CROSSMEMBER



The problem. The OEM crossmember is a too large and too heavy son of a bitch and almost impossible
to remove and mount on your own! It is 26.5 lbs!! This must be changed to the better!

After securing the transmission in the right working height I began to work with my dear cardboards to
easier be able to see where the crossmember should go and what it must look like.

Enough space between the polyrethane trans mount and the trans itself to place the new tube there.
I decided to use a single 1 3/4" x .083 chrome moly tube even before I started to work with the
cardboard. We don't want any swayin' do we? The only good thing about the original crossmember
is that it can't possibly sway.


We had to strengthen the poor excuse for a frame with an extra steel profile. This is also necessary to
get something for the new brackets to sit on. On the passenger side there is no need for this.
No, it isn't rust - it's gold!


Bengt Wittander of Competition Cars who bent my rollbar also bent my crossmember.


This is the total weight of not only the tube, but also the brackets and the extra strength steel profiles!


Mocking up all the pieces to get the welds.


The two mounting holes must be absolutely straight and parallel to make it easy to work with the bolts in
the car. You can also insert and weld a short tube, that'll save the material in the holes to hurt from the
bolt treads which will make the operations much harder. And the tube will stand the weight abuse better.


Time to cut some cardboard again to make brackets for driver's side frame extension. After this was done
we made the extension all the way back (arrow) to the rear subframe.


Sure it was a lot of work but when coming this far it is rewarding! Now soon time for some polishing
and a chrome finish!


Passenger side brackets evolution - cardboard, 4 mm Domex steel, zink ground, finished.
A single 10 mm black steel quality bolt on each side is really convenient to work with.

I could look for hours when it sat there first time! I even had problem to say good night to it...



...so I took it home.




When changing from SS-trans 4L60E to the longer 4L80E I had to ad a third bracket on each side and a
couple of sleeves to keep the long bolt in line. Works very well.