Finally got around to doing some more on the car and decided a good day project would be to build a reinforcement Plate for the rear axle. I have seen pictures of the ones that some of you have and with that info and my own ideas I got started.
This first picture is of what the car came to me with, there was a single aluminum strap across the rear part and two steel straps that secured the axle to the frame just in front of it.



My plate is made from 4 pieces of ¼ by 2” flat steel drilled and welded together as in the next picture.



After fitting the new plate into place I discovered that the rear axle was not sitting parallel to the frame as you can see by the red lines I have placed on the next photo.



Further inspection revealed to me that the problem could only be corrected by relocating the upper rear axle mount (very firmly attached to the frame) 5/16 of an inch towards the passenger side and angled slightly down on the same side to keep the whole thing centered.
Here are the results of the changes.



To be continued…