Project Street F/X

We install a Dana 60

Words by Darr Hawthorne
Photos by Zak Hawthorne
10/28/04

Since Project Street/FX would still be a short-hop street driver trailered the distance to the strip, the people at Strange Engineering guided us to a Detroit Locker rather than a spool for our Dana 60 combination.  Based upon our planned engine mods, Strange also recommended a 4.56 gear with 35-spline axles and large brakes when we ordered the unit.  The fully assembled Dana 60 arrived via truck freight from Illinois.

We'd already removed the original Chevy II 4 cylinder 10-bolt, so we also took out the aftermarket four leaf springs to do a test fit with the new unit.  It was tight fit and with a quick check with the calipers we realized the tolerances on the mounting pads of Strange's Dana 60 did not have the slop of the 40-year-old unit it replaced.  The new springs needed to be to be ground slightly to make them a little thinner.

While we had the back of the car disassembled I called a friend at a local chassis shop who recommended making a call to Hollywood Spring and Axle Service.  He said, "If anyone can help you, Raleigh at Hollywood Spring can help."  I called Raleigh and he invited me down to his shop.

Entering Hollywood Spring and Axle is like stepping back in time. Since 1954 Raleigh has been building springs for sprint cars, lakes car, drag cars and Indy 500 winners for J.C. Agajanian and many others.  On the walls are weathered, crusty photos of winners and runners-up from just about every form of motor racing and on the metal racks are hundreds, maybe thousands of possible combinations for any spring issue.