Ridetech cradle fitment

[paulk68]

So I am test fitting my ridetech 4 link cradle in my 68 Camaro and at first try it is not going so well, when I get the passenger side sitting snug to the rear frame rails the driver side get pulled down away from the rails enough to fit a finger between the frame and the cradle. Have others had such a large gap? Also where do you start to pull it up tight to the rails.

[dhutton]

Sometimes you need to take a big hammer to the trunk floor and persuade it up a little where it is contacting the cradle. Sometimes you can push the cradle up with a jack if the car is assembled.

Don

[TheJDMan]

What Don said. Keep in mind that these cars are nearly 50 years old and there is no telling how many owners the car has had or if it has been in an accident in the past or what has been thrown into the trunk over the years. If the trunk floor is sagging you need to push it up.

[paulk68]

What Don said. Keep in mind that these cars are nearly 50 years old and there is no telling how many owners the car has had or if it has been in an accident in the past or what has been thrown into the trunk over the years. If the trunk floor is sagging you need to push it up.

Thanks guys, I was afraid of that, the floors and truck pan are brand new it is going to hurt me mentally to start beating on them with a hammer.

[paulk68]

Is there a preferred technique should I use a wood block along where the bar meets the floor? here is a couple pics

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd34b3127cceebcb4801ec6500000030O01AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160315130428600.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

the bad side

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd34b3127cceebca93248cf900000030O01AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160315130434458.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

[Josh@Ridetech]

Thanks guys, I was afraid of that, the floors and truck pan are brand new it is going to hurt me mentally to start beating on them with a hammer.

Like the other guys are saying, some clearancing may need to be done to get the cradle all the way forward. Sadly, you see more issues with the new floor pans needing to be clearanced more than the stock ones.

[paulk68]

so I spent some more time on this today and it is ugly. I mean i am almost an inch off from one side to the other. Is that normal?? am I really supposed to massage an inch somewhere in the sheat metal? I pulled out my level concerned the rails were off but that is not the case.

Here is the passenger side sitting where it should

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd37b3127cceebf53b71c5ff00000030O01AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160316182752638.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd37b3127cceebf402a9a5ef00000030O11AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160316182818783.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

And this is the drivers side

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd37b3127cceebf58e26045a00000030O01AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160316184140726.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd37b3127cceebf50c22852f00000030O11AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160316184139558.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd37b3127cceebf562c185fb00000030O11AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160316182847062.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/


please help wish some suggestions. I get needing to go up a little but this is alot i feel.

[dhutton]

Just look to see where it is contacting and start relieving it. Not much else you can do. Use a lot of small hits instead of a few big hits.

Keep in mind it's not an inch, it's a half inch or less when you set both sides with the the same gap.

Don

[paulk68]

Thank you very much Don going to give it a shot this weekend

[Josh@Ridetech]

Thank you very much Don going to give it a shot this weekend

Did you get everything put in over the weekend? :)

[paulk68]

Did you get everything put in over the weekend? :)

I wish hahaha my intentions are always good I swear, unfortunately I did not even get a chance to look at it. I am going to pick up some bottle jacks to act as an extra set of hands to hold it in place and try to figure out where it is hitting. Thanks for checking back Josh!

[Josh@Ridetech]

I wish hahaha my intentions are always good I swear, unfortunately I did not even get a chance to look at it. I am going to pick up some bottle jacks to act as an extra set of hands to hold it in place and try to figure out where it is hitting. Thanks for checking back Josh!

Not a problem at all! Keep me updated!

[Vince@Meanstreets]

so I spent some more time on this today and it is ugly. I mean i am almost an inch off from one side to the other. Is that normal?? am I really supposed to massage an inch somewhere in the sheat metal? I pulled out my level concerned the rails were off but that is not the case.

Here is the passenger side sitting where it should

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd37b3127cceebf53b71c5ff00000030O01AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160316182752638.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd37b3127cceebf402a9a5ef00000030O11AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160316182818783.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

And this is the drivers side

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd37b3127cceebf58e26045a00000030O01AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160316184140726.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd37b3127cceebf50c22852f00000030O11AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160316184139558.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd37b3127cceebf562c185fb00000030O11AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160316182847062.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/


please help wish some suggestions. I get needing to go up a little but this is alot i feel.

