The latest instalment.

Well, there is always something. The tie rod goes right over the sway bar mount.



Perfectly where I don't want it...well, I'll make some brackets to move this mount. It's actually a bit of a blessing as I can now change the motion ratio to something a little more favourable.



The engine and transmission have gone in and out several times. Not an easy job (I've made a mobile base for this - but still).



Give or take - this is about what I can get for angle. The oil pan fouls the rack if lower and the rear of the pan will need to be cut to make this work.



I got bold with the plasma and cut the top of the trans tunnel off.



The drive shaft angle isn't too bad - the rear seat cross member should be OK for positioning.

YOWza! That was bold to cut the tunnel off, but what other choice would you have? Is your console going to fit over the trans now?

It's about to get more bold...the firewall needs a cut as well. No other choice. I'll have to build a new top for the tunnel and redo the tunnel from the backseat bulkhead forward. Then there is the HVAC issue. So we're in neck deep right now!

New video time...just in time for the weekend.

Just before I go and do something I may regret later, I thought I'd post the idea. Everything is at a standstill right now until I can get the engine and transmission position finalized. Everything hinges on this key decision. I've got tight spots everywhere and issues at every turn. From the previous non-video post, you can see the engine needed to go back - no problem, I hacked away at the firewall a little more and got the engine all the way back to the firewall (bell housing fully inside the passenger compartment. This solves the issue of "back" - which is a polar moment of inertia thing, but caused a number of other problems. The oil filter relocation adapter then hit the rack (or my measurements indicated that it would hit the rack.

So back out it comes to a more oil filter friendly position - I did go as far as working out how to zero clearance the oil out of the pan (2.375" is how thick my Canton right angle adapter is...and this was too much)...so much wasted time. The engine seems happiest with all the parts if cylinder 2 is sitting on the wheel centre line. I'm OK with that - lots of room for a radiator/intercooler etc up front.

Next up was to quit farting around with the pan off the engine and get the actual clearances in place. This is the part where I'm looking for some feedback (thumbs up/thumbs down sort of stuff). With the engine roughly in place, I created a cardboard template the referenced the bottom of the block and the subframe as "constraints" - then I added 1" of clearance to all hard subframe points. I then transferred the clearance lines to the back of the pan and began laying out what I needed. My idea is to keep as much of the wide sump as is practical. I measured the dip stick/tube to establish where "full" is and then mapped that oil location across the pan.

Here you can see the driver side of the sump with a couple of cut options...either straight up or at an angle. The angle doesn't get me much other than a fabrication headache as the fluid volume is only 1" or so above the cut line. So loss of volume would be minor.



Backside of the driver side.



Another angle.



Passenger side is a little more dramatic as the engine tilt tosses the pan right into the lower control arm frame support. The easiest solution is to just square it off and live with it.



The other side.



So that's where I'm at - any feedback before I go and get the hole saw out would be fantastic.

My first thought is to ask why you would keep the top section of that kickout over there on the driver side - as you say, there's not much oil housed up there so it's not gaining you anything. If you do keep that kickout piece, slope the floor slightly so it's not a permanent shelf. When cornering to the right it will contain a lot more oil than if you went straight up, keeping it from splashing up onto the crank, so that's an advantage to the fabrication headache.

I still don't like the reduction in volume, or the reduction of width for oil control. It's really a shame you can't make it deeper, but I'm probably worrying about nothing.

Cut and fit, cut and fit. Don't chop it all off in one go. You and I will see more potential for improvement or problem avoidance that way.

I know we've talked about it before...but I was a little locked into the idea of the cut and fit and hadn't really forced myself to rethink the pan. It may be easier to just remove the entire back section and weld in a new rear sump. Not more depth due to the pick-up, but I do have room forward for more volume. The more I think about it, the more your idea is a good one.

I finally got the intro/out part of this video filmed. It's taken me over a month to get around to finish this video. Too busy with work projects in the garage. So I'm finally done this one - dashed home from work to just get this off my plate. Enjoy the weekend.

Brackets, brackets and more brackets.

That looks like a very solid solution, it should be plenty strong.

We didn’t think for a minute you’d given up. For the amount of effort you put into this project and this production, you don’t have apologize for any time that elapses between updates.

Chad.

What Chad said about the updates, I was doing good keeping up to watching the videos and now I’m way behind, and all I have to do is sit down and watch! So much to do plus the videos, I get tired just thinking about it.

Trying to get a few jobs cleaned up. Thought I'd start with finishing the rear end sheet metal. I honestly need a break from some things and I enjoy sheet metal work. The weather is nice and I can get the priming done to at least hold things until we're ready to roll on the entire car.

But just like everything - I get started and find a little rust. It didn't take long to fix - but it did pull me off other tasks for a bit. I'll fill you in later on the rest when it's all done.

In the mean time - rust repair 101.

Cut out the old stuff - use whatever is fast (air chisel was my weapon of choice). I didn't take pictures - it was just a little surface rust, that wasn't surface rust. The rear window leaked - that's the cause as far as I can tell. Wheel well rusts due to window leakage.

Nice.



I'm not worrying about the doubling panel or the outer because I'm going to change this panel out when the fenders get done.

Funny enough - this car is very solid on the inside. The old flanges just needed a little scrub and they're fine. Quick shot with some zinc weld through primer.



Patch panel - messed up punching the one hole!



A few plug welds and a little seam and we're all fixed up.



Grind it back to finish it off.




And a dab of primer.



I'll be epoxy priming this area later. The zinc is there as there will be a closing panel when the new outer wheel well goes on. I'll just tape the are when doing the rest.