Post 20: Clean slate, part 3

After I got the transmission crossmember looking the way I wanted, I had to figure out how to attach it to the frame. Initially, I was going to weld it in. I thought that would help alleviate any potential weakness I caused by cutting out the old, welded-in crossmember assembly. But then I realized that as much as I'd rather not, I will almost certainly be pulling the drivetrain out in the future, and having to slide the transmission around under the car to clear a huge crossmember would not be fun. So I went to the hardware store and bought a few giant bolts and a few lengths of steel tubing with the same I.D. as the diameter of the bolts - in this case, 1/2".

I planned to use 4 or at least 3 bolts per side to hold it all together, but once I started mapping things out I saw that I didn't leave myself a ton of room to drill slightly bigger than 1/2" holes in either the crossmember ends or the framerails. At least not 4 holes concentrated together. I started with 2 instead, and when they were about done I decided that 2 would be enough. They're friggin' huge.

I tacked the crossmember in place so it wouldn't shift and then started drilling. I drilled the holes most of the way using regular bits and finished off the last step with a uni-bit. That was so I could bevel the edge of the hole and give me something to tack weld the tubing to that would still be there after I ground them flush with the rails again. The hardest part was drilling through both sides of the frame at once. I didn't have to do that, but it was the best way I could figure out how to make sure the holes in the frame and crossmember stayed aligned the whole time. In the end it turned out well.











I thought I took a few pictures of the finished, welded crush sleeves but I can't find them. Probably still on the camera. I guess you can use your imagination. Anyway, everything worked as planned and now you're up to date on the frame work. The last few pictures are from when I flipped the frame over to blast the bottom (not too hard to do - it was lighter than I thought), the finished product, and the method I used to blow all of the sand out of the frame after I finished blasting. I don't know if I'll ever get it ALL out, but it's mostly gone.