLT ON brackets.
3. Removable/swappable engine mounts. None for the 4cyl as it is chassis
mounted. One bracket for 215's, another for 302's. These would be made to
utilize a stock motor mount for given engine if at all possible. Thoug I
have found the cross memeber pads alone dampen vibration a bunch, which is
why I would go for crossmemebr mounting of even the 215.
So basically, if you ordered you would pick which package you wanted, 4cyl,
Rover/buick V8 or 302 V8. By doing it this way I think it will also allow
quite a bit of flexibility to the purchaser. They could later upgrade to a
V8, or change motor, or change steering locations and keep the base cross
member.
ANYWAY, I have no idea on pricing, but since new cross members are not
available, it would probably be better than nothing.
Please get back to me, I am contacting a local professional welder about
this, and would like to able to give him some ##'s to maybe get the $$
figure down..
here is an example from a mustang...
tubular Example
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