1971 Corvette Hot Rod Build

[Arrowsmith]

A wee backstory: The previous owner obviously boogered something up and stripped one of the two crossmember bolt threads in the frame (next pic)



The passenger side was metric - I guess 12 mm is one size up from 7/16-inch thread was the rationale. It's a blind thread so I couldn't access it from the back. I thought about it and decided to use a crossmember reinforcement kit from Van Steel. They replace the bolts with a common stud. For the metric side in my car, I had a local shop make up stud that was 12 mm coarse on one end and 7/16-inch fine on the other. Meanwhile the parts from Van Steel are 7/16-inch coarse and 7/16-inch fine (next pic).



Worked out great. The finished crossmember reinforcement is shown here:



Van Steel makes nice parts. Along with the rear end centre section, I opted for their adjustable camber strut rod setup. You can see the mount bracket installed on the rear in the next photo.



And yes...I used a torque wrench on everything...

Next up: Getting the half-shafts assembled on to the flanges, install a Van Steel composite spring, add Bilstein shocks and drop the thing down to Mother Earth.