ive got the roof chopped down 5'' that was no problem,but ive found myself staring at the sub rails with sawsall in hand for two nights stright without being able to make a cut.id like to use the whole darn thing as it sit, just move it up 4-5'' .im not above fabbing new sub rails out of square stock, but i just kinda hate to see the stock ones go.any ideas?
You should not remove the perimeter rails. The cross rails (that go right to left) will have to go if you plan on channeling it. The easiest way for you to channel that amount is to build new cross rails on top of the existing perimeter rails. I'd suggest leaving your existing rails in untill you have the new cross rails welded in place.
Instead of channeling the body, consider kicking the frame up in both the front and rear. Gets ya low but leaves the legroom.
I posted on another thread about channeling my sedan but I rebuilt a whole new floor which is what you are trying to avoid: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=133407 Honestly, my rails were so rusty, I knew they were going to come out regardless so I didn't really care. If you were going to try and keep the floor as-is, you'd really need to lengthen the cross rails or build new ones since the body flares out more than you think - there would be a lot of space between the perimeter rails and the side of the body even just 4 inches up from the bottom. Rodwerkz has a good idea, I think, but you might end up having kind of a weird looking floor especially at the doors where the perimeter rails will be down at the bottom of the body but the floor will be 4 inches higher... maybe I'm not seeing it right in my mind.
[quote/]Rodwerkz has a good idea, I think, but you might end up having kind of a weird looking floor especially at the doors where the perimeter rails will be down at the bottom of the body but the floor will be 4 inches higher... maybe I'm not seeing it right in my mind.[/quote] You just need to add a verticle filler panel to fill in this gap.. easy to do..
i went out today and got a whole bunch or 1x2,1x1,2x3 ect. i think i will try and fab a new floor.dot he floor pan kits on ebay work for a 4-5'' channel?or should i just make my own?
This is how I channeled my C-Dan. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38427 It worked out real well and was pretty straight forward. LSM
I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing the dimensions on the pan kit will be wrong since the floor is wider at 4'' up from the bottom. You'll probably spend more time trying to fit your design to those when you could just make your own custom floor look better. If you want some ideas, check out my site: http://tinyurl.com/yfjvr3 click "next" at the bottom of that page to see the floor come together. I'm no pro - this is my first - so I'm sure you could improve on this. Just be careful to make your floor kick-up a little further forward than I did so your rear-end has enough room when the shocks are compressed. Oh and one more thing. I ended up ripping the wood out and replacing it with steel 1x1s to strengthen the body and that's how I keep the floor in place rather than just welding tabs to the body: http://tinyurl.com/k5yp4 click "next" at the bottom to see how I finished it...
correction, i went with a wicked chop on this one.4'' in the back and 3.25 in the front, now if i only buy side gl*** like that...and only dropped it down over the rails. you guys are right, i gotta be able to ride in this thing.but i still need a small back window.it looks like its has that 4'' chop back window, but i still got room for seats up front.im workin on some 57 vette seats that ill hack up to make sit right on the floor,or s***ch bit*h's off ebay as a back up plan.any hambers runnin her seats?
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