1969 Dart Pro touring daily driver **Crashed**

BigBlockMopar said
Nice progress.
You're also adding a lot of weight. Make sure you upgrade the Torsion bars to more manly sizes... ;)

As for the added crossbar, I'm not sure yet how you think it will help strengthening the frame rails if you keep it removable. Isnt' the crankpulley in about the same place as the bar?
I think a bit of creative work and an added homemade 'shell' over the existing lower radiator support would be more effective.

I would personally add a larger/thicker plate behind the support bars coming from the cowl.
It's only sheetmetal up there and won't do much in supporting the frame rails down below imo by itself.

As you can see on the white Duster Hotchkis project, they added a mounting plate with 'fingers' spreading out, making the area where the support bar are being welded, stronger.
Personally I would not use 'fingered' plates, but just a nice thick plate instead. I also would try to move the support bar mounting a bit more to the outside of the cowl box, where it will be more rigid near the corners.

Thanks! I will eventually go for larger torsion bars but for now I`ll just have to accept the penalty, its not thaat many kg`s after all.

As for the cross bar as you probably guessed its going to be bolted in. My thinking was that the lower radiator braces/bars people install are after all mostly just keeping the frame rails from moving closer and farther away from eachother, since the frame rails are actually pretty far apart I guessed that it couldnt help much when one or both frame rails move up or down independently of eachother since the distance is so big and the moment from the force would become very large. Please do chime in and correct me this was just how I looked at the problem.

The crankpulley should clear, I planned it while the engine was in and there was a surprising amount of space there, my radiator is not a thick as original.

Having the bars farther towards the corners would make them more effective, the reason I put them where they are is that a few years down the line I hope to have a mild 6 point cage installed which will tie on the the back of these.