Now that the front rotors are placed correctly in relationship to the body, I cut the front clip from the car's body.




Once the front clip was out of the way, I mocked up the front end. I tack welded 1x1 tubing to the bottom of the crossmember with the ride height determined by the lower control arms being level side to side. Once I got the crossmember centered on the spindles, I tack welded the bottom of the 1x1 to one of the 2x2 frame table crossmembers, which in turn was welded to the frame table.



I cut the crossmember so that the 2x3 tubing frame rails will sit as low as possible in relationship to the crossmember. This way I can mount the engine as high as possible to make sure there is plenty of room for the headers. I plan on using (or making) a set of fender well headers and routing the exhaust down the outside of the frame rails and then mount some nice side pipes...Corvette style.

The main frame rails will have the body mounts attached to the top side of the rail. With the main frame rails lower than the body mounts, I can maximize the headroom in an already small car. However, by doing this, it exposes the frame rails as seen from the side of the car. Instead of extending the rocker panels down to hide the frame rails, I can simply mount the exhaust pipes down each side of the car and in turn hide the lowered frame rails in the process. My greatest fear is finding a set of pipes that make the car look good.

If I didn't have to worry about hiding the frame rails along the sides of the car, I could run the pipes down the center of the car down either side of the drive shaft. But this creates another problem in that the center hump will be larger and therefore take up more interior space. This car is already pretty cramped so anything I can do to increase the interior space will make the car more comfortable. ( I am 6'1" and weigh 250lbs so any room I can gain or keep the better!)