[olsixrod]

I recently aquired a 1975 Eldorado drive train, (engine,TH-425 and
half shafts only) and a 1985 El camino hulk. My intention is to mix
the eldo stuff with a tube chassis and wrap it in the El camino
shell, to make a hard core foot brake bracket warrior. ( I'm moving
the RED up to Super pro / Quick rod )

I want to keep the weight below 2500 lbs, so I'm planning a 'glass nose and doors, lexan windows, and
trim out all un- necessary interior panels, including the bed box,
and hide the drivetrain with a hard toneau cover. (tunnelram and
zoomies in the wind!)

I would like to set the rear suspension up solid, but adjustable, (4bar/4 link, ?) no suspension travel, but tuneable instant center etc.
Any body out there ever tried this? How about machining up a set
of "one off" spindle mount plates,using the stock eldo outer shafts, bearings and rotors re drilled to a 5 on 5 1/2 pattern?( I have a spare set of Dragstars with a 4.5 backspace)

The mount plate would be located with 4 link bars with a vertical bar to set ride height, and a watts link,(basicall a double panhard rod setup) providing the adjustability range for wedge, stagger and weight jacking, as well as instant center/weight transfer. I looked at the dedion design, but it seemes too heavy and awkward, but welding axel tubes to the frame would give very little adjustment, so I'm looking for an alternate design.

The big Caddy can produce 550 lb.ft of torque @ less than 3000 RPM so strength is a major issue with the differential, anybody know of a spool that will fit?

Any and all comments or alternative ideas are more than welcome, Ineed to think outside the box on this one. pull up a seat, pop a top, let the bench racin' begin... Thanks, Paul

[Max Keith]

If I remember correctly, the El Dorado is a front wheel drive. You might try what a guy in my area did, with your El Camino.
He put the entire engine and drive assembly in the rear of a 52 Chevy Pickup.
With that you could really lighten the front end, and make something really different.
Slap a glass tonneau over the engine, build some air ducting up into the bed for the fan and radiator, louvre the tonneau for the heat to excape, and put a one piece glass front end on your ElCam and go have some radical fun. PS, You might even need some wheelie bars if you stoke that caddy engine enough.

You dont want to go with solid suspension, since this will put a lot of serious forces on your chassis. If you notice, the only guys running solid suspension are slingshot dragsters and those kinds of chassis. The reason is that they are built with chassis flex in mind, to compensate for lack of suspension.
running a 4 link and watts is good if you can get good geometry mounting points for it.
At any rate, you would want to run coil springs and shocks with your rear end. You have to have something to compensate for differences in tracks, and if this is to be a street driven vehicls, running solid suspension will shake the vehicle to pieces in no time at all, translating to constant chassis repairs and broken windshields, etc etc etc, not to mention a body that will soon look like a pretzel.
As I mentioned before, and additional weight loser would be go with a straight axle front end. You would really have a serious retro FX/Gasser then.
With the one piece front body parts, you could completely close off the grill area and enclose across the frame in the engine compartment with something like .03-.040" aluminum sheeting.

So if you really want to get radical, find another trashed out El Dorado and get the drive train and go with the engine in the rear.