Question about Full Frame

[johnm]

I am building a full frame for my trans am, just finishing up the design process. I have a question to those who either have built a full frame car, or have had some experience. Would I be better off welding the frame to the rockers and having the car as one big unit, then bulding the floor pan ontop of that, or making the frame bolt under the unibody similar to what it did from the factory, still using a new sheetmetal floor pan, but having the frame removable?

What do you think, and thanks in advance.

John

[preston]

I've done it a couple ways - in the first case I dropped the remains of the unibody onto the frame (and welded my own steel panels in the opendins of the frame. In this case I welded teh rockers to the ullf rame.

In the second case I rivted my own aluminum panels for a floor, and rivted the rockers to the frame and welded the pillars to the rockers, and of course the body was also welded to the cage in several places.

The main problem with your approaches is weight for one thing. As I build more frames each one progressively went away from any true "unibody" construction to where the body panels were really more "attached" to the chassis more like a race car.

I don't know if this helps much just relating my experience - in other words I started like you did, just cutting ou the floor and dropping the remaining body onto the frame which still had a lot of spot weld construction. MY newer designs the chassis is much more its own unit, and the roof/a-pillar section attaches to the chassis, and then the fenders, 1/4 panels, and the rest are attached to the body and chassis, but there is no structure to the rockers or internally to the body.

[boodlefoof]

I agree with Preston. I'll have the Datsun Z body mounted on its new spaceframe by Christmas, work and wife permitting...

[ProdigyCustoms]

Weld it to the rockers. More stronger, more gooder.