Reply to "Drop floor pans"

> I've always wanted to do dropped floor plans but never knew the extent of
> the drop. Three inches would be perfect but always thought that would
> scrape the floor during high speed dips.

You don't give up three inches of ground clearance. The aft part of the
floor pan is 3 inches lower than before but that wasn't the lowest point
of the car. I would not expect it to scrape on a flat road, even at full
suspension compression. The problem is high centering on things like
speed bumps and trailer ramps. Hopefully, I'll be able to manage it.
My '66 Mustang has little clearance under the headers so I've dealt with
it before. Just got to be wary of speed bumps and alert to stuff on
the road.

> When do you expect to have everything buttoned-up for a test drive?

No idea, certainly no sooner than spring. I'll be 400 miles away from
the car for the next couple of months. I plan to take a week off from
work to put the car back together. Once the engine is ready, I'll take
some more time off to install it. The wildcard is whether I run it on
a carb first or jump straight to the fuel injection:

http://www.bacomatic.org/gallery/dan-irefi?page=1

> My Pantera (also a '74L, although licensed in Calif as a '73 model) is
> lowered, and scrapes high centers already.

Mine is also lowered, though I have ride-height adjustable shocks.

> any pan dropping I do must be the minimum to incorporate the seats I have
> already purchased, the Momo Speed 2 models.

Kirk Evans said he makes a shallower version, in addition to the ones I
installed. I'd suggest those for your application.

> I had to do a rack bushing replacement on a car that had a dropped battery.
> What a pain. Whoever installed it never planned on anyone ever having to
> remove the rack. Forest

I've done the rack bushing already so hopefully I won't have to worry about
that for a while. I have a '66 Mustang fastback that I swapped a 351C-4V
and Tremec TKO into. Later I decided to put in a blueprint fast ratio steering
box. The early Mustangs have a one piece steering shaft. With the bulkier
351C engine in place, the box will not come out. Ended up cutting it out and
welding it back up. If I'd been smart, I would have switched to the later
steering box with detachable shaft.

> WARNING: Anyone considering doing any welding or grinding on there Pantera,
> please be aware that grinding and welding sparks imbed themselves into glass.

Oooh, I hadn't thought of that. We tried to keep the sparks near the welding
site so maybe I'm okay. We'll see.

> I always mask off my glass with card.

Now he tells me :-)

Thanks,
Dan Jones