My 1955 Chevy 3100 build

[dsraven]

welders series has a lot of misc brackets, tubing, eyelet ends, poly bushings etc etc that come in handy for projects like that. a Canadian company so USD gets you more for your money.

[55 Chevy Dave]

DS,

After I welded the crossmember into the frame, I bottomed out the rear suspension, took a measurement and then fully extended the rear suspension and took another measurement. I left some extra room in the loop to ensure that the driveshaft never touches it after it is powder-coated.

That's how I figured out how much to cut out of the loop.

[dsraven]

good plan. I have blown a few ujoints over the years when doing burnouts or fast take-off when I encountered some wheel hop. they can make a mess of things when they spin on outta there.
as a heavy duty mechanic I remember once where a long haul trucker stopped by holding his intermediate driveshaft, the one between the tandems, in his hand. it failed a forward u joint and when the shaft hit the highway it broke the pinion shaft on the rear axle right off clean like you sliced it with a knife. he used a heavy tow operator to get the truck and trailer to our shop. he unhooked the tanker full of latex paint on the side road by the shop, engaged his interaxle diff lock to allow a short drive to the shop door and while doing a U turn at the end of the street he got to watch the tanker of paint drop the dolley legs of the trailer through the roadway, due to a void under the pavement, and the trailer tipped and rolled on its side dumping latex. that was a mess. hazmat crews had to come in and clean it up and I think they cleaned the storm sewers for a distance as well. all at the truckers insurance expense, he wasn't having a good day for sure.
anyway, good idea to have that loop installed if you have some HP under the hood.