I have purchased an unfinished 1931 Ford chopped hi-boy coupe and I am finishing the car up. While the car will primarily be a street-driven hot rod, I DO care about safety, and I think this forum might be the most safety-oriented forum for hot rodders, so I pose my question here and hope that you fellas can guide me. While the car will be primarily street-driven, I do hope to at least compete to 135mph with the ECTA and I will be doing some bracket drag racing and vintage drag racing and maybe Drag Week, expecting the car to run somewhere in the 6s in the 1/8-mile.
I need to mount the fuel tank and the battery in the trunk. The battery will be in an NHRA-approved and vented metal box. The fuel filler cap will be outside of the trunk between the b-pillar and the rear deck lid. We have welded 14 gauge steel floor pans to the body rails and body crossmembers. Most rule books suggest that these heavy items (tank and battery) be attached to the "frame." As I see the construction of these old coupes, there are actually 2 "frames:" the chassis rails and the body rails (a boxed section of the floor pans). These items are mounted to the unibody in my unibody Modified Sports race car, and the body rails of the hot rod are AT LEAST as solid and strong as that unibody (and probably stronger)! Do you fellas think that mounting these items solidly to the reinforced body rails will be adequately safe for my stated level of performance plans? And pass an NHRA inspection?