Dear Welder Series…
I got a Mustang II front cross member from you earlier this week, 62.5″ wide, where my spindle centers are between my sub frame and car frame, its a uni body car with a front and rear sub frames, want to mount it to the sub frame I’m making, bottom of sub frame and cross member will be the same height to their bottoms but cross member is kind of floating now, yea thats where I’m at. Any ideas or suggestions for my messed up build?
Dear Steve…
Hi, Steve.The easiest way to make a custom subframe is by having the bottom of the subframe tube the same distance from ground zero as the spindle, and use stock spindles. If you want to use 2” dropped spindles, the easy way is to have the bottom of the subframe 2” lower than spindle height from ground zero.There is room for small variations in these frame heights, but the clearance issues become more difficult.The outside width of the subframe for a 62-1/2” crossmember should be more than 32” and not more than 36”. The upper towers won’t have a surface to weld to if the frame is less than 32”. There will probably be spring clearance problems if the outside is more than 36”.I hope this helps. If it isn’t clear, please email pictures and sketches of what you have and would like to do.Paul Horton
One thing that I don’t understand is that what does track width matter that much when we’re building these custom cars.
I think, as far as I know, that we would like to have the front tires tucked up enough for the top of the tire to be covered by the fender lip,, or as reasonably close. I’ve seen cars with the tire tucked up and the wheel and tire are actually inside the fender 1″ to 1/1/2″ so the tire doesn’t rub on back and forth steering.
Let’s say your original track width is 59 1/2″ but you would like to make that 2″ to 3″ narrower,,, why can that not be done? I’m confused and hope I’m not the only person wondering this,, and thanks for taking my question, Dan
Hi Dan. Because not all vehicles share the same fender width, having the tires tucked nicely under a 56 F100 pickup would be too wide for a late 30’s car for instance. You can make the track width narrower than stock, but often you’ll run into clearance issues with the frame rails, which would require heavy modifications.
So, while possible, it’s often nicest to stay close to the original track width of the vehicle.
DW