SlowProgress Project Introduction

[Sonar Chief]

That looks really nice for a blacksmith!!! lol Keep up the good work!

[SlowProgress]

I didn't work on the car over the Christmas break because I was out of town for two weeks. Good to get back in the garage!
I got tired of trying to bend the doubler plates over all the wrong things and welded a pipe to my table it really helped.



I cut some slots in the plates to joggled them up over the seat pan. I also drilled a few holes to pull them tight into the corner with some small bolts.







Then some tabs were cut out and tacked up the cross-member brackets.





I tacked up a quick transmission support and removed the long cross-member that goes out to the sub-frame - goodbye forever I hope!



I made a simple support to help line up the brackets, marked the sides and cut out the holes in the tunnel. It took quite a while because I didn't know exactly how I was going to do this at first.







The tabs were trimmed up and tack welded to the doubler plates. This took time taking them in and out of the car many times until it all fit.



I started playing with what the cross member pattern will look like. Here is roughly what it will be (half anyway). I need to check all my angles before I cut out the plates for the cross-member. The trans is a bit low in this photo, slightly over 3 degrees down.



This week I will weld up the mounts and plates and drill a bunch of holes to prepare to plug weld them into the floor. I will also fab up the short cross-member and get it all welded together and bolted in hopefully.

[KPC67]

You and I have the same brand of bender! I respect that.
Great work on the trans mount, your work is always inspiring.

[CamaroAJ]

Originally Posted by SlowProgress

Instead of putting a mount on the transmission in the middle you could weld poly bushings to each end of the cross member instead.

[SlowProgress]

Originally Posted by KPC67

You and I have the same brand of bender! I respect that.
Great work on the trans mount, your work is always inspiring.

Thanks I appreciate that. I wish I wasn't so slow!

Originally Posted by CamaroAJ

Instead of putting a mount on the transmission in the middle you could weld poly bushings to each end of the cross member instead.

That's a good idea but probably too late for me. I am committed to this setup. I was talking to someone today and what I really would like is a nice soft, factory style clamshell mount on the trans. I will probably try the poly first and see how it works though.

[SlowProgress]

This week I finished the transmission cross-member (almost). I started by finish welding all the brackets and doing a final fit check in the car.





Once the fit was good I welded up the front side and drilled all the holes for plug welding.





It took several hours to get all the welds completed and the holes drilled, longer than I expected. It took about an hour per side to get each bracket welded in. Overall, it was pretty easy just time consuming.



I cleaned it up a little but it will be under sound mat so I didn’t really need to.



Great to have the tabs and doubler plates welded in.

I cut out the webs for the cross-member with the Makita grinder and a .040 disk one at a time and smoothed them up with a flap wheel. It would be nice to have a band saw but I don’t have the room in my garage.



I ended up with one cross-member mount just a little crooked so I had to fit the pieces one at a time.



Once everything was more-or-less fitted I just tacked it with the MIG. I forgot to turn the gas on so the tacks are pretty sooty!



Only thing left to do is finish the welds on the cross-member and it will be done. That should be an easy after work project, 1 or 2 evenings.



I am glad to have this behind me. This week I will move on to figuring out the radiator mount and core support mods. This should be a big job because there will need to be a bunch of core support mods to make it fit correctly. It will probably take at least 3-4 weeks (or more). I haven't even thought about how I am going to do it yet!

[rickpaw]

Trans crossmember looks great. Mind if I copy the idea for my 6 speed swap? I'm at parts collecting phase for a TR6060 swap later this year.

Tu

[paulk68]

Unreal craftmanship I am so jelous of you guys that build stuff from scratch, I struggle with brake braket bolts hahaha. looking great can not wait to see what comes next

[SlowProgress]

Originally Posted by rickpaw

Trans crossmember looks great. Mind if I copy the idea for my 6 speed swap? I'm at parts collecting phase for a TR6060 swap later this year.

Tu

Sure and make it better so we all gain something. I copied it from Steilow, Dutchboys and Detroit Speed!

Originally Posted by paulk68

Unreal craftsmanship I am so jealous of you guys that build stuff from scratch, I struggle with brake bracket bolts hahaha. looking great can not wait to see what comes next

Thanks for the comment.

[SlowProgress]

I finished the cross-member Friday and Saturday. Not much changed, just trimmed it down and added a couple of details. It seems really stiff with the bolts tightened. I will drill the center holes when I know I am happy with the transmission centering.





I moved on the radiator support. Just set it on top at first to start planning out what to do. I know the lower part needs to move down several inches so I started by drilling out the spot welds. It was pretty easy because this thing is flat and I could use the drill press.



I am going to move the lower part down so it won’t block the core and also so the radiator is protected from road rash. Probably do something like the Dutch Boys did here to let some air through.




I will also post in the PWM thread but does anyone know the mating connector to the Cadillac CTSV fan?




Next week just keep plugging away at the core support.