I bought a 1/2" piece of plate steel earlier this year. It's about 11"x 23" of unknown type/grade. I got it at a local scrap yard in their "burn-out" area. Basically, they torch cut whatever is larger than they can put through the shredder. I think I paid $10 for this piece and a 7" x 18" piece of 1/4" thick stock for the caliper bracket mounts for the Ford disc brake conversion.
Turns out it might be made from unobtainium... this stuff is hard! I tried cutting the blanks on a bandsaw with a bi-metal blade... the steel giggled. We ended up cutting this stuff on the Hyd-Mech saw... slowly... After we blanked the pieces on the saw, I took them to the Bridgeport to true them up... I proceeded to destroy a high-speed steel end-mill after a few passes. I switched to a carbide end-mill and took .0020 at a time... slowly. I beveled the edges on a 12" sander/grinder with 80 grit and threw them in the tumbler.
After tumbling...
I'm off until Tuesday, so I'll start on the through holes next week.
There are a couple different lowering plate designs, The more common of the two gives a 1-3/4" drop, which works well for a street stance. I am using the maximum drop design. It should give me about 2-1/2" of drop without effecting the steering geometry...
I'm not looking to "slam" the Hornet, but I want to get the body down over the tires. Since I've taken weight off of the from end, she sits pretty high. The rear I'll lower with drop blocks, maybe 1-1/2 to 2 inches. Axle wrap shouldn't be an issue, but I will fit traction bars none the less. That's still down the road a piece...
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