Made some more progress on my kiddos car. Wanted to share since some of these ideas on construction can give somebody here ideas on crossmember construction, boxing in notches in frames etc. Radiator support was mangled. It's a 16 gage single z shape stamping. Probably just fine for most chrysler A body cars, and grandma slant sux powered slushbox dart grocery getters. This car will be getting an all polyurethane front end, boxed lower control arms, kyb gas adjust shocks, big block front springs, and a 1&1/4" hollow g tech front sway bar and 225-60R15s.
This being said, from the factory these cars were flexi flyers. The tires were not as aggressive, polyurethane bushings werent a thing back then, the sway bars were the diameter of tootsie rolls. That was cutting edge 50 years ago, but update all that stuff now, and the wet noodle effect gets much worse. Part of this rebuild will address the shortcomings of a 50 year old unibody making it stiff enough to force the upgraded suspension to do its job.
As such I am in the process of making a brand new lower radiator support out of 14 gage or .075" 2x3 boxed steel. This will add a little more weight, but we will be using an aluminum radiator, aluminum intake, aluminum water pump, mini denso starter, and mini denso alternator which should more than make up for the added weight of this. Follow along for ideas on making and boxing in cutouts in crossmembers.
As you can see I figured out where the new crossmember needed to be cut to allow the radiator lower tank to fit and have this part reasonably tucked in. The piece I cut out was able to be turned around, filed down and slipped back in from the side making the inside of the box out of the piece removed. Welding this back in will put strength integrity back into the part you cut it out of, plus it's a perfect fit, and the right thickness.
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