Drive Shaft Tunnel Construction

[Tom Goldman]

Dave , My roadster has the rear part of the tunnel over the driveshaft made out of .125" CM plate and it covers 180 degrees on the top. ..It takes the place of the tin.
I had S&W bend it to my specs as my bender won't handle that heavy a gauge steel.
I tabbed the frame rails and the "x" bar to attach it to.
Previously I had only been doing the top and drivers side in 1/8" ,but have since changed.
If you have the room ,or are starting with a clean sheet of paper,the SFI tube is the way to go.
I've been lucky and have never broken a yoke or joint, but I've repaired a few cars that had failures,and I can tell you the drivers were lucky to have escaped injury.
The cars had devastating damage to the frames ,tin and sometimes even the bodies!

[mginnett]

Thank you very much for the commentary, most appreciated. I think I may end up with a .120 steel tunnel, with 2 each 1" x .065 x 180 degree loops over the outsides well as the passage through the main rollcage hoop.
With the 360 degree setups I have seen, how much of a pain in the arse is it to pull the drive shaft / change the transmission?
This is a 66 Nova super gas style car, eventually will end up running mid to low eights.

[Tom Goldman]

The A.R.T. loop kit really should fit a large car like a Nova easily and the shaft should come out relatively easily.
I will suffer a little difficulty in removing the drive shaft to have the extra protection.

[Todd Geisler]

The driveshaft enclosures sold by Bickel, RJ, etc are typically .050" chromoly sheet. It's a really good idea and I'm thinking of adding one to my stock suspension car that I"m rebuilding right now.

[DIAPERMAN]

I dont know if interested I have built some covers for drive shafts also military applications out of Kevlar let me know if I can help 217-454-5289