I was talking to Ram air specialties about a sub frame connector kit. They said I would have to modify the bottom of my 68 vert to use theirs. Does anyone know of a good fitting no modification connectors for a vert??

yes, i do. there called home made! lol...sorry steve but i have yet to find a directly bolted in unit! there is a guy here in fort wayne that has built them for the camaro guys around here and will custom make them for your car if you want. i can get his info for you!

andy

They now have subframe connectors just for the convertibles.
They may all need to be welded in but no mods need to be made.
I purchased a set from Hotchkins but have not installed them yet.

this is what they all say but fail to tell you that installation requires you to cut the brand new floor you just installed in the car. to most of us, this isnt acceptable as we just spent good money to fix the holes and now they expect us to put more in! ruining the floor of our cars is NOT an acceptable installation method!

andy

David, please let us know how the install goes. I am also interested in subframe connectors for a vert, but there is no way I will hack my original floors (they are too nice!) to fit them. Looks like I may be back to modifiying some cheapos.

I also need connectors for a vert.

Drew, get a number on what he wants for those connectors. And any pics installed and uninstalled would be great!

Dave

they are custom made to YOUR CAR! i would have to find the guy who made them up for his vert and get the dimensions and such so i could make them for you. also you would need to find the exact "TRUE" CENTER OF YOUR car for them to be made! if you can do this i can get them made for you!

I'll take pics of the home made ones on my 68 tomorrow. It's a coupe, but you'll get the idea.

I just installed the Hotchkis set on my vert. A perfect fit, easy to install and great instructions. Bought them from Summit.

Brian

Brian

Thanks for the post. Did you have to do any modification? Was the car stock?

i looked at the local cruise-in last night. a few guys i know were there that had some installed. some hung too low i.m.o. for some here. there was a set of flat tube connectors that one buddy bought from summit. they were bolt in but said he welded them in none the less. you couldnt see them unless you bent down to look under the car.

he also talked to the owner of cal-tracs who told him if he was going to race, he would need to buy the weld in ones and cut his floor. its to tie in the frame rails to the body so the body has less flex. i now know why people do this but im not prepared to cut a notch in a brand new 400$ floor. will buy the bolt ins and weld them to the frame and floor pans in stitch weld form.

hope this helped out whomever is going to buy these. good luck!



STEVE, are you going to super sunday indy in october?

My car is stock and had to do no modifications. You install the poly subframe bushings and you can either bolt or weld the front of the connectors and weld the rears. Super easy.

Brian

Global West also sells a set for a vert. NPD sells them. They are a round tube and the Hotchkis are square tube. Both require no mods to be made.

the square tube design is the one i know of that doesnt hang too low and actually hugs the floor pan. the hotchkis round tube connectors hang way too low and look awful on a car. can be seen no matter what you try to do to cover them!

Here is the new Hotchkiss kit with "hi-tech" x brace.

Here's one more from the Hotchkis site. $567 for the kit.

golly, they are proud of that kit, lol.


Golly, this is such a hard choice to make. I think the best frame connector I've ever seen from the side-view is the the DS&E system. I've crawled all over their example car at a car show. It looks really nice when it's carefully installed. But their system requires cutting the floor pan. I just completed repairing my floor pans a while back and while they could be put back to stock using the same process that fixed rust and rot, I'm just not ready to whittle into this somewhat stock metal. Besides, Jim would come from kick my butt for damaging the stock (or repaired) metal. I try to make only changes that can be readily restored to factory configuration.

I turned down a car that was on my short list of projects before I bought my junker. That car had connectors hanging way down. He had a long list of racing builds to his engine (with receipts he was proud of). Rust was creeping out of even the door hems. To me, those connectors looked like he drove over a bedspring lost on the highway and it hooked up under the car. I don't know how he got it out of his driveway without scraping. It was so obvious from a hundred feet, it just turned me off. It suggested the car had been heavily beaten. It probably was. It was ripped at the rear quarter window where these beat cars always tear.

But these cars can use some help with the chassis so we don't twist them. For one thing, movement between the unibody and the front clip causes non-driver input at the steering box. The driver has to correct for that in addition to road conditions. It also causes body flex and causes torque steer, even with the 350 engine. So certainly, some chassis help is warranted, even for a street car.

I'm looking for a less obtrusive remedy than large square bedspring tubing hanging below the body. I'm not quite ready to cut up floors I just finished patching either. I'm also wondering if extending the front frame to the rear torque boxes is the best answer for a street car that one wants to appear mosstly unmodified. One might easily enforce the rocker pinch welds with rectangular tubing and even tie them in to each other. Connectors don't keep the car square.

Has anyone tried taking 2x2 or the next size tubings and fabricating connectors that are notched and channeled at the rear floor pans, so the pans don't need cutting? It seems like an easy enough construction if you can cut and weld. I don't mind welding to the front frame or the rear frame. What about using smaller tubing tied to the rocker pinch weld? Has anyone with computer aided mechanical design (finite element analysis) looked at this? I just want less permenant changes than chopping up my floors. I don't mind cutting a connector weld later on if things need to come apart later. That is how metal works. You weld it or cut it. It's back like new. I just don't want to redo floors that were a-okay if or when I wanted to put things back.

When I made mine, I considered following the contour of the floorpan, but theres no possible way to go beneath the floorpan without them being visible and losing clearance, as the rear pans and the frame rails are level with the rocker flange. And, to me, 2½-3" more clearance, as well as a much smoother side profile, was well worth penetrating the floorpans. Also, being able to weld the full length of them them to the floors from the front to the rear makes them FAR more effective for increasing rigidity, which is why I put them on to begin with

2x2 tubing is too big. you would needa 1 1/2"x3" tubing to not be seen. ive got 2x2 under my car now for the rottisserie, sandwiched to the floorpans and you can see 1/2" of the tub. would be better with thinner but wider tube. i'll be designing a set of connectors that are not necessary to penetrate the floor. when i do, i'll post measurements and instruction on building them that anyone of the members here will be able to understand! even be able to weld them YOURSELF!

68BigBird, my subframe connectors are exactly what you describe. They've been on the car about 25 years and you don't see them unless you crawl under.

Drew, I'll be anxiously awaiting your design. Right now I'm considering the DSE kit or this Hotchkis kit. Frank at Prodigy Customs here in Orlando is building a 69 convertible TA tribute for SEMA. I think he's planning on the DSE connectors which he has used on several Camaro verts. Since he's helping me with my build, I was planning on having him do mine, but if you come up with a better way, I'm interested.

Thanks Drew, I'll be anxiously awaiting too. Now that Hotchkis jacked up the price (I could have sworn they were less than $300 when they first came out) looks like the weld-in type are looking more interesting again.

Have you had a chance to come up with a working design?

Still looking out for the best value.

Dave

Yup, we are still waiting. Any word?

I put Hotchkis on my convertible few weeks ago.Nice fit,but you need to weld them in the back.I didnt have time to ride it yet.

the subframe is still off my car. im thinking of throwing it on just for this purpose befor i cut the floor out of the car so others arent waiting any more. i have seen a design on these though that looked really good. low profile and not seen easily. i'll look for the article and post on it soon!

Thanks!!

Dave