Back half. Who would you use?

[Night Stalker]

S & W race cars hands down.. Their products are built to go into a specific car without the guess work..! If your dead serious on the backhalf and ladder bar these guys are good!
Contact Candi Weney ext. 116.

my .02 8)

 

[Hitman]

I have had S&W and Art Morrison. I'd go Art Morrison again in a heartbeat. The S&W framerails have wrinkles at the bends, the AM doesn't. I've seen Malibu's with S&W kits and they seem to sit high. Mine could sit wherever I wanted. It worked like a champ too. Flat out got the job done.

I'd say if you're going to do the work of back-halving it, then make it accept a big tire. I ran 32x14.5W Hoosiers on mine. 15x14 with 3.5" backspace or something like that. I got 500-600 runs out of those tires btw.

My car was aluminum headed SBC. 3150 lbs. Car seemed to work better with my 406 than my 383. I think the extra power just made the car work better. 9.90's with the 406, 10.20's with the 383.

 

[Kirbystud]

My ElCamino is back halfed....No problems and run 31x16.5 and the rear end is only 37" wide.....

 

[Robert1320]

If you going to back half the car, back half it not half asre it.
Don't make room for 12" and wish you had room for 15". Nothing worse than having to do it over again...
I would set it up so you could run everything from 33-10.5 to at least 33-15 maybe more.

 

[Hitman]

Get them to sit low enough, and no trimming needed. Mine touched a fuzz up high, but not enough to show on the tire, just enough to shine the quarter panel up. 1/16" more clearance and it would have never touched at all. When I ran the 14.5W's, I had to undo the shocks to get tires off. With standard 14x32 they came right off and didn't get close to quarter panel. 4.88 gear. 8.5 lbs in the tires. 6950 across the finish line at 134.

I picked a Malibu because it had a wheelwell that wouldn't need stretched, and because it had good vision for bracket racing.

 

[Hitman]

not a real great shot of it, but you get the picture. This is just the 14x32, not the 14.5W

 

[10secBu]

We use some S&W stuff at work because they are close and the stuff priced decent. I do not like their frame rails at all. As mentioned, they have nasty wrinkles and the last set I used, had a twist in them which made it very difficult to get the rails placed accurately. I jig's the whole rear frame up on the bench and still couldn't work out the rail twist...wasn't ideal and I did not like it.

My recommendation is find a local chassis shop and have the job done professionally. I like a tube back half, but you can do a 2 x 3 by cutting/welding the angles to eliminate the bends, then re0nforce each butt joint with diamond shape plates.

I always try and keep the tire as far out as possible. I disagree with Scott about not needing to stretch the wheel wells. His tires are set in too far for my liking. I have a 30" tire on my car and had to stretch the lower front corner 1" to allow for growth. The whole opening really needs a good 4" stretch to fit the tire where I prefer which is to have the outer sidewall about 1" (max) from the inside of the wheel lip.

I don't care for the prefab kits as they usually have the ride height set a bit high, especially if the kit keeps the stock floor between the tubs.

 

[10secBu]

Sorry Sean,

Didn't realize you had the tools, etc to do the job. Thought I remember you installing the cage, then cutting it out and having someone else do it.

 

[Hitman]

I'm not sure how close it was to the lip. If you draw a straight line across the top of that white sticker to where the tire would be at speed...it would every so slightly rub right there with the 14.5W. You can't get real close to the lip and have it sit low, if you have a bigger diameter tire. My wagon it's pretty close to the lip, but it only has a 28" tire. These Hoosiers were 105" rollout on my car. This is a picture of it now after it's went through a couple different owners...still winning races though. The front end is lower, he has a BBC in it.

 

[Al]

Support your semi local guys and go with Art Morrison. They've been building stuff for as along as I can remember. I bought a cage from them one time and they were good to deal with.