33 Coupe Chassis 30        1/17/04

The first thing that I bought was this 1/4" X 2" X 4 1/2" diameter steel hoop. The NHRA rule book states that this is the size that a driveshaft hoop has to be. Now I need to mount it to the chassis.
 

 

 

What I plan to do is weld these 1/4" X 1.800" steel brackets on to the sides of the hoop and bolt it to my chassis. I bent these pieces in a vise with a soft-faced hammer.
 

 

 

After welding on the brackets, I drilled some lightening holes and cut the ends to match my chassis' "X" member. After bolting it in, I noticed how close the mufflers were going to be to the heads of the bolts so I countersunk the holes for some flathead cap screws. Now the bolt heads sit flush with the top of the brackets. There's not much room under there so this was a necessity which I'll show you later.
 

 

 

Here you can see it in place and it meets the NHRA rule book by being no more than six inches behind the front U-joint. You can see the exhaust tubing running next to the brackets (this will be cut to length when I get the mufflers) and the clearance problems I was talking about. And the problems don't stop here either.
 

 

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