Recently we found, when stopping by Walden Speed Shop in Pomona, California, that Bobby Walden was busy building a customer's chassis. Many things separate Walden's chassis from others on the market, as he fabricates his own framerails and designs his own crossmembers, too.
Some folks, when it comes to needing a removable section of tubing for a transmission mount or crossmember, use a two-hole flange butted up and bolted to another flange to connect the three pieces needed to make up the piece. Walden adapted a particular type of tubing connector found in many off-road racing applications for this job, and while the old-style flange brackets get the job done, they are bulky, and these new units are streamlined in comparison, making for a cleaner installation.
Here's what a lot of people...
Here's what a lot of people use when building a removable transmission mount with flanged ends that are bulky.
STREET RODDER found these connectors at several off-road shops in the SoCal region, as they are made by many different companies. One in particular, DeNunzio Racing Products, in Goleta, California, offers six different "stock" sizes (1-, 1.25-, 1.5-, 1.625-, 1.75-, and 2-inch couplers) machined from 4130 tubing, though they make custom-size couplers, too.
As Walden installed the connectors, we followed the steps he used to incorporate them into his chassis, so check out the process in the following photos.
Here is a pair of the tubing...
Here is a pair of the tubing couplers Walden used. Each end fits inside a section of tubing and, once interlocked, is secured with machine head cap screws.
Bobby Walden sat down and...
Bobby Walden sat down and made up some cardboard templates while designing the transmission mount.
Walden welds the transmission...
Walden welds the transmission mount to the central tubing piece, and then adds the inner half of the coupler to it. Next, he adds the other halves to the section of tubing that will make up the rest of the crossmember.
Once everything fits right,...
Once everything fits right, Walden will finish-weld the coupled trans mount pieces together. Even when studied closely, it's hard to tell the centersection is removable.
The shape of the templates...
The shape of the templates was transferred to the steel plate.