1967 Cuda FB project

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I cut the bearing ends off the rear housing a couple inches in of the bearing step. Went and did some calculations and figured with my 5" wheel house stretch, I would have to narrow the 71-74 rear housing about 15". 7.5626" each side to be exact. I decided I didn't need that much or I wouldn't be able to reach my lugnuts. lol So I decided 6" per side would be adequate.
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I blasted the ends in my blast cabinet, they cleaned up real well.
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My gutted 8&3/4 carrier I use for narrowing rears. Already has the plugs installed for the "shaft".
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Assorted plugs for different rear ends.
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Here is the housing with the mock up carrier in it.
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Here the shaft is inserted into the carrier plugs. then you find the correct plug for the axle bearing and bolt it onto the end of the shaft with the bearing housing.
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Slide the shaft in until the bearing housing is touching the axle tube. Don't freak out if there is a little misalignment, these housings were not produced with high tolerances. If the axle gets more than this out of alignment, I will cut the housing close to the diff carrier and bring it closer to tolerances.
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Welded up and ready to have axles shortened!!!!
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Nice work. On the 8&3/4 in our Charger and the Dana 60 in my Barracuda we purchased new axle ends that slid over the cut off axle tubes. Fine adjustments were easy to make on length by adjusting how far the ends overlapped the tubes. - And they slid on tight enough that alignment wasn't an issue. It also made it easier to adjust the clocking position of the ends in relationship to the housing.
 
Average Joe said:
Hey snkebit, where did you get the pucks and straight bar do your axle shortening?
Thanks,Joe
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I bought them years ago and I don't remember where. It was a kit. Sorry. :banghead:
I want to say somebody like chassis engineering is where I got it.
 
Welded the lower link brackets on the spring perches.
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Blasted the front spring hangers and mounted the bushings in them. Just used extra washers to make up difference. Will turn some bushings up on the lathe later.
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I think I am going to powder coat the suspension pieces kart green instead of black. That is the color in the first pic with the tranny adapter on the hemi.

:glasses7:
 
That's pretty KEWL!! Damn you do nice work. - Maybe a slight chop? Just an inch or so...
 
Bought some spool type mounts and fabbed up my own engine mounts. Bought the cheaper rubber ones because I was going to be welding on them. I am going to buy some better mount inserts from energy suspension.
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While trying to design the crossmember section that I cut out for clearance of the T-56, I realized that the trans mount is located further back than the factory crossmember location. Sat and pondered the situation for about 20 minutes and came to the conclusion that no matter how I fabbed a bracket from the factory location to the new trans mount, it was just too far to stretch the mount. Decided it was time to put the subframe connectors in. Didn't want to do this until car was on it's wheels but I needed to mount the trans for further mockup and the subframe bars would be a perfect place to put the new trans crossmember.
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Now I just have to fab the trans mount bracket to the crossmember.
 
- Looking good. That's a lot more cutting than what I thought you'd have to do. While you've got it in that position are you planning on any further notching for exhaust routing?
 
1967 'cuda said:
- Looking good. That's a lot more cutting than what I thought you'd have to do. While you've got it in that position are you planning on any further notching for exhaust routing?
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Going to set up rear end and see what all I have to work with.
 
Finished the trans mount. Came out pretty good I think. Glad my brother was watching me make the crossbar, made a comment about making room for the exhaust pipes to go through. I totally forgot about clearance for the exhaust!!! So I made some bends in the crossbar. Plenty room now.
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Started closing up the tunnel. Came out fairly well I think. Took a couple shots of the new and old for comparison. Not much bigger but enough to have to go through all this work.
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This last shot shows how close the trans shifter area is to the bottom of tunnel and how much higher it is than the old floor.
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Debating on making the top of the driveshaft tunnel higher also for ease of fabbing up center console.
 
Finished up most of the welding in the tunnel area. Have a couple small patches to make. Cut the hole for the shifter. I am glad it wasn't too much bigger than stock. Shouldn't be a problem room wise.
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Now I can get to the rear diff assy!!!!! :cheers:


Have to finish welding in the subframe connectors too.
 
I have also decided to not reinstall the back seat assy. Nobody is gonna sit back there anyway. Now I have to design a speaker setup for the tunes.:glasses7:
On the fence about some sort of roll bar. What do you guys think?????
 
I wanted to put in a hoop just for shoulder belt mounts if nothing else, but never came up with a good idea to get one in without cutting up more stuff. The main problem is that a proper hoop requires some kind of front to back bracing to keep it from folding over, but I don't want to cut holes in my rear deck for tubes or have bars running down my doors. The back seat isn't used often, but I'd like it to stay available as it could see more use someday. Want debating a hoop with a bolt in shoulder harness bar to make that more manageable, but never have really gone anywhere with the idea.
 
SNKEBIT said:
I have also decided to not reinstall the back seat assy. Nobody is gonna sit back there anyway. Now I have to design a speaker setup for the tunes.:glasses7:
On the fence about some sort of roll bar. What do you guys think?????
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I debated pulling the back seat on my Barracuda. Even though I may never use it, - it tends to give the vehicle a 'street car' look. I was hesitant to cross that line where the Barracuda was going to look too much like a racecar. My Duster is full blown race. There's no way I'd consider putting a back seat back in it.

If my back seat had needed to be re-upholstered I might have left it out. If it wasn't meant to be my daily driver I might have tossed it in order to reduce weight for racing.

You're taking your build pretty far in the direction of a race vehicle. It'd be cool either way (with or without backseat/rollbar). Your suspension and drivetrain mods are part of the reason I follow this thread. The planned body modifications are another reason. I love to see innovation. It's like reading a thriller novel and wondering if things will turn out great or disastrous.

A modified rear seat that is narrowed to fit your wheel tubs would be a cool mod. Even though a lot of people might not realize it's been modified, those that do would spend a lot of time scoping it out if you could pull it off well.
 
1967 'cuda said:


A modified rear seat that is narrowed to fit your wheel tubs would be a cool mod. Even though a lot of people might not realize it's been modified, those that do would spend a lot of time scoping it out if you could pull it off well.
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I thought about this as well. Dammit! I'm on the fence again..............:protest:
 
I think someone on here had done the narrowed seat thing on tubs. Can't remember what section it was in, but I know it's been done. Does give a very neat look. Looks really factory and can have people scratching their heads because they know something is "off" but they just can't figure out what.
 
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