Mopar-E-Body-Roadster Shop Full Chassis

[MoparCar]

I hadn't seen this full chassis option available for e-body Mopars before. Wow, pretty nice-running DSE components and stock core support/bumper mounts. Similiar to AME but a little more bolt on.

http://www.roadstershop.com/products/chassis/1970-74-challenger-cuda-chassis/

Pricey though......

Just a FYI with more options for us Mopar guys.....

Wes

[PT64POLARA]

Looks like a very nice piece, but Mopars are uni-body, so how are they planning on mounting it the car?

[Yoda4561]

Same way the AM full chassis works, weld to the unibody (preferred) or bolt it in somehow.

[MoparCar]

Yep, channeled and welded to the rockers, flat floors most likely. Nice having the DSE parts and front and rear support mounts.

Wes

[CraigMorrison]

MoparCar - keep in mind that we offer a lot of different choices for suspensions on our MaxG chassis for these same cars.

Front -
C6 Corvette
IFS with air springs
IFS with Shockwaves
IFS with coil-overs

Rear-
3-link
Tri 4-bar
standard 4-bar
4-link
Ladder bar
options for air springs, Shockwaves or coil-overs

Because ours is a full custom designed chassis for the customer's application we can do custom ride height, front track width and rear track width based on customer's tire and wheel selection.

[MoparCar]

Craig,
If I were to go a full chassis, you guys would be my first and probably only choice because of your long reputation and service.
C6/3-Link/low ride height/low center of gravity-I don't think you can't get much better without a true exotic set up.

Cost wise, not a whole lot of difference from seperate front and rear suspensions (if I do my own install and fab). My real concern is headroom which at 6'2" is a real concern for a true Pro-Touring car that is to be driven not just for shows or auto-X/race. I've got my car mocked at 5 1/2" ride height right now and I mocked up the seat position to what it would be with a flat floor and I'm not sure I can make it work. I'm trying! Maybe different mufflers to install other than the norm so I could lower the back of the seat a bit. Any ideas or real life installations you or AME could send me a picture or PM about?

Thanks,
Wes

[wellis77]

Craig,
My real concern is headroom which at 6'2" is a real concern for a true Pro-Touring car that is to be driven not just for shows or auto-X/race.

I echo Wes's concerns, except I'm almost 6'6" and doing this in a 69 Dart. Car will be driven daily and I will need to gain some head room somewhere to make up for what I'm losing.

[silver69camaro]

Alloway was a prime example for making his '70 Challenger work for a tall driver (I believe he was 6'4" or so) with our Max-G chassis. It involved leaning the seat back somewhat and some creativity, but it worked out great. Craig knows more about that than I do.

I don't know about E-Bodys, but check to see how high the stock seat mounting surface is to the pinchweld bottom. Most Chevrolet cars are 3 to 4", making the "flat floor" idea work great.

Also, when mocking up a seating arrangement, don't use the stock seat. Older stock seats have very tall mounting brackets and very thick seat bottoms...modern seats allow your butt to sit much closer to the floor, and aftermarket or modified brackets can be used to really bring it down.

[wellis77]

I was hoping to be able to use the factory bench, just mod the heck out of the frame to bring it closer to the floor, but the more I think about it, the more I realize I will probably have to go to buckets.

Matt, any idea what people are doing for back seats with the 3 link? Can a full back seat base be used with the 3 link?

[CraigMorrison]

Regarding headroom, that's one of the great things about not having a chassis like this with any mounts. It gives you the most amount of freedom when building your car. You can sit the body on top of the frame (and not have it intrude into the floor), you can drop the body down 1", 2" or 3", splitting the difference or you can make the bottom of the floor level with the rockers. Once you have the body to chassis height set, then you can mount engine and trans (and since you have gone this far, move the engine behind the spindle for better weight balance).

When you split the difference or have the frame fully below the body, you will need to address the fact that there is a chassis hanging down and might want to build some rocker extensions to cover this up.

Matt also brought up another point. The Challenger that Bobby Alloway built for Ken Nester was put together with the chassis level with the rocker in effect removing 4" of headroom. Ken is 6'4" and looking at 3-bills so he's a BIG guy. By using a modern style Recaro type seat and moving it fitting Ken in the car he has plenty of head room, is very comfortable and the car has been driven on the highway for long distances (Indy GG back to TN). You do have to pay more attention to seat choices than say bolting suspension on a 1st Gen Camaro, but with the proper planning it can definitely be done.

