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By request, here's my travel through installing Hotchkiss subframe connectors under my sagging 68 vert a few years ago.
Worth noting also, that I'd bought my mig shortly before doing this. Replacing the drivers side floorpan was my first ever welding job, this was my second. Fitting considering Don's current series on learning to weld.

I had started noticing my car moving around a bit, and decided it was time for some subframe connectors. In the process, I also found a need for some floor repairs, but that's another story.

I chose to use the Hotchkiss units that were made for verts, they have rcvd great reviews. They are contoured and notched to fit the convertible's floor bracing. In the rear, they overlap the rear frame rail 6 inches, and also leave room to get the spring perch in and out. VERY nice stuff, worth every penny!

My car was sagging pretty badly, and it showed in the doorgaps. The top corners of the rear of the door and the front of the fender were coming together, it would chip the paint if I slammed the doors too hard.

While I'd normally support the car at the front a-arms and rear axle, that wasn't gonne works for this. I needed to drop the front of the springs out of the pocket as well as remove the rearmost subframe bolt, so my first step was to transfer my jackstands to the rockers so I could remove the rear subframe bolts without folding the car up like a pretzel. I can't fiond a decent picture, but I supported the entire car with jackstands under the rockers (with a towel wrapped 2x4 on top of the jackstands so as not to scratch my paint.)

Supported this way, the car actually bowed, and my doors rose up above the fenders!


The bars attach to the rearmost subframe mounting bolt, and Hotchkiss gives you the option of bolting or welding the front. I chose to fully weld them, hope I never have to pull my subframe! I'd purchased a set of CE solid mounts, but found they were 1/4" thicker than my existing poly mounts, they are not an interlocking type design, and call for using the (thicker) upper portion of the stock mount below them. This combination would have lowered the front of the SFC's a total of 1/2"! I intended to fully weld them to the floor bracing, and this much drop was unacceptable. Hotchkiss supplied new poly mounts that were identical to my existing ones, so I just left the mounts alone.

Assembly order is:
floor
upper bushing
thin washer
subframe
lower bushing
SubFrame Connector
Sleeve through the middle of the bushing
thick washer
bolt

It all happens here:


First step was to pull the bolt on one side, jack the sfc into place, and mark all the areas that will be welded.

With one side marked, I pulled the sfc out, and ground the paint off every spot to be welded, both on the SFC and the car. Then I jacked the SFC back into place, and installed and torqued the body mount bolt.

Repeat on other side.

With both SFC's bolted in front and the back of the sub firmly reattached, I transfered my jackstand back to the front of the car, so it would be loaded the same way as on it's wheels while I welded them on.

And then I jacked up the SFC until the back went into position in the frame and my door gaps were perfect.

I started with a few spot welds in the back, then repeated on the other side.
At this point the car was "loaded" as will remain, with the front of both SFC's bolted in place, and the rear tack welded.

I moved around a lot, slowly getting everything welded in. The front of the SFC's got welded to the sub with a full bead on the front edge and completely filling the "bolt hole" with weld. I also put a few tacks on the inside of the sub where it overlaps the SFC.

I was originally gonna use some angle iron to attach the SFC's to the floor bracing, but the gap was only 1/8" so I filled it with weld. This was a long slow process, making a weld "stalagtite" every half inch, then coming bck and filling it in.


The rear went the same. fully welding the edges plus completely filling the "holes"




Again, I kept moving around to minimize heat build, but eventually the new SFC's were totally a permanent part of the car.

More tomorrow, it's late.

Great article Jim, thank you for sharing your experiences and pics with us!!
No the Pacer won't be getting that work done, but if I chose to do it I now know how it's done.