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This winter I have several projects in mind for my '69. One of which is welding in the Competition Engineering subframe connectors I have bolted in. After talking to my friends at the South Siders last gathering, I'm thinking to put the front wheels on old fashioned drive up ramps and jack stands on the rear axle to simulate actual driving loads before welding. It was also suggested to simply tack them in in case I need to remove them. I'm leaning towards fully welding them in.
Any thoughts, experience or comments are welcome & encouraged.
Chime in guys!

Fuel and brake lines.
itsa real beetch to snake new ones through the sfc's after they are in, replace em first.
Also, if cleaning, painting, and detailing underneath are on the list, that is easier (not that the term easier applies to this job without either a lift or a rotisery)

When I did mine, I did the "cleaning, painting, detailing" step first and discovered a previously unknown rusted out floor pan!

The interior coming out to see what shape the floor is in is also on the list. The connectors are in (bolt ons) and I don't recall the fuel and brake lines running through the sub frame. Is that something you did to protect them and clean up the underside?

Don, they come from inside to outside (of the frame rails) as they go past the front leaf spring perches, they would run between the SFC and the floor pan right in front of the leaf springs.

Mine "looked" fine, til I dropped the fuel line to clean around it and got a 91 octane bath!

She's up in the air now. I have a gap between the CE connectors and the front subframe. Can I weld a bead to a bead to fill the gap, insert a filler plate and weld all three, or hammer the subframe in to meet the connectors? Obviously I will grind to bare metal and use weld thru primer before hand. I am on a Kraft dinner budget so no expensive solutions please.

All 3 ways will work in your application. If you want to beef up the joint then put a filler in it. That way you can have more surface and in welding more surface means more strength.

Also drill a couple holes in the frame and use some pluge welds.

I'll second John on the plugwelds.

Also, no idea here how much a hardtop car "moves around" but I'd highly suggest the car be "on its wheels" or as close as you can fake it and still get under there, ie: jackstands under the rear axly and front balljoints when you weld em on.

If you weld the SFC to the car you'll have to have solid subframe bushings. The flex of the subframe with rubber bushings will eventually crack you welds.

To give it more ground clearance it is better to have the rear most part of the SFC on the inside floor, it also will not give any troubles with the fuel or brakelines, the underside of the floor is intact.

My subframe connectors will show you how I did mine, inspired by Carl Cassanova.


Jan

If you drill for the plug welds don't drill thru the connectors. Only drill thru the subframe and weld to the connectors.