Jaws vs. Torsion Bar Crossmemer.... Suggested Fix ???

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motobro

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The last owner of this 69 dart let the car in the water with Jaws.
The result was half of the width of the torsion bar crossmember was eaten away on the drivers side.
No....the last guy that owned the car said he got it this way.
I think they may have been trying to stick a manual trans of some sort in it. My problem now. I plan on putting in a 440 with a 727 automatic.
Does anyone have any good suggestions or ever come across this problem before. I have a few ideas , but I wanted to see what you guys thought.
My Ideas.
1) I could replace the entire torsion bar crossmember. Someone in my area has one for sale at $150. A good fix , but very labor intensive.
2) I could fabricate some sort of brace that contoured the tunnel portion of the xmember from the trans support hole to the other trans support hole and weld it in place.
Any help would be appreciated !
 

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Look up Dillinger chassis...get his coil over kit with the "j" (?) bars and not worry about the stress from the torsion bars cuz there wont be any
 
That would be the $900 option.

If you do go with that option, you still need to rebuild that cross-member because it is a structural component.

In which case, I would still replace it.
 
I think I might get a section from a donor car and just section the damaged area with the donor piece. Clean it up and weld it in from both sides overlapping slightly. What does the torsion bar mount area look like?
 
That would be the $900 option.

If you do go with that option, you still need to rebuild that cross-member because it is a structural component.

In which case, I would still replace it.

You don't think the jagged part could be cout out and good metal welded back in?
 
I think I might get a section from a donor car and just section the damaged area with the donor piece. Clean it up and weld it in from both sides overlapping slightly. What does the torsion bar mount area look like?

I could go with that. Correctly sectioned would return the strength with less labor.
 
Yes, you just posted faster than I did. But would prefer a correct sectioning over scabbing something together.

Yeah. It would be easier for sure. I've seen some pretty good scabbers though. lol
 
I also thought about getting a piece from a donor car, but it would probably take just as much time to fabricate some sort of brace that followed the contour of the trans tunnel. The rest of the crossmember is in good shape.
If i ground the area smooth thats all jagged and filled that in and then went over with the brace and welded it in place ?
 
if I had a donor piece it would need to be all the way to the where the torsion bars mount....anyone got one of those layin around ?
 
I will shoot you a picture tomorrow Of what I have. It is almost complete from side to side, just an inch or two shy on each side of meeting up with the rockers.
 
I think I might get a section from a donor car and just section the damaged area with the donor piece. Clean it up and weld it in from both sides overlapping slightly.

X2
 
Is the b body crossmember the same size at the tunnel as the a body ?
Gonna check a few yards today.
If I could use the center section of the b body crossmember it would expand my possibility of donor cars.
 
I was planning on doing frame connectors after I got the motor installed
 
If you plan your welds and reinforcements INSIDE the frame rail, they won't show badly when the floor is reinstalled.
 
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