Man in The Mirror
I'm doing a ground-up restoration on a '71 Dodge Challenger, and I'm trying to find a pair of bullet mirrors. I'm wary of online ordering. Would you have a line on any vendors or credible salvage yards since the car is going to be 98-percent original?
Also, I'm looking for a pair of subframe connectors with no luck from Competition Engineering. Do you know of any other fabricators, or should I just make my own? Al Mack Chicago, IL
When dealing with older Mopars there are a lot of specialized and unique parts that are just not available new. It's just a fact of life that this is going to require hitting the used-parts sources. You never have a guarantee about the business practices of any given vendor, but there are many that are solid and stand behind their promises. The usual sources for used parts include individual sales online via eBay or some of the classified sections on Mopar web sites. There are also some well-known used parts or salvage operations, some of which advertise in Mopar Muscle from time to time. Finally, if you simply cannot take the leap of faith in buying online or from a used-parts vendor without seeing the parts, you are going to have to scour the swap meets to find those mirrors, and then you can see the parts as you fork over the cash.
Subframe connectors can be purchased from a variety of Mopar specialty vendors. You can find a set simply by calling some of our vendors. I hesitate to make a specific brand recommendation, since you didn't say what kind of connectors you are after. There are a variety of weld-in and bolt-on connectors that have been manufactured over the years, but the weld-in style does work much more effectively. It just depends on what you are after. you are going to have to make some phone calls to find the product that's right for you.
Wants To See The Blueprints
I have read the AlterKation installation manual, and I remember seeing this kit (or a similar one) in a Mopar magazine in the past and wondering if I could get someone to discuss the forces generated by a stock suspension after this kit is installed. I've always been under the impression that, for any car, the weight transferred into each wheel is resisted only by the lower A-arm and spring suspending that wheel. I have a rich Mopar (and therefore torsion-bar front suspension) history, having owned a '67 Fury, a '68 New Yorker, a '69 Charger, a '70 Duster, and an '81 Cordoba. All of them, except the Cordoba, had the torsion-bar torque boxes back under the passenger compartment.
I've always been under the impression that the frame crossmember with torque boxes had all the weight of the front of the car fed back into them as they are the anchor point for the rear of the torsion bar. That impression has also led me to believe that it allowed the Mopar engineers to reduce the thickness, and therefore, the strength of the front framerails as they do not directly support the weight of the front of the car. By this, I mean reduce the portion of the unit body weight that a coilover has to support and only feed the weight of the engine, its auxiliaries, and the front-end sheetmetal back. When the AlterKation is installed it seems to me that the entire weight of the front of the car is now being supported by coilover shocks, and all the weight of the front end is transferred into framerails that previously had a much lower load.
So, who has done an analysis of the strength of the front framerails and their attachment to the unit body to arrive at a factor of safety for the average late-'60s B-Body? Who can show me what the factor of safety is with an AlterKation kit? I'd like to see the yield strength deratings used in the analysis as well. In the offshore industry we are only allowed to use a certain percentage of the yield strength of any material depending on whether it is in shear or tension. Don't get me wrong, I like the kit. But as an engineer, I trust no one. I always want to see the math. If the math looks as good as the weight loss and the rack-and-pinion steering, than the Alterkation may be the best way to get where I want to go.
One other question: can the front of the car be jacked up (as in with a floor jack prior to setting the car on jackstands) by the AlterKation (or similar kit) just like the old K-member or is that completely out of the question?Mark MeansHouston, TX