Half inch body to subframe spacer on Nova 72

[Hotwhilz]

Hi Guys, some of you may know, I had a fairly bad wreck with my Nova, I'm down to reinstall the subframe in and there is a 1/2 inch shim to be placed in between the body and subframe bushing by the footwell mount.
Other than contributing to realign the front sheet metal, can I do without and gain this much more drop or will it affect subframe geometry ( squareness )??
I'm building a front core support from scratch so body panel alignement wont be an issue just got to remember to substract this thickness.
Realise it would bring the engine closer to the hood while typing this, other than that what would interfere?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Ben

[Rod]

with out the correct subframe bushing heights, engine closer to hood, trans closer to tunnel, stock manual transmission z-bar miss aligned, transmission cross member will not be removable with undoing the subframe to remove it, drive shaft angle is off, just a few problems

[exwestracer]

I've "channeled" a few of them this way when building race cars. The main issue is trans clearance with an auto...like NO room for a dipstick tube. Also, the "pucks" help align the subframe to the tub. If you get rid of them, at least run some stepped washers that fit the holes on the subframe. If not, you may just find things moving around a little.

I don't remember if it was a problem on the 2nd gen Novas, but some of the X cars needed the floor trimmed to get the subframe flush with all 4 mounts, so look out for that problem in advance.

[Hotwhilz]

After I posted this, I kept thinking about what it would create, I had thaught about drive shaft being off and autotrans dipstick, looks like I'm going to shim it back to as it was, the 1/2 inch is not worth all this trouble.
Thanks guys for being so repsonsive.
Appreciate the help!

Regards

[Nessumsar]

Only the center mounts have pucks right? Mine was the same way; I'm running no bushings and have the pucks in place. This shouldn't have a negative impact on drive-angles, as the only thing to change would be the driveshaft angle. My TH-350 is very tight to the trans tunnel though.

This did stiffen up the car though.

[Hotwhilz]

Yup the puck ae on the center mounts only! I had the subframe to firewall bars mocked up and tacked with them out, set the the pucks back today and now got to redo them :( came out too short.
I was having trouble fitting the trans dipstick before so I placed them back!
So many other thing to be addressed than loosing only an extra ich of ground clearance.
I have polybushing and will fab some suframe connectors to stiffen the car a bit more in the near future.

Jon I've read that bushing were a must ??

[Nessumsar]

Yup the puck ae on the center mounts only! I had the subframe to firewall bars mocked up and tacked with them out, set the the pucks back today and now got to redo them :( came out too short.
I was having trouble fitting the trans dipstick before so I placed them back!
So many other thing to be addressed than loosing only an extra ich of ground clearance.
I have polybushing and will fab some suframe connectors to stiffen the car a bit more in the near future.



Jon I've read that bushing were a must ??

A lot of guys run without any of the bushings (besides the two center pucks). The only real downfall I can see from doing this is the loss of any noise/vibration isolation. If you don't mind the possibility of a bit more vibration or noise, go for it. And you don't lose any under-car ground clearance doing this, just the body sits lower on the subframe; the subframe will still be the lowest part.

[Hotwhilz]

A lot of guys run without any of the bushings (besides the two center pucks). The only real downfall I can see from doing this is the loss of any noise/vibration isolation. If you don't mind the possibility of a bit more vibration or noise, go for it. And you don't lose any under-car ground clearance doing this, just the body sits lower on the subframe; the subframe will still be the lowest part.

Hi Jon, thanks for sharing your knowledge! I'll have to try it out before final assembly to check for Tranny interference. Vibration is the only down side though! I'm working on a 69 camaro for a client right now, the subframe is mounted without bushing and the vibrations are pretty bad!
Will see wich way I'll be going, but I want the stiffest chassis possible so no bushings might be the ticket!

Regards
Ben

[Tatersalad]

We did a body drop on a truck once, nothing radical, I think it was only an inch or something. I think the problems when it comes to clearances as far as transmission to tunnell and whatever else are far easier to address than the problems that come with clearence from suspension or headers to the pavement. Theres nothing worse than getting the stance that you want and then having to worry about bottoming out. If the dipstick doesn't fit, buy a lokar flexible unit, they look better anyway, and if there's still clearance problems, Im sure a fab shop would not charge that much to message the trans tunnel to where everything fits, and won't even be noticible once the carpet is installed. As far as transmission crossmember, who says you have to go with a factory unit. All the vehicles I've raced I've fabbed my own crossmembers to save weight using nothing more than one inch mild steel or chromoly tubing and welding appropriate brackets, I think they even make kits for these, and they are a helluva lot lighter and easier to remove than the stock units. This is just my two cents guys, I've never done a body drop on a Camaro, But I'm about to remove my subfame to do some work to it, and more than likely I will end up going this route. I hate bottoming out and I hate changing collector gaskets even worse lol.