Lowered the Starchief, now the driveshaft is rubbing

I've decided that I'm not going to wish I took my car to the Paso... uh, I mean Santa Maria, car show at least without doing something about it. With a little bit of worked I've gotten the car running and decided that I can't drive a stock car to a customs show.

The car in question is a 1955 pontiac Starchief 4 door. Bone stock, complete with dealer-installed air conditioning as this car was originally a Texas car.

So, last weekend I cut off some coils lowering the front 4"and put in 3 inch blocks in the rear of the Starchief. While everything was apart I also cut down all the snubbers (I almost missed the one centered over the rearend).

Now, with virtually no interior except for an ammo crate for a seat I have some serious rubbing issues where the driveshaft is rubbing the floor and a small crossmember/brace section of the flooring. Now, I have no qualms about cutting the floor up a bit if necessary, but I'm unsure of what to do about that brace.

I know this is completely vague without pics, but I have to wait till I get home from work to post those and I was hoping some of you may have either had experience with this particular problem with this particular car (Rocky, Brandy ?) or have had plenty of experiencing cutting up floors of cars without worries or issues.


~Bryant

 

The floor part is easy, let's see some pictures of that brace...

 

Maybe put 2" blocks on it?

Mine rubs with three people and the 3" blocks.. so I only drive it with two people.

 

Pics!

Here is the crossmember/brace thing.


Shiny... somehow I don't think that is a good thing.

 

That's pretty substantial.

The first picture is a support for the floor - basically giving strength to mostly flat sheetmetal. You could cut both spots out and weld in new metal higher to make more room, it's pretty common to make clearance for the driveshaft with a really low car.

In the meantime.. maybe it's a little too low for this trip?

 

Here is an overall sideshot.

 

man it looks good that low...but, it's too low.
looks like the easiest thing to do would be to go with 2" blocks in the rear, but then you'd have a rake because you dropped the frontend so much.
i'd be worried about the driveshaft going too far forward into the trans.
that rub mark looks pretty serious.
does this thing have a serious vibration ??

 

First fix the pinion seal leak on the rear. Damn!

 

Just tunnel the damn thing! Go to the local junk yard, find and old cadi with the tall tunnel, cut it out, cut you old driveshaft tunnel out and weld the new one in. Tada! no more rubbing!
It's a common thing to have to do.
You will prolly have to cut some of the material out of your back seat to accomodate the taller driveshaft tunnel as well, but that's prety easy too.

 

No, there isnt any vibration, and I bet most of that "shiny" rubbing happened when I threw my 12 yr old daughter and 3 of her friends in the back and took them for a cruise. When it started 'howling', I pulled over and tried to even the load.

Honestly, my overall long term plans call for airbag suspension, 4 link, blah blah blah (even thought that is LOOONG term) so I don't really see the car getting any higher and I definitely know NOW that the floor will get cut up one way or another, but I was a bit concerned when I saw that brace, so I decided to come here and ask.

 

And fix the leak! ; )

 

One Low, I have the same problem with my 57 210.
Mine has 4 inch blocks in the rear with 2 inch lowering
springs and 1 inch homemade clamps in the front
Tried to haul two big "****e" friends last year to all the Hotel
parking lots at the NSRA show in Louisville .
Big problem I had was a cut tire caused by the lower shock
mount rubbing the tire by to much"****E" in the rear. Two are all
you can haul with this type of lowering. Hope someone else
may have a cure for this problem. Lets hear it guys or gals!!!!

 

oh, i thought it was rubbing all the time.
my 55 doesn't have lowering blocks...just worn out springs....lol

 

It only rubs when I'm hitting a dip or 'hard' on the accelerator... but again, I have no interior except for door panels in the car and that's just with ME sitting on my ammo crate.

 

I feel your pain…my friends want a rake and I want looooooooow. Anyway, when I got to drive the car a couple of weeks ago it was making those sounds you are now familiar with. This is a ’55 Pontiac wagon and had 8 leafs, I removed two before it ever rolled and made ½’ aluminum blocks because that’s all the current bolts length would allow and that was a damn good thing. Three shiny spots around the driveshaft. I removed the ½” blocks and now the driveshaft rolls without being fondled by the floor pan supports. I am still going another 2 ½”, but the floor supports will have to be raised. Not a big deal, the whole floor needn’t be cut out, just the supports and tunnel length. Weld in channel for the height you need and some sheet metal to close the tunnel.

Tip: (just in case you haven't got to go off with cut-off wheels and a sawzall before) from below, drill thru with a little drill bit on each side of the channel supports at each point you want to cut thru to add the additional pieces. Do this at each support and then draw a line from the top back thru the hole pattern. Cut away from inside. Laying on your back with that **** flying ****s. Please ignore previous statement if you already know this.

Glad I haven’t bought carpet yet

 

My drive shaft used to rub in a 2 places just like yours. I cut out those two places and welded in a notch for clearance. Well, it no longer rubbed in those two spots but this let the car go even lower when hitting a bump so it rubbed in a different spot!

So, I ended up getting some air shocks and relocating the rear shock mounts. I did some measuring so the shocks bottom out right before the drive shaft rubs and I can air them all the way up and haul 6 people in my car with no problems. Only cost $50 and I got to do some fabricating.

Someday I will 4 link and ag mine also, but for now it works great.

 

Looks great! Who needs a freakin drive shaft!

 

Just a thought but you could have a smaller tube shaft made. The tube you have now is thin as **** as are all originals. Plus you thinned yours down a bit from the looks of things grinding on the floor. We have had smaller tubes made for a lot of applications>>>>.

