Driveshaft safety loop and Exhaust
Above is the Summit Racing driveshaft loop in my '70 Mach 1.
Below is an improvement on the same loop with some chopping and welding. The Millermatic 180 I bought was well worth the money. That and a chopsaw from Sears and you're loaded for bear.
I positioned the loop 5" aft of the front U-joint and it's held in place by 4ea 3/8" bolts that are threaded into nut plates welded in just under the front seats.
Open headers are fun, but time for exhaust, it used to be dual 3" aluminumized pipe that dumped just ahead of the rear axle and no H pipe.
I had to chop 23" in length out of each side, because the 4-link's crossmember was in the way.
I set it up to dump just ahead of the cross member. I added the bracing and H-pipe as an afterthought.
Exhaust is way easy going up or down now with the improvements I've made, just one exhaust hanger that bolts to a welded nut plate on the safety loop and the six bolts/nuts at the collectors.
It's actually quieter, and smoother now than it was when the pipes were 23" longer. Adding the H pipe made big difference. I had never welded exhaust before, turns out it's pretty easy, best to use .023" wire.
