First off, this is the first rear suspention I have tackled from scrach. Right now I have every thing I need to finish the job in the garage and have just been mocking up loosely how things will go together.

Every thing seems alright and shouldn't be too bad exept the ladder bar crossmember. It seems like I will have to cut away the floor and have the crossmember going up past the floorboard.

The reason it seems so, is to be able to tuck the tires in the wheelwell like they should be. If the crossmember was just below the floorboards, with the ladder bars parallel to the ground, the back of the car would be way jacked up with a lot of space between the tires and wheel lip.

I already know I will have to cut the floorboards under the seats in the back for ladder bar clearance, but what I am talking about is between the frount and back seats on the floorboard for the crossmember.

Pretty sure most of you are scratching your heads wondering what the hell I am trying to describe, not real good at explaining this. so if anyone has a few good pictures of your ladder bar crossmembers and a quick explaination that might steer me in the right direction or any other pointers on the swap, that would be alright by me.

Thanks and wish me luck

 

sorry no pics, but you're right most if not all the sheet metal needs to be removed from behind the front seats to do the install and then new tin put in to cover the hole.

 

You shouldn't have to cut the floor for the crossmember unless you have the diff really high in the car (suspension dropped). The bottom bar of a ladder bar should be parallel to the ground.

I have pics on me site of my ladder bars. The floor has been modified for the ladder bar clearance but my crossmember sits under the floor between my SFC.

 

Thanks for the input

I want to keep about the same ride height as now which is about stock so hopefully I won't have to cut the floor for the crossmember.

I think I may be able to mount the crossmember the same height as the subframe connectors and still keep the ladder bars level (manufacturer says 3-6 degrees down in frount) to the ground.

Stephen 87 Iroc, the pictures of your progress on the link you provided answered some questions I have been thinking about. Not to sound like a pain but is there a chance you have a few of where the crossmember meets the subframe connectors also.

Thanks again for the help.

 

That's the only pics I have. My SFC run parallel to each other. I just put the ladder bars on the diff and attached them to the front hangers. I positioned the crossmember onto the hangers so that the ladders bars were roughly level with the ground in the center position of the hangers and welded everything in.

When I was done I checked the pinion angle and it was 2* down. My ladder bars are adjustable and I haven't had to change any settings since I installed them.

There's no real rocket science to installing ladder bars. Just make sure everything is straight and square before welding it all in.

You should also see the extra gussets on the rear hangers. Weld everything shut so there's no chance of the hangers spreading apart.