While looking through my local craigslist ads I ran across a viper rear end for a few hundred bucks. It got me to thinking...I need a new rear end, how possible would it be to fab it up to fit my 74 B body? Anyone ever heard of something like that or am I thinking off the deep end, lol? I think it would look super cool and obviously would be capable of handling high hp.

 

Anything can be done. You'll have to design and build an indepentant rear suspension setup to go with the axle but it is something that could be done.

 

And now for a halfway serious answer.

I'm not trying to be mean or sarcastic, but I'm thinking "if you have to ask" it's probably above your skill level. Guys have been using IRS and just about any other kind of rear axle in hot rods, customs, as well as road race, etc cars for many many years. SOMEPLACE on the vast www I saw a project where someone put a ?Jag? IRS under a Mopar A body.

But this takes a good flat shop floor, means of building jigs to align all the parts, good welding and fabrication skills, and while I can weld, I know I myself would probably not attempt this.

If all you are worried about is breakage, there are better ways to go. While you MIGHT make a better handling car, you also might build a result which is downright dangerous, and takes months of sorting out to "get right."

 

69POLARA383- Don't listen to this guy. Granted I do see where he's coming from. If you have the money, know how, tools, and time/space to this project DO IT! If you dont have some of these things but you do have the money, go see what someone would charge you to do this. This will produce a better handling and improve the ride quality as well, especially since you should be switching to coilovers for the rear. This is not too difficult to do if you have fab skills. If you got any questions about this, i'd be glad to answer them for you since i've done my research on putting irs suspension into vehicles that didn't originally come with it and plan on doing a full custom frame and viper suspension for my 93 dakota.

 

If you stroked that 440 to 528 you can do this! Search the pro touring sites, I don't think it will be that hard. There is a ton of stuff on independent rears in old camaros and mustangs. Im putting a panhard bar on a big suv from scratch and someone on there posted GREAT pics that saved me a ton of time since he is already using his with no problems!

 

Why would you not listen to the guy? Eveything he said is true and dead on. But hey, to each their own i guess.

For my 2 cents: I'm agreeding with 440roadrunner, It'll take some fabbing, torching, cutting, welding, ect. If you have the time and money, go for it.

If not, just put a B-body 8 3/4 with some dutchman axles and you shouldn't have any issues unless you're pushing over 550-600 to the wheels

 

He has a 9 1/4 It should take anything he can through at it. To be serious you would need to almost back half the car to reinforce it..

 

....uh.....the "IF" was kinda my point. I never said one couldn't HIRE it done

 

My $.02 What is the intended purpose? The WOW factor. Touring, corner burning, cruising, dragstrip? My guess is that it may be quite expensive if you dont have SOME fab skills and a complete garage. I feel you could LEARN how to do it on the web. But you might find you don't have the skills, or equipment, to execute it [no offense!]. I don't know how thick your wallet is, but you might check-out some local chassis fab shops. See what kind of info they can give you. I have a guy at work who does chassis fab. I'll ask him for you this weekend.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I never intended on doing it myself anyways. I don't have the time, space or welding know how for it. I did happen to find a shop a few miles from my house. You guys should check it out www.timemachinesinc.com They kind of specialize in this conversion. Pretty sweet!! Bringing it by next week so we will see what they have to say. Keep yall posted, thanks.