Paul, From What I have found the problem is the angle of the forward supports (the last picture). I have cut and re-welded this section after the sides are flush. And it does help having up pressure instead of side pressure from the clamps. Drill then loosely bolt one hole and at a time this will help get all the holes to align. Do all the horizontal ones first then do the sides.

Another thing I have been doing is feeding a bolt into the frame and using a nut on the outside instead of the self tapping screws supplied. I have had customers strip them out checking for tightness. Works much better.

[bret]

I won't pretend its impossible for that cradle to be "off", but if you saw the jig that we use to build that thing, and know how many hundreds of these units we send out every year, you would likely look towards the floorpan of the car as the culprit, especially if there has been rust or damage repairs made at anytime. I hesitate to tell you to relocate any mounting tabs because that might compromise the location of your suspension mounting points...fairly critical stuff. I hate to hear you're having fitment problems, but i'd also hate to see you compromise the performance of your suspension by taking the easy way out and cutting mounting tabs off the cradle.
If you like, I'll send you another cradle just to make sure your current one is not bent somehow.

[paulk68]

I won't pretend its impossible for that cradle to be "off", but if you saw the jig that we use to build that thing, and know how many hundreds of these units we send out every year, you would likely look towards the floorpan of the car as the culprit, especially if there has been rust or damage repairs made at anytime. I hesitate to tell you to relocate any mounting tabs because that might compromise the location of your suspension mounting points...fairly critical stuff. I hate to hear you're having fitment problems, but i'd also hate to see you compromise the performance of your suspension by taking the easy way out and cutting mounting tabs off the cradle.
If you like, I'll send you another cradle just to make sure your current one is not bent somehow.

Hi Bret, thank you so much for the response. Give me a little time on massaging the pans a little bit as I seem to be getting closer with some hammering of the floors as they are all new floors. If it still does not get close i might take you up on trying a different cradle. Are there any other measurement i should be taking or does it just go based off where the tabs meet the pinch weld?

here is where i am sitting now
Passenger side

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd05b3127cceebe515d46d2400000030O01AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160324101546565.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd05b3127cceebe5c8fe2df800000030O01AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160324101546244.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

drivers side

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd05b3127cceebe45b974d0c00000030O01AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160324101547229.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6dd05b3127cceebe4fcac0dfc00000030O01AcuGLRyzctQ e3nwo/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00509039418920160324101554888.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

[paulk68]

Paul, From What I have found the problem is the angle of the forward supports (the last picture). I have cut and re-welded this section after the sides are flush. And it does help having up pressure instead of side pressure from the clamps. Drill then loosely bolt one hole and at a time this will help get all the holes to align. Do all the horizontal ones first then do the sides.

Another thing I have been doing is feeding a bolt into the frame and using a nut on the outside instead of the self tapping screws supplied. I have had customers strip them out checking for tightness. Works much better.

Vince Thank you so much I will look to do the same with feeding the bolts into the frame. I have heard of other having issues with the self tapping getting stripped

[jlwdvm]

http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/102040-1969-Firebird-TA-clone-track-car-build
Check out post #15. Mine was off too (maybe not quite as far as yours). I had to do a lot of massaging to the trunk pan (original) to get clearance for the front bar. I also used a bottle jack on each side to help push the cradle up to close the gap and then hold it in place while welding. My car also has original frame rails.

[paulk68]

well I seem to have gotten as close as I can. I think I am going to have to pay a shop to finish this install. Can anyone recommend a good shop that has real world experience with the exact product or install. looking in CT NY MA RI area.
thanks

[dhutton]

well I seem to have gotten as close as I can. I think I am going to have to pay a shop to finish this install. Can anyone recommend a good shop that has real world experience with the exact product or install. looking in CT NY MA RI area.
thanks

How close are you?

Don