 

an old car of mine used to rub, till one day the rear seat started to smoke. at first we just thought someone farted. (easy fix, lazy driver)

 

If you run your fingernail across the driveshaft is it noticeably grooved from that rubbing? It sure looks like it would be, and if that drive shaft is thin as somebody said it could be worth considering replacing it.

To the orig. qustion, just so happens I just welded up a crossmembere that had been 'clearanced' for the driveshaft. It was just cut and left as is. It actually worked fine but caused thet car to be really flexible. I cut out the floor pan above it and welded a heavy piece of metal to the top of the x member, then welded the floor pan back over it. The difference was immediately noticeable in how much less flex the floorpan had.

The floor was also cut under the rear seat for driveshaft clearance, so I made a patch for that.

It won't take any time at all, just do the same thing, cut the floorpan above the rubbing area, re-weld the xmember together but higher up for clearance, and then weld the floor back over it .

A raised driveshaft tunnel is a great idea, especially if you're going to bag it in the future, but what I suggested will at least get you down the road.

Maybe you could convert it to a 2 dr in the future? Theres a tech on it, it sounds really cool.
Good luck!

 

I did do that, and while I could feel some ridges they weren't overly deep, grooved or ruined? I mean, I've felt disc brakes that were MUCH worse. But yea, keeping in mind how thin my driveshaft 'may' be I'm hoping that the minuscule wear on the driveshaft won't compromise the overall fact that I can currently drive my car as opposed to that fact that I can't when the driveshaft disintegrates into a million pieces.

Ehhh... for some weird reason I like that fact that the car is a 4 door. I enjoy being able to pile in my kids, their friends and/or family members without grubby shoes walking over my seats and snotty little kids climbing around in my car!

 

That brace for your floor isn't terribly important. What is that spot directly under, as far as interior? Is it under a seat? Your floor is in the rear is a pretty easy fix, if you or a buddy can weld. I did the same repair on my buddy's 54 Ford.
A. Making your hole. Heres the 411, Imagine you are going to replace that area with a funnel. I see a pretty natural curve where your existing tunnel hits the floor where it starts going vertical. On the inside I would tape a nice curved line inside that curve. Then tape a line about a foot in front of that perpendicular to the tunnel. Then tape two lines going back to the curve like a mini backwards transmission tunnel. Follow? Then take a cut off wheel, and cut this out, use the tape as a reference to get straight cuts.
B. Making your template. Get some chipboard, or poster board (thicker than paper, thinner than cardboard), Have someone hold it into the hole from underneath so that it touches all the edges of your opening. From the inside of the car, take a pencil and trace the opening onto your cardboard. Then take some scissors, and cut your shape out. bend it with your hands into the funnel shape, and see if it fits your opening well. This is the most important step by the way. If you have to do it 8 times to get a perfect template do it! Chip board is alot easier to cut and shape than sheet metal!
C. Making your part. Take your tmplate, lay it flat on a piece of sheet metal. Scribe it out with a metal scribe or a sharpie. cut it out, I would rough cut it however, then use tin snips for the final cut. Red and Greens, Not the Yellow one. With such a small part you should have no problem shaping it with your hands. ben it in a radiused pattern around a pole or a peice of pipe, until you get your funnel shape.
D. Fitting and welding your part. If your template was perfect you should have no problems fitting the part, it should fall in place. Get the part pretty close, and get like two tacks on it. once it is kinda held in place you can manipulate it to fit better. One it is all tacked in place weld it up, everything should be but welds, no overlapping.

This whole area should be under your rear seat, so you shouldn't have to modify your seat, or do anything special to a carpet kit down the road.
I swear explaining this is far harder than doing it! I hope I helped. Let me know more about that brace.

 

What about using angled blocks to drop the pinion down in the front? You might find that u joints like a bit of angle to make them "work" The angle of pinion to transmission output shaft has been discussed on here in depth so I wont get into it but it might help? LTR Dave

 

I don't remember what post had the pics but someone made a raised tunnel with a steel stap on the top of the tunnel to replace the brace. Pretty simple solution. Or you could do what I did and run without a driveshaft tunnel for a short period.

 

Thanks for the input, everyone. I really like the idea of the steel strap, and I was just looking at some items I could use at Home Depot just a couple days ago.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a welder, but I do have a ton of nuts and bolts (for the straps) and rivets. I was thinking of basically cutting the top/tunnel area and adding about 3 inches or so of sheet metal on each side and riveting (and sealing) the hell out of it adding another strap or two for extra support. It looks like I would only need to cut about 12" to 18", if that. Does that sound like a deathtrap, or should I be ok?

 

Is there such a thing...period?

 

Its a "everything looks better down in the weeds" thing . Its better to look good than to work good.

 

I just finished air bagging my 54 olds, and had the same drive shaft problem. My interior is completely out, so i cut the ******/driveshaft tunnel at the back(where it meets the back of the rear seat riser) and then made a cut all the way up on each side of the tunnel to the drivers seat riser. Then i lifted it up about 1 1/2 inches and welded sheetmetal to fill the pie cuts. Now i can drive with my axle on the bumpstops and have no interference with the driveshaft.
Just my 2cents.

MetalMike
Screamin' Demons C.C.

 

Uh, my cars in the weeds, and nothing hangs below the scrub line, nothing rubs and everything works great.
Not saying anything against you Chaz, but more often than not it's a case of a right way to do it thing and a wrong/lazy way to do it thing.