We are doing a chassis for George Poteet right now and he had the same concerns. On his chassis we did an asymetrical floor so the drivers side of the can will have the floorpan dip down between the frame rails, while the exhaust will be routed through the chassis on the passenger side.

While we do sell a lot of our MaxG chassis and they work very well, but if you have any ideas on what you want to have built that is a little bit different, feel free to talk to our tech guys and have Matt draw it up and our shop build it. Custom chassis is what we do!

[CraigMorrison]

Wellis77 - on Matt's Camaro it has the stock bench in the back with the 3-link. It was about the same amount of trimming that needs to be done with installing a DSE quadralink. Keep in mind that when the car starts to get lowered significantly that more and more will need to be trimmed, possibly needing buckets in the back.

On my wife's 53 Stude it has a split bench in the back with a center console - the top of the 3-link is going to fit perfectly in the area that console is covering and still have the look of the stock seats! Another option would be the mid 60's Riverias. They also did a split seat configuration back there - it might work for your application....

[MoparCar]

AME ,Thanks for the replies. Yes an ebody does not have quite the space as a gm on the seats. I do plan on using a modern recaro style seat. I hadn't thought about the custom mods at the seat space. Willis77, have AME send you a typical fab drawing of your frame it really helps visualize things. Wes

[wellis77]

Yeah I've got a sample of a frame they did for a Baracuda. It helped a lot. There are a couple things I'm hoping to change because of how I'm going to run my exhaust. I'm hoping also with those changes that I'll be able to drop the floor pan an extra inch or two for the front seats. We'll see how it all works out.

[MoparCar]

Will,
I've been out of town for a few days so just catching up.
What do you have in mind for frame/exhaust mods ? I imagine you could relocate the mufflers towards the rear seat and do a side exhaust exit through the rockers similiar to an AAR Cuda. If you go the 3-link the issues over the axle/watts are difficult also. Possibly a raised trunk/axle floor for the exhaust to go over the suspension would work. With a full 3" exhaust it will be difficult to lower the seats I'd think in the stock frame configuration. Oval tubing edgewise next to the the trans tunnel with custom exhaust holes thru the frame and relocate the mufflers for seat clearance?

I'm planning on scaling out the frame and mocking up this up on my existing floor boards with tape to visualize the layout. This will allow me to see where the seats actually need to be on the Max G compared to the stock seat mounts and other pieces. As far as leaning the seats way back like AME suggested--- I really don't like to have the seats leaned way back for these purposes. For me personally that's not comfortable.

Wes

[wellis77]

I am planning to run the exhaust for my car through the rocker in front of the rear wheel, similar to a Viper:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

The sample drawing I have is for a 4 link. I have to run a 3 link because of my rear tire size and need to get a look at a 3 link to spend more time thinking about exhaust routing. I can't say for sure what I'm doing yet because I've got to get some measurements and speak more specifically about the chassis for my car with AME. I have a vision of what I want and I'm going to make it happen, it's just a matter of figuring it out.

As for the seat, I had thought about changing the routing of the center bracing to go right to the front frame rails, rather than the front corners of the perimeter (probably not a great explanation). Then the exhaust would be run tight against the center frame allowing me to drop the floor between the perimeter frame and exhaust. Just enough to give me a bit more headroom. The muffler would be under the rear seat, which would be raised a bit (I don't plan on sitting back there so it's good with me), then out the rocker.

Most important at this point is to get some measurements of my car and get with AME to find out where the rear cross member would rest along the rocker. If it goes all the way back to the front of the rear wheel well I'll be able to route the exhaust in front. If it stops short of the end of the rocker (which I'm pretty sure it does), I'll spend some time scratching my head but I'll figure it out eventually.

I originally wanted to use my bench seat, the wife REALLY likes it, but cut it down to make up for the loss from the raised floor. I will do like your doing and mock up where the new floor will be and set the seat in the car and go from there. Then it would just be a matter of the trans tunnel. If that doesn't work, I'll pick up some early Viper buckets or something else and go from there.

The thought has even crossed my mind about building my own frame, using a C6 front suspension with the Viper IRS. Time will tell. I have a lot of ideas and questions but I can't answer any of them for another month and 3 weeks. I love living in Switzerland, but I REALLY want to work on my car...