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.
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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.
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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.
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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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