How-To: Building a "BOSS 302
Crossmember"
I stripped the paint off of my spare engine crossmember with my trusty
wire wheel the other day. Today, I went over to my neighbor's and dug a
chunk of 1/4" plate out of his scrap pile. We spent some time looking
at some pictures and reading and re-reading the Chassis Manual, then
traced out a pattern on some cardboard. After we transferred the
pattern to the steel with a soapstone, Richard let me use his bandsaw
and I slowly carved out the two gussets. Not
the most perfect job, but they didn't come out too bad, considering
I've never run a bandsaw in my life.
Trimmed 'em up to match each other and did the rest of the finish work
with a 7" angle grinder.
I spent a while agonizing over the placement of the gussets until I
realized that spacers are required. Duh, the placement of the gussets
doesn't "really" make a difference. So, I mocked it up using a couple
hunks of thick plate to position the gussets in place, slightly off
center. Then, Richard MIG'ed everything together. I still need to
mock it up in the car and mark for the holes before I declare success,
and when it's done, I'll clean up the shape of the gussets.