I am mounting a 16 gal fuel cell in the car now. I had to take the plasma cutter and remove some sheet metal in the rear above the rear bumper. I'll grind the cuts smooth and fit the area with new sheet metal. Here is what I have now.

 

Looks awesome. Turn the tank around so the ports face rearward.

 

Spent the weekend making some precision measurements and changes accordingly. I moved the rear axle forward to its correct location in the wheel wells, shortened the trailing arms and relocated the trailing arm brackets. Also I tack welded the lower coil over brackets on and narrowed the rear axle another inch for a total of 10". I now have room for the fuel cell without cutting away the rear of the body below the rear door. I think I also will have room for the battery next to the fuel cell. Should have the rear wheels and tires next week so I will be able to see how much if any rear wheel well tubbing will be required. I didn't take any pics this time but I promise a bunch next weekend.

 

Spent some time this week-end working on the mule. I settled on a tire size (275/55/17) and now I have to make them fit. The tires are 11" wide so I'll be tubbing the rear wheel wells. Broke out the plasma cutter and started at it. I'm going slowly as I don't want to remove any metal I don't need to. I'm trying to keep as much structural integrity as possible. Lots of things have to be changed to get that wide of a tire under it.

Picture is rotated up side down to show tire size and inside rear areas.


I did get the coil overs tacked into position and the fuel cell is resting in the area it will go. I will keep working on the wheel wells till it's ready to determine the rear axle width. Once that is established I can begin on the firewall and engine/trans mounting.

 

Thanks for keeping us informed.

Boydie

 

Thanks for the update

 

The original plan was to put a mild LS1 up front and drive it.....then I started thinking, what are the chances of me driving this around and not putting my foot in it? Answer; none. I've been hot rodding for almost 50 years and I know I'm gonna want to light them up. I was going to put stock size tires and wheels on it. How much fun would that be?? This brings me to the current pics. These are showing the tires and how much I had to cut out of the wheel wells to fit them in. I'm trying to cut as little as possible to keep the strength. I'll have to fab quite a bit to get it back together. Luckily I have all the sheet metal tools to do it (english wheel shrinker/stretcher and bead rollers) Here is what it looks like now.

 

This build is starting to give me goose bumps

 

I forgot to post this picture the other day. This gives you an idea of how much I need to tub this chassis.

 

Why not a low pro tire? Looks like it will be a pain to change.....