D41: PT2 - Engine Fit 5

With the transmission mount built, I wanted to make sure it actually worked. So I found myself lugging the frame out of the garage and mounting the engine in it one more time. It's amazing how much more the frame weighs now than it did the first time around. One of these days I'll get a weight on the frame.

This is also the first time mounting the engine since fixing the engine mounts to the frame, so it was a good test for the positioning of those as well. You can see the final setup in the second pic.

With little else to check with the engine mounted I decided to play around with the shifter a bit. I've been a little worried that it wouldn't reach far enough back or would be too low or too high or some other issue that I hadn't yet thought of. To my surprise, it works great. The red piece is the shifter mount from the donor that I'm going to work into the new body panels. This way all the mounts, holes, etc are already there and all I have to do is weld it in.

D41: PT1 - Transmission Mount

Here's the transmission mount with the transmission sitting on it. I plan on adding supports on both sides, but wanted to check the positioning and height of the mount first. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm still trying to figure out the best way of making it serviceable once the interior body panels get attached since the lower mount bolts won't be accessible from underneath the car. Most likely some access plates will need to be installed.

In the third pic, the new mount is next to the original from the donor. I tried as best as possible to copy the angles/design of the original when building the new one. Without a great way of getting all the angles (I still need to buy a shop compass) I was forced to trace the shape of the original on my work table and then sketch cut lines on the tubing for the new mount.

... and in case you're curious, that funny looking bead around one of the transmission mounts is the gorilla glue that seeped out the sides when I glued the mount back together (it split in half when I pulled the engine/tranny out of the donor). I'm planning on getting a new one before final assembly... but pondering the "locost" win of using it